Hey Skarlock, I have had varying degrees of success with the SC in Vista, but no definate solution. You'd think M$ would have added the drivers to Vista hey !!
I have got it to work twice since running Vista RTM using the 2000/XP drivers. When I got it to work it was always by playing about in Device Manager and removing/reinstalling the drivers.
The only useful thing I can add is that when it works, there are 4 parts to the driver in Device manager that all show up under Human Interface Devices.
Microsoft SideWinder Strategic Commander
Microsoft SideWinder Strategic Commander HID Drivers
Microsoft SideWinder Virtual Keyboard
Microsoft SideWinder Virtual Mouse
The 1 that is really hard to get up is the Virtual Mouse. If you can get all 4 parts to show up, then the Strategic Commander software will run and work correctly.
I will persue with this and try find a solution, but till then, good luck :-)