Yes the Vista profiles are different. Cause now there are 3 folders in which the data can be stored for the software. There is Local, Local Low and Roaming.
Things like Chrome are stored in Local.
Opera, Mozilla and others are stored in Roaming. Along with the desktop icons and shortcuts are stored in the Roaming.
So you have to pay attention when you decide to just copy these things over. As it may not work cause they are associated with a specific profile path now.