Me vs. Vista vs. Nvidia Drivers

So, I got a new tv. Ever since I got a Vista box at a decent price that has all but replaced our Panasonic DVR. The problem is that I've got all the 4:3 screen ratio video selections I could ever want but my new tv is 16:9. Yep, it looks funny. I vaguely recalled a few weeks ago seeing an option download in Windows Update for a new video card driver. Wow! So, being the believer I was, I simply clicked and let Vista do it's thing. Everything was great. I selected the new resolution and my TV looked better than ever... well, at least until I rebooted. It seems the new driver in conjunction with a Vista "bug" (since MS won't acknowledge it) causes the video resolution to change by itself. From what I read, there is a feature in Windows that automatically adjusts the screen resolution in an effort to improve the picture. In most cases this works because newer VGA monitors tell Vista their acceptable sizes. Unfortunately, most HDTV's don't. So, every time I'd reboot Vista would do it's thing and "fix" the screen for me which effectively blacked the screen out and caused me to grab the LCD from my desk. Grr. So, to remedy this I went to NVidia's website and downloaded their latest drivers dated November 2009. This will fix it for sure. Nope, it got worse. Now I have auto resizing and a clunky new interface that doesn't play well with Windows.

Well, thank God someone at Microsoft created System Restore. If it weren't for that jewel, I would have probably punted the computer out my front door. After about 2.5 hours of frustration and a system restore my computer was back to normal. No more autocraptacularly changing screen resolutions and I could put my desktop monitor back. Makes you really want to hop on the Windows 7 bandwagon, eh? Anyone can put lipstick on a hooker. Only Richard Gere can turn her and, let me tell you, Bill Gates is no Richard Gere.