Windows Vista Is Vista Any Good

nivrip

nivrip

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I keep reading that there are problems with Vista and that a recent survey suggests that 50% of people buying new machines are specifically asking for XP and insisting that Vista is NOT used.

What exactly are the problems with Vista? It certainly doesn't seem like a step forward if people don't want it.

Anyone know the truth? :o
 
Well after having a laptop with Vista on it for nine months, I can confirm it was a very big change. Antivirus, firewall, DVD/CD creation software, all would not install/work correctly under Vista. Even with the compatibility software running.

But I found substitutes for all of the above, and it was just a matter of adapting to them. It's a shame, though, that several old games would not run at all (but when XP came out there were significatly more games that were incompatible!!)

And in reliability, Vista is streets ahead of XP (maybe because it's so fussy about what software you can use.)

I personally like Vista, I don't regret upgrading, I just wish I'd waited until now, because more and more programs are now compatible. I haven't met with any problems at all, just to comment that like any PC, a clean reinstall every 6 months speeds things up a lot.

But I won't be upgrading any of my other manchines to Vista yet, there's no need, the laptop is the only one I use on a daily basis, and for daily use, Vista is SO much better.

My favorite thing is the way you can hit the 'Start' button, start typing the name of a program and it's icon appears straightaway.

Don't believe the critics 'till you've tried it yourself.
 
vista was supposed to have a new file system to make it as modern as those used by linux. it was the first item of many ms did not deliver.

vista also wanted to have advanced graphics (called aero) that allows translucent images/windows like linux has had for a while. that was delivered but it means you need a decent graphics card to enjoy.

vista also includes gadgets (weather, games, performance monitors) like linux.

vista wanted to improve security, but that was an oops, undelivered too, except for the dialog boxes like "did you really want to run this program?"
most of the security improvements come from ie7 (also available for xp, of course.)

like all other programs ms writes, it includes a complete copy of all previous versions for compatibility's sake (also known as bloat.) this, of course, means slower computing.

overall it is nice to look at and a pleasant experience (so far), although i have only booted into it 3x so far. i may post a vista something or another later...

hth...
 
The fact that they couldn't get the file system ready in time is shoddy, i agree. But there are many good points;

Although the 'do you really want to run this program' message is quite intrusive, it only appears if you try to change system settings or install a disk utility, or a firewall or other AV program, but if it gets annoying you can turn it off. I personally would rather have it on, for that one time it will ask for your permission when you never did anything, and you will immediately know that something is trying to mess with your system.

The biggest security issue Microsoft could not help with at all, and that is protecting the user from themselves.

And as for the Aero desktop, my laptop has the stupid Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950, which is a type of internal graphics, and even that manages to run the Aero desktop graphics (i.e, the cool window transparency thing.)

I don't understand what you mean by 'it includes a complete copy of all previous versions for compatibility's sake', because all the Program Compatibility feature does is changes some settings and visual elements of Windows.
 
And there you have it folks, Vista Ying and Yang.

If Yang is the latter post, me definitely a Yang man ;)
 
"I don't understand what you mean by 'it includes a complete copy of all previous versions for compatibility's sake', "

ms office, and ms windows both include tens of thousands of unused lines of code from previous editions because their programming staff does not have the time to review each and every line for deletion.

both office and windows both have to have a good bit of code to support older applications.

and unfortunately, there is no option when installing either office or windows to do without "support the old versions / programs"
 
But that will happen with any new version of any operating system or program. That's just a reason never to upgrade anything, ever, not a specific problem with Vista.

It's like when I trialled Vista's BETA on my PC, the installations took the best part of 10gig, as compared to the first time I installed XP, (2gig), and the first time I installed Windows ME (700Meg). But as HDD sizes increase, this becomes less of a problem.
 
i'm not saying its a problem, as you say - especially with todays hardware, size and speed.
i'm simply commenting on vista et al...

i've used vista 3x since friday, i like it so far... i was simply pointing out some of its features & flaws.
 
I used it brielfy, I felt that the GUI was more user friendly. It looked a bit more complicated, but above all I had a driver compatbility problem and decided not to use Vista in the forseeable future.
 
Hi Guys,
I'm new here but thought i'll give my review of it. I am a System Admin so I don't know if that would make a large difference as far as installing Vista would be to XP.

I'm running Vista Ultimate-64bit and I have not had nothing that worked in XP 32bit fail to work in Vista 64bit.

As far as drivers went all that I really had any extra work involved with was finding my audio drivers, but once found I have not had not one issue with Vista U64 itself.

At work XP SP2 is used, and I think for large corporations they wont generally migrate until Service Pack 1 is released, which is kind of the defacto movement and I dont personally feel organisations need Vista as of yet because there are lots of people with intertia to change... and are scared / intimidated by having to learn to use a new OS.

All in all I won't reinstall XP any time soon for Home / Personal Use as Vista is just too good for its use. If you have the hardware to run it, i'd highly recommend it.
 
Lets face it Vista is rubbish, unless you are a computer noob, it is incompatable with some software that works perfect on XP, so you have to buy latest versions, what a joke what a waste of money what a gain for software companies.... you just as well carry corporate spies with you, only they keep letting you know that they are there asking you if you really wanted to do things you just tried to do what a pain what waste of time.
I could go on for ages but I wont.
 
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There is very little to learn, its an Obviouse system with anoying useless popups, and any way most peoples time is spent in applications, vista is just a tool to get there.
 
Excellent so far, no driver issues, looks very nice :) Gadgets are nice, and the search function is very good indeed.

Would recommend Vista, only issue is the damn iTouch compatability problem, but hoping they fix this :(
 
nivrip said:
I keep reading that there are problems with Vista and that a recent survey suggests that 50% of people buying new machines are specifically asking for XP and insisting that Vista is NOT used.

What exactly are the problems with Vista? It certainly doesn't seem like a step forward if people don't want it.

Anyone know the truth? :o
Click to expand...

Well alot of drivers did,nt work when vista came out.

But it,s getting alot better now.


If your happy with with xp keep with that one.
 
Well, I started this thread and I now have Vista on board. The only real problems I've had have been getting my printer and scanner going. They are both a bit long in the tooth and I feared that they would never work with Vista. :o

However, I went onto the Epson and Hewlett Packard web sites and managed to download new drivers for my equipment and now everything is up and running. :)

It takes a while to get used to the new set up on Vista but it's slowly coming. :nod: I reckon that ,soon, XP will seem strange.
 
just to comment that like any PC, a clean reinstall every 6 months speeds things up a lot.
Click to expand...

6 months?

That may be true of Windows but certainly not with Linux.

Rarely, with a decent Linux Distro, is a wipe and reinstall needed. Granted, yes, a kernel update, but not a complete wipe.

Actually, I'm not even sure if that's true of Windows, with XP, my average wipe/reinstall time is every two years or so.

And that's usually the result of other software.

As for Vista, I really don't know. I've tried it and I can't honestly see any significant improvement over XP unless you like prettier graphics.

I do expect, though, that all of us who use Windows will eventually be using Vista.

Which may be a bad thing or a good thing - who knows?
 
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