Guys, please don't hijack the thread to mount personal attacks, keep it to pm's....

Anyway, back to the OP, just got a Vista computer myself and will go about installing First Strike and let you know if I encounter any problems. From running it on Windows 7 though, I found that turning off User Account Control completely, while also making sure that the programs are set to 'Run as Administrator' tends to do the trick. Can't see Vista being that different.

Just to settle something that no-one else has thought to bring up, out of curiosity, what screen resolution do you use? if its a widescreen then have you set widescreen preferences in the First Strike launcher?

To check, launch the Updater/launcher program, but do not hit launch. Go to File, then Preferences. in the field marked 'Arguments' enter (without the quotes!) '+widescreen 1'

There is a nice pic of it somewhere I believe but I cant get to it due to being on a dumb work computer

please don't give up on the mod, I realise this is frustrating but we will help you get in game!

EDIT:

Ok, now got back and fully installed First Strike on my new Vista laptop I can confirm that I can indeed join a server, so for the OP, here is what I did.
Installed 2142 and updated to 1.5
Installed First Strike 1.4
Turned off User Account Control, and then right click on both 2142 and FS icons, then set to run as administrator.
Ran First Strike and allowed it to update
Restarted the First Strike Launcher, then went in to File, Preferences and entered +widescreen 1 in the arguments field.
Ran First Strike, went to options and selected the correct resolution (will show if you enter the +widescreen bit as above.)
Went to online server menu and joined the RSF server.

*note, during the starting of First Strike I had two firewall popups, remember to set permissions for First Strike.

Hope that helps!

Bite my shiny metal Tie Fighter!

yup

Bite my shiny metal Tie Fighter!