Vista's UI is terrible but it wasn't until Windows 7 that I figured out why: Vista is the half-complete transition from the XP UI to the 7 UI. As such, it's got loads of issues and inconsistencies.
I know the moving control panel, network properties etc. led to a lot of annoyances, but in terms of the actual window handling, taskbar, start menu, how was it terrible?
The search box on the start menu was itself a huge leap over XP. That was the single big thing I missed in XP.
Far enough, anything unchanged from XP isn't terrible. And the start menu search box is a big improvement even if the rest of the start menu seems worse.
