macfan wrote:

unbelievable! what dismal customer service. this post belongs in one of
those excruciating Vista advertisements. this problem is causing us to
get rid of Vista, yet again.

This isn't Microsoft "customer service". You have misunderstood the venue in
which you're posting. This is Usenet - a public newsgroup hosted on
Microsoft servers. While occasionally an MS employee will post, the
majority of helpers are volunteers who do not work for the company.

About Usenet:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usenet
http://www.faqs.org/faqs/ - Usenet FAQs from the Internet FAQ Archives
http://www.usenetmonster.com/infocenter/
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Usenet - a brief explanation
of newsgroups

So while you may wish to get rid of Vista - and that's certainly your choice
- basing your decision on your misunderstanding of newsgroups would be a
mistake.

If you wish to contact MS customer service (not free except for certain
types of support), here are some links:

Contact MS - http://support.microsoft.com/gp/contactuswindows?sd=win

MS International Support -
http://support.microsoft.com/common/international.aspx

Malke
(written in KNode on SUSE Linux from a vm hosted on Mac OS X)
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/#FAQ