Hey Pats that was actually a pretty astute observation and one of the first I jumped to too.
Well , I already said you must be knowing all this.
As far as Vista issue, why dont you try to un-install Vista, install good old stable Win2K and then try TCL with all your needs. I replaced my XP with W2K and everything is fine now.
After expermenting TCL with W2K and if successful, you may re-install Vista. That may at-least point to the exact error , which is the culprit .
Just a thought !
~ Pats