Vista has been given a lot of bad reviews and when mentioning vista many people will immediately quote the initial reviews on its release, the annoying too-tight and interfering security messages for one. This has been much improved and the premium version gives the home computer much more features than the standard package. It may be initially different to XP users but after a short time it becomes easier to find the most common things such as documents and music folders. The control panel is much easier to access though the security messages can get a little annoying after a while you learn to tune them out. When I bought a new laptop I was disappointed to find I could only get the laptop I wanted with vista home premium and not XP. I too was worried about all of the bad press but as I had a copy of XP at home I decided I could always change it if I decided to. After using it for almost a year I have never once been tempted to return to XP and if I did in the future would probably be annoyed by the less efficient layout! The only problem I have found is that vista likes to keep several programmes 'ready' even though you are not using them which can be slowing if you have an overused CPU but has never been a problem for me.