30 Days with Windows Vista

[John]

Following on from 30 days with Linux

http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTMxOCwxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==

[Phaedrus]

Interesting read. He was a lot happier at the end of the last one!

Trev.

[Cain]

By coincidence, it's 30 days today since I installed Vista Ultimate.

Verdict...love it!
Not for the faint hearted or technophobe when it comes to getting your system, drivers and applications up to date and I would advise a clean install, not an upgrade...oh, and a deep wallet to upgrade all the applications that aren't compatible.

I had to upgrade my graphics card and add another gig of ram.

Following my inital disaster with my hard drive and network/download speed issues, everything has run smoothly ever since.

If you are used to finding your way around the likes of XP, it only takes a couple of days to navigate the layout changes.

My advice though would be to wait a few months to let the dust settle and let the vendors catch up with updates/drivers.

Better still, switch to Lynux or Mac. ;)

[call_me_cheez]

I've had it for about that long too.

Its never crashed. but neither did XP.

Its looks very nice; but you can make XP look just as nice I believe.

I don't like that my £15 sound card from ebuyer doesnt work with it though. Only negative so far.

[Schockwave]

I installed Vista Premium 32bit last weekend, after formatting my PC with Windows XP and then installing the upgrade, which I got for free, apart from the postage, when I bought my new machine in December. All is working well, but had to download some patches for my Serif photo programs and some drivers from MSI including the software and drivers for my TV card.

I had already downloaded the software and drivers for my webcam, keyboard and HP all-in-one ready for when I receive and install Vista Premium upgrade.

In my mind, once up and running, things seem to work faster. Glad I installed it, I prefer Vista to Windows XP, personally and on the whole.:) ;)

[call_me_cheez]

yeah I find it boots quicker and general runs quicker too :)

[John]

it works faster cos it pre-caches everything in to RAM, it isn't physically faster cos your hard drive is still the same speed.

[call_me_cheez]

it works faster cos it pre-caches everything in to RAM, it isn't physically faster cos your hard drive is still the same speed.

Isn't that how windows xp and everything else works? ie once loaded into RAM it loads quicker? Eitherway, however Vista does it - it does it quicker!* (*This isn't fact. Its just how it is on my hardware.)

[katie]

Had no issues activating Vista Home Premium twice. First time online, after second install (cos I'd messed the first one up and decided to reinstall) I used the automated phone system for activation which, for the first time ever with MS, was truly automated instead of being put through to a barely human person.

Everything is working fine, needed a new cordless mouse as the old one wasn't supported and wouldn't work, and a few home network issues but they're being worked on slowly.

[Furby]

Well I have the Vista Business and it takes longer to boot, is slow, and the ipv6 has caused issues with wireless - but managed to get that sorted now.

I will carry on using it for at least a month and I should be able to make a fair assessment then - but IMHO, I see no real reason to move, since it is just XP with a few more features and eye candy.

Maybe when the niggles are sorted and the service packs come along it will run better. I have disabled the sidebar because that takes ages to load :eek:

[John]

Isn't that how windows xp and everything else works? ie once loaded into RAM it loads quicker? Eitherway, however Vista does it - it does it quicker!* (*This isn't fact. Its just how it is on my hardware.)

No XP doesn't do that, the main complaint people seem to have of Vista is it using 700MB (or whatever it is) of RAM at boot where as XP uses about 60MB, what vista is doing is precaching all the things it knows you use the most so it loads lightning quick. I cant see why people moan cos its a good thing i would have thought and in all fairness Vista releases the RAM as soon as something needs it, it doesn't just sit hogging it.

If it constantly accessed everything direct from the hard drive it would be the same speed as XP but the fact is it doesnt so its quicker.

[Furby]

I have to add that this is the third day of using it, as the first two days were taken up with getting it sorted rather than using it and it does seem more responsive today now that I am actually doing things on it.

[Nick]

I have to add that this is the third day of using it, as the first two days were taken up with getting it sorted rather than using it and it does seem more responsive today now that I am actually doing things on it.
and it's supposed to get quicker the more you use it as the superfetching works out what you use the most

[katie]

Same here, quite happy with it, speed's quite good and I've only got 1GB of RAM. Network issues are all sorted, had a problem with them yesterday, took a break and slept on the issue, this morning was a lightbulb moment and the network is fine, both of the Vista PCs and the XP laptop can all communicate and share files now.

[Schockwave]

I have also only got one gig of ram, but then this is a new machine, well, was new in December. I can see my laptop and my neighbour's PC, who shares my network on my desktop, which has Vista, but when I go to my laptop, I cannot see my PC, yet with Windows XP, I had no problems, have yet to find out why, as this does seem strange to me. Mind you, have not had my laptop on for a few days, and it is an old and slow machine.

[Phaedrus]

As someone wiser and much older than me said. Why change to Vista? Or WinME 2 as some are calling it :)
Yes if you buy a new machine, chances are it will come with Vista, so thats understandable but why "upgrade"?
I read people saying yeah I like it... I just had to download new drivers for my motherboard/graphics card/sound card, and mouse, and keyboard, and had a nightmare with my network going down and had to change my firewall, and my scanner isn`t supported etc etc....But its great!"??? Whats that all about then?
Don`t get me wrong I really could do with getting a copy myself, but thats because I`m getting calls from people who can`t get stuff to work on Vista and I can`t see what they are looking at to help them out, but I don`t understand folk who have a perfectly good OS in XP and want to jump to Vista, and say its good despite having all kinds of issues with it? Is it really coz it looks nice?
I`m sure it will be good when they`ve fixed all sorts with a couple of service packs, (the first of which will be here soon I understand :rolleyes) but for the life of me I can`t understand why anyone would change from XP?

I mean. I`ve even heard perfectly respectable and well mannered folk refering to vista as a pile of effing horse poo! (and I`m not used to hearing that kind of language. it made me blush!)

Trev.

[Nick]

I upgraded for two reasons:
1) It's part of my job to be up to date with new stuff and if we go with Vista at work then I want to be ahead of the game
2) I was given a copy so I didn't have to pay :lol

I still have a dual boot system but the last time I booted into XP was a long time ago.

[Ray]

There is also the fact that people who frequent boards & who post in general tend to be those who are simply 'interested in new stuff'

There were a lot of folk as I remember who said they would never ever use XP

Basically its fun to try new stuff :) and I bet there's more than one or two here who quite like getting something to work well when its acknowledged to be a bit tricky :)

[katie]

I changed from XP Pro to Vista Home Premium cos I got it for a good price and can't resist a challenge. But what I had to change:

Firewall - was using AVG with built in firewall - too many conflicts with Vista Firewall and they kept arguing as to which was on, which was off, so de-installed AVG w/fw and went for AVG free and Vista Firewall. Works fine enough for now until/if I decide to go for a different firewall. Using a router so that has a firewall too.

Network - took ages to suss out for each of the Vista PCs to communicate with each other (share files) that we had to set up user accounts on each PC and 'connect' to them and now is just fine

Mouse - was about 3 years old and the s/w caused me to re-install Vista, and then established there was no Vista support for it, so bought a new laser one at a good price

Sound card - over 3 years old, won't work, no driver available, using onboard sound which is good enough for me

Graphics card - needed new driver but I generally run ones that are at least 6-12 months old so was due for new driver anyway

Upgraded from 768mb to 1gb RAM only because hubby had some spare memory he didn't need. PC is 4 years old and was originally an HP built with XP Home upgraded to XP Pro. Since I've had it I've added separate graphics card, more memory, bigger hard disk, backup hard disk so it's not original anymore.

Very happy with it since Friday night, even got some apps working that I didn't expect to (uTorrent, eMule, Zoo Tycoon). Speed is just fine, bootup time is just fine. Hubby's got a similar setup although has 3gb RAM and it's a built from scratch PC (many mods over the years) - and now Flight Sim X runs much better although not sure if that's cos of the change to Vista or the upgrade from 1gb to 3gb RAM.

Mine does well enough for me just now. I don't have many demands really and it's been a fun-filled weekend. We expected a rough time with much screaming/shouting and there has been none.

[onomatopoeia]

Moving drivers into ring 3 code is a plus in Vista
UAC is enough of a minus as to make me never want to see it again. I'd never make 30 days, on the third day I'd plug myself into the mains instead of the computer rather than boot it up again.

NOTE: Yes I know you can disable UAC. That's not very helpful when you are coding for people who will have customers in a corporate environment where they can't disable it, so need to achieve some level of compatibility.

[Cain]

I upgraded for the following reasons...
Because I like to keep up to date.
I don't want to look a lemon going into customers and not being able to use their OS
It looks nice and seems to work well.

I loved XP and it ran trouble free but couldn't resist the temptation.
UAC doesn't annoy me but I can understand it getting on peoples' nerves.

I've since got a 2 CD Video Training package from 'Train Signal' which is taking me 'under the hood'

I found that 1gb RAM wasn't sufficient when running hungry apps like Photoshop and Lightroom but works just fine with 2GB.

As I mentioned in another thread, you can use 'ReadyBoost' and plug in a fast Flashcard or USB Memory Stick for the system to use.

[Furby]

I mean. I`ve even heard perfectly respectable and well mannered folk refering to vista as a pile of effing horse poo! (and I`m not used to hearing that kind of language. it made me blush!)

Trev.

I got Vista business because my son got it free (direct from Vaio) so I thought I would try it.

I wonder who called Vista a pile of effing horse manure? :eek:

The language! :lol