I'm typing this on my 5 year old clunker that lost sound 3 years ago and takes 6 minutes to boot up. I want a new pooter but I hear horror stories about Vista. I started to buy an Apple, but then all my software goes in the can, so I decided not to. So: is Vista tuned up enough to buy for home use yet? What is it incompatible with? I always buy Dell, just out of habit. Any advice appreciated. Thanks!!
Vista is so-so. Not really any drastic improvements over XP. In fact, I'm actually trying to go back to XP on my laptop. Vista hogs a lot more system resources compared to XP, though it does look prettier. If possible try and stick with XP, I don't think Vista is quite ready for the world yet.
I bought a new Dell last year with Vista and have had tiny little problems , but nothing major and nothing I couldn't figure out.. I am by no mans a computer guy either
Copy files/documents to CD. Reinstall Operating System >from scratch<. Reinstall other Software. Reload your files/documents from CD. Boot will be quick and painless. Sound may return. If not, sound cards are easy to replace. So, even if you do effectively replace your current unit with another um, daily driver, you'll have a healthy Plan B.
go to google and type in Vista Tweaks, there is has a step by step instructions on bypassing the permissions UAC and all the other garbage to Turbocharge the performance of Vista
Go to Google and type in "Mac". Then click the "buy" icon. That should fix all the Windows problems. Keep in mind you can run Windows on a Mac with parallel software.
I dunno - we've got it on a half-dozen machines around the house/etc. and it's prettier, it's trying to be more MAC like, and it needs a stinking fast computer to run ok. I like the search function, especially with Outlook (which worked like crap on XP). But I hate the niggling little things that keep popping up. Since you have to learn a new interface anyways, I'd be seriously looking at a MAC and then knowing the manufacturer of the hardware and the operating system aren't going to point fingers at each other all day about drivers for Vista. Vista can work fine, but after a year now, I'm not sure I see the plot.
Related question; can you mix Apples and PCs on the same wireless network? I don't care about the boxes interfacing with each other, just the ability for them to get on-line simultaneously, independently. If this is possible, any recommendations of a dependable wireless router?
Sure Linksys, Netgear BTW - I've been buying Dells the last 10 years or so, but you should read my thread in Tech toys. I'm saving $3k just by building it myself with better components.
Another creative use of "statistics". Try to find an XP equipped computer in the stores. The HP computer I'm typing this on was built for XP. 1MB of RAM is fine for XP. But when the time came, it got shipped with Vista on it. And it just isn't enough club. I tried booting Vista. After a half hour of ads and hourglasses I gave up. It now runs Linux. (And for those who are afraid that Linux isn't "pretty", google for "Beryl".)
Uro, i just built a monster pc, my first totally from scratch build, and i used a licensed copy of XP 64. i am super happy with it, and i have had no issues with speed or utilities. if you need a good 64 bit system that can support tons of RAM and super fast video cards, consider XP 64. non of my preferred Design or work related programs will work with Vista, but xp 64 seems to work with everything! just my .02 i have less than$1k in the case and internals, and its fast enough for me!
read the rest of the thread. i have a linksys wireless G with WPA Personal security and 4 computers on my home network. my main pc is a AMD 6400+ dual core running XP 64 and 8.0 gigs of dual channel heat sinked OCZ ram, with a single EVGA 512 800GT video card, and 3 SATA hard drives. also have a cpu cooler with variable fan and 7 120mm case fans, plus a 780 modular power supply ( also OCZ).
Vista with SP1 should be ok for general usage, which is what a laptop is for, anyway. I don't think it will impress you much, but it shouldn't cause you to pull your hair out. Just turn off UAC. RAM...VISTA LOVES RAM. Get 3 GB, no less, no more. Don't bother with Vista Ultimate. Home Premium is just fine. One benefit of buying a MAC is that you can install XP onto it using Bootcamp. OS/X for better security while traveling (even if its firewall sucks) and XP so you don't have to throw away all your old programs. You can also run MS proggies on this virtual machine so you won't have to dual boot: http://www.vmware.com/products/fusion/ Review: http://ptech.allthingsd.com/20070802/fusion-is-latest-way-for-macs-to-operate-windows-pc-software/
Be prepared to put 2,3, or 4 gigs of ram in. I ran my puter with 1gb for a while (I was waiting for more to come) oh jesus christ I thought I needed to get my Commodore 64 out of the closet it was that slow. The fact that MS is putting out more versions of XP tells you that Billy Boy Gates doesn't even trust Vista.
If you're planning on trying to install Vista on that five year old clunker, forget it. If you're going to buy a brand new computer with Vista preloaded, you'll have no problems at all. I bought a new computer right before the release of Vista, and got the free Vista upgrade CD in the mail a few months later. I put off installing it for about six months because of all the supposed flaws and issues it had. One day I decided to go for it and haven't looked back. Besides a few compatibility issues with old, old software (most works fine, mind you) it's ran flawlessly for about 9 months now. I recently used a friends computer with XP and couldn't believe how archaic it felt now that i'm accustomed to Vista. I'll never go back.
I got a new Thinkpad last year and was told I should get it with the "business version of Vista" which I did. I have had no problems with it or any of the SW I have purchased.
i love XP 64. it has the new improvements of the old 32 bit XP, and all of the old 32bit programs will run in it that i have used so far. with Vista,unless you have the patches, firmware and new drivers, many hardware and software apps will not work, or they are buggy. Firefox with Flashgot works perfect, as does NERO, DIVIX, and my other camera /scanner /printer apps. some older video games i have will not work in xp 64, but that not a big deal to me. all of the new games have purchased have worked fine in xp 64. Crysis, Bioshock, The Witcher have been running maxed out with no issues. i used a super atx tower to aid in cooling. it looks like a server tower, but airflow is critical when running this much stuff. i have the ability to overclock to 130%, but i do not see the need yet. i can also run twin video cards in SLI, but i have not seen the need for that yet either! Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Vista begins to eat ram after you put in 3. I have 4gbs put in, put Vista takes .5gb for itself. More ram is always better though.
The maximum theoretical amount of memory that 32-bit Windows (like Vista or XP) can use is 4GB. This is a hard limit - like the speed of light Vista simply cannot 'understand' memory above 4GB - reason being the largest quantity that can be expressed with a 32-bit number is 4GB. The problem is that Vista addresses things other than just memory with that 32-bit number, for example the PCI bus. So if you have a 512MB video card, Vista has to be able to talk to all of that memory, so it "maps" it to the upper range of it's address space. So if you have 4GB of RAM and a 512MB video card, there is no circumstance where Vista can use more than 3.5GB of that 4GB. What you are running has no effect (i.e. even if you are only using a small amount of that video memory at any given time, it doesn't matter - Vista will still allocate 512MB of it's address range to your video card). Other things on the PCI bus use up that address space too... so if you have 4GB of ram, you have more memory available to Visa than you go if you only had 3GB, but you don't have 4GB available to Vista, or anywhere near it. It's really a diminishing return type of thing. It's not that 4GB is bad, but there is not much difference between 3GB and 4GB, and I doubt there are many out there that even use the 3GB, so it's a non issue. I can (and often do) run Solidworks (3D CAD modeling package), MasterCam (3D CAM Machining package), 3DSMax (rendering program), Photoshop CS2, Orcad (PCB design), Outlook, Excel, Word, Media Player, Explorer, PC Anywhere, Opera (web browser), ICQ/AIM running all together and I rarely go above 1.5GB utilization. I doubt there are many who put more of a strain on their 'puter than I do
