Thanks Andre that is pretty much what I expected to hear Vista OEM's always cause me trouble.
I have the machine up and running on reduced functionality I think i'm going to try and use the Transfer tool (if i can get it to work) and move the entire profile out to a clean working Vista install.
Anyone else any thoughts on how I can get around the reduced Functions imposed by the activation.
I have the full MDOP package and have basic knowledge of DART