Vista getting better??

[Daxin]

I'm in a market for a new laptop and it is almost impossible to get on pre-loaded with XP. Found some at Memory express that will downgrade to XP from Vista Business, but I really like the looks of the Sony Vaio.

Anyways, after searching Vista on google, it seems like Vista is getting better, slowly. Just wanted to hear what people think of VISTA after Sp1. Also, their compatibility with older softwares.

Thanx

[em2ab]

Nothing but pain in the ass problems with mine. It's still worth it with all the things it does do though.

Why not just buy a barebones laptop that doesn't have an operating system and then just buy a product key off someone for $20?

[WhippWhapp]

What are you going to be using it for?

I use my pc for entertainment purposes only- and I have few complaints with Vista, peerguardian not being compatible is my biggest.

Getting DD to passthrough on my ASUS Xonar s/pdif is troublesome as well, I am assuming it is an ASUS issue though- as the s/pdif on my mobo passes the bitstream through fine.

[syscal]

I sell tons of notebooks with Vista. But only under one condition. The hardware has to be MINIMUM Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB RAM.

I only sell business class machines, but I've had some Thinkpad r61's go at $800 + 1GB RAM upgrade and people have loved them with Vista.

I'm willing to bet that the people complaining so hard about Vista did one of two things...they upgraded it on old hardware, or they cheaped out and purchased a P4 based, or Celeron processor...which IMO is not the way to go. You want the second core for the extra processes they put in Vista...without 2 cores I think it would lag way too much.

I have heard, though, that a Standard Core Duo works well too.

Software compatibility is a crapshoot though. Be prepared to upgrade or find new favorites.

[eblend]

I use vista on my laptop since way back when it first came out, got a centrino duo and 4gb of ram (vista 32 bit after sp1 recognizes all 4 gb) Works fine for me, no complaints really. Also run vista as my media centre, works perfectly fine. I think you just need a little bit more powerful system to run it, but other then that works fine

[Daxin]

I'll be using the laptop for internet and multimedia basically. The only thing I'm concerned about is software compatibility. I have office 2000 and adobe 6.0 that I'm hoping it will work.

[Kloubek]

I am running Vista without issues. The computer tends to shut off by itself daily, but I'm pretty sure that's a hardware issue.

[arian_ma]

Originally posted by Kloubek
I am running Vista without issues. The computer tends to shut off by itself daily, but I'm pretty sure that's a hardware issue.
Overheating maybe.
I tried Vista on my laptop which I only use for internet surfing and could not stand it.

[dragonone]

your best bet is to make a list of the models that you like and search individually on the manufacturer's website to see if they provide drivers for xp

mac's are nearing the end of their life cycle, and you can put anything you want on bootcamp

[BlackArcher101]

Only complaint I have is my logitech bluetooth dongle became flakey at times. That's it.

[benyl]

I had to buy a new router because Vista treats DHCP differently.

My connection to the net and even the router drops randomly even after creating a static IP.

We'll see if the new router does the trick... if not, I am down grading.

[Stealth22]

I have Vista on my computer, no complaints. Installed SP1, no complaints. If your computer can handle it, Vista works just fine.

[Genjuro]

When i first bought my quad core, quad gig ram half terabyte desktop from Dell I was not impressed. for one they sold me 4 gigs when knowingly that 32bit OS's only use 3 max, but anyways the Vista OS was crap. The reason being is everything else installed and I was playing around with the useless "features" that came with Vista too much.
I took upon myself to reinstall Vista from scratch. no extra software other than what i really need. light weight antivirus from Mcafee enterprise or symantec corp. edition for one. I partitioned the HDD to have the main OS with 100 Gig (just cause its vista) and second partition for my files and pagefile. anyways with SP1 installed I still do not have ANY issues with the OS.
my point is rebuild fresh when you get it. install what you really need and use it like windows XP.

[R!zz0]

IE7 has lot's of bug that Microsoft needs to fix. However, if you install firefox or safari as your web browser then you'll be ok. I had firefox as my web browser but, i like safari way better. You'll sometimes get an error message when you install a new program that it doesn't like. I get messages like "Windows explorer has encountered a problem and needs to close vista" I don't know what's causing that error. If you can, go with Vista Ultimate.

[A790]

I've never had a problem with Vista. I think that it's a bit bloated, but I'm not one to really care about it. It runs every application I want it to without any fuss, is pretty speedy, and is pretty much plug and play for what I use it for.

[hampstor]

I've been running Vista Ultimate for over a year, no major problems thus far.

I've only 1 BSOD, and it was a hardware problem. I haven't run into any weird compatibility issues except for a problem with IE7 under Vista having dhtml stripped out of it (thus not working properly with Windows Server 03 SBS's OWA).

Initially, I had 2GB of RAM in it and it ran decent. When memory prices dropped I added another gig. Vista ran even better!

Not having enough memory in an average home PC just isn't an excuse anymore when 1GB is $25.

Vista's instant search FTMFW. :)

[dragonone]

Originally posted by Genjuro
When i first bought my quad core, quad gig ram half terabyte desktop from Dell I was not impressed. for one they sold me 4 gigs when knowingly that 32bit OS's only use 3 max, but anyways the Vista OS was crap. The reason being is everything else installed and I was playing around with the useless "features" that came with Vista too much.
I took upon myself to reinstall Vista from scratch. no extra software other than what i really need. light weight antivirus from Mcafee enterprise or symantec corp. edition for one. I partitioned the HDD to have the main OS with 100 Gig (just cause its vista) and second partition for my files and pagefile. anyways with SP1 installed I still do not have ANY issues with the OS.
my point is rebuild fresh when you get it. install what you really need and use it like windows XP.

they sold u 4 gigs of ram so you could run the ram in dual channel. no one would recommend you ram in the 2gb+1 configuration. if u understand that you should've bought the lesser configuration and went to memX etc. for 2 sticks of 2 gigs

and having the page file on the same harddrive but different partition doesn't improve performance. you should either have it at the beginning of the drive, or a separate physical drive.

[eblend]

Originally posted by dragonone


they sold u 4 gigs of ram so you could run the ram in dual channel. no one would recommend you ram in the 2gb+1 configuration. if u understand that you should've bought the lesser configuration and went to memX etc. for 2 sticks of 2 gigs

and having the page file on the same harddrive but different partition doesn't improve performance. you should either have it at the beginning of the drive, or a separate physical drive.

this should not be an issue at all anymore. SP1 for vista sees all 4 GIGS

[syscal]

I believe it sees all 4 gigs, minus whatever you have for a graphics card. So 4GB max for the entire OS.

[Tripz]

Originally posted by dragonone


they sold u 4 gigs of ram so you could run the ram in dual channel. no one would recommend you ram in the 2gb+1 configuration. if u understand that you should've bought the lesser configuration and went to memX etc. for 2 sticks of 2 gigs

and having the page file on the same harddrive but different partition doesn't improve performance. you should either have it at the beginning of the drive, or a separate physical drive.

For mine, it does see all 4gbs under my computer.

But if you go to your task manager, under performance tab...where it says physical memory, my total is only 2813mb.
I believe sp1 will recongize the 4gb, but with 32bit it'll still limit you to the max it can recongize (3.25gb) but in my case, 2.8gb. Correct me if I'm wrong

[syscal]

Originally posted by Tripz


For mine, it does see all 4gbs under my computer.

But if you go to your task manager, under performance tab...where it says physical memory, my total is only 2813mb.
I believe sp1 will recongize the 4gb, but with 32bit it'll still limit you to the max it can recongize (3.25gb) but in my case, 2.8gb. Correct me if I'm wrong

Two reasons, one is that it's reporting physical memory now, rather than available memory.

Here is an article about that.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/946003/

Here is one referring to the graphics card thing...
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929605/

[dragonone]

so what difference does it make then?
under a 32-bit OS you can only utilize up to 3 gigs of ram, or does SP1 solve that?

obviously ur bios shows 4 gbs

[gqmw]

my vista on my laptop is running fine. Although I prefer xp still, vista seems to be no problem for me. It takes a little getting used to some of the interface but other that than...its pretty simple.

[kaishen]

my laptop can read 4gb also. i heard that someone's computer can read 8gb but thats a crazy load of rams.

[/////AMG]

Vista is fine for me, only complaint it is wont let me install SP1. It will download it, but it will fail installation. through Windows Update and if I manually download it.

[Spoons]

Originally posted by dragonone
so what difference does it make then?
under a 32-bit OS you can only utilize up to 3 gigs of ram, or does SP1 solve that?

obviously ur bios shows 4 gbs

SP1 solved that but I believe there is still an issue with 64-bit... correct me if wrong.

[LilDrunkenSmurf]

64-bit has always detected it. 64-bit *SHOULD* technically support up to 8GB's

[hampstor]

Originally posted by LilDrunkenSmurf
64-bit has always detected it. 64-bit *SHOULD* technically support up to 8GB's

a 64bit architecture actually supports up to 16 million terabytes of memory...

[syscal]

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa366778.aspx

[A790]

128GB... droooool.

[Genjuro]

I only had a choice between 2 Gig and 4 Gig at the time... of course i went with the higher amount.
Yes Vista will see 4 gigs now with SP1 but will not utilize it.

dragonone, you are correct about the partitioning the pagefile. forgot about that.

[Kloubek]

Originally posted by arian_ma

Overheating maybe.
I tried Vista on my laptop which I only use for internet surfing and could not stand it.

I originally thought overheating, but a temperature program shows very cool levels for the processor and motherboard. It does tend to happen more when it's hot in the room, which leads me to believe maybe it's the motherboard in an area which does not register on the thermometers. I've tried swapping the ram too, to no avail.

[Daxin]

Damn, this does not look good at all. The only options of XP on a laptop is ASUS and ACER from Memoryexpress.

The thing is, I've heard that Windows 7 is coming out later next year.

[LilDrunkenSmurf]

Windows 7 is slated for release in 2010 IIRC, as they'll be selling XP on the budget laptops (mini-note, eee pc, etc) for 1 year after the release of 7, and they announced that as 2011.

I think they're trying for a 5 year cycle, and if they try and push it out early, they're only going to hurt themselves more.

[cityhunter2501]

I use Vista Ultimate X64 for both my desktop and laptop and no problem whatsoever with any applications that I use.

the only problem im having with Vista is renewing the Citrix license key for certain websites as by just deleting the MSlicensing key doesnt fix it

[bball2]

I've been running Vista for about a year now, no complaints whatsoever. And before anyone tells me to go try a mac, I've had a macbook pro for nearly 2 years now, both Vista and Leopard work great for me. :thumbsup:

A few things that I really like about Leopard that's not available on Vista are exposé and spaces, but the functionality is easy enough to get:

Switcher: http://insentient.net/ (exposé)
Spaces: http://www.otakusoftware.com/deskspace/ (spaces, but more like a stripped down version of Beryl)

[lewdvig]

I run Vista Premium on a single core notebook with 1 GB. A $350 special from Best Buy a couple of weeks ago.

Vista runs nice with Firefox and Office 2007. No complaints.

OSX86 10.5.4 runs a lot faster though.

[lewdvig]

Originally posted by Daxin
Damn, this does not look good at all. The only options of XP on a laptop is ASUS and ACER from Memoryexpress.

The thing is, I've heard that Windows 7 is coming out later next year.

Most business class notebooks are still offering XP Pro downgrades, they must not have got the memo.

[Daxin]

Originally posted by lewdvig


Most business class notebooks are still offering XP Pro downgrades, they must not have got the memo.

Memory express sells the ASUS XP downgrade but my budget is only about $600 right now. I've been searching for an ACER but no avail. Tried Best buy, Futureshop and no XP except for the mini notebooks.

Now, I'm thinking the only option is VISTA right now. Too bad Microsoft leaves the consumer with no options at this time when there is a higher demand for XP. IT is a pretty old OS but it works.

[Grogador]

Find a laptop you like, go to the manuf's website and make sure you can download WinXP drivers for all the hardware. Buy laptop, format, install WinXPsp3, install drivers, backup to Ghost image, install the rest of your crap, enjoy.

Edit: as an added bonus, you won't have all the preloaded useless shit that laptops tend to come with nowadays (except business pkgs)

[hampstor]

I first started using the downgrade right sback when XP came out - we used the XP Pro license and downgraded them to Windows 2000 Pro. The downgrade rights have been built into OEM/System Builder OS installs for a very long time, it is nothing new. It is just not a very well advertised feature :)

You can downgrade any system preloaded with Vista Business / Vista Ultimate (OEM/System Builder license) to XP Pro using one of the 2 methods:

1) You buy the disc from the manufacturer of your system or it comes with your system. Put it in the drive, follow the instructions. :)

2) You do it the manual way. Find XP drivers for your machine first, find an XP Pro disc with a key that HAS ALREADY BEEN ACTIVATED. Load XP Pro on your machine, use that key, when it fails activation, call the activations line, tell them you are doing a Vista Business/Ultimate to XP Pro downgrade, they will ask for your Vista key, and then provide you with a new activation code for your XP machine. Last time I did this, you were permitted 4 downgrades per phone call (ie: if you were doing 4 machines).

The most important part is you have to use a key that fails activation.

I've done both methods, they both work - the 2nd way (the manual way) is the most time consuming.

When I was at MemEx, i documented both methods of downgrading back in early 2007. The total labour time if you ask them to downgrade it will be a 2-4 hour labour charge, depending on if a downgrade disc is available or not.

[Hit Em Up]

I have Vista Home Premium... running on all 4 gigs 320gb hd etc... and thus far i have not encountered any major problems.
Mostly just nuisances sometimes tend to get annoying.

how much better is ultimate than home premium?

[/////AMG]

How did you get all 4GB running? With the SP1 update?