Vista Sync issues

My old PIII 800 MHz laptop started to sound and behave like a jet engine a few months back. So my wife let me start shopping for a new laptop. I finally found a pretty good HP model at Costco. The only problem is that it came with Vista Home Premium. It's a beautiful machine and seems to do pretty well with most things, but Vista definitely has some quirks to it.

One of the biggest problems I've had is deciding how to manage files between my server and the new laptop. Since I've setup my server, I didn't use the old laptop for much except lightly browsing the web. The new laptop is alot more capable. My plan is to use it to edit photos and keep my wife's Ipod synced with the music library.

To keep files synced up, I was really disappointed in the "Microsoft Sync Center". In Vista Home Premium, it won't sync files between a server and the laptop, so I had to go find a new way to do it. I stumbled upon Microsoft's free SyncToy which seems to do everything that I need it to. I can setup pairings of directories to keep synced. It supports single or bi-directional syncing, so that if I add a file to the server, the laptop will pick it up and vice-versa.

I just don't get why Microsoft couldn't make "Sync Center" a full product on Vista Home Premium. Disabled features seem to be the biggest issue I have with it so far.