Vista

[Kungfuzed]

Anybody running Windows Vista? What's your experience so far? I've never actually used it, but I get alot of customers calling in with Vista who can't get online or can't do much of anything. I just built a computer a couple of months ago and installed XP, intentionally avoiding Vista. But now I've discovered that DirectX 10 will only work with Vista and I won't be able to utilize my DX10 video card or play the new games out until I upgrade.

 

[Tigress]

I use Windows Vista, and to be honest, I like it. It's really not all that different to XP ('cept it comes with cooler games ). The only trouble I ran into was with my wireless adaptor-there wasn't yet a Vista update for the brand, but that was no biggie. I don't know what more to say, as I'm not much into the technical side of things.

 

[mingmty]

I also use Vista and have been using it for engineering and playing games like Bioshock, and so far so I haven't had any problem so would say is pretty stable. It has some minor issues but this are fixed with Service Pack 1 which I have (legally) installed, and it makes Vista much faster, so my advice would be to wait for the release of Service Pack 1 before upgrading, is just a few months away.

 

[Inky]

I work in the tech department of my college, so I see a lot of Vista OSs. They don't have any specific problems, but remember that it uses a lot more RAM and processor time, so unless your computer is top of the line it may run very slowly if you put Vista on it. Other than that, it's quite good and more secure than Windows as far as viruses.

 

[RevOxley_501]

I am a computer technician and i work at a government help desk. When Vista came out it was pretty buggy...and incredibly annoying, i avoided it for the longest time. I then started to realize that the problem wasnt vista...the problem was the PC's that it was being run on, Slow, underpowered Compaq, HP, and Dell crapfests that barely meet minimum spec. I decided to try it on my system at home, which is a nice PC (even if it is over a year old)...and so now i can definately say that vista is pretty cool....IF and only IF your hardware can run it efficiently.

Also, most of the bugs are now worked out...SP1 will be a godsend. however compared to XP, home basic and home premium are rip offs....its not worth buying to me unless you get Ultimate or at least Business. and you have a kick@s$ machine to run it.

some things are actually faster on vista too, browsing teh internets is incredibly quick to me, and running office 07 seems to be enhanced over xp too

 

[Scarlett Wampus]

SP1 looks underwhelming and I'm unconvinced Vista's advantages are the least bit significant over running XP. Maybe by SP2 things will be better but I can't see any real reason to use it currently.

 

[lizskid]

I have it, don't care for it, and tried to go back to XP which I liked. However, Toshiba made a deal with the devil and built a pretty much Vista only machine and the few things (like a freezing mouse every time I changed pages) were some that there are not fixes for yet. So, I had to reinstall....it's ok, slow, stupid security stuff on it that I disabled to speed things up, and it won't let me play any of my Limewire stuff at all, nor any homemade music cds....other than that it's just great...

 

[Kungfuzed]

I might just have to eventually get a copy of Vista and do a dual boot partition just for DX10 games. Game compatibility is the only reason to upgrade.

 

[lizskid]

Kungfuzed...read up on it...seems to work best on a clean drive, upgrades and partitions are not as successful. It's a picky booger and I hope it's not around much longer than Win 2000 or Winme.

 

[Ringer]

I might just have to eventually get a copy of Vista and do a dual boot partition just for DX10 games. Game compatibility is the only reason to upgrade.

From what I understand, DX10 right now are few and far between. There are probably only a handful of games that are DX10 compatible and even if they are, the chances that you have a good enough video card to get the full effect of DX10 is slim as well. DX10 seems to be geared towards the future so I would not go to too great of lengths have a DX10 compatible OS just yet. I recently just build a new PC as well and I ordered a video card that wasn't DX10 compatible and I basically do all of my gaming on the PC. However, the video card was defective so I ended up spending more money and getting a better video card that was DX10 compatible. I have Vista as the OS and so far I haven't fun into any problems. Still in the early stages of figuring out the in and outs but no complaints so far.

 

[RevOxley_501]

Kungfuzed...read up on it...seems to work best on a clean drive, upgrades and partitions are not as successful. It's a picky booger and I hope it's not around much longer than Win 2000 or Winme.

it is scheduled for a 3-4 year lifecycle...vienna should be out by 2010 or mid 2010

 

[Shadow Wolf]

I messed around with Vista on a display model computer, and it only confirmed that I am finished with using anything Windows as an OS. Especially with Microsoft's ******** of deciding some new games must have Vista to run, even Halo 2. My computer can easily run ANY game out there right now, but since I do not have Vista, I have to look for plugins so XP can run them.

 

[FFH]

Anybody running Windows Vista? What's your experience so far? I've never actually used it, but I get alot of customers calling in with Vista who can't get online or can't do much of anything. I just built a computer a couple of months ago and installed XP, intentionally avoiding Vista. But now I've discovered that DirectX 10 will only work with Vista and I won't be able to utilize my DX10 video card or play the new games out until I upgrade.

Just bought a new Dell computer less than two weeks ago with Windows Vista Home Premium.

I like it a lot better than windows XP for sure. I held off until Vista came out and am glad I did...

Of course there will be issues that have to be worked out, but there are automatic fixes built into Vista that download off the net and correct itself...

You will need to download the new Vista software to run the old hardware, for instance the modem will not run, just as with any upgrade.

 

[Terrywoodenpic]

I have some specialist panorama software that will not run on vista. and nor can I afford some other software upgrades that would be needed.
I also have a film scanner that won't run on it... no drivers.
So I will stay away for some time to come.

 

[nutshell]

For the techies, what specs do you recommend if someone wants to run Vista effectively?

 

[RevOxley_501]

Core 2 Duo ~E4400 or higher or AMD Athlon X2 4000 or higher
2 GB RAM, highest speed your PC will support
Nvidia Geforce 7600 or geforce 8400 and up
biggest hard disk(s) you are willing to pay for
dont forget a DVD drive at least


that will run all the bells and whistles just fine for Ultimate users

 

[nutshell]

Thanks.

 

[lizskid]

at least 120 G HD and plan on getting a new printer, too, probably....driver compatibility is iffy on a lot of older stuff.....

Lots of software upgrades, too, Office 2003 is as old as it will take....etc.