Vista was not only quite flakey with Hal but with the Haptek characters as well (slow, jerky graphics and I have a relatively new computer). At the time, a lot of third party devices and software no longer worked as well.
Needless to say, I removed Vista and went back to XP. I'll gladly trade bells and whistles for functionality any day!!
Sorry about your progress...or lack of it.
Hopefully Robert's next release of Hal will address some or not all of the Vista issues along with a few other ones.
Cheers!!