To address some of your concerns:

 

1. Epson C44 Printer.

 

Here is what Epson says about your printer and Vista:

Legend: In-Box = Drivers are already included in your Operating System and the installation process will start as soon as you will plug your product in.  

Stylus C20 Series, Stylus C40 Series, Stylus C41 Series, Stylus C42 Series, Stylus C43 Series, Stylus C44 Series, Stylus C45 Series, Stylus C46 Series, Stylus C50 Series, Stylus C60 Series, Stylus C61 Series, Stylus C62 Series, Stylus C63 Series, Stylus C64 Series, Stylus C66 Series, Stylus C65 Series, Stylus C67 Series, Stylus C68 Series, Stylus C70 Series, Stylus C80 Series, Stylus C82 Series, Stylus C83 Series, Stylus C84 Series, Stylus C85 Series, Stylus C86 Series, Stylus C87 Series, Stylus C88 Series . Supported In-Box

 

2. Microsoft Office XP.

 

Here is Microsofts take on this: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/932087/en-us  Office XP is supported and does in fact work fine on Vista. You DO NOT need to buy a new version of Office. The only problem with Office XP is with the way Outlook stores passwords. Vista doesn't use this method so Outlook will prompt you for a password whenever you check e-mail. However Vista has a very good program in MSMail so you shouldn't need to use outlook anyway, But it does work fine.

 

3. A new modem that is compatible with vista.

 

What brand and version is the broadband modem you have now? This sounds like a load of huey also as the modem should work out of the box as the network protocols are the same regardless of the modem used.

 

Never take advice from someone that has a vested interest of selling you something.

 

pcgeek11

Hi,

I too had compatibility problems with my printer (Epson) and scanner (Zerox) but was able to download the drivers for my printer only at this stage. Try this link http://esupport.epson-europe.com/ , select "Support" which appears at the top of your screen and from there you will be able to navigate to the "Downloads" section. I don't think going for a lesser option is the right solution as far as your PC is concerned, because most retailers are now selling units with the Vista operationg system. Good luck.

if your scanner is over say 4 or 5 years old it might not be supported.

 

back when XP went gold a lot of printers and scanners where made to work with windows 9X. They never worked in XP and never would. i have a feeling you will see alot of hardware ( printers and scanners) never get VISTA drivers since they are out dated.

 

VISTA handles drivers differently then XP and hardware makers are not going to invest the time and money to update drivers for something that is at end of life.

thank you for info.  i've only just gone from dial up internet to broadband - with tiscali who are sending me a 510 speedtouch modem to use with vista (free but a weeks wait).  my scanner is a epson perfection 1660 photo so i will try and locate the site from where i can download additional software (hopefully).  good that my microsoft office is compatible - dell tech told me otherwise but i will load that on.  i've just gone back to installing everything that i've bought from dell - speakers in and work fine.  unfortunately tv tuner which is integrated hybrid supplied by dell isn't working - spent a further hour on the phone to dell who will ring me back tomorrow.  i can't get it to work at all - i have no idea why - thought it would work through vista media centre and i thought as i had got vista home premium that i would have that but dell tech guy has completely confused me - tells me that i havn't got the media centre and that it will take an hour tomorrow to configure the supplied tuner which is preinstalled in my computer to get it to work.  i followed the booklet provided by dell which showed how to connect the remote sensor, install the batteries and then showed that you had to press the windows icon on the remote control to launch media centre and i've plugged the tv aerial in so totally confusing for me.  Yesterday i had to reboot the whole system and reload windows vista as it wasn't working at all - this took an hour with their support but did this. today i noticed that when i power up the screen comes up with reboot windows and asks for a selection to be made from windows or windows vista - if you don't select it does a 30 second count down before going to vista.  the dell tech person said that it might be annoying but it isn't causing any harm - but i don't want to have to wait 30 seconds before going into vista and have asked that this be removed. 

 

i do really feel out of my depth here - appreciate it is all probably straightforward for yourselves - but i'm not really knowing what it is that's wrong; not really looking forward to another hour tomorrow on the phone to dell - i have asked for someone to come to my home to sort it all but got no reply to this request.  i'm thinking to see how it goes tomorrow and if still experiencing problems ask them to collect - not had it a week yet but i'm probably panicking here. i stupidly thought it was just the case of plugging in and away....

soon as i get the modem and am able to get on the internet i will download the additional software from the sites you've indicated - thank you very much for that, really appreciated.