you don't have to rely on only ahrc - many universities offer their own scholarships and bursaries. i applied for three different types of funding at three universities - i was offered a university scholarship for a 1+3 - having more than one place in mind broadens your options. i was told that much of it lies in thw quality and orginality of your research proposal plus demonstrating that you're the only one who can do it!
hope this helps :)

which version of spss do you have?
i have 15 on my windows 7 laptop and it has to be installed in compatability mode (XP) but it worked just fine! you lose all the cool feautres of windows 7 though :(