Audigy SE on Vista 32 bit

I just got a new system and upgraded from Vista Basic to Business (32 bit). I also just got an Audigy SE card. There was a sticker on the box that explicitly stated will work with Windows Vista. I installed the included software after installing the card and things seemed to go ok except one .exe failed to rull RLL somethingorother. All in all, it seems all of the associated Creative software modules were working. The microphone, however, was not ... which is fairly important to me. So I decided to see if there were any newer drivers. I found a software/driver set for Vista 32 bit (60+ MB!) and downloaded it and installed and now almost NONE of the installed modules work. I can't get in to the equalizier, diagnostics, etc ... an error mesage comes back saying it cannot run.

Has anyone run in to this? Would it be best to uninstall everything, reinstall the disc software and then need to do something else to get the mic working (and yes I checked all the usual suspects, the mic was on and was not on mute in the volume controls etc). Or would it be best to uninstall and use the software/driver set off the website?