Hi Paul,
since its introduction, Vista has been a real pain for drivers for older peripherals, particularly the 64 bit version. However, all is not lost with the two printers you mention, there are updated drivers that support 64 bit Vista. I see another poster has supplied the links so I won't repeat but a Google search for, for example, "Epson CX4600 64 bit driver" (without the quotes) will find the Epson support links you need - it came first in my Google search. You can try the same technique for any other peripherals you have that are giving you grief. The driver downloads are free. Quite often, the first time you encounter this kind of issue, you may not know where to start, so I included this preamble.
What I was actually going to say was that depending when you bought this machine (you say it is new) you may be eligible for a free upgrade to Windows 7. If so, you should take it (get a friend or family member to help you install it) since it is a much better operating system than Vista, some say it is what Vista should have been, and the device manufacturers are all writing any new drivers for 7, rather than Vista, though 7 came with a much more compatible driver set anyway. Check with whoever you bought the machine from or HP Customer Services to see whether you are eligible for the free upgrade.
Good luck.