type msconfig in the start menu search > go to the 'tools' tab > then select 'disable UAC' > hit 'ok' i would recommend a firewall though whether it's a free one or not. as for the "glass" look right mouse desktop > personalize > window color and appearance > click 'open classic appearance properties...' > select 'windows vista basic' > apply > ok at least i think thats what you are asking for.
I beta tested Vista before it came out and it was a terrible experience. None of my existing hardware had the proper drivers for Vista, and thus nothing would work. Visually it was hella nice, but for actual functionality it was crap.
The fact that it was a "beta" probably had just a bit to do that. I've been beta testing Win 2008 Server for the last year, and something that kinda ticked me off is that the latest version REMOVED driver support for the NIC on of my test machines, but it functioned just fine in all of the previous betas I loaded. That one didn't make much sense.
Let me fix it... And 10 years? If you didn't use punchcards you're a noob. My wife's Vista machine is a dual core w/ 3GB, and hers has been a dog since she got it. Once she has a lot of windows open, it;s like the machine doesn't want to do anything anymore, including shutting down. She also just loses the Interent periodically, and access to our lan. I didn't know if it was the OS or hardware, then I got my Vista quad core w/ 3GB. Worked ok for a while, then started having serious internet and network issues. Disabled IP6 and that helped clear up some internet issues, but it still does some funky stuff between my lan and VPN on my machine also.
Its probably because the NIC company didn't want to pony up money for the WQHL certification or the found a bug in the driver and no one wanted to spend the money to fix the driver.
