Vista - Slow network + other issues

Hi guys,
I just got Vista Ultimate and have been playing with it over the weekend. A
few things I’d like to change and some general questions:

1.First issue is my cdrom. I got a message in Vista while playing with the
backup utility that some corruption has occurred and I should to a chkdisk.
Which I did and then backup worked fine. However my cdrom died. According to
the device manager the driver (default Vista cdrom.sys) is corrupt. However
Vista insists on using the cdrom.sys even when I unistall it. I have deleted
it as well but vista seems to keep installing the same one. Apart from
reinstalling the o/s any other suggestions to fix this?

2. I use a NAS device for backups which has an associated password. I have
the drive mapped but whenever I want to connect to it I have to provide a
password. This screws up automated backups as it can’t run due to the login
requirement. There is no option to remember password ala XP. How do I get
this setup?

3.I have a bunch of failed updates. Some of them listed as critical. However
when I go to the update tab they don’t appear to be
re-downloaded/reinstalled. The error for all of failed updates was “file in
use can’t install�. How do I resolve this and get the updates in there?

4.How do I get rid of the shortcut appended to all the names? For example a
shortcut to Firefox comes up as “Firefox – shortcut�.

5.I have an account with no password set so Vista auto loads. Does this mean
anyone with the right IP can remote to my desktop and log straight in if I
have it running?

6.What are the shortcuts/programs that start WMC and the Games folder?

7.I noticed I couldn’t drag and drop folders into a command prompt to
complete command lines. Anyway around this?

8.Is there a known issue with Vista and NAS drives? Transfer speeds are
pathetically slow. They work fine from XP. Makes backing anything up painful.

9.How do I login as admin?

10.How do I disable the popup that tells me account controls have been
disabled (which I did myself)?

Thanks in advance.