My experience of Vista was nothing worked.
Apologies if I'm misremembering, but your problem there wasn't Vista or 7, it was because you'd installed a 64-bit OS, no?
Anyway...your printer prob: The Drivers are likely not compatible with Vista.
That's only really likely if the OP can't read; the ones from the CD should be automatic, and the ones from the website should be clearly labelled "Vista." I assumed from the comment that "I'm normally quite good at this stuff" that they're capable of finding the correct driver from a list but I guess you're right, that's an assumption I shouldn't be making.
Look in Device Manager and check if the printer is disabled.
If it's not connected, it won't appear in DevMan. If it is connected, you'll probably see a yellow (!) next to it. Browsing to the Windows directory was a useful trick in XP days but I very much doubt will work under Vista for a device that's never worked.
With all windows OSs, i find it safer to install the driver first before connecting the USB cable - no idea why this sometimes works.
Absolutely. The same is true of some other hardware too - PCI network cards are notorious for it.
