No matter how many patches Microsoft releases for Vista they will not make any software you have now work with that OS, even at a later date. Yes, we know the complaints about VISTA. But personally you would be better off first trying to get the updates for the software you normally use so that they can be used with Vista. Most software have updates available to make it compatible with Vista. You need to look on the websites for each software program you are dealing with. This happens each time a new operating system is released and persons must be ready to update their software to make IT compatible with the new OS not the other way around.