Desktop:
Grr, Vista won’t let me fiddle with my C:\Windows directory. It’s not a security protection though, just a personal distrust so I had to take ownership of the windows directory and give myself fiddling permissions.

Laptop:
Apparently, there is no way on earth to get sound drivers for a Gateway MX 6445 for Windows XP except having them pre-installed from the factory, all the other drivers are hassles: network, wifi. After a few hours down the drain, I installed Ubuntu and everything was automatically recognized and drivers were installed without even needing an internet connection.

Win: Ubuntu.