Windows Vista breaking all of your favorite applications? Here is how to fix it.

STEP 1: Uninstall the application that is misbehaving, complaining to you about some random error, or an error that happens every time you do something.

STEP 2: Re-install that application by following these instructions -->
-Locate the setup file for the program, usually Setup.exe (or setup.exe).
-Right click the file in explorer, go to the compatibility tab, and change it's compatibility settings to work with Windows XP SP2.
-Double click the file to install like normal.

STEP 3: Locate the file that start the program. You can locate it in the Start Menu, or go digging in your C:\ drive to find it. For example, Gimp 2.4.4 (a free open source bitmap editor) will need this to work properly. Look for 'Gimp 2' in Start Menu or gimp.exe somewhere on your C:\ drive, right click, go to the compatibility tab, and run it with compatibility setting for Windows XP SP2.

From now on, everytime you start that program Vista will run it as a Windows XP program. So far I have not noticed any loss of capability, features, or performance with any programs.

STEP 4: Certain programs may still complain by sounding errors since it interacts with Vista's UAC in a bad way (my observation). Notepad++ was one such program. So you may choose to run that program as the Administrator. This also opens your system up to many more computer attacks, therefore you should be sure that the application you use is reputable by having frequent updates and you actually need that application to run as administrator.

Notes: This doesn't work for device drivers. You need Vista drivers for non-generic hardware to work with Vista properly, so you can't use Windows XP drivers on Vista - at least not yet!