Windows Vista any good?

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Allenk

10 posts

Wannabe Geek

#12091 27-Feb-2007 16:54

Hello
I'm wondering if vista is any good? I'm running windows xp pro at the moment and i want to know if it is worth upgrading.
what are the minimum specs needed to run vista?
Will i get updates daily?
Can someone post a list of pro and cons? please

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Hawkes Bay
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#62160 27-Feb-2007 17:13

you would get updates on a similar schedule to what you do now. do you need Vista?
What are your PC specs? What do you do with your PC (include important/critical things you do).

For most people, the change will not be warranted till you buy a new PC.

Is XP not meeting your needs at the moment?

I have Vista running, purely out of sheer morbid curiosity. Its running very well for me, and i like it.

ReaperZ

127 posts

Master Geek
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#62161 27-Feb-2007 17:14

i am currently running vista

pros :

it looks pretty

"security"

its quite a bit faster than XP (64bit version that im running anywho)

cons :

you need a GOOD system to run it well - i would NOT touch it with anything less than 1gb of ram, it uses about ~600mb of ram just idle with all the goodies running

"security" limits a few things, and gets very frustrating very quickly

its indexing search sucks balls .. seriously, it gives so many useless results - for example you search for 'john' and any document that might contain the word john comes up - or 'driver' .. u get an [expletive]load of unrelated results

-------------

overall if you have a good system, 3ghz + with 1gb+ Ram and 128mb+ video card - go for it

otherwise stick with XP

[Moderator edit (tonyhughes): try truckload instead of the three letter name for your posterior (funny as it was, this is a family show)]

muppet

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#62166 27-Feb-2007 18:06

[Moderator edit (tonyhughes): try truckload instead of the three letter name for your posterior (funny as it was, this is a family show)]

I know I'll get torn a new, well, posterior for this, but the F Word is OK, bottom related words are right out? Holy BEEP! What about the store "Manhood Smith"?

@AllenK: There's a lot of good reviews of Vista out there. Most of them all pretty much say "Vista is good, but there's nothing you really need in it that'll make you want to upgrade." It's certainly not the step from say Win98/WinME to XP, which was great for many reasons (stability mostly I think)

bonkiebonks

389 posts

Ultimate Geek

#62167 27-Feb-2007 18:12

I'm running Vista and I must say I like it alot! One of the PROS is definitely its new interface: it's nice to have a new and refreshing interface after so many years on XP. I know you can always get a Vista skin/theme for XP, but it always crashes on me, hence the switch. :)

So far Vista has been working great for me, no crashes though I must add that I upgraded my PC significantly just before switching to Vista.

barf

643 posts

Ultimate Geek

#62188 27-Feb-2007 20:50

can't say I'm sold on Vista yet, but I've used Linux for over 5 years and I was never sold on XP either. us Linux users have been enjoying stuff like Aero (=compiz/beryl) for quite some time already.

on the other hand, IPv6 and IGMP support is slightly better than XP's, making it more future-proof. the new security feature UAC is an annoyance, although it can be turned off and it's surely better at preventing spyware. thats a good selling point.

don't buy it retail, instead wait until you need a new PC. I think XP still has lots of life left in it.
just my $0.02

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bradstewart

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#62200 27-Feb-2007 23:05

To quote Mr Biddle's hidden post:

sbiddle: "Paging Mr Bradley Stewart. Paging Mr Bradley Stewart"

Vista, ah where to start....

1) Vista needs a decent system to run on.
2) On a top end system is out performs XP by quite a bit.
3) The new security features are very good. Keep UAC turned on and use the security policies to supress the prompts.
4) Aero is just so much nicer to look at when you use a PC all day.
5) It is ROCK SOLID. I have had a few apps crash as is usual with many programs but in the last 6 months I have not had Vista crash at all. I did have to reinstall due to me mangling a partition but hardly Vista fault.
6) The new media features are great. Media Center is so much better than the previous version.

Vista won't be everyones cup of tea but for me the newfound stability alone makes it worth the upgrade. Everything is just a bonus

kwaan

70 posts

Master Geek
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#62359 28-Feb-2007 22:20

Dont bother upgrading to vista....its nothing different to XP.....it looks flash and thats it.....it comes with pre built parental controls.....you can download them for XP and shamefully microsoft has taken 5 years to deliver something which didnt come with any major changes (except for looking flashy)

you get the annoying message of opening applications and networking is not plug n play.....features are turned off by default for networking

you can run vista fine on a 512mb ram with ultimate installed as the version.....all vista does is it automatically sets up the screen settings and display settings by looking at your configurations.....

stay with XP.....Vista has nothing great to offer.....

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bradstewart

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#62368 28-Feb-2007 23:17

You obviously have no idea whatsoever.

Vista isn't just a pretty face on XP. Sure it doesn't have any flashy new features like bing able to control it with your mind but there is a lot that has changed behind the scenes.

kwaan

70 posts

Master Geek
Inactive user

#62382 28-Feb-2007 23:45

bradstewart: You obviously have no idea whatsoever.

Vista isn't just a pretty face on XP. Sure it doesn't have any flashy new features like bing able to control it with your mind but there is a lot that has changed behind the scenes.

if you had any ideas whatsoever.....you would have mentioned the features.....vista is basically 5 years of waist of time from microsoft.....If you took windows xp you currently have, added some fancy transparency and shadows and then add faster searching ability you'll pretty much get windows vista. i dont see a reason why people should run to their local electronics store and waist money on upgrading to vista

speaking of that i am not saying that if you are getting vista as your OS in your new laptop or PC you should get rid of it.....i am saying it for people who want to upgrade that there is no need to because it a clone of XP.....with more annoying functions.....

JoliJohn

1 post

Wannabe Geek

#62386 1-Mar-2007 01:36

Given the price, if you are not interested in the looks or reported better engine I’D stick with XP. I found Vista 32 quite a bit slower on HDD transfer speed compared to XP on the same hardware.

Testing on Core 2 Duo 6400 WD 10K 150G; 2 X SEA 7.2k 320G RAID.

43 sec to copy 2.3GB (52 video files) from RAID to WD 10k [Avg 53 MB/s]

52 sec to copy 1.1 GB (5,000 general files) from RAID to WD [Avg 21 MB/s]

Vista 32

47 sec to copy 2.3GB (52 video files) from RAID to WD 10k [Avg 48MB/s]

1min 15 sec to copy 1.1 GB (5,000 general files) from RAID to WD [Avg 14MB/s]

There was similar decrease in performace with Vista going from WD to RAID. I also a few other things I did not like with Vista like the defrag with no graphics so I'm sticking with XP for now. Anyone else with the same findings?

Allenk

10 posts

Wannabe Geek

#62554 2-Mar-2007 09:37

I mostly play online games e.g savage and counter strike source.
My specs
Amd 64 socket 939 3000+
nvida 6600gt
1gb DDR400 ram running in dual channel
3 hard drives 1x 250gb sata 2x 40gb ide
motherboard - Gigabyte GA-K8NF-9 Socket 939 nForce4 PCI Express ATX

bradstewart

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#62561 2-Mar-2007 11:14

Thats almost identical specs to me. Vista runs no problems. Gaming is good too.

Zacburden

6 posts

Wannabe Geek

#63052 7-Mar-2007 09:26

Just for your info -

Windows Vista Minimum Requirements
800mhz or better processor - i would recommend 1.4ghz or more
512mb RAM - I recommend 1gb or more
10 GB HDD MIN

For Home Premium, Business and Ultimate, you will need a decent Video card to run the Aero Glass feature, preferrably a 128mb Video card with Pixel shading 2.0 and Directx9 Capability. The ATI Radeon x series and Nvidia 7 series work nicely and are fairly cheap.

hav fun with vista :))

barf

643 posts

Ultimate Geek

#63054 7-Mar-2007 09:49

10GB HDD is not enough. I installed it on a 10GB and there was no room left for the pagefile without installing anything other than office

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Zacburden

6 posts

Wannabe Geek

#63055 7-Mar-2007 09:51

yes, but anything smaller than 10 gb is a hard block by the Windows Vista setup. 10 gb is just a minimum for the core OS.

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