Hi,
I used a Creative ZenMicro Photo with sony-preinstalled vista recently. It's possible to just plug the player in via USB, and windows will simply recognise it and sync it properly (it was good news for me, after a laptop theft all my music was left on that one device!) - also allowing me to import my mp3s back from it to my PC. However, I did *not* install the creative software. Have you tried uninstalling it, and seeing what windows media player thinks is happening on it's own?
If that doesn't work, there are other tools out there for syncing music which may work for you. Winamp (winamp.com) comes with Creative and iPod support built in, for free. Other things may be found with a bit of googling, try http://www.google.com/search?q=creative+zen+software&rls=com.microsoft:*:IE-SearchBox&ie=UTF-8&oe=UT... , but obviously check they'll work with vista.
hth!
