Microsoft Vista is a terrible product. Microsoft has terrible customer service. I just called twice and was hung up on by one rep and refered to a number where I had to pay to even talk to someone by the second rep.

In both cases, the reps were trained to affirm their deniabilty, instantly blaming the problem I was having on the software - it couldn't possibly be the system. I've installed the sofware twice today and affirmed that it works on a friends XP computer.

My problem is Vista!

I have been in VISTA HELL for the last several months. I bought a BRAND NEW HP quad core machine with Vista 64 bit installed. I have had problems with freezing while idle, freezing on startup, and "clicking" since the first round of Vista Updates. I have wasted time and money trying to get the issue diagnosed - and I have lost money because the machine is UNUSABLE.

I called HP because the clicking - I thought - was an indication of hardware issues. I ran a diagnostic and the HD came up as problematic. "GREAT", I thought. "I can replace the HD and that should solve the issues." HP sent me a new HD (because THEY stand by THEIR products). I installed it - yes, correctly - and installed a new installation of Vista 64 from the recovery disks that they sent me. The machine ran perfectly. No freezing. No clicking. I left it on all night. Halfway through the next day, still no freezing and no clicking. I decided to install the Windows Updates. I figured that by now, all recommended updates should be vetted with no conflicts. I WAS SOOOOOOOOOOO WRONG.

As soon as I downloaded and installed all of Window's recommended updates, I IMMEDIATELY FROZE ON STARTUP AND MY MACHINE STARTED CLICKING AGAIN!!! I prefer to work on a PC. Nothing against MAC, I just prefer a PC workstation. I am trying to get past this Vista issue because HP machines are really good machines, but Microsoft is driving PC loyalists to Macintosh everyday because they wont get it together! It's like they have no conscience about negatively effecting HP, Dell, and other's business.

This is just ONE ISSUE amongst MANY that I have encountered using (or trying to use) Vista. Some others include driver incompatibility, and updates disabling hardware and other functionality that worked before the update was installed. At one point, I was in an endless cycle of rollbacks and system restores and retoring to factory settings just to be able to boot into Windows!!

Microsoft needs to stop spending all that money on clever "MOJAVE" commercials and sink some money into R&D for DEBUGGING VISTA!!

I went to shut off the left speaker from the sound control. Used to be one double click on the sound icon, now it's three (3!) layers deep!
what a pain!