Why Does Docking Have to Stink in Vista?

I like using a large screen monitor when I’m working during the day, so a docking station is very important to me.  In several Vista-based convertible tablet pcs I’ve used, most notably the Lenovo X61 and the HP 2710p, the docking experience has really stunk. Here’s how:

With both the x61 and 2710p, when I set the tablet in the dock and come out of standby ( or just power up for that matter ), Vista does not remember the settings I had previously set: monitor locations, display resolutions, whether to mirror or extend, etc. I have to set these each and every time – how frustrating. What is also frustrating are the frequent flashes of the screen the tablet has to go through while it figures out what to do. Fortunately, the x61 has some built in schemes that can be set to help avoid the resetting up process, but I’ve even experienced some instabilities there, too.

With the 2710p, it gets worse. If I were in tablet mode before going in to standby or shutting down, the 2710p does not recognize very well that it is now in laptop mode when coming out of standby or powering up. This is exacerbated by the fact that the rotate button is located underneath the screen ( which you can not get to in laptop mode ), so you have to flip the screen around to tablet mode, then back to laptop mode so it will fix itself. I’ve experienced this problem with the x61 on various occasions, but it is less painful because there is at least a button on the screen I can easily press to fix it.

I just want to power up my tablet and get to work. I don’t want to spend 10 minutes each day getting everything straight. Why can’t Vista handle the docking, external monitor process, and display orientation seamlessly? Anybody else experiencing the same things with their docking scenarios?