PPCGeeks - Installed Vista and Windows Media Device Center

I dont know why I decided to put myself through this, curiosity I guess. Also, I got Vista for free, as I bought my laptop in December. Given that its fairly new, I dont have lots of data on it, so copied what I needed to a flash drive and away we go.

For the most part the install went ok, there seemed to be some confusion there with the BIOS Flash part.

However, weirdly enough, what stalled me for 45 minutes, was that I was unable to decipher and properly enter the Vista Product Key, till I had a friend come over and read it to me. This was quite frustrating, I dont know why Microsoft would make something this important so small and use a font where you cant tell the K from the X or the O from the D etc. ( My eyesight is not great, I guess as well)

Once I got this out of the way, it was just following the instructions, which also included an HP Upgrade Disc.

As for WMDC (Note that there is WMD hidden here ;-) it was not clear initially how I was supposed to set this up, but after fiddling with it for a while, I got the partnership set up and the Sync done. Sync is very fast and does not seem to lose the connection like we had with ActiveSync. So, this part of Vista I like so far. We'll see how it works once I try to install apps on my Treo 750v (Update, this morning it froze midway thru Sync. I stopped the Sync, and then it would not reocgnize my device as connected. Fiddled with it a bit and then it finally connected and synched properly)

Did not have a lot of time to play with Vista. At first glance, it seems prettier than XP but not much more than that. I guess time will tell.

My initial reaction when I read the reviews on Vista was "5 years and huge truckloads of cash and thats the best you can come up with" We'll see.