I think I need to watch some videos about Vista because it does not feel intuitive for how things are setup or laid out. I’m sure there was plenty of thought put into it, but I am very tech savvy, and also frequently try new things. This is not intuitive. It’s not bad or annoying, just not intuitive.
The actual install, to get it on the machine was very easy and very simple. It probably helped that my machine was clearly marked as Windows Vista Capable, and that I actually followed the directions and did the Upgrade Advisor and made sure everything was cool, before I started the upgrade.
I had already added 1GB of RAM to the 512MB that came with the system, which was new in the Spring of 2006. Now I need to get a moderate video card to improve perf even more, and also to free up 128MB of shared RAM. It’s not bad now, but I’m not a gamer and I don’t put really heavy use on graphics - yet. 
Right now it is running quick. The default settings for most things are fine so far. I need to keep installing programs because I had to do a clean install with the 64-bit route I went for. I probably just gave myself more headaches by going w/ 64-bit. We’ll see. I will probably find reasons why 64-bit is better and a good choice. That’ll be my positive spin on some of this pain. 
Still have a few things to figure out, but I’m pluggin’ away…
