This may sound retarded, but if you're having problems with the launchpad, make sure you also have
Adobe\Macromedia Flash Player installed. I think it prompts you to install, but anyway just something else that rattled off my head whilst I was reading this. How goes with Vista?
You may get a prompt when running Everquest II the first time mentioning a pack. Some custom UIs don't show the ? mark on the dialog box. All it does is link to this site advising to install a patch addressing
Virtual address space usage in Windows game development
The start menu annoys me and I'm constantly having to clean it up so I don't have to scroll. You may want to look at this toy to download and run. It's basically a smart "Run..." tool. Hit ALT+Spacebar after installing and type something in like "Everquest II", "Firefox', or "Ventrilo".
Launchy: The Open Source Keystroke Launcher for Windows
BTW, User Account Control is has to be the most freaking annoying thing about Vista.