I recently picked up Windows Vista Ultimate and installed it on my Dell 1501 last week and have been spending about a week or so adding and deleting programs to tweak my computer to my liking.  So far so good. 

The install was very easy.  All you have to do is pop in the DVD (either 32-bit or 64-bit) and click a few options (such as upgrade or clean install) and then wait for a couple of hours.  I chose to upgrade rather than a clean install because I have a ton of music and pictures that would require moving to an external hard drive and then back again.  I just didn't want to spend the extra time. 

When Vista finally booted, I was prompted to enter my password that i used for Windows XP and I was on my way.  That's when I ran into my first of two main problems.  Both problems required an update of an audio driver and graphic card controller update respectively.  Since I had ran the Windows Upgrade Advisor before install, I already new what drivers I needed and had saved them on a USB thumbdrive.

The first thing I did was set up my Vista laptop with my Xbox 360.  I was familiar with connecting my 360 with my old Windows Media Center 2005 PC, so setup was a cinch in this case.  Much like WMC 2005, Vista MCE is much the same with a few neat extras.  The big difference is is that browsing for music and pictures are easier to search for and the GUI update is nice on the eyes.

So far my Vista experience is going as it should be.  I'm just having a few hiccups here and there but nothing major or out of the ordinary that one would expect out of a new operating system.