My story - I had my Dell laptop with Vista on it and a year after using it, I had not formatted even once. Then came the faithful day when I used Partition Magic (which isn't Vista compatible). I could not boot into Windows at all. Long story short, I had to reformat.

Boy oh boy. I could not believe it. Vista's startup time is like 32 seconds for me after a fresh Vista + Vista SP1 installation. After installing my apps again, its still around that time. I had not changed a single Vista setting and at this moment, I am so amazed at the overall performance of Windows Vista.

So you might say overtime, the speed will decrease. I thought that too. But its been weeks and until today, its awesome! Here is what I make sure: I make sure the apps that start and run in the background (my apps) are really necessary. Like Free Download Manager, Quicktime, etc. You can just disable it from starting up with Windows.

So, a compatibility issue lead to a much better computing experience.

In short - - disable startup apps (third party) that is not necessary. I hadn't touched Vista's settings one bit. Not even the wallpaper and the gadgets ! But that's just me - - leave it as it is !

Its like I can't wait to use my Vista ! I love it !