Re: I HATE vista!!!!!
You can make the start Sleep button into a shut down button, so it takes one less step than XP :-)
Go into the Power Options in control panel (you may have to change to classic view). Whatever your current power plan is, click Change Plan Settings. On the next screen you will see a link near the bottom for Change Advanced Power Settings, click on that. Now expand the setting for Power Buttons and Lid. There you will see an option for Start Menu Power Button. In there you can change that from Sleep to Shut Down.
As for e-mail, you could check out Thunderbird...not sure if it supports multiple identities though. You can buy Outlook independently, but it is a bit expensive (might be worth it to buy the whole office suite). There are always some deals online that you can get, and if you are a college student, a recent graduate, or have children in college, you can probably buy a very cheap student license copy, with will probably only run like $30-$50, or possibly even free depending on how they handle the licensing.
For performance, two big things that will help is to make sure the Sidebar is turned off, and change the appearance into Classic Windows...just right click any empty space on the desktop, click personalize, and select windows color and appearance. Next click Open classic Appearance properties toward the bottom, and you can select Windows Vista Basic, or for best performance select Windows Classic or Standard.
And remember different does not equal bad. I'd give it at least a month and see how you feel about it.
Oh, another annoying feature is the User Account Control, there is the simple way to disable it from the user options screen in control panel, or you can go in and change the security policy manually for the most effective disabling...if you're interested in that just PM me for more detailed instructions.
