what are the general differences between windows vista and XP?

I was excited to try Vista until I discovered that it periodically disconnected itself from my network and I had to constantly reboot it. They moved several things around too, so if you were used to XP it isn't easy to find anything. Newer hardware isn't the problem; Vista is incompatible with an awful lot of older hardware. Their answer is - go buy new hardware! Ugh. It's so bad that Microsoft has extended support for XP until 2014. Most companies are planning for that and releasing software for both XP and Vista, so you don't have to upgrade any time soon.

The big differences are the most subtle ones. For some reason they decided to move everything around from what you are used to. Do you have any idea how long it took me to find the run command? Operantly its under accessories now. The interface has changed and its a lot smoother looking.

Hardware is a big issue for Vista as it has some major incompatibility issues with a lot of it.

Vista also takes up A LOT more space on the hard drive then XP and it uses a lot more ram just to keep itself up and running. Vista I have noticed is a lot slower to do things and it is constantly asking you permission when you want to change settings or simply delete a file. I can't see how people put up with that system and its constant nagging. XP is cleaner an more efficient.

most obvious is the aero style, better security apparently, less drivers support, more bugs and etc im a big fan of windows buit not gonna buy it until sp1 comes out then there is going to less bugs and more drivers support and probably more people using vista than XP

better security,better media center,but moving stuff around making it difficult to find stuff.

oh,that permission ******? turn it OFF!

user accounts,turn U.A.C. off !

multi media still needs:

codecs

java

shockwave

flash

quicktime

flv player

DivX player

but XP has those failings also,so no difference there

NOT reccomended to UPGRADE from XP to Vista UNLESS you have at LEAST 2 GIGS of memory added.Vista is a memory HOG!