Windows Vista is an OS, so it's software.
software
An extremely large range of hardware and software will work with Windows Vista. It would be impossible to list here all of them.
Vista is software (a program) ... a graphics card is hardware.
Vista Upgrade Advisor
Free Vista Window Drivers are available from Microsoft, from the hardware/software manufacturer such as Adobe, or on aggregated driver and software sites such as CNet's Download.
Problem Reports and Solutions
Some software are dependent and others are not. A webcam software is dependent on the hardware.
Usually software but some hardware firewall devices are produced.
A VDU is hardware.
Windows failed to start,a recent hardware or software change might be the cause?
You can use Device Manager for the hardware and Add/Remove programs for the software.
An SD card slot is hardware. Windows Vista is an operating system, a software platform capable of acknowledging the presence of a memory device in a card slot. It then utilises other software to read and manipulate the data.