New Vista laptop. So far, I'm surprised.

[Chuck57]

Nothing to do with problems, etc.

We got a pair of Dell Inspiron 1525, one for wife and one for me. Neither of us had ever used a laptop, so didn't want to go high end to start. These are second from the bottom, with Vista Home Premium SP1, 1.8G dual core Intel, and 2G RAM. I figured 2G RAM would be enough and so far it seems to be. We won't be running stuff like MS Office, so 2G ought to be okay. Also, McAfee security which we'll live with for a year.

I'm changing my tune about Vista. I'm impressed and might like it more once I get used to the differences between it and XP. We've had the laptops 3days. No complaints so far, except that I will be switching to a USB mouse. I've never been a fan of the touchpad.

Next purchase, a wireless router so we can use the laptops anywhere in the house. If things continue, this might become my main computer and my XP desktop turn into a test machine.

Finally, I'm not ready to say Vista Rules, but I'm liking it more every day.

[ambient_88]

-{ Quote: "Nothing to do with problems, etc.

We got a pair of Dell Inspiron 1525, one for wife and one for me. Neither of us had ever used a laptop, so didn't want to go high end to start. These are second from the bottom, with Vista Home Premium SP1, 1.8G dual core Intel, and 2G RAM. I figured 2G RAM would be enough and so far it seems to be. We won't be running stuff like MS Office, so 2G ought to be okay. Also, McAfee security which we'll live with for a year.

I'm changing my tune about Vista. I'm impressed and might like it more once I get used to the differences between it and XP. We've had the laptops 3days. No complaints so far, except that I will be switching to a USB mouse. I've never been a fan of the touchpad.

Next purchase, a wireless router so we can use the laptops anywhere in the house. If things continue, this might become my main computer and my XP desktop turn into a test machine.

Finally, I'm not ready to say Vista Rules, but I'm liking it more every day." }-
Windows Vista is not as bad as some people are making out to be (especially the Apple fanboys). The majority of the problems were driver-related, so it's not just Microsoft's fault but the manufacturer/developer's also.

[InfinityAz]

Chuck57,

I echo your experiences with Vista. I've been running it for 8 months and prefer it and think it is superior to XP. You do need to make adjustments with some of the interface changes and new capabilities.

You'll probably end up loving its built-in search capabilities (Windows Key).

[PoetWarrior]

-{ Quote: "
Finally, I'm not ready to say Vista Rules, but I'm liking it more every day." }-


I have mostly enjoyed the Vista experience. Glad it's working for you. :thumb:

[ASpace]

In my opinion , Vista is the best Windows ever - much faster , easier to use than other other Windows versions , a lot more secure by default.

Most of the time I work with my personal laptop - it has Vista , which I bought not long ago . Everytime I sit at someone else's computer - client's or at the office (using XP or older OS) I feel like I am working with an ancient machine ;D I am so used to Vista now that I started not to feel comfortable with XP's manners.

5 out of 5 for Vista , from me :) :thumb:

[ashishtx]

I have to say that vista is getting better and better everyday. I am using it since March 2007 on relatively high spec PC and so far it is smooth and have never encountered any major problem. I hope all the improvements continue.

[lodore]

i still sometimes have some problems with vista.
sometimes uac prompts blank out the screen for quite awhile.
file copying is still slow as a tortoise even with SP1.

[SourMilk]

I concur with lodore. File operations are slow and seem to get slower on large files. I am not sure but it may have something to do with virtualizing the file being worked on - (this is probably wrong since the workings of Vista is completely unknown to me.) Other than that and an occasional stall on DVD access, Vista seems to run very well.

SourMilk out

[Franklin]

I have Vista and XP installed on their own hard drives on this quadcore.Both are good but I do find that I am using Vista more often and besides, Sandboxie and Returnil work fine on both. ;)
-{ Quote: "Learn the best way on how to install Vista. Take notes and follow the steps to install Win Vista in only 2 minutes!
Install Vista in 2 minutes (http://learneasytv.com/view/1015/how-to-install-win-vista-in-2-min-/)
" }- ;D

[HAN]

I'm glad things are going ok with Vista for you. :) I have some experience with a few Vista machines and while the eye candy is nice, the noticeable speed difference between Vista and XP, along with driver issues still bug me (thankfully the lack of drivers is gettng better all the time.)

So, when I recently decided to buy a new Dell laptop, I did the downgrade to XP. (The downgrade program comes with a Vista DVD but I'll never install it.) Hopefully I can get more excited about the OS coming after Vista...

[Kerodo]

I just bought myself a new PC last weekend and decided to try Vista, so far I am extremely happy. The new PC startup and updating and so on went flawlessly, and in general, the entire experience this 1st week has been great. It's very fast here and very nice looking, has most of what I need. I am running the x64 version also. But I have to agree with the thread starter, I am both surprised and pleased here as well. I won't be returning to XP or Linux for that matter. This is it...

[Chuck57]

-{ Quote: "i still sometimes have some problems with vista.
sometimes uac prompts blank out the screen for quite awhile.
file copying is still slow as a tortoise even with SP1." }-

I haven't noticed any slowdown, but to be honest all I've used is the Works word processor which, since it can now save files to Word, is enough for me. Most places I deal with require Word format, and Works is a baby Word without the bells and whistles I never use. I did copy over a couple of large 350K files from CD and they open much faster in Works.

I also notice that they open more, if I can use the word, elegantly. Rather than appearing in the jarring way Windows used to open, they seem to quickly materialize - if that makes sense. So far, I'm liking Vista very much.

[djohn]

Hey chuck congrats on the laptops and glad to here your enjoying Vista.I have to agree as much as I like XP SP2, I have to thought vista would not be good after seeing a large amount of folks bad mouth it.I am very happy with vista my self:thumb: As far as ram you should be plenty good with 2 gigs.Best of luck with your new toys.

[djohn]

-{ Quote: "i still sometimes have some problems with vista.
sometimes uac prompts blank out the screen for quite awhile.
file copying is still slow as a tortoise even with SP1." }-
You are correct there are times when UAC can black out though maybe only a couple of seconds it still longer then I desire.There really should not be many UAC prompts If any at all unless installing a new app Non the less I have mine off.

[midway40]

Chuck, your post reminded me of an article (http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-9998336-56.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20) I read the other day. Plus I have read similar testimonials on users reviews of computers on NewEgg.

I hope MS will use the footage mentioned in the article wisely and hopefully the Vista bashing will die down.

[Chuck57]

-{ Quote: "Chuck, your post reminded me of an article (http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-9998336-56.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20) I read the other day. Plus I have read similar testimonials on users reviews of computers on NewEgg.

I hope MS will use the footage mentioned in the article wisely and hopefully the Vista bashing will die down." }-

I've got to agree with that article. I admit, when we got the laptops, we wanted XP installed. We were told that Dell only sells XP now with their high end machines. I guess I could have argued, or demanded, or gone elsewhere, but we've used Dell products for years and never yet had a problem with them. I'm glad I did now. The more I use Vista, the better I like it. I only shut down the laptop a few minutes ago and switched to the desktop, which hasn't been on all day. XP seems clunky now, old fashioned by comparison - and slower.

[AKAJohnDoe]

I have been using laptops exclusively for better than a decade and Vista Home Premium (now with SP1) since June of 2007.

I have a Core 2 Duo at 2GHz with 2GB and have no problems running Office 2007 or PhotoShop CS2.

[Chuck57]

-{ Quote: "I have been using laptops exclusively for better than a decade and Vista Home Premium (now with SP1) since June of 2007.

I have a Core 2 Duo at 2GHz with 2GB and have no problems running Office 2007 or PhotoShop CS2." }-

Hmm, I was told that Office Ultimate 2007 would run slow on Vista Home Premium and 2G RAM. I got the disc free for participating in the MS survey thing, mentioned here months ago. Our laptop, I think I mentioned, is 1.8Ghz Intel dual core.

Now, I'm tempted to try it - if I can register it. I have it (registered) on my XP machine, 512RAM, 1.8Ghz AMD Athlon, and it worked but it's pretty much a dog on that one. Have to think on it.

[ambient_88]

-{ Quote: "Hmm, I was told that Office Ultimate 2007 would run slow on Vista Home Premium and 2G RAM. I got the disc free for participating in the MS survey thing, mentioned here months ago. Our laptop, I think I mentioned, is 1.8Ghz Intel dual core.

Now, I'm tempted to try it - if I can register it. I have it (registered) on my XP machine, 512RAM, 1.8Ghz AMD Athlon, and it worked but it's pretty much a dog on that one. Have to think on it." }-
I have Office Ultimate, and it works beautifully! 8)

[Kerodo]

-{ Quote: "Hmm, I was told that Office Ultimate 2007 would run slow on Vista Home Premium and 2G RAM. I got the disc free for participating in the MS survey thing, mentioned here months ago. Our laptop, I think I mentioned, is 1.8Ghz Intel dual core.

Now, I'm tempted to try it - if I can register it. I have it (registered) on my XP machine, 512RAM, 1.8Ghz AMD Athlon, and it worked but it's pretty much a dog on that one. Have to think on it." }-
I think it might be worth a try, I don't see why it would run "slow". I have the MS Office Home/Student and MS Outlook as separates cause I got both for $100 each at Fry's, which seemed like a good price, since they wanted $369 for MS Office Standard, which has the same things in it. Why pay more? But I have 4 gigs ram here, and a triple core, so maybe that helps. Only thing I'm missing is Access, but I have that on my work laptop and don't need it for home use.

You might try it, if it struggles, then maybe add more ram?

[lodore]

-{ Quote: "You are correct there are times when UAC can black out though maybe only a couple of seconds it still longer then I desire.There really should not be many UAC prompts If any at all unless installing a new app Non the less I have mine off." }-
or using software that needs admin rights, aka imaging apps which i use alot due to software testing.
vista doesnt really give me anything more than xp did.
yes it looks nicer but thats about the only good thing.
hopefully service pack 2 will come along soon and finaly fix the major slow file copying and not cause major slowdowns when the ram is nearly used up.
my old xp machine with 1gb of ram must use a paging file alot and doesnt cause major slowdowns when it does. yet vista with quad core and 2gb when the ram is nearly used up i get some major slowdowns even thou the hard drive is quite alot faster than the one in my old xp rig. so yes its a OS issue.
so if you have xp DO NOT upgrade or should i say downgrade.
its like going from a ferrari to a tractor.

[Chuck57]

I just set up an LUA account on this laptop since I vowed not to go security download nuts on it. That's for the desktop where, now if I screw something up I can just use Paragon and go back to June 2007 when it was clean.

I have McAfee Security Suite aboard. I'm not fond of McAfee although it does well in tests. Sometimes one must bow to one's wife's wishes. I think (hope) using LUA will give even more protection.

This laptop will be used 95% for office type stuff, word processing, and internet. Used thus, I doubt I'll ever get into RAM trouble any more than I'll ever fill the 120G hard drive.

I never thought I'd see the day when 2G RAM might not be enough. I'm still of the old mindset that I only have one program running at a time. I close Word before opening MSIE.

[midway40]

When I first got Vista I did have LUA set up. But I noticed the only difference between it and the standard admin account is that you had to supply the admin password at the UAC prompt instead of clicking OK. Since I am the only one using this computer I didn't see any point in running LUA because you get the prompts anyway in admin mode.

McAfee is ok. Like Norton it has improved a lot in the last few years as far as performance impact goes.

I remember the time when having 512KB of RAM was a luxury, lol. Also years ago when the word "multitasking" first came into being I couldn't imagine myself running more than one app at a time. Right now I have two browser windows open, Windows Mail, and watching TV in another window ;D

[Chuck57]

-{ Quote: "When I first got Vista I did have LUA set up. But I noticed the only difference between it and the standard admin account is that you had to supply the admin password at the UAC prompt instead of clicking OK. Since I am the only one using this computer I didn't see any point in running LUA because you get the prompts anyway in admin mode.

McAfee is ok. Like Norton it has improved a lot in the last few years as far as performance impact goes.

I remember the time when having 512KB of RAM was a luxury, lol. Also years ago when the word "multitasking" first came into being I couldn't imagine myself running more than one app at a time. Right now I have two browser windows open, Windows Mail, and watching TV in another window ;D" }-

Speaking of prompts....... that's another thing that seems way overdone by those who don't have Vista. I get them, but there aren't anywhere nearly as many, or annoying as I'd read. I've come to the conclusion that a whole lot of people read something about Vista and assume it's true, but never bother to check out what they read. That includes me, since I believed all the negative stuff. The reality is a LOT different. It's great.

*edit* BTW, installed Office Ultimate, except for a few programs I didn't see any need for, and the obligatory service pack.....seem to be getting an awful lot of updates for this and that. It was pretty fast update and installation. Since putting in the service pack, Word opens even faster.

[PoetWarrior]

-{ Quote: "Speaking of prompts....... that's another thing that seems way overdone by those who don't have Vista. I get them, but there aren't anywhere nearly as many, or annoying as I'd read. I've come to the conclusion that a whole lot of people read something about Vista and assume it's true, but never bother to check out what they read. That includes me, since I believed all the negative stuff. The reality is a LOT different. It's great." }-


My experience has been the same. I've read some monstrous accounts about Vista's prompts, but it's never been a real issue for me. In fact, I think there's a whole lot of misinformation out there on Vista: how "bad" Vista's defragger is, Vista inappropriately uses too much ram on 2 GBs of ram machine, UAC is "stupid", etc. ::)

[colinp]

My wife just bought a Toshiba laptop with Vista and after a few (ahem::)...changes), it works great. I am on dialup, so I bought from MS SP1 for Vista and SP3 for XP (on my desktop) and both are humming along just fine.
You may want to check out the Notebook Review website for some very good "tweaks" for laptops and Vista.

Colin

[Kerodo]

-{ Quote: "Speaking of prompts....... that's another thing that seems way overdone by those who don't have Vista. I get them, but there aren't anywhere nearly as many, or annoying as I'd read. I've come to the conclusion that a whole lot of people read something about Vista and assume it's true, but never bother to check out what they read. That includes me, since I believed all the negative stuff. The reality is a LOT different. It's great.

" }-
I too have not been bothered much with prompts from UAC, I think once again, there has been much too much made of that issue, and in general, way too much bashing and badmouthing of Vista in general. I pretty much think that most people just bought into the negative hype and didn't bother checking for themselves. I know I did. Most still do.

I agree, the reality is that it's a pretty darn nice OS now. I know I won't be going back to anything else..

[Chuck57]

In the 4 days only that we've had these computers, our desktops have been on *maybe* a couple of hours. Four days isn't a long time to evaluate a product, so I probably shouldn't be so quick to comment. But, at this point, we are totally satisfied.

Considering that besides surfing the net, the machines are working with word processing and other offline things, they've been on 8-10 hours a day - sometimes just sitting, often working. They and Vista have been utterly reliable so far. That includes my wife downloading some graphics software and Paint Shop Pro 7, which is fairly old, onto her machine. It works fine. Everything she's tried has downloaded and worked so far for both of us. What more can you ask?

[AKAJohnDoe]

I did in fact turn UAC off, among some other things (http://pc.akajohndoe.com/vconfig.htm). TaskMgr (with the checkbox to show processes from all users checked) only shows 45 processes on my PC when the machine is idle. As for more memory, you'll not realize any benefit from having more than 3.2GB on a MS 32 bit OS.

[ambient_88]

-{ Quote: "I did in fact turn UAC off, among some other things (http://pc.akajohndoe.com/vconfig.htm)." }-
I used to uninstall the PC vendor's bloatware, however, a lot of crap were still there. I'm glad that the Anytime Upgrade disc was included--I was able to reinstall a fresh copy of Vista.

[AKAJohnDoe]

-{ Quote: "I used to uninstall the PC vendor's bloatware, however, a lot of crap were still there. I'm glad that the Anytime Upgrade disc was included--I was able to reinstall a fresh copy of Vista." }-
I have quite a bit of technical experience and was able to remove it all from both the registry and the file system without a fresh install. Although a fresh install is easier, I will concede.

[RAD]

I have been using Vista for almost 2 year now. There have been some very frustrating moments when I was ready to throw my computer through a window and by a MAC or go Linux, but in the end, I got the problems worked through. Then, I realized that the problems have actually been quite rare.

I think of Vista as the George W Bush of operating systems. There is lots of complaining, and some things have been botched and there have been many problems. But in the end, you realize you chose the best course of action available at the time, and history will show it was all part of a long chain of improvements, but remains imperfect.

[Kerodo]

-{ Quote: "I have been using Vista for almost 2 year now. There have been some very frustrating moments when I was ready to throw my computer through a window and by a MAC or go Linux, but in the end, I got the problems worked through. Then, I realized that the problems have actually been quite rare.

I think of Vista as the George W Bush of operating systems. There is lots of complaining, and some things have been botched and there have been many problems. But in the end, you realize you chose the best course of action available at the time, and history will show it was all part of a long chain of improvements, but remains imperfect." }-
Very good summary, and I agree. I suspect that it had it's problems like any OS release in the first year. Perhaps it didn't work at all for those upgrading on existing hardware. I don't know. I also don't really know why people bash it to such an extent as they do. If someone has tried it and has personal experience and specific problems to report, then fine, else I think the rest of it is just negative hype and mindless bashing, similar to what you see with Symantec and Microsoft at times.

I do know on a brand new PC so far it has been excellent for me. I see zero issues. So I will speak up for it, as that's been my experience to date. I was doubtful until I tried it, but I vowed to have an open mind about it. Now I am glad I did, and I see it as superior to what went before it. And like it or not, we all really do have to move forward and onward with the new. You can't hold on to the past forever. For me, this is the best I have seen yet.

[AKAJohnDoe]

-{ Quote: "I think of Vista as the George W Bush of operating systems" }-
Now you've gone and ruined Vista for me. :(

[emperordarius]

Vista: my experience

Visual styles:
At the beginning looks so good, so clear, so "cool" and nice to look. But try installing some programs. Lowering the HDD space shows Vista's true face. SLOW. The only way to keep up is removing visual effects and showing that old good Windows Classic Interface. Not much a difference from the Xp I'm using right now. However, I LOVE Vista's effects. Would be good if they didn't reduce performance that much.

Performance:
Slow. Slower than Xp in most things it does. Tested 2 identical computers, one with xp, one with Vista, having a lot of programs installed. Xp- HDD 80GB, RAM 2GB,
Vista, HDD80GB, RAM 2GB.
Vista was definitely slower. Expecially in copying/pasting files.

Programs:
Most of the programs I had worked, but some worked with limited features, malfuctioned or didn't work at all.

Bottom Line: Vista looked cool and nice, that is, at the beginning.After I filled the HDD with some programs, it was really slow. To me Vista reminds Windows ME. Let's hope that Windows 7 will make a difference.

[Chuck57]

-{ Quote: "I have been using Vista for almost 2 year now. There have been some very frustrating moments when I was ready to throw my computer through a window and by a MAC or go Linux, but in the end, I got the problems worked through. Then, I realized that the problems have actually been quite rare.

I think of Vista as the George W Bush of operating systems. There is lots of complaining, and some things have been botched and there have been many problems. But in the end, you realize you chose the best course of action available at the time, and history will show it was all part of a long chain of improvements, but remains imperfect." }-

Comparing Vista with Bush is wrong. He did well, in my opinion, during his first term. The second almost makes me regret voting for him.

I've done some snooping around, curiosity I guess, and it seems that most complaints about Vista come from people who've upgraded as Kerodo mentioned and/or installed on computers not fully Vista compatible, or without adequate RAM. People who have bought Vista already installed on new machines seem to suffer less or even no troubles. I also think SP1 resolved some troubles that were in the initial release.

*edit* emporadorius. I can't comment on Vista being slow for the reasons you mentioned. Other than Office Ultimate and 2 other programs, I haven't installed anything - except many, many updates that seem to come every day since I plugged this laptop in. No slowing down at all. It's still as fast as the day I first started it. We have 120G HD, and I'll never, ever come close to filling it halfway.

[Mrkvonic]

Hello,
Chuck, 2GB ought to be ok ... without office ... office is one of the lighter thingies that could impact your system ... It should fly, not just be ok ...
Mrk

[Chuck57]

Mrkvonic. Installed Office Ultimate, except for several things I saw no need for in that program. Word and the other Office programs open almost instantly. I'm a happy camper, since MS Word is what I'll be using almost exclusively. Most of my time right now is trying to figure out where everything is in this new Word.

As for Vista, as I've mentioned over and over, much faster than XP, maybe due to having 4 times the RAM, stable, and downloads and installs things very quickly. My wife has loaded vastly more programs on hers than I have, some fairly old software that isn't even rated compatible with XP, along with a massive number of pictures and graphics. So far, not a problem has resulted. Everything works nicely.

[AKAJohnDoe]

Again, 2GB is fine. You'll not get more than 3.2GB in the 32-bit OS anyway.

[lodore]

make sure programs and plugins are up to date, for example browsers,quicktime,adobe stuff,java.
uninstall older versions of java if java is installed.

[Kerodo]

-{ Quote: "Vista: my experience

Visual styles:
At the beginning looks so good, so clear, so "cool" and nice to look. But try installing some programs. Lowering the HDD space shows Vista's true face. SLOW. The only way to keep up is removing visual effects and showing that old good Windows Classic Interface. Not much a difference from the Xp I'm using right now. However, I LOVE Vista's effects. Would be good if they didn't reduce performance that much.

Performance:
Slow. Slower than Xp in most things it does. Tested 2 identical computers, one with xp, one with Vista, having a lot of programs installed. Xp- HDD 80GB, RAM 2GB,
Vista, HDD80GB, RAM 2GB.
Vista was definitely slower. Expecially in copying/pasting files.

Programs:
Most of the programs I had worked, but some worked with limited features, malfuctioned or didn't work at all.

Bottom Line: Vista looked cool and nice, that is, at the beginning.After I filled the HDD with some programs, it was really slow. To me Vista reminds Windows ME. Let's hope that Windows 7 will make a difference." }-
I am curious about your cpu and specs... is this on single, dual or other core? I would guess that Vista upgraded or installed on an older or anything but a new PC would probably suffer to some degree, perhaps a lot. But as Chuck mentions, on a new machine it does seem very good. I guess I would recommend it mostly for newly purchased PCs, where is seems to do very well.

[emperordarius]

-{ Quote: "I am curious about your cpu and specs... is this on single, dual or other core? I would guess that Vista upgraded or installed on an older or anything but a new PC would probably suffer to some degree, perhaps a lot. But as Chuck mentions, on a new machine it does seem very good. I guess I would recommend it mostly for newly purchased PCs, where is seems to do very well." }-

2 Computers, same type, on one Vista got installed, on the other Xp Pro. Don't remember the type of core, but I remember that the Processor was 3 GHz

[Chuck57]

-{ Quote: "I am curious about your cpu and specs... is this on single, dual or other core? I would guess that Vista upgraded or installed on an older or anything but a new PC would probably suffer to some degree, perhaps a lot. But as Chuck mentions, on a new machine it does seem very good. I guess I would recommend it mostly for newly purchased PCs, where is seems to do very well." }-

I think at this point I'd agree. Prior to getting these machines, I was very much opposed to Vista - based on what I'd read here and other places, and on what the owner of a computer shop nearby told me. Many around here jumped on the Vista bandwagon, bought and installed it. A huge number were having it removed and XP put back on their machines. These, if I recall what he said, were mostly upgrading to Vista. It could be that upgrading isn't the way to go, or as I mentioned, maybe a lot of those machines were barely Vista capable.

Those who bought early Vista equipped machines had some trouble, as I recall. I think the release of SP1 fixed many of the problems.

I can only speak for 2 laptops with Vista Home Premium SP1 with all later updates, and they're purring along very, very happily.

[Kerodo]

-{ Quote: "2 Computers, same type, on one Vista got installed, on the other Xp Pro. Don't remember the type of core, but I remember that the Processor was 3 GHz" }-
Ok, well perhaps it's a single core 3 gig cpu. I'm sure if you just did a direct comparison of XP vs Vista on something like that, XP would win.

I think Chuck and I are experiencing the same thing, Vista seems really nice on new PCs...

[ambient_88]

I agree that Vista runs nicely on a dual-core processor with 2GB RAM.

[lodore]

no matter how well vista runs xp will run faster on the same hardware i can pretty much garantine that.
its getting better but still slower than xp and still has some issues.
XP is mature OS that has proven itself.

[ambient_88]

-{ Quote: "no matter how well vista runs xp will run faster on the same hardware i can pretty much garantine that.
its getting better but still slower than xp and still has some issues.
XP is mature OS that has proven itself." }-
It might run faster, but the experience is not the same. For me, Vista is way better than XP could ever be.

[lodore]

-{ Quote: "It might run faster, but the experience is not the same. For me, Vista is way better than XP could ever be." }-
well thats not my experience. its slower and has more bugs for me.
the search in the start menu is nice but not needed IMO. the only reason i use it is because items are quite hidden in vista.
in xp i know where everything is so dont need that.
i have all my files organised so dont need desktop search.
sidebar is nice but could be got from a third party for xp.
aero is nice but gets boring after a day.
i wish i had sticked to xp but i brought vista and hope it improves. it doesnt really give me anything more than xp.

[Arup]

x64 Vista running on a multi core system with 4GB is a far better proposiotion compared to its x32 version. Its way more stable and quicker as well and uses resources in a better manner.

[waeylander]

I bought my laptop about 18 months ago. I travel for work 10 months out of the year so my laptop is my connection with many things. At first I hated Vista. Compatibility problems galore and various other issues. After taking the time to tweak things and visit various forums for advice, I admit that Vista has grown on me and it could be that I just hate change and being forced to have Vista colored my initial judgment.

Cheers,
Michael

[ambient_88]

-{ Quote: "x64 Vista running on a multi core system with 4GB is a far better proposiotion compared to its x32 version. Its way more stable and quicker as well and uses resources in a better manner." }-
But not a whole lot of applications are compatible with x64.

[ambient_88]

-{ Quote: "well thats not my experience. its slower and has more bugs for me.
the search in the start menu is nice but not needed IMO. the only reason i use it is because items are quite hidden in vista.
in xp i know where everything is so dont need that.
i have all my files organised so dont need desktop search.
sidebar is nice but could be got from a third party for xp.
aero is nice but gets boring after a day.
i wish i had sticked to xp but i brought vista and hope it improves. it doesnt really give me anything more than xp." }-
After exploring the features for a while, things are quite easy to find in Windows Vista. In fact, I like the organization of the control panel in Vista.

I don't use the start menu search that often, but an average user will find it really helpful (especially those that are not organized).

Sidebar is useless for me.:thumbd:

About the only thing I dislike about Vista (really, Windows in general) is the registry and incomplete uninstallation of applications.

[bigc73542]

But the Vista registry is better at self maintenance than any of the other windows versions. Vista seldom if ever needs to be defragged. Over all an excellent OS. Been useing it for a couple of years or so and I would never go back to XP.

[Chuck57]

I'm just now getting deeper into Vista. This week has been play and learn. I haven't found the registry, or figured out how to uninstall a program. No need to know where either is right now.

Vista has a great Help file, or the couple of things I looked up were quite well explained. Vista is pretty user friendly. My wife is actually finding things faster than me, which surprised me but she's been loading more stuff on hers and putting it into this or that file.

[midway40]

Chuck, there are two ways to get to where you uninstall programs. First is in Control Panel under Programs and Features. The second (which I use most of) is to double click on Computer on the desktop (if you put one there) and in the blue bar under the address bar you will see some options, one of which is Uninstall or Change a Program.

To bring up Regedit quickly, just type it into the search bar. However it is no different from XP's version so nothing new to learn there. The Search bar is my favorite feature in Vista. No more hunting around menus to find anything anymore.

If your wife keeps up she will be a Vista Guru soon ;D

[Chuck57]

-{ Quote: "Chuck, there are two ways to get to where you uninstall programs. First is in Control Panel under Programs and Features. The second (which I use most of) is to double click on Computer on the desktop (if you put one there) and in the blue bar under the address bar you will see some options, one of which is Uninstall or Change a Program.

To bring up Regedit quickly, just type it into the search bar. However it is no different from XP's version so nothing new to learn there. The Search bar is my favorite feature in Vista. No more hunting around menus to find anything anymore.

If your wife keeps up she will be a Vista Guru soon ;D" }-

My wife took to it immediately. While I hunted for things, she was already using it. She's way ahead of me.

Thanks for the info on regedit and uninstall. I found both without a problem. That search bar will be well used.

[farmerlee]

-{ Quote: "But not a whole lot of applications are compatible with x64." }-
While thats true in some cases i've been quite surprised at how much software does work just fine. I haven't always been able to use my favourite software but i've been able to find working replacements for most of it.

[Defcon]

A few tips :-

- In Vista, try and use the search box built into the start menu as well as every explorer window, control panel etc. Its a lot easier to type a few letters than digging through menus.

- Office 2007 has an addin to let you find what you want. It was an internal tool but is now public and I find it incredibly useful. http://www.officelabs.com/projects/searchcommands/Pages/default.aspx

- Did your laptops come with Vista SP1? If not you should install it, it fixes a lot of problems.

- Install Windiws Search 4.0 if you haven't done so. Both SP1 and WDS 4 should be in Widnows update.

- I would also recommend following Ed bott's guide for Vista - google 'ed bott vista tips' and http://computerhelpers.wordpress.com/2008/06/08/fixing-windows-vista-advice-from-ed-bott/. They are both no-nonsense and do not contain the many wrong hacks and registry tweaks floating around.

[Arup]

-{ Quote: "But not a whole lot of applications are compatible with x64." }-

Apart from HIPS due to patchguard issues, every old and new x32 programs I have thrown at x64 XP and Vista have worked and worked well. Windows implements WoW which is an emulation layer and it makes it a breeze to run x32 programs under x64.

[RAD]

Speed:
I can't really directly compare XP to Vista, because I always had them on different computers.
VISTA is lightning fast on a 2.8 GHz dual-cre with 4 Gigs of RAM.
I also have everything set for "optimize for performance", with all the AERO graphics off.

I have another user account set up for myself with the full AERO graphcs on, and it does look very cool and doesn't slow things down noticeably.

[tradetime]

Interesting to hear how people who are actually using Vista on a daily basis are finding it. As many have said it took a lot of bashing early on, some no doubt justified, but a lot I think just recycled by people who nevr took the time to try it.
For me personally it's not fully compatible with the software I use the most so I stay with XP and will possibly skip Vista all together depending on what the next windows is like and when it surfaces. XP is tried and tested and works fine, that's all I really need, but it's good to see folks finding Vista works well for them. My sister bought a Vista laptop a few months back and afaik is very happy with it.

[ambient_88]

-{ Quote: "Apart from HIPS due to patchguard issues, every old and new x32 programs I have thrown at x64 XP and Vista have worked and worked well. Windows implements WoW which is an emulation layer and it makes it a breeze to run x32 programs under x64." }-
Are games compatible too? If 32-bit applications run as well as they do in Vista 32-bit, then that is really awesome! However, not being able to run HIPS is a show-stopper for me. I don't use real-time scanners anymore, so HIPS is my only choice.

[Arup]

Most games work fine, Call of Duty etc, although I am not a gamer, this is the feedback I get from my younger friends who do games on x64 Vista. You don't need HIPS as patch guard with DEP and UAC blocks all, since Defender is pre-installed, just join Sprynet under the Defender options and you have a full time HIPS for free.

[Chuck57]

These laptops came with Windows Defender. It's turned off since we got McAfee SS. Had I known about Defender I'd have passed on the McAfee.

No complaints about McAfee. I ran a scan out of curiosity and opened Word and surfed the Internet at the same time with only a slight slowdown. That's about as much as this computer will ever have to do. Still, had I known about WD, I could have saved a few bucks on the 2 laptops by not getting McAfee. Water under the bridge now, so no sense in whining.

I don't know about games. As for older software, my wife has loaded quite a few of her very old, like only compatible to Win ME or 2000 paint and graphics type programs on her machine. Every one runs well, and so far all facets of them seem to work. Some are pretty RAM and graphics heavy.

I'm still thinking about my MS Flight Simulator 2004. Haven't tried it yet. That's about as close to gaming I get, and I'd never dare call FS a game.

[AKAJohnDoe]

If you find a program that won't run (or install correctly) under Vista, and it is not a "close-to-the-metal" utility type program, you can usually run in it compatibility mode. I have not found any of the programs I have that need that, though.

[Chuck57]

First Vista problem, but not a stability problem.

My wife is doing some writing for a site. Last night she finished an article. Today, she opened the site, went into controls, and tried to put her article on the site. She has permission, of course. The site owners gave her the controls to do this.

Vista wouldn't let her paste the article that she wrote. A box, saying something about it being illegal to Copy things off the Internet (according to her. I didn't see it)appeared. In any case, it wouldn't let her paste her article. She's emailing it to the site's owners, but is a bit ... umm ... perturbed.

[AKAJohnDoe]

-{ Quote: "First Vista problem, but not a stability problem.

My wife is doing some writing for a site. Last night she finished an article. Today, she opened the site, went into controls, and tried to put her article on the site. She has permission, of course. The site owners gave her the controls to do this.

Vista wouldn't let her paste the article that she wrote. A box, saying something about it being illegal to Copy things off the Internet (according to her. I didn't see it)appeared. In any case, it wouldn't let her paste her article. She's emailing it to the site's owners, but is a bit ... umm ... perturbed." }-
I have my doubts about that being Vista telling her that.

[MrBrian]

-{ Quote: "When I first got Vista I did have LUA set up. But I noticed the only difference between it and the standard admin account is that you had to supply the admin password at the UAC prompt instead of clicking OK. Since I am the only one using this computer I didn't see any point in running LUA because you get the prompts anyway in admin mode.
" }-

There is a difference. Please see http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showpost.php?p=1284309&postcount=25.

[Chuck57]

-{ Quote: "I have my doubts about that being Vista telling her that." }-

I don't know, as I said. I didn't see the warning that popped up. She said it was from Vista. Hopefully, she'll try again and if it happens, I'll be in the room and quick enough to tell her to leave it until I see it.

[Huupi]

-{ Quote: "Apart from HIPS due to patchguard issues, every old and new x32 programs I have thrown at x64 XP and Vista have worked and worked well. Windows implements WoW which is an emulation layer and it makes it a breeze to run x32 programs under x64." }-

But i guess that 32 bit app. can't take advantage of the 64 bit such as extended memory allocation. To have full blown use of it,you have to have 64 bit applications.I'l wait until adobe throw out x64 PS.

PS in regard to memory sucks,complains all over the place,never found a tweak that was really helpfull.

[Osaban]

So refreshing to read so many positive experiences about Vista. I think Vista is the best Windows so far, visually appealing, very safe compared to XP to the extent that its own default security is enough if one uses it with Firefox or Opera.

As far as laptops are concerned, they have become my desktops. I can't see any point (even from a design perspective) to buy a traditional desktop. I have 2 GB of memory on my Vista laptop, and even with Photoshop and a few more programs it never goes over 1 GB.

[ambient_88]

-{ Quote: "
As far as laptops are concerned, they have become my desktops. I can't see any point (even from a design perspective) to buy a traditional desktop. I have 2 GB of memory on my Vista laptop, and even with Photoshop and a few more programs it never goes over 1 GB." }-
I agree with you. Now, everyone should make it standard to have interchangeable graphics card. There's only a handful of laptops out there that have the ability to swap graphics card.

[Chuck57]

-{ Quote: "So refreshing to read so many positive experiences about Vista. I think Vista is the best Windows so far, visually appealing, very safe compared to XP to the extent that its own default security is enough if one uses it with Firefox or Opera.

As far as laptops are concerned, they have become my desktops. I can't see any point (even from a design perspective) to buy a traditional desktop. I have 2 GB of memory on my Vista laptop, and even with Photoshop and a few more programs it never goes over 1 GB." }-

I've noticed that, as the days pass, I'm using the desktop less and less. My wife hasn't turned hers on at all since moving files over to the laptop a couple of days ago. The laptop is much more convenient and portable. Plus, with a wireless router, we can set them up anywhere and either work, surf, or both. I'm sitting in my favorite easy chair, alternately typing away on a project and goofing off online. She's on the back porch talking via instant messenger with friends we have in Virginia.

This post didn't have much to say about Vista, but I figure it's my thread.

[AKAJohnDoe]

My last desktop PC was a Compaq Presario 7234. I've been using laptops exclusively since then. I'm on my 4th or 5th laptop now.

[InfinityAz]

-{ Quote: "I don't know, as I said. I didn't see the warning that popped up. She said it was from Vista. Hopefully, she'll try again and if it happens, I'll be in the room and quick enough to tell her to leave it until I see it." }-

Chuck57,

The warning is not from Vista, it's because the web site has the code embedded in the page to keep people from copying content. You see this type of thing a lot at college web sites during online test taking (i.e., it prevents students from copying the tests, although you can still take screen shots).

[Nick Rhodes]

Recently I have finally had chance to have a good play with Vista.

-{ Quote: "The majority of the problems were driver-related, so it's not just Microsoft's fault but the manufacturer/developer's also." }-

I have a new HP Designed for Vista laptop at the end of last year that has performance issues (which I assume are drivers) when running Vista.
It is not a good consumer experience when your new machine is advertised and certified to run Vista, yet cannot properly, the average consumer does not know enough to know its sub standard drivers (which is another issue as all the drivers are MS certified, which implies either poor standards or quality control by MS).

XP did not suffer this issue, due to having a compatible driver model with the previous OS.

-{ Quote: "
You'll probably end up loving its built-in search capabilities (Windows Key)." }-

But I cant search my emails in Thunderbird, which is very important to myself, it does not index my work emails imap in outlook correctly (copernic manages it fine).

-{ Quote: "In my opinion , Vista is the best Windows ever - much faster , easier to use than other other Windows versions , a lot more secure by default.
" }-

I can't comment on Vista performance as it would be unfair due to still unresolved rubbish drivers from HP, but I agree, the security aspects are a great step forward.

-{ Quote: "i still sometimes have some problems with vista.
sometimes uac prompts blank out the screen for quite awhile.
file copying is still slow as a tortoise even with SP1." }-

I've had random display problems, like a prompt that asked a question like "are you sure" and only gave an OK option !!! Also suffered graphical artifacts when changing display settings (which I guess is more driver related).
File copying is slow for me (though faster with sp1), but even slower is anything to do with volume shadow copy like running Shadow protect.

-{ Quote: "Vista seldom if ever needs to be defragged." }-

It is identical to XP for fragmentation.
FYI Vista by default has a weekly defrag run.


Other issues I have.

Annoying compatibility issues with Visual Studio 2005 Pro (I can run as a limited user in XP, but in Vista need Admin rights and this is NOT a Visual Studio bug).

The 90 day trial of Mcafee made my entire machine stupidly slow, swapping to AGV gave instant performance boost, reduced boots times from over 2 minutes (to desktop) to under a minute.
If a machine is supplied as designed for vista, then the manufacturer should ensure that every they prepackage will actually run on vista correctly !

I do like the new default GUI theme, I think its better than the default XP theme (I use the classic style), BUT the consistency is VERY BAD, compare the menus and buttons in the built in apps like mediaplayer, IE, notepad etc and every single one they are different (and did you know that notepad is the only built in app to meet MS's own GUI guidelines !
Its like 1 step forward, 2 steps back. This is as annoying as Office 2007 which does not use the ribbon on all apps.

All in all, Vista for myself is a worse user experience than XP, if all the issues were fixed, there would still be the fact that it does not allow me anything more than XP does (of the features I use - eg UAC is useless to me as we have custom security policies enforced by our domain).

If the issues with Vista I have are fixed I would be happy to use it instead of XP on my Laptop, but on my other machines I do not feel its worth upgrading from XP to Vista. If I get a new machine and it runs Vista without problems, I will leave it on.

I like the design decisions of the OS architecture and of the GUI (shame we never got all the features intially told we would), but I think final product is flawed.

It lacks consistency and quality control in various areas (reminds me of a desktop Linux distro years ago for feeling thrown together), this is why I have a feeling that Windows 7 will be a massive success, because I know MS will have to get it right (as XP support WILL end) and the core OS will be proven enough for big Corps (Which make up a large proportion of their OS revenue).

[Nick Rhodes]

-{ Quote: "As far as laptops are concerned, they have become my desktops. I can't see any point (even from a design perspective) to buy a traditional desktop. I have 2 GB of memory on my Vista laptop, and even with Photoshop and a few more programs it never goes over 1 GB." }-

I leave my old desktop to be a server/workstation doing longer term tasks like downloading, backup storage, CD/DVD burning, print server, development web server etc.

That means I can have a lean mean compact laptop without cd/dvd drive than only runs office, email, web and development tools.

Long gone are the days of trying to do it all on one machine (especially as I only play games on consoles now).

[Chuck57]

We haven't experienced any incompatability with any drivers yet, and my wife is running a couple of very old pieces of software for her graphics program that supposedly isn't compatible with anything above Win98.

As for McAfee, I've had Word and Internet Explorer open while running a McAfee full scan and noticed very little slowdown, as I think I mentioned in a post somewhere in this thread. How much memory have you on your HP laptop, and what version of Vista are you using? Do you have Service Pack 1 installed?

Your complaints sound very much like those that kept me away from Vista for so long. Most of them aren't valid any more with the release of SP1, or so I've been told.

Even my buddy, who runs a computer shop nearby has seen the money tree begin to die. Nobody is coming in to have him replace Vista with XP any more, since the release of SP1. And, of more importance, he's even beginning to admit - grudgingly - that with all the fixes Vista isn't too bad.

[lodore]

i havent had any issues with speed of creating images using volume shadow copy service.

[Chuck57]

No issues of any kind here, either. I'm basically talking about the wife's computer, since the only things other than MS Office Ultimate I've put installed is IE Pro, and Celtx - a free screenplay writing program.

Every computer is different, though. When we hooked up wireless to our laptops, using Linksys WRT54GL router, I had a couple of more steps on my laptop than she did. Exact same brand, model, everything the same but I had two more steps to get wireless.

[ambient_88]

-{ Quote: "Recently I have finally had chance to have a good play with Vista.


I have a new HP Designed for Vista laptop at the end of last year that has performance issues (which I assume are drivers) when running Vista.
It is not a good consumer experience when your new machine is advertised and certified to run Vista, yet cannot properly, the average consumer does not know enough to know its sub standard drivers (which is another issue as all the drivers are MS certified, which implies either poor standards or quality control by MS).


But I cant search my emails in Thunderbird, which is very important to myself, it does not index my work emails imap in outlook correctly (copernic manages it fine).


I can't comment on Vista performance as it would be unfair due to still unresolved rubbish drivers from HP, but I agree, the security aspects are a great step forward.


Other issues I have.

It lacks consistency and quality control in various areas (reminds me of a desktop Linux distro years ago for feeling thrown together), this is why I have a feeling that Windows 7 will be a massive success, because I know MS will have to get it right (as XP support WILL end) and the core OS will be proven enough for big Corps (Which make up a large proportion of their OS revenue)." }-
1) I agree with you on this one. So, I took the liberty to wipe out the HP image and reinstall a fresh copy of Vista. The only driver I downloaded directly from HP's site is the graphics driver. Everything else... straight from Microsoft.

2) Doesn't Thunderbird come with its own indexer? All my emails (IMAP) were indexed by Windows Search properly.

3) I wouldn't really trust HP when it comes to drivers and softwares, unless you absolutely need them for the computer to function properly. I would rather go to individual manufacturer to get the drivers.

4) Consistency is indeed a big issue with Windows. Every application has their own GUI, which is a nightmare to those who are not technically inclined. I do hope that Microsoft implements a standard for GUI that every applications will follow (like in Mac OS X) so that it is consistent throughout.

In addition, the following are the things Microsoft should change (IMHO):
a) IMHO, they need to get rid of the Windows Registry and replace it with a database that is much better (like SQL). It uses weird names for application settings and gets cluttered easily.

b) Easy install/uninstallation of applications. A package manager like the one in Linux would be nice.

c) 100% uninstallation of any software. I don't know why it is so hard to reverse what the installer did. I kind of envy Mac because uninstallation is as simple as dragging the program to the trash bin.

[Kerodo]

-{ Quote: "No issues of any kind here, either. I'm basically talking about the wife's computer, since the only things other than MS Office Ultimate I've put installed is IE Pro, and Celtx - a free screenplay writing program.

" }-

Have you had any issues with IE7Pro yet? I assume that's what you mean above... I'd like mouse gestures in IE7, but I did see some reports of people having crashes with IE7Pro, so I'm not sure if I want to try it or not. Also, I heard some say it isn't working with IE7 x64, although neither does flash, which pretty much keeps me using IE7 x32.

[midway40]

I have IE7Pro 32 and 64 bit with no problems noticed. But like you said, without Flash I don't use the IE764 that often (come on, Adobe, get your butt in gear!).

[Chuck57]

No issues with IE7 Pro and 32 bit here, either.

[Kerodo]

Ok, thanks guys..... I think I will give it a shot then....