Grand vistas? This one isn't!

I love grand vistas... This one sucks. It comes from Microsoft. I tried to update with SP1 after a number of mishaps with is compatibility with several popular tools. Several attempts failed. Having despaired I resorted to M$oft support. The advice was to trurn off a number of 'things' and 'prepare' by installing dozens of patches. I was left with a wrecked system that I had to rescue and rebuild from scratc.
Grand vistas? This one isn't!