My advice when it comes to Linux for a first time Windows user is
First, run a check disk or whatever Vista uses on your hardrive first to fix any bad blocks or errors on Hardrive. Then do a cleanup of all dead files in Vista using some thing like
http://www.ccleaner.com/ . Then I would Defrag Vista till all the files for Vista are too the far left of Hardrive as they can be.
I want you to keep Vista Because you may need to boot into it while Learning Linux. I don't want you jumping into Linux waters in the deep end until you get comfortable wading in the kiddie pool. Linux does not work at all like Windows so you will have a ton of Questions.
After you defrag and everything is in order I want you to download
http://www.imgburn.com/
You are going to be using it in Vista to burn a Image CD of a Linux Iso.
Also download
Download WinMD5Sum - Freeware Windows MD5 checksumming utility.
http://www.nullriver.com/products/winmd5sum
Install it also in Vista
The reason is that you are going to check the md5sum of downloaded Linux Iso to check for integrety of downloaded file. No need to extract,unzip or anything else with a ISO FILE either. Just leave it alone. All you need to to is burn it in Image Majic using the burn a image tab. Ok. Hope you got that straight.
Below is how to md5sum from Ubuntus site
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HowToMD5SUM
Below are some Distros I am gonna recommend to burn. They are all free. They are also Live Cds. (Look up on goggle what Live CD means) You can boot up these Cds and have the option to not install Linux at first and just run the operating system off the cd in the cd drive.
http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download
http://www.linuxmint.com/download.php
https://www.mepis.org/
http://apcmag.com/how_to_dualboot_vi...lled_first.htm
Those three above are my favorites for new Linux Users. If you have the cds (Blanks) galore. Download both KDE and Gnome Versions (The Desktop you are gonna see and interact with to run the operating system). When you burn these cds do at at the slowest speed possible to keep from getting a bad burn. It is easy to screww up a 700mb burn if burning to fast. Use 4x or 8x speed as your max. Otherwise you might just burn a coaster.
Make sure your bios is set to boot from cdrom first. That one link above should walk you through a double boot install. after install you can refer to Links below.
http://www.howtoforge.com/the-perfec...op-ubuntu-9.04
http://www.linuxcompatible.org/The_P...a_s129865.html
http://www.unix-tutorials.com/tutori...?os=Linux+Mint
There I think I covered everything. Look through the forum here for some free open source alternatives for IE8 for Vista. Keep Vista around till you get comfortable using Linux. You can delete th Vista Partition on your Hardrive at any time after you are dual booting Linux. You can use Linuxes Partition Editor to wipe windows later if you so wish.
You are about to embark on a new adventure. You might like it. You might not. That is why I say keep Vista for a bit first. You can see from my signature, I am a happy camper. And I am just a biker. Not a computer tech.