Ed blogged on ZDNet —”It's been a month since Microsoft released Windows Vista to manufacturing. That same week, I upgraded three heavily used machines in this household to the final build. So, how have they done? Each upgrade has a different story to tell, as it turns out, and I'll share the details in three separate follow-up posts. But here are some overall comments.”

First, the third-party development community hasn't just been standing still. In the past month, I've downloaded several new drivers and installed at least one new application (Nero 7) that was specifically designed to work on Windows Vista. Earlier versions produced compatibility errors and lacked some basic functionality.

The most important driver update for me was from Realtek, who appear to have finally fixed the problems with their AC97 audio drivers. Up until yesterday, one machine in my lab played audio that was literally unlistenable: scratchy, static-ridden, and distorted. The final update, posted to Realtek's website on November 30, appears to work beautifully. (Realtek has an update for its High Definition Audio drivers as well.)

Most of the bugs I've run into are obscure, and I have yet to see or hear of anything that has data-destroying potential. More common are design decisions that don't become obvious until you really try to use the feature instead of just testing it.
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Windows Vista’s 30-day report card