Anyone Running Vista?

About two months ago I had a malfunction in my desktop computer, and have been forced to run my laptop ever since. It gets the job done. I've hooked my mouse, keyboard, and monitor up to it so it works as if it is a desktop system. But I've been having some small troubles with it lately which is pushing me to get the other one fixed up. If I go to get it fixed this week, which I hope to do, I was looking to upgrade to Vista.

I was wondering if anyone has had any experiences with the program? Thoughts.. Opinions? It's more of my curiosity than anything that is pushing me to do this, and it would be suffice to say that it normally comes out on top.

So to make a long story short, what do you think of Vista?

I've played with several of the final builds.

It's nice, eye-candy and feature-wise, but I think I'll wait for Vista SP2-3- or 10 ... hardware /software support, etc.

For me,
XP Pro has Ultimately proven to be both stable and responsive, aside from the multitude of Service Packs and monthly "patches". Then again I like Swiss Cheese.

chissler,
Please elaborate on what's wrong with your desktop unit.

$.02

[edit: to add]
Here, or elsewhere .

[edit on 28-1-2007 by 12m8keall2c]

It's a hardware malfunction.

I attempted to reformat on several occasions, but no luck. It won't accept the windows for some strange reason. The only thing I can fathom is that there is something screwy with the hardware itself.

With software, I can normally get to the bottom of things. But this one has plagued me. I've come to the conclusion that I am willing to chunk out a few bucks for it.

Thanks though.

Chiss,

A "Few" bucks???

You are familiar with the "Required" and "Recommended" operational parameters for Vista?

My Forensics machine runs it fine as does the one I just built for myself, but my wife's PC and my spare are not up to par...

I tried the evaluation period of Vista and like "12" I am sticking with XP Pro for the next little bit...

Vista is a HUGE Resource Hog...

Semper

You should consider what you would really need Vista for, in terms of features Vista doesn't particularly provide anything new and really there inst much point paying up to $400 for eye-candy that you can get for free.

From the flyers I've been looking through, it would run about $150 for an upgrade from XP. This is at Staples. As for the requirements, I've been browsing through them for some time. I meet the requirements with plenty of room to spare, but it does raise some questions. I may hold off for the time being and grab it when I look into a new system altogether.

I have a HP laptop and another guy at work just bought a new HP laptop running Vista (Centrino Duo, 2GB RAM). Mine has the same stats or better, but he has a bit larger LCD screen and better graphics card.

Supposedly mine is "Vista capable" per the sticker, but I've never looked into it. Does Vista support the Intel chipset?

I must say it's very pretty and incredibly cool to navigate through. Of course one guy here keeps saying "Welcome to Apple." Mine is almost as good with WindowBlinds and IconPackager.


It does have an incredible wow factor and this laptop is impressive. The HP's have really grown on me. I've had mine for a year and it's been awesome. Best computer I have owned and I've had quite a few.

Originally posted by ZeddicusZulZorander
I must say it's very pretty and incredibly cool to navigate through. Of course one guy here keeps saying "Welcome to Apple."

I don't think you're talking about me, but it's true.

Most of the "new" features being touted by Microsoft appeared in Mac OS X a long time ago.

If I was a Windows user I'd wait a bit to see what the stability of this new system is before installing it. Some Microsoft products have been notoriously buggy on first release.

I thought about it too but i'd rather wait for a bit. I pretty much do the same with cars, t.v's, stereo's etc, i never buy the first model but rather wait for the next edition.
Microsoft only put vista out here in Adelaide the other day at midnight and they had hundreds of people lining up to get it for around $140.00aus i think. Talk about nuts. Why wouldnt you wait till the next day and get up at a decent hour, it's not like it'll run out and become a collectors item. hmmmm.

I've played with several of the final builds.

It's nice, eye-candy and feature-wise, but I think I'll wait for Vista SP2-3- or 10 ... hardware /software support, etc.

Ditto...

Its pretty, but you pay a price for that in CPU & memory use IMO.

I'll wait.

I haven't seen a system actually running it, but doesn't part of the draw to Vista have to do with dx10 and its impact on gaming?

I've heard that games running on the system are absolutely breathtaking.

Of course:

(a) You need to have a pretty epic rig to run that stuff.

and

(b) Won't dx10 be released independent of Vista at some point?

Originally posted by Essedarius
I haven't seen a system actually running it, but doesn't part of the draw to Vista have to do with dx10 and its impact on gaming?

(b) Won't DX10 be released independent of Vista at some point?

Yup, although there are lots of other changes, the big push is at gaming, but thats a double edged sword. The new DX version is touted as being superior, and may in fact be. That will drive the quality of games up considerably, as new games are released for it. Thats the good news.

Unfortunately the code for DX10 is completely different than the prior DX's. Writing new games is a whole different ballgame. There are lots of games, "in the works", but there aren't many games currently compatible that I am aware of.

So, while DX10's gaming future looks great, its currently a work-in-progress from a gamers standpoint.

I have been using Vista in my home computer since August, and I find it good enough for my needs, I never used XP again since I installed Vista.

My computer system rating is a low one, but my computer is 4 years old, and when I built it it was not with top of the range hardware.

My computer has a Athlon 1900+, 512MB RAM, a 5 years old 120GB disk and a 6 years old GeForce 2 MX400, and this is my computer's rating:

In some aspects I find it faster than XP. DirectX games are a little faster, programs based on the .Net framework are faster, for example.

As my graphics card is too old I do not have all that eye candy, but Vista has many new things besides that.

For me, as a programmer, one the most important things is that some old programs made with Visual Basic 6 may not work because some components can not work with Vista.

DirectX 10, as far as I know, will be only a Vista thing, no DirectX 10 for XP.

I'm another one who is prepared to wait for a later release of vista. I don't really need what it has to offer at the moment, and I'm using the Vista Transformation pack on my copy of XP at the moment, so that'll do me.

I don't need a transformation pack, I get all the features of Vesta's aero plus a crap more for free. :p

Seriously if all people want is the looks of Vista and are willing to pay for it, if you don't play many games try out GNU/Linux instead, no need to spend $200+, no need for a flashy new graphics card to get the aero effects.

I love it but it is a very demanding OS!! But even though I'm using it a the moment I still think you should stick with XP. Trust me....

What about the driver issues???

I heard there are numerous driver issues with Vista over XP??

Is this true???

(PS... I am a computer dummy, so please be plain in language when responding..LOL)

Semper

I succesfully installed a USB scanner that had only XP drivers, an Epson Perfection 640U.

All my hardware is working, except the onboard RAID controler.

My computer has an Asus A7V8X motherboard.

Originally posted by djohnsto77
If I was a Windows user I'd wait a bit to see what the stability of this new system is before installing it. Some Microsoft products have been notoriously buggy on first release.

This "should" be the most stable version of windows ever...since they had tons of beta releases, and over 5 million beta downloads.

The beta versions (as you would expect) were pretty buggy, and not many programs were compatible with it. And it was a memory hog...The last beta I tried was RT1, it was much better, and it didn't suck up all my resources.

I just bought Vista home premium, I went with Full, instead of upgrade...because of the BS involving the upgrade version.
If you dont know what I'm talking about...I'll explain.

I format my pc at least once a year, twice if it needs it. On previous windows, you could buy the upgrade version, you could format your pc, put the XP disc in, install it, and during the middle of the installation it would ask you to put in a previous version of windows (to prove you really are upgrading), I was fine with this...But Vista changed all that.
I like a fresh clean install, its how you get the maximum performance, and Vista's policy is you MUST have XP (or 2000) installed on your pc, you can put in the disc and click "clean install", but that formats your pc, and then you have to install XP...install the service packs, and activate it and everything, and then install vista over top of it.

Thats just stupid, so I spent more and got the "full" version.

I bought it off amazon, it had free shipping....so I clicked that option obviously...I relized after a ordered it that it will take 2 weeks to arrive...so I wont get it until Friday.

I'm looking forward to it.

have you tried to download drivers for raid from your mobo manufacturer's site?

dlsvr01.asus.com...
Promise FastTrak 376 driver
try these.
found them on
support.asus.com...