I finally decided to take the plunge and install Vista on my fairly new laptop (Toshiba p100, with 2g ram and 2g duo processor). I was expecting the upgrade to go smoothly, but I couldn't have been more wrong. First, I ran the compatibility checker (from MS.) It said I had no problems. So I did the update -- after 3 hours the computer hung at 61% of the final step. I decided to do something I never do -- I called tech support at Microsoft. I usually avoid tech support because of two things: I know how painful it is to be a tech support person, so don't want to burden anyone with that horrible experience, and I usually don't have problems with things that I can't figure out myself. But it is their job, and I had no data to rely on (a hanging computer does not tell me much.) I was on the phone with a guy for over 3 hours getting the upgrade going. He had me disable hardware and all processes. I thought for sure it was going too work. After 3 hours, it failed at 61% once again. I tried once more, this time turning off every piece of hardware that was not needed. Failed again. Finally, I got a second tech support guy on the phone and he had me install a bios upgrade and took over control of my desktop to figure out what was going on. I tried once again -- 3 hours later I got hung up at 61% once again. 61 must be my unlucky number. The whole purpose of doing the upgrade rather than a clean install was to avoid having to do reinstallations of Adobe products, which take forever, and some other massive products (Office and Visual Studio). The clean install has worked so far, but now I face the challenge of installing programs again. What fun.

All in all, I'm very pleased with MS support, even though in the end it was not much help. They are very keen to help, and will stick with you for hours. I wish the upgrade had worked, but I wish for a lot of things...