>Was your install a virgin or an upgrade?
>Thinking that maybe there were fewer questions because answers were obtained from XP.

Completely fresh install onto a newly formatted hard drive.

>How does the fancy-dancy "aero glass" feel, and how in the way does it get?

The only thingy that is transparent, is the sidebar... at least as far as I can tell. The rest of windows are just a little more rounded looking.

>How well do you think my grandmother would do with the install (she 'uses' e-mail and the internet and that's about it)?

I think the sidebar is really useful. The ability to have information displayed such as the time, calendar, local weather, news, and even CPU % usage is very handy. In 1 or 2 months I will see if I turn it off.

For someone like your grandmother or my father this could be very useful since (at least with my dad) the weather and news are things that he likes to know and sometimes are difficult for him to find. With the sidebar they are just there.

The ability to run in non-admin mode will mean that our foreparents will get themselves into trouble less often.

>Have you seen anything yet that makes it a very USEFUL upgrade from XP or Win2K?

I've moved to Vista because:
-it is a learning experience so that I can help my staff when they start encountering it in deployed
- I love new technology

For me, the sidebar is worth the $129 upgrade price, to many it won't be. For most people, geeks aside, they will get Vista when they order a new computer in the next 3 years.

Other things:
- The built in "Net Nanny" is useful for people with kids
- the drive encryption is good for anyone in healthcare or banking
- the tighened security (not running in admin mode, anti-spyware, anti-phising...) will keep a computer running longer without problems
- the actually useful mail and calendaring program