TURN OFF all the “housekeeping” in Vista and run manually at your leisure. End of “problem.” Really, just try that once.

I completely agree with your Vista observation. I too use Macs at my desktop, and for portability or travel, use my HP 2710p. Even if the HP has been used fairly frequently, Vista can still be annoying. It’s not just the housekeeping, it’s the way it notifies me that the housekeeping is needed. With my Macs, the computer lets me know that updates or maintenance is needed shortly after I start, but definitely well before I shut down.

I’ve had occasions where I’m rushing from one meeting to another, and then as I sleep the tablet, it tells me that it’s updating and not to turn it off – except I was planning to put it in a bag. And then the next time I resume, instead of being finished, it then has to finish off the update and restart process, so I can’t carry on taking notes.

Very frustrating. If it wasn’t for the digital ink advantages, I’d be fully back into pen-and-paper.

My 2 Vista are powered up 24/7.

i can say that xp also needs this “getting up to speed” after sitting unused for a while.

mostly tho its not windows itself that needs this, but all the added software for security, device support and whatsnot that one have installed in one form or another…