Vista is a DRM nightmare. If a piece of sofware hasn't been approved by Bill and Company, it won't run on Vista. So, I believe most all of your freeware is now useless.
I won't touch Vista, not even with a 10 foot pole. I've got my "full blown" legal copy of XP on CD. And I can reformat any computer, I have to buy that's unlucky to come with Vista, and go back to XP.

I'll keep on building my own computer instead of buying them prescrewed up.

I can do a fine job of screwing one up all by myself for less money. LOL