Windows Vista Premium

[hamtronix]

I bought a new Dell Desktop with 3GB Ram and Dual Core 2.13GHz and GeForce 8600GT. It came with WVP and I decideed to try it and see. I bought about 3 months ago and I still have Vista on it. It has a smoother feel that I prefer over XPs herky jerky. I havent had any games not work on it or productivity software. The way Vista handles ram is different than XP so haveing it all 'full' is not an error or bug. So far so good. If I went back I would use TinyXP anyway.

[amesie2]

I used Vista Ultimate for about 3 months and did find it to be slower than XP.

The problem is that Vista isn't compatible with some software.

Example 1: I was updating anti-virus software for a brokerage company which went very well using AVG. The problem came about when an employee had purchased a new laptop with Vista on it and was trying to run a $35,000.00 software package and it just kept crashing. i spent some time looking over his sytem and it just wasn't compatible.

Example 2: I had intended to run Vista Business on the workstations at work (no luck). The network is running Server 2003 with roaming profiles and workstations are running XP Pro SP2. The problem with running Vista and roaming profiles is that the folder structure has changed between XP and Vista which causes some headaches. I worked on this issue for 4 days and couldn't resolve the problem since the folder redirection doesn't seem to work properly.

Example 3: My girlfriend had purchased a new laptop with Vista home premium which seemed to work just fine until we wanted to use a wireless connection the signal kept dropping. The problem happened no matter how the connection was configured or what wireless network we used.

Example 4: We have a Sonicwall 2040pro at work and Vista isn't compatible with the VPN client (it might be now).

Example 5: Vista also handles sound differently than XP does, I have a SB Audigy 2ZS which works great under XP but using Vista I get pops and snaps while playing music, movies, or games.

Example 6: Vista also has/had a huge problem with Nvidia current production video cards. The drivers available didn't work very well with the 7800 or 8800 series cards especially in SLI mode.

I would say overall Vista isn't horrible it just needs polishing and finishing. I think Microsoft should have tested Vista longer and gave us more of a finished product. I also think that the hardware vendors should be frowned upon too since alot of the issues with Vista are due to driver problems.

If I remember right when XP hit the shelves there were alot of problems with it as well including driver issues and a bunch of other problems.

I personally still like using XP over Vista so that is what I use, I do like the sidebar gadgets so I download a program called Vista Transformation Pack and installed it which gives alot of the same look and feel of Vista but using XP kernel.
   

[Nostalgiac]

I tried it (ultimate - msdn via work) on my home box ... Core 2 Duo 6600 with 2gb, modern ATI card (not a gaming one)... simply put ... it was slow... decision to get back to XP was simple - since then also replaced an XP laptop by a Macbook Pro - and happy since :-)

ta
Tom UK

PS: yes this is posted from my sofa-surfing laptop w2k 450Mmhz dell.... good enough for this

[amiga1260]

I'm using Windows Vista Ultimate 64 Bit since August this year. I ran into some problems with drivers for my 8800 GTX and X-FI card and programs. Most of time Vista works very well on my Core 2 Quad 6600 Processor with 4 GB of RAM. Okay sometimes Vista isn't solid as a rock or fast, but I think the OS will be improved over the years.

[RRunner]

Check out this article:

Windows XP Outshines Vista in Benchmark Testing

Unless you want to play bleeding edge games that require DirectX 10 and Vista, I would suggest sticking to XP for a while longer. Just my $0.02 worth.

[amigadave]

amiga1260 wrote:
I'm using Windows Vista Ultimate 64 Bit since August this year. I ran into some problems with drivers for my 8800 GTX and X-FI card and programs. Most of time Vista works very well on my Core 2 Quad 6600 Processor with 4 GB of RAM. Okay sometimes Vista isn't solid as a rock or fast, but I think the OS will be improved over the years.

Yes, it is just another in the long line of bug ridden, bloated, slow, unfinished OSes that have come from MS.  Nothing wrong with that, the world has been convinced that this is normal and acceptable. :lol:

Edit: Is WinXP64bit dead now that Vista is out, or will it be updated for a long time to come?  I bought it for my Son's PC that we built together and was intended primarily for games he wanted to play that his friends already owned.  We had driver problems, so I had to buy the 32bit version as well and the 64bit version is sitting unused at the moment.  I can't even put it on my MacMini as it is not supposed to work there.

[JuvUK]

hi,
 i use vista and now it's been updated and i've turned off the requesters, i love it, it's fine to use,i still remember xp really blowed when it was new, but the updates do work, vista is the future so learn to use it now and just watch it get better and better.
best regards, Justin

[yetihw]

@ JuvUK

Thats a very positive way to look at it.  I'm tired of companies releasing somewhat working products though makes me want to shun it all.  I really wish I was as positive as you.

[Argo]

Many issues such as the mentioned speed issues, will be address in SP1. That should be available early next year. Which from the reviews I have read of the Beta SP1 are true. Faster starting, copying, etc.
The requesters are there for security to basically make the user aware of the actions they have initiated, say in an program install. Doesn't bother me. I was using teatimer that comes with Spybot Search & Destroy to monitor registry changes. It prompts you for each registry change. I just didn't like the sneaky {bleep} that try to silently install.
I'm running Vista Ultimate on an AMD 5600+, 2 GB 800MHz memory, M2N32-SLI Deluxe motherboard and a HIS Radeon 2600XT ICEQ graphics card. Vista runs quite nice. It feels like a robust version of XP with a SP2 like service pack added on. It doesn't fall down and BSOD like XP. Recovers nicely and is better with program errors. Even tries to find solutions to the problems.
Really it is not a run out and get upgrade with everything that MS cut out of the features list. You'll get it with a new computer. Try it for a few weeks. The only issues I've had are not being able to use 10 year old software or hardware.
Oh, and you can turn a number of features off. You don't have to use the Aero theme, or the User Account Control (which will keep the permission requesters from poping up)
Basically, MS listened and put a bit of security in to Vista.

P.S. I'm running the 64 bit version.

[Argo]

I tried some alpha & beta versions of Vista (longhorn) and i installed the retail version for months, I had many problems.

I tried those also and they sucked big time. The speed seemed reasonably okay on my old computer (Athlon 2600+). Though I couldn't get much of the software I had to run and it crashed alot.

The instal I have now is far better and I'm looking forward to the improvement that SP1 will bring.

[tokyoracer]

Just use XP Pro or XP Pro 64 if you have a 64 bit prosessor. Don't waste your time on Vista as you'll only be lagged by loading times.

[r6stu]

Ive stuck it on my pc (Ultimate AGAIN!) to play with. now under xp games like crysis played fine! under vista loading times are longer, the game is so slow and the sound is skipping like made its not playable.

users account control is annoying as it pops up every time you need to do something! turning it off also means that you get pop ups every few mins and reboots telling you that its off and needs turning back on.

It looks nice areo glass is good, but finding programs in the new start menu is hardwork and its annoying.

[JuvUK]

i'm running ultimate on an e6700 clocked to 3.5ghz with 4gb ram and a geforce 8800 gtx ultra and everything i've thrown at it including crisis flies, plus dx10 stuff looks sooo much better, and just turn the user account thing off.  )

[Pyromania]

That is probably the worst Christmas gift that you could get.

[Orjan]

Argo wrote:

It feels like a robust version of XP with a SP2 like service pack added on. It doesn't fall down and BSOD like XP.

How did you manage to get a bluescreen on XP? And how did you manage to get it to feel anything but robust?

I have actually never gotten a BSOD on my XP machine. And some other minor problems I have had are all due to bad apps.
Vista might be more robust in the way that it "never" hangs, or whatever, but it is still the worst Windows version I have confronted. Even ME was better, methinks.. Yes, it does hang and crash often, but at least it doesnt bug you all the time with mind-numbingly stupid things, like "An application is about to start, are you sure you want to allow it to continue?".

[JuvUK]

lol just turn the notifications off! it really is that easy, honest