As long as you have at least 2 Gigs of RAM Vista should work just fine.
I have one laptop on Vista and one on XP and I really don't prefer one over the other.
Switching from Vista to XP can be done but there is mega driver issues.
http://www.wisegeek.com/whats-involv...ista-to-xp.htm
Stick with Vista Jeremy.... it mite grow on you.
"Nothing seems to work right'?....... it maybe your settings.