ITunes no longer recognizes my burner after upgrade to VIsta!!

Question

I honestly don't get what's going on: I recently updated my OS to Vista ultimate x64 and now iTunes decides it doesn't want to recognize my DVD-RW drive. iTunes says that there's no recognizable burning device present. But here's where it gets weird: i can play cds and IMPORT them to my iTunes library, and it knows when i've inserted a cd. but i can't burn them.
Now, i've updated my firmware, i'm running the most current version of iTunes and windows has all the newest updates. So why won't this thing work? The support section from apple had an article involving some registry edits that could help but the article is kinda flawed (it says to delete the lowerfilters but there are no lowerfilters) and they're solution didn't work anyway. apple needs to step on the gas here and produce a REAL vista-ready version of iTunes, because its not getting any better.
I also think it's funny that if you post a question on the wrong forum, rather than answer your question, an apple rep will tell you that you've posted on the wrong forum and need to re-post at the correct forum. wow, now THAT's service...

Answer 1

Here are my diagnostic results as well (just so that people know that i'm doing every available step. and no i do not have any virtual drive applcations installed):
Microsoft Windows Vista Professional (Build 6000)
System manufacturer System Product Name
iTunes 7.3.2.6
CD Driver 2.0.6.1
CD Driver DLL 2.0.6.2
UpperFilters: GEARAspiWDM (2.0.6.1),
Current user is an administrator.
Video Display Information:
NVIDIA, NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT (Microsoft Corporation - WDDM)
Connected Device Information:
Disk drive, Maxtor 6Y120P0 ATA Device, Channel 0, Target 0, Lun 0
Disk drive, Maxtor OneTouch II USB Device
CD-ROM Drive, _NEC DVD_RW ND-3550A ATA Device, Channel 1, Target 0, Lun 0
If you have multiple drives on the same IDE or SCSI bus, these drives may interfere with each other.
Some computers need an update to the ATA or IDE bus driver, or Intel chipset. If iTunes has problems recognizing CDs or hanging or crashing while importing or burning CDs, check the support site for the manufacturer of your computer or motherboard.
Failed while scanning for CD / DVD drives, error 2355.
Virtual drives can sometimes interfere with reading and writing CDs in iTunes. If this is a virtual drive and you are having problems with other drives, try uninstalling the virtual CD application.
D: Unsupported CD or DVD drive.
Virtual drives can sometimes interfere with reading and writing CDs in iTunes. If this is a virtual drive and you are having problems with other drives, try uninstalling the virtual CD application.