I have recently bought a laptop with Vista (Home Premium)and have not had any problems transferring files from my desktop PC which runs XP pro. All my favourite freeware programmes such as Abc Navigator and Audacity have all run OK. I am not even connected to the internet on the laptop so I would be unable to check in over the net as Saul implies is necessary (have been running it for 2-3 months so far).
I run Office pro 2003 on the PC but am running Open Office on the laptop - it's freeware and does everything I need, much better than Works.
The only thing I don't like about Vista is the amount of system resources it takes up.
Lynn