Vindows Vista, your thoughts

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Tom Schindler

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Woot had a deal for a Compaq desktop PC for $300.00. I got one for my mom. I prefer to build my own PC myself, but for my Mom this will be fine. I could not build it this cheap. Anyways, it came with Windows Vista...:angry:! I knew it had it when I ordered it.



So far, I think Vista sucks.



It is slow, every setting is hard to find, this version of IE blows, and I am not happy with it.



If we did not have that stupid WinXP authentication I would upgrade it to WinXP and have a real OS.



Your thoughts?





Tom
 
I have had VISTA Home Premium since Feb and love it. Wouldn't go back to XP for anything. I have 2 gig mem which helps...well is necessary to run Home Premium. Also have 2.4 ghz processor which helps too.



I know many people have had trouble with it but all my peropherials run fine with it.
 
I have 2 XP machines and 3 Vista Machines in my house.. took some getting use to, but overall it's now aweful. I wouldn't recommend it, but my machines/builds had it or needed it (free installs sort of things) so I'm not one to complain.



Give it a little while it's not that bad.
 
Meh.



I do like the new interface, it is much prettier then XP, or more to my liking at least. I like some of the other features, and dislike some others. I'm not sure I'd pay to upgrade to Vista, but I wouldn't insist on XP either. Takes a little getting used to, but XP did as well. Heck, I kept XP in "classic mode" so that it worked more like 98.
 
Still prefer Win2K myself. My father has a Dell AMD desktop with Vista on it and it ran horrible until we upgraded the ram to 4gb (it came pre-loaded with 512mb which couldn't even run Vista ha) it isn't THAT bad really if its on a pre-built PC but I've heard of people building PCs and having driver problems.
 
Turning off the Aero Glass interface may help, since that relies heavily on the 3D graphics acceleration and the Compaq likely has onboard graphics with shared memory.



Have you uninstalled all of the useless crap that typically comes on a pre-built computer?



I have Vista home premium running on a 2.6GHz P4 with 1 gig of memory, a 320 gig HD, and a nVidia 6600gt graphics card, and it runs pretty well. I had some issues with the video and USB drivers, but that's about it.
 
I have Vista Home Premium on my laptop. In the begining, I didn't have any problems with it at all, but then again I didn't use it much. However, a recent project at work has put me full time on my PC (normally I use a Mac at work), which means A LOT of time working with Vista. I can now say that I really like it. I am not experiencing any lag or sluggishness. I like it's new features, it's flashy, and it works. And, for what I'm doing, I absoultely LOVE the IE7 that comes with it.



For me, I'm a happy camper with my setup, and Vista. But, everyone has their own needs, experiences, and opinions.
 
Jenn D, how do you like it compared to OSX (which is where I was going with my "nevermind" post). I personally haven't even seen Vista in person since our office/govt. branch still uses XP.
 
Todd C, thanks for the Aero Glass tip. I set it to classic windows and it runs SO much better. I mean SO MUCH BETTER!



Thanks all for your comments so far.





Tom
 
Vista seems nice, but IMHO, it is a step backwards as far as reliability, ease of use, and performance are concerned.



I know quite a bit about computers so if I have difficulty installing or setting up app software, printers, or a home network on a Vista laptop, then what is a more novice user to do?



My issues:



- Office 2003 didn't install cleanly until I installed it with UAC (User Access Control) disable.



- I couldn't add the Vista laptop to my home network until I temporarily configured my wireless router to broadcast its SSID (never had that problem with XP).



- I couldn't get my networked HP Deskjet 932c printer configured "the easy way" by simply finding the share, clicking on it and adding as my default printer. It "seemed" to add, but nothing ever printed, and no errors. Nope, the only way to get it to work was to use the Unix Print Services of Vista, essentially bypassing the native and printer-specific print drivers.



- The computer now takes about 1 minute to shut down. What's that all about. Seems shutdown speeds are a common complaint of Vista (the PC is a dual core AMD, with 2 GB of memory).



And there were several other, more minor issues, like the first Vista update that was downloaded moments after setting up the laptop actually "broke" a couple of the Dell pack-in pieces of software.



If you want something that "just works", and you don't want to have to buy high-end gear, or if you want to run legacy software, etc, then I say stick with XP.



TJR
 
TJR,



I agree. I am not computer wiz, but I know a thing or two about PC's. I am the guy everyone calls when they FU their PC and need someone to fix it.



I got the PC for my mom, so I need to make it as simple to use as I can.



I completely agree. Like you, I think Vista is a step backwards. PC's do not really go obsolete; the software gets bigger and more baloted causing you to HAVE to upgrade to more memory, HDD space, and more processing power.



I always thought when you improve something, you make it easier to use and perform better. Vista does neither. With all the extra clicks you have to perform whenevery you try to install a program, change a setting, or anything else, I think my finger will fall off :lol:.





Tom
 
I disagree completely.



I think vista kicks butt, been running it since the day it came out with no issues. I even had it recently running for 67 days without reboot or anything. Installed new Nvidia drivers and had to.



I think its MUCH FASTER than XP, IE is much better with the tabs.



XP is history in my eyes.



Just because something is new and you dont know all the places to find things doesnt make it a bad thing. Its completely redesigned and things are going to be different, just like XP was after windows 98.



 
Last edited by a moderator:
XST, Windows XP performed better all around than Win98 ever did.



Vista to WinXP is like WinME to Win98.





Tom
 
XST, you are in the overwhelming minority if you think Windows Vista is MUCH faster than XP. Most all reviewers and experts claim just the opposite.



XP can perform reasonably well on a 1.xGhz, 512MB, PC and not be sluggish. Vista can't...you need at least 1Gb of memory for the same responsiveness, and many are upgrading and buying computers with 2GB to get to the same performance they had under XP.



Furthermore, and as I said, if you are the kind of user that just wants your apps to work, and you have a lot of apps you have purchased over the past years, don't count on them running on Vista...not without some hoop jumping.



I'm all for new, but new should be a step forward, not back.



Don't shoot the messenger.



Vista SP1 is right around the corner.



TJR
 
Last edited by a moderator:
XST, you are in the overwhelming minority if you think Windows Vista is MUCH faster than XP
Click to expand...



Maybe the machine was loaded down, fragmented, or something else and since he did a clean install of Vista it made the machine seem faster ????



Just a thought..

Todd Z
 
Todd Z,



Maybe, but all things equal, two "regular" machines, one running XP, the other Vista, XP wins in performance hands down. I say regular, because I am sure that if you have a fast dual core proc PC, 2GB RAM, etc, that XP and Vista will both run very well. But still, even in that config (which I have run Vista in), many things still seem sluggish in Vista...simple things like app installation, etc.



There are known issues with the file system under Vista that tends to slow down application installation, and other similar tasks. Most installers that run very quick on XP run dawg slow on Vista.



TJR
 
TJR,

Ok thanks,

I know nothing about Vista , only that everyone I know who had it, got rid of it or has nothing but complaints about it..

Todd Z
 
Personal nerdy example of the speed difference..



Same exact machine

Intel 6300 (dual core 1.86)

1 gig ram

radeon x1600 video card



When I had XP installed and played WoW I got 60 fps (frames per second) when I "upgraded" to vista that dropped to 35 fps. Same exact machine with a clean install of each.
 

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