enough!

some useful discoveries:
-doing the file and settings transfer worked when done over my home network
-the printer sharing was messed up because the drivers that worked in vista were, of course, incompatible with any XP computers that tried to access said printer over the network
-IE7 didn't know what to do when I tried to make a printable version of Google calender

After several other frustrations and a Power Supply that I had to fix, I decided to totally disassemble and reassemble, adding two more hardrives in the process. Now, I'm installing an OEM version of Home and perhaps later I'll have a dual-boot system (if vista allows that)

All in all, this experience will serve me in the future, when vista might actually be ready for the everyday consumer... right now, it makes me think of Steve Wozniak's quote, "Never trust a computer you can't throw out a window"