Vista...Like it? Hate it?

[guitardrumr123]

My first reaction to Vista, was to hate it. Partly because it's new and I didn't have it, and partly because it's from Microsoft and that's just my knee-jerk reaction.

Now though...

My Ma just got a new laptop, which of course came with Vista. Her being more or less computer illiterate, I'm the one thats setting it up for her. I was fully expecting to be installing XP on it right now. However, I am pleasantly surprised...

It has all kinds of sweet features, but my favorite of those has got to be the Gadget sidebar. Sadly, this comes from another OS that I don't particularly like...Mac OS X (and previous versions I think, but I've only really used OS X for any amount of time). This 'Switch Between Windows' button in the quick launch bar is pretty sweet as well, it shows all the windows you currently have open, but in a nice layout, like so.

(I'll add a screenshot of that here as soon as I get back on my laptop and can get to my Imageshack account)

My biggest issue, was the non-compatibility issues I keep hearing people talk about. How nothing was going to be compatible with Vista...well, so far, I've got RealArcade, Firefox, and OppenOffice installed on here without a problem. So either, I've been lucky, or there just aren't as many issues as I was made to believe. The system shortcuts I used with XP seem to be here as well, alt+tab (which looks nice and graphical now, with a mini screenshot of each program, and now includes the Desktop), windows+m (to minimize all windows at once, though with the addition of the Desktop to the alt+tab windows, it won't be used as much). While Vista does seem to use all too many resources even when it's not doing anything, I can begin to see why. It just has so many features idling in the background, plus the awesome gadgets, that it uses more memory than XP would.


I think...I may need to put Vista on my laptop...if only for a longterm test.

[Bildoz]

Well Microsoft doesn't want you installing unverified software, cause they dont get a kick back.

Most of your xp programs should work fine. If it was made for anything below xp (or 2000) you prolly will have issues.

[z400]

i bought a compaq package, came with the tower/monitor and printer.

the printer's software did not support vista. i had to go to HP and manually download the drive from them.

thats been my only problem with vista so far.
i havent tried any other programs or anything yet.

i do like it though
big differance from xp media edition(whats on my gateway)

[guitardrumr123]

big differance from xp media edition(whats on my gateway)

Oh yeah, big difference. I have Media Edition on my laptop, and I'm itching to switch to Vista now. Apparently, the recovery discs that come with my Ma's laptop, won't work with mine. They appear to be coded for that particular model of laptop. So, that means I have to come up with the cash to actually buy Vista. Suck.

[lilwillis]

The first thing I noticed was the amazingness of the ease of use in terms of connecting my computer to my xbox360, and also the ease of installation for codecs. The full integration of the 360 into the Media Center concept is fantastic, but I'm a little sad that: #1, no codec support for the 360, so I have to transcode all my divx movies to WMV, and #2, no ripping of the movies from the computer to the xbox.

[penguinrusty]

Vista>Ubuntu (on my lappy)>xp

[New_Era]

i dont like it, its not compatible with anything yet, not web cams or printers, can i get it awitched over to XP?

[Aspired]

Liked a lot of the new features and flashiness but compatibility was destroyed. It is highly unstable on most machines, eats processor and RAM but doesn't show any real performance gains. I had tons of problems on my Compaq nc6230 which claimed to be Vista compatible (I ripped that sticker off and burnt it!) but have installed it for others and they have had relatively minimal issues not user related. I was forces to switchback to XP after basically nothing worked, explorer crashes, memory issues, wouldn't play any media, random crashing and stability issues. The worst part is all the is this ok crap - won't try again until service pack 1 is released but XP kinda sucked before SP1 also. It will get better.

[Aspired]

It would also be helpful for reviewers to list which Vista they are using - I was using Ultimate

[lilwillis]

Oh, and there's the minor issue of the internet NOT WORKING with Vista x64, which renders useless our nice Intel Core 2 Duo 64 bit processors.

[New_Era]

my internet on my new HP lap top, when it comes on i get a box that sayx Zcast has stopped working. A problem caused the program to stop working correctly. Windows will close the program and notify yoi if a solution is available. And when i click Close it closes the net so i have to pull it down to the bottom of my screen, how stupid is that?

[penguinrusty]

Oh, and there's the minor issue of the internet NOT WORKING with Vista x64, which renders useless our nice Intel Core 2 Duo 64 bit processors.
No.... I'm running a Core2Duo right now on Vista x64. Anyway, I like vista. Everything runs fine for me, i love it.

[lilwillis]

Pengy, how can you use the internet with Vista x64????? I tried for a month, with A LOT of professional help, and the conclusion was that x64 couldnt get the internet.

[penguinrusty]

Pengy, how can you use the internet with Vista x64????? I tried for a month, with A LOT of professional help, and the conclusion was that x64 couldnt get the internet.
It's probably your driver or your NIC. My onboard gigabit ethernet wouldn't work for some reason (either port, I have two ethernet ports on my mobo) So I just went out and bought, for $5 at a yard sale an ethernet nic, let vista install the drivers for it, and it worked fine. The one problem I have with vista: It won't let me manually install drivers for my vid card, it automatically installs really old ones, and when I try to remove them, it just installs them again :/