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

Discussion in 'other software & services' started by Chuck57, Jul 25, 2008.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. colinp

    colinp Registered Member

    Joined:
    Feb 9, 2008
    Posts:
    46
    My wife just bought a Toshiba laptop with Vista and after a few (ahem:rolleyes:...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
     
  2. Kerodo

    Kerodo Registered Member

    Joined:
    Oct 5, 2004
    Posts:
    8,013
    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..
     
  3. Chuck57

    Chuck57 Registered Member

    Joined:
    Sep 2, 2002
    Posts:
    1,770
    Location:
    New Mexico, USA
    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?
     
  4. AKAJohnDoe

    AKAJohnDoe Registered Member

    Joined:
    Sep 26, 2007
    Posts:
    989
    Location:
    127.0.0.1
    I did in fact turn UAC off, among some other things. 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.
     
  5. ambient_88

    ambient_88 Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jun 23, 2008
    Posts:
    854
    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.
     
  6. AKAJohnDoe

    AKAJohnDoe Registered Member

    Joined:
    Sep 26, 2007
    Posts:
    989
    Location:
    127.0.0.1
    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.
     
  7. RAD

    RAD Registered Member

    Joined:
    Apr 2, 2007
    Posts:
    332
    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.
     
  8. Kerodo

    Kerodo Registered Member

    Joined:
    Oct 5, 2004
    Posts:
    8,013
    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.
     
  9. AKAJohnDoe

    AKAJohnDoe Registered Member

    Joined:
    Sep 26, 2007
    Posts:
    989
    Location:
    127.0.0.1
    Now you've gone and ruined Vista for me. :(
     
  10. emperordarius

    emperordarius Registered Member

    Joined:
    Apr 27, 2008
    Posts:
    1,218
    Location:
    Who cares
    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.
     
  11. Chuck57

    Chuck57 Registered Member

    Joined:
    Sep 2, 2002
    Posts:
    1,770
    Location:
    New Mexico, USA
    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.
     
  12. Mrkvonic

    Mrkvonic Linux Systems Expert

    Joined:
    May 9, 2005
    Posts:
    10,215
    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
     
  13. Chuck57

    Chuck57 Registered Member

    Joined:
    Sep 2, 2002
    Posts:
    1,770
    Location:
    New Mexico, USA
    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.
     
  14. AKAJohnDoe

    AKAJohnDoe Registered Member

    Joined:
    Sep 26, 2007
    Posts:
    989
    Location:
    127.0.0.1
    Again, 2GB is fine. You'll not get more than 3.2GB in the 32-bit OS anyway.
     
  15. lodore

    lodore Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jun 22, 2006
    Posts:
    9,065
    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.
     
  16. Kerodo

    Kerodo Registered Member

    Joined:
    Oct 5, 2004
    Posts:
    8,013
    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.
     
  17. emperordarius

    emperordarius Registered Member

    Joined:
    Apr 27, 2008
    Posts:
    1,218
    Location:
    Who cares
    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
     
  18. Chuck57

    Chuck57 Registered Member

    Joined:
    Sep 2, 2002
    Posts:
    1,770
    Location:
    New Mexico, USA
    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.
     
  19. Kerodo

    Kerodo Registered Member

    Joined:
    Oct 5, 2004
    Posts:
    8,013
    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...
     
  20. ambient_88

    ambient_88 Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jun 23, 2008
    Posts:
    854
    I agree that Vista runs nicely on a dual-core processor with 2GB RAM.
     
  21. lodore

    lodore Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jun 22, 2006
    Posts:
    9,065
    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.
     
  22. ambient_88

    ambient_88 Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jun 23, 2008
    Posts:
    854
    It might run faster, but the experience is not the same. For me, Vista is way better than XP could ever be.
     
  23. lodore

    lodore Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jun 22, 2006
    Posts:
    9,065
    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.
     
  24. Arup

    Arup Guest

    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.
     
  25. waeylander

    waeylander Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jul 19, 2008
    Posts:
    3
    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
     
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
    By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.