So.. I loaded up DW on my Vista32 again, recently.
I was getting an annoying, low, buzzing sound in the background on station screens. I doubt it had anything to do with Vista.. probably just my crappy onboard sound. I'd had something similar happen with Ageod's ACW. I had a feeling it was something to do with my mouse cursor and/or mouse software.
In the end, I opened my dangerouswaters config file and found there was an option to turn on the software-driven mouse. That seemed to have mostly eliminated it, although the mouse isn't quite as smooth as previously.
Ahh well. A workaround is better than nothing.