The shareware packages are not Vista compatible. They were released 4 to 5 years ago before Vista was out. We will not go back and make old releases compatible. Others have made things work under "Windows Compatibility" mode. I suggest you surf some other forums for more info of how to do this.
As to the USB-Serial converters, we do not support them because they do not work with all modules on all cars. Modules that have very fussy communication timing will not work with the converter.
-Bruce-
Ross-Tech, LLC