I just bought a new HP with Vista Home Premimum. I would have kept Vista on it but it does not run all of the programs that I need to run. Vista is an awesome operating system. Take some advice do not try to run any programs that are not specifically designed for Vista. Microsoft has spent a long time perfecting the OS. Some of the things that will cause headaches:

1. UAC - User Account Control - not all programs understand how to use it - makes installs and configuration settings require administrative authorization

2. Documents and Settings are changed to C:\users - this now the home for My Documents and My Pictures etc.

3. If you want to get the most out of Vista then have a least 2GB of RAM. The video card should have at least 128MB of VRAM. This will give you the experience that you bought Vista for in the first place.

4. Buy Enterpise or Ultimate - these two versions will give you the best bang for the buck. The other versions are watered down and not as robust.

5. Some of the cool features include
a. Enhanced Firewall with Input and Output filters
b. Bitlocker in Enterprise and Ultimate
c. NAP - Network Access Protection
d. Powershell to create some pretty cool management scripts
e. Microsoft Defender - Anti-Spyware
f. UAC - for protection of autoinstalling programs
g. WER - Windows Error Reporting - helps to resolve error quickly
h. Easy Install
i. Network Sharing Center - Automatic configuration of Network and troubleshooting

There are a lot of headaches with any new OS, but there are benefits to them also. XP is 2002 technology that was started in the late 90's early 2000. Vista is today and now.

Thanks for reading,

If you want anymore information or help just email me.

Huntingandlook, MCSE, MCT