I bought a really great pc that was an editor's choice at some website and am very happy with it but... it came with vista. I have no problems with vista for the most part but I'm thinking about upgrading my video card and sound card since they're starting to show their age a little bit (18 month old) and heard that after installing new hardware vista will lock up and I'll have to call microsoft to get it working again. Can anyone clear this up for me, if that is true it has to be the stupidest thing I have ever came across. Also, computer terminology changes so often now that I have not kept up with it. It used to be PCI, or AGP cards but now we have express, 2.0 and others I have no idea about. What's the program that I can run on my comp to tell me exactly what I have so that I can match it up with the right video/sound card when making the purchase. thank you guys in advance!

If you are happy then STOP right now. Hey, it works. Don't read any more.... "Best Practices", Event viewer, host file, perfmon, antivirus, anti-spyware, Live CD's, backups, are in my top 10

"I'll have to call microsoft to get it working again. Can anyone clear this up for me, if that is true it has to be the stupidest thing I have ever came across." ==================================== I heard that Bill Gates pops out of my machine and smacks me in the head if I hit a computer key that I don't normally use. Of course I found out through practice that it wasn't true. There are LOTS of rumors floating around out there about Vista...... most of them coming from people that have never even used it which of course SHOULD tell you how reliable that info is. While it is true that M$ has tightened up security in that area, it is not as bad as the "nay sayers" make it out to be. If your Vista copy is legal and you make a hardware change it will simply ask you to re register with M$... which takes about 8 to 10 seconds and a mouse click or 2. But for what it's worth.... I made a video card change and Vista didn't even ask me to re register.