Time to switch to Vista yet?

[Elvis~SPARTA~]

I'm having registry problems with a somewhat corrupt Sys32 file in XP. I guess it will be time for a reinstall of XP, and the resultant pain of reinstalling some software, remembering to move my COD4 profile, etc.

 

Or I could upgrade to Vista and experience DX10 and whatever other joys await.

 

Worth it?

[MUTILATER]

Do you have 4G of Ram ?

Wish to learn a whole new OS fast ?

Like to experience a new set of problems ?

Not many DX 10 complaint games about.

Lots of programs still wont work on Vista.

Most (Nearly All) games run faster FPS under XP

 

There is several reasons why Vista has issues and will continue to in the future, One being Microsoft has given up with it already and will be concentrating on there new product coming. Vista is nothing short of another version of ME Edition with the ME meaning Moron Edition !

Google around the net and you will see a tirade of negativity toward Vista with the occasional bright note amongst all the bad words.

 

Myself .... HD's are cheep, How about setting up a second drive just for vista ? This way you can get the benefits of both camps and seeing for yourself what works and what won't upon Vista in a nice relaxed state where you have plan B already if plan A falls over. (NO I don't mean Dual Boot)

 

Acronis True Image ? ... Herd of this program ? You might wish to check it out as it can save you a whole world of hurt with corruptions and makes re installation a simple operation in under 10 mins.

 

Registry Corruptions can be safeguarded from by using a program called Erunt (Emergency Recovery Utility for NT)

Nice simple program and easy for any dope to use.

 

Well all that should rock your grey matter for a few days ... HF

[Athlon64~SPARTA~]

Ive been running vista for 6 months now and all I have to say is Its great! Vista Ult can run 4 gigs of ram but home premium needs 3 gigs, all the drivers for secondary software are out and its more reliable then xp and and less prone for attacks and it has not only a inbound fire wall it also has a out bound firewall. Dx 10 is incredible and ALL the new games comming out are going to be in DX10. with the service pack 1 it preforms as good or better then xp. I did it and I won't go back to xp, xp looks like a cartoon. It has less problems then xp has and just better, it runns fawless for me and i have had no problems with it, Its GREAT!!!!! If you do have a problem with a certian program. windows will do a event report and later they will send you a update to fix it automaticly and it looks like regular updates, and like magic the program works now. just make sure your machine has enough nads to runn it. And check on the mobo webb sight to make sure your mobo is compatible with it first. A 1927 asus won't runn it. Or any thing from 2004. At least a 2.4 cpu and a min of 2 gigs ram required, but if you runn max ram no trouble. Try running Ccleaner, it fixes redgestry problems. Vista doesen't have those problems. Most times people try and run it on a machine that the mobo isent compatible and not enough resorses and of coarse it won't work well. I was doing the duel boot thing also, but after sp1 I don't need it any more.

Edited September 25, 2008 by Athlon64~SPARTA~

[DrNo~SPARTA~]

So far a month of vista ultimate and except for a couple of wierd occurances and some forgotten registry settings (im sure) is very cool. XP was a bit more stable though. The only thing I found was alot of re-education on where to find stuff. But, Mutt is also kinda right about the ME reference. Vista could run alot better and as i see it as just an icing addition to what xp was, there isnt really any excuss for it to run worse. Great eye candy...... if that matters. Lots of potential and some mystery.

[MedicSN6]

I have Vista Business on my spare desktop and Vista Home Premium on my notebook. I run XP on my gaming machine.

 

I havent had any real problems with the Vista machine other than trying to find settings and learning the way it works. My XP machine has BCD'd twice so far with no or very little harm to the box. But it runs fast and hot.

 

I only have 2 gigs of ram in my vista desktop with a Pentium D CPU and it gives me no trouble when running Photoshop, Dreamweaver and multiple Windows Explorer (file system, not IE) windows open.

 

Other than on my laptop still displaying the stupid login image when i dont want it to, I cant complain. It runs great.

[Zeno~SPARTA~]

Go with the dual boot idea on 2 seperate hard drives. I have 3 pcs setup this way, Viiiper also has at least one of these setups. If you need help just give us a shout.

[CoBoL~SPARTA~]

My thoughts so far on Vista, early days had problems with drivers. But that seems to be cured now, games do run slower on vista without doubt. DX10 is not worth a w??k as of yet, but the future releases maybe something else.

 

But to be honest I don't mind that, as with my computer It's not just full of games, I have development environments set-up for all sorts of languages, support programs/debug, and test beds. As well as some complex networking setups/vpn links.

 

All these are running in Vista without any problems, and I would have probably re-installed XP at least 2-3 times by now. But so far have not done so with vista. Personally I do think Vista is a more stable OS than XP, but dose require a bit more punch of a system, to run it with success, and newer hardware.

 

As for 64bit version of Vista, this is even more stable than the 32bit version. But only any good for business environments of specialist software, like 3ds Max, Maya, Premier, as you have no chance of running any beta drivers or drivers with the same release revision of 32bit versions. As these are sent to MS for rigours testing before release and do take a lot longer to emerge. As for 32Bit compatiblity with 64bit, Not so much a problem with newer software titles, older titles you will have problems with.

 

 

So to sum it, If like me your setup is geared towards a commercial environment rather than gaming only, then vista is the choice. If it's gaming only and all about the FPS then XP.

 

 

But still not as stable as good old DOS 3.1

[NoScream~SPARTA~]

I have to admit if you offered me a pc with XP & the same PC with Vista, I'd choose Vista every

time, that is the real truth. If you say XP then you have that right, end of problem.

 

For any other answer, I would not go back to XP, 98SE or 98

 

There is no comparison with other OS, game run slower, I don't care, I can't see the difference

and that is what matters, if you can see it going slower then there is a problem.

 

 

I can not name one thing on XP that I can't do on Vista....

 

[Krambo]

Im defo considering what was mentioned above and sticking vista on a 2nd hard drive and see what i need 2 run in comparison 2 XP.

 

Is it a case of installing it on a 2nd hard drive then just plugging in the 1 you want 2 use? or can you do it with unplugging?

 

Cheers..

[Zeno~SPARTA~]

No you dont need to unplug the second drive, I change the boot drive from the Bios or by pressing F8 which asks what drive you want to boot from.

 

Installing the second drive does however require that all other drives be physically disconnected (just unplug the sata cable)

[Krambo]

Cheers Zeno, i can do that np. Appreciate it.

[adder360~SPARTA~]

ive been using vista since it was a release candate, (since jan 07) and have no problems with being able to do any thing that cant be fixed, the programs and tools save a hell of a lot of time when doing day to day tasks, you also have a lot mroe control over wat files are acessed by wat programs and so on. i could not think of being on an XP system after ive been using vista.

[NoScream~SPARTA~]

i could not think of being on an XP system after ive been using vista.

 

How true, that's the thing that makes me smile with all those using XP, thinking Vista is a temp OS.

Vista is here, stable and excellent OS, far more of an OS than XP, the next OS will launch in 2 yrs.

When that hits, it ain't going to be perfect out of the box, far from it.... who will still be on XP then?

More so who is going to switch to it on day one ?

 

Vista users have no fear..... Far more secure, more features & better memory management.

 

I see XP on my spare machine, it's only there cos it's the old machine, if I reinstall it will go Vista.

 

Good things for XP? faster games... Not always.

 

[Krambo]

Hmm. This is an interesting topic.

 

I think im gona go with what I said, the 2nd HD and see how I get on with that.

 

Just a question on what Mut said.

 

quote from Mut -

 

Myself .... HD's are cheep, How about setting up a second drive just for vista ? This way you can get the benefits of both camps and seeing for yourself what works and what won't upon Vista in a nice relaxed state where you have plan B already if plan A falls over. (NO I don't mean Dual Boot)

 

I thought what I had in mind was dual boot? if not then what...?

 

Cheers

 

[NoScream~SPARTA~]

Everyone I bump into that runs XP & VISTA side by side, ends up leaving XP.

Of course there are exceptions but in general I have talked to some 20-30 users

that moved over or run dual and not one regrets XP --> Vista move.

 

Like Zeno said, I run dual drives one with XP another with Vista and the last time I booted XP

was.... hmmm I can remember, it was so long ago........

 

 

[Krambo]

does dual boot me two OS on one HD ?

[custard~SPARTA~]

does dual boot me two OS on one HD ?

 

Yes mate.

 

I am waiting for something to break before I go Vista.

 

If it was a 64 bit only we would all be there already lets hope Windows 7 will be 64 bit only.

[Xross]

does dual boot me two OS on one HD ?

 

 

I'll leave this to the experts but I find running OS's on different drives and selecting them as Zeno describes by using the boot menu (different keys for different mobos) is a good way to keep them completely isolated. Having them on the same HDD would require partitioning and a boot manager which I've heard can be problematic. Just 2 cents worth.

 

 

X

[Krambo]

thanks 4 replies guys.

[Elvis~SPARTA~]

Yes, thank you for your input. I'll look at adding a HDD no matter what, and prolly upgrade the OS at one time or another, prolly sooner than later.

 

prolly is my word for the day. Prolly.

[Krambo]

sorry 2 jump in there Elvis, apologies. Good luck with whatever you choose.

 

Let me know when/if you've switched. I prolly will 2.

[Zeno~SPARTA~]

A few thoughts about 2 OS drives.

 

-All applications (Games, spreadsheet/wor processor software, antivirus etc etc) will need to be on each drive

 

-Documents, files, movies, music only needs to be in one place (either of the boot drives or indeed a seperate drive)

 

-The F8 method for switching drives on boot is only valid until the next boot, the PC will revert to the BIOS boot drive order on reboot. So you should choose the OS you primarily use and set it as the number 1 boot drive in the BIOS priorities and use F8 when you occasionally want to use the alternate OS.

 

The advantages.

 

A boot failure on one drive does not leave you incapicitated since you can boot to the alternate operating system.

Like X-wind said, mixing 2 OS's on one drive seems dodgy even to a layman like me.

[Krambo]

This is some great advice. Cheers. Just looking at purchasing a new HD. Im looking at a seagate barracuda 500GB, SATA2. Its on overclockers for about £41 i think which I reckon is pretty good.

 

Iv already got a 250GB with my music, vids n stuff on as you said Zeno - keeping it in a diff place, its on an external HD.

 

But iv got my XP on a 250gb WD.

 

Im thinking if i go Vista then Il stick with it for a while so a 500GB will be sound.

 

 

[MUTILATER]

For Kram mainly,

 

Since you seem to have decided to obtain two HD's , Consider this next bit very carefully as what I'm going to say is very relevant toward Games only.

 

As you already know Vista is not the preferred OS to play games upon, this is no big secret and many will dispute the actual performance differences. Different games have larger performance gains under XP. However NO ONE will say Vista is better for games.

 

Now since your a game player ... Here is your issue , Do i move to Vista and compromise my game experience ?, Well NO keep your games upon the XP drive and enjoy the performance boost under a tweaked XP for the near future. Only leave on the XP games and your associated CORE programs. Move all your office, photochop, illustrator and associated crap to Vista. Games and regular applications on the same drive cause performance loss and games do not like running harmoniously with regular programs.

 

Now your new drive, Vista as you wish, move all your regular rubbish over there bit by bit and fully test all is working correctly BEFORE you remove it from your XP drive, If it works fine .. If not look for a solution to your woes. As i stated before many applications do not work well on vista however another six months and your going to see a lot of change as SP1 for Vista made a huge difference to it's viability.

 

Ok so at this point you now have your games sweet on XP and testing all the other rubbish under Vista and compiling your drive as you find all is working correctly. Make sure you install your software in the optimal fashion while compressing the drive as you go after patching or installation of anything new.

 

The Future ...

 

As you already are aware Microsoft has given up on Vista ... Yep as i said above Moron Edition ! , Windows 7 is due to be released in Jan 2010 .. 15 months away. This OS is essentially Vista however the core kernel is from server 2008.

Since they will be using a server core this will provide more features and less frustration, this is what Vista should have been right from the start, Give the new OS 3-6 months it will surpass Vista in all facets.

 

So now you know this, what is Vista ? ... A simple filing to familiarize you with the new OS and to get users to be better acquainted for the big jump to Windows 7 (We have herd all this before however) XP is still going to be supported until 2011 ... I wonder why hey

 

What do you gain by moving to Vista besides a new look and slightly better performance in some applications, mainly due to the way it associates with the new hardware and it needs late gear to work properly anyway , not a whole lot.

Many say that it's better and many say it's not .. In the end you need to decide for your self and only you will make the decision based on what you actually use a computer for.

 

Remember Vista is ONLY an operating system .... not your favorite programs you use. Since it's only a filing for the next year and a bit i would find it hard to recommend anyone purchase the Ultimate package as the cost outweighs the actual benefits your going to obtain from an Operating System for such a short time. Maybe Ultimate could be seen as wasting your money since you know what the future is holding very soon.

 

However using Vista now will give you the jump on knowing the OS when the new one arrives, Is this fact alone worth the switch ? ... This, your going to need to decide on your own, just prepare yourself properly as your frustration level could be quite high depending on what and how you use your computer.

 

Having both OS i see as a plus in many regards but for games DX10 is pitiful and XP is better for this part which i use my computer extensively for currently, and the next year is not going to bring any super duper magic to the video front. I prefer clean fast game play (FPS) over choppy eye candy which is what you get with DX10 today.

 

L8R

[Krambo]

Good read, cheers MUT.

 

Thats what i have been thinking...what do I really use my computer for...what would I gain from Vista.

 

Its pretty much games, downloads, iTunes, video conversion and burning.

got the usual apps- office, photoshop etc but 2 be honest they dont get alot of use.

 

Even the games dont get used as much as before.

 

Few things to think about definitely.

Edited September 26, 2008 by Krambo~SPARTA~