Should I get Windows Vista?

[Mr. Sanders]

Hi all,
I'm a Windows user and currently run my laptop and mum's pc on Windows xp and was wondering if any Vista users could give me a review? Perhaps with list of pros and cons as well as comments on general performance, etc. I'm running Vista already on this crappy old computer in my bedroom (Built for Windows 98! Literaly! 98!) and its actually working quite well, but its hard to tell sometimes whether its Windows Vista or the computer itself causing the propblems... Also, if I should get Vista - which version?




PS. I do not want any comments like 'why don't you get a macintosh?' because I tried mac for a year and didn't find it compatible enough to suit my needs.

 

[j_]

I'd upgrade to Vista only if the machine it was going to be installed on was at least a Core 2 Duo with 2 gigs or ram (or whatever equivilent AMD these days!). Otherwise, it'll be horrible and you should stay with XP.

 

[Gerri Shin]

I've got my dad's Acer laptop running pretty well with Vista Home Basic. I chose Basic since it's Video RAM wasn't up to Vista Premium Specs. While it doesn't have Media Center and full Aero theme, It wrks quite well on only .99Gb of RAM. As long as you upgrade to SP1 you should be fine, but I would advise not going with Ultimate version unless you have 3Gb or higher in RAM and have at least a 256Mb Dedicated VRAM, otherwise it will be slower than Win95 on a 386 CPU.

However If your used to XP and it works for you, why change? Stick with what works until it doesn't work anymore.

 

[羨望]

Yes you should upgrade but if you have low Ram,Go with home basic or if you have pretty decent Ram like
2 Gigs-3 Gigs or you going to upgrade your Ram you should go with Home Premium which i Recommend if your going with vista trough like Gerri Shin say if XP runs well and you like IT stay with XP.Anyway the two are pretty good not perfect but what the heck all OS (Operating Sistems)(Mac OS)(Windows)(Linux) are not perfect.

 

[score_under]

Please don't get vista.
If you get vista, you upset Sadoko-chan again (remember that, elitemap users?).

As most of you by now may know, vista is horribly tacky and is incompatible with most designed-for-XP programs.
Oh, and DRM. It's chock full of it, taking up megabytes of RAM and disallowing installation of homebrew/unsigned drivers.

And vista treats you like a baby. XP only treats you like a child.

Vista: You ran a downloaded program. Are you sure you want to?
This program is requesting admin privileges. Are you sure you want to?
This program is behaving correctly, terminate now? (buttons: yes/yes) <-- Joking, for the more flamey types

XP: You ran a downloaded program. Are you sure you want to? (ticks "Don't ask again for this program") YES.
End-of.

 

[j_]

Please don't get vista.


As most of you by now may know, vista is horribly tacky and is incompatible with most designed-for-XP programs.

That sentence nullified anything else you have to say about the matter. I have found all of about 1 program that won't work on Vista. ONE!

disallowing installation of homebrew/unsigned drivers.

Only the 64bit version! You'd of known that had you actually used Vista at all....

Vista: You ran a downloaded program. Are you sure you want to?
This program is requesting admin privileges. Are you sure you want to?

SP1 has toned down UAC a lot. Again, you'd of known that had you actually used Vista at all....

...

It helps to use an operating system, before you spout complete crap...

 

[Gerri Shin]

Actually you Can tone down UAC even more by going in manually in the control panel (though that way is actually rather confusing and difficult if you don't know what you're doing) or by using a neat program called TweakUAC. That way you can set it to off, Silent mode, or On.

Either way, As long as you have SP1 Vista is just fine and works as well as XP. Driver issues are almost non-existant on most devices from the past 5 years. and in arguement towards those who don't like the default Vista them (aero) there are UxTheme patches for Vista as well. So Vista has come a long way since first inception.
now to get back on topic for this thread, since it's not to debate about Vista≥XP, I really think that the OP should stick with XP, since everything that is coming out will still work on XP for some time and the fact that you and your parents are probably already comfortable on XP. (You can't fix somthing that ain't broke)

 

[Obito.]

stick with xp. i heard vista is really bad

 

[Nick]

Hi all,
I'm a Windows user and currently run my laptop and mum's pc on Windows xp and was wondering if any Vista users could give me a review? Perhaps with list of pros and cons as well as comments on general performance, etc. I'm running Vista already on this crappy old computer in my bedroom (Built for Windows 98! Literaly! 98!) and its actually working quite well, but its hard to tell sometimes whether its Windows Vista or the computer itself causing the propblems... Also, if I should get Vista - which version?

Well, a good question to start is "Why do you want Vista?".

My computer had a lot of problems running on Vista. The login time took about five or so minutes, where as when I log in when I'm using XP, it only takes me about five seconds. And restarting is even worse! If you want to wait that long to do one simple thing, then you might as well have went to the local library. Point is, it's slow and has problems running a lot of programs, aside from that, there are so many nice XP themes and transformer packs (though I wouldn't advise you to do that because they're a killer to get off) that you can make your system look like it, or something even more splendid. Most of the people, like myself, want it just because it's Aero graphics. If that's the case, don't waste 3-6 hours of your day installing that, because you'll just end up in disappointment and most likely end up installing a fresh copy of XP again. So, if you don't know for a fact that you don't want it, don't waste your time. Installing Vista (3-6 hours), getting disappointed and ending up installing a fresh copy of XP, losing ALL of your data, programs, etc. (about 2-3 hours) Yeah, kinda not worth spending 5-9 hours on installing systems on your computer when you can be doing better things to do.

 

[Nick]

What people have "heard" is more often than not, very stupidly false.

Lettersnnumbers: Never go a Vista in-place upgrade. Always do a fresh install. I assume from the problems you mention, you did an in-place upgrade. Back up your files and slap Vista onto your computer fresh; it's not a bad world to be in from there on in.

Unless your computer is an underspecced piece of crud.

^ That probably answers your question regarding upgrading it, Mr. Sanders.

And, yeah. I upgraded it due to that horrible blue screen that kept coming up and making me have to restart every 30 minutes, but after I reinstalled a fresh copy of XP, it never came back on again, where as before that, I had installed Vista and it still appeared, but worse it automatically restarted my computer, which didn't allow me to see what the screen said.

Nah, I wouldn't say that, although at times it can be. It's only about 2, maybe 3 years old. XD

- Thanks for the advice, I shall have to install Vista on a laptop instead because I have so many themes on here that aren't made for Vista, which is one of the main, unmentioned reasons that I had reinstalled a fresh copy of XP.

 

[Eureka1]

The loss of speed is minor (to me, though with my case I couldn't use Aero anyway)

So you've no reason to use Vista at all.

 

[Legobricks]

Here's something to keep in mind if you want to play games on it: Given that Vista demands twice the amount of RAM to run games than XP (according to the system requirements on the backs of the cases of recent games) I'm not even going to bother going near it.

 

[Eureka1]

Here's something to keep in mind if you want to play games on it: Given that Vista demands twice the amount of RAM to run games than XP (according to the system requirements on the backs of the cases of recent games) I'm not even going to bother going near it.

RAM costs nothing nowadays. You can pick up 2gb for the price of a game.

 

[Legobricks]

RAM costs nothing nowadays. You can pick up 2gb for the price of a game.

But since I have a laptop...

Well, that'd good to know anyway then, so thanks, 'cause I've got a desktop I want to redo.


Okay then, Mr Sanders, the other thing to keep in mind is Vista's noted compatability problems. :3

 

[Eureka1]

And here's where you're majorly at fault for attributing Vista to Aero.

That's basically all it offers over XP.

Both are fine OSes and if you're building a PC from scratch then definitely go with Vista but if you've already got XP and you don't want to upgrade your PC to use Vista then it's obvious that keeping XP would be best.

And as far as gaming goes if your computer can support it they're virtually the same, a slight performance dent with Vista, but nobody human could tell the difference.

 

[deco11]

Here's something to keep in mind if you want to play games on it: Given that Vista demands twice the amount of RAM to run games than XP (according to the system requirements on the backs of the cases of recent games) I'm not even going to bother going near it.

It says things like that for 98 to XP on some of my old games.
Harry Potter Qudditch needs 64MB (im pretty sure) for 98 but 256MB for XP.
My old computer had 64 MB but a year later our new XP computer had 256MB.

I got my laptop pre loaded with Vista Home Premium.
1.5GB Ram
256MB Video Ram
1.86Ghz

It works fine, better then our XP computer.
Some of my old games don;t run on it though: Rayman 2, Rayman.
But I can play Doom from 1995!

I wouldn't upgrade unless I bought a new computer with Vista.

 

[sirboulevard]

Its best not to upgrade. My friend had a $7000 custom built computer with Vista and it ran terribly. While most stuff ran on it, it was slow and didnt work 100% of its potential. In fact he had our hacker friend look through Vista to see what was causing. Vista actually controls how much RAM you are using. That's why its so slow. Its fighting with other programs over how much memory the computer is using. In the end he downgraded to XP and it runs faster than any computer i've seen before. If you have XP: stick with it. Those of you with Vista: Downgrade. I have Vista right now and I'm getting XP before the end of August because the perks of vista aren't worth it anymore.

 

[Eureka1]

So you're saying there's nothing more?

Well what other significant features does it offer?

 

[Eureka1]

Basically nothing then.

I guess it's okay if you're the kind of person who buys OEM systems but for those of us who slipstream operating systems etc things included in Vista just seem like bloat.

 

[Legobricks]

It says things like that for 98 to XP on some of my old games.
Harry Potter Qudditch needs 64MB (im pretty sure) for 98 but 256MB for XP.
My old computer had 64 MB but a year later our new XP computer had 256MB.

And that's a reason why I like 98 better. :P
I'm assuming it won't run newer games though, so I keep XP as the all-round in-the-middle favourite OS.