What makes Windows Vista better than Windows XP?

Besides the fancy GUI?

 

the firewall is much better than xp's inbuilt one, as it has incoming & outgoing control, and the parental control features are quite useful..

i find vista better all round as a family/entertainment pc, and XP pro for professional/critical/work use

 

Contrary to popular belief Vista is a lot more than just Aero, Flip3d, and Sidebar. You have to look at the technical, security, networking, I/O, and management improvements as well. This Wikipedia article pretty much explains all these new features.

 

Hello,

For anyone capable of spelling 'operating system,' there's no difference in what he/she can milk out of it, so the answer is - nothing. Power users will make whatever they wanna make out of it. Therefore, with 10x extra space and 2x memory requirement, Vista is a no-no for techies.

For non-techies, there might be some out-of-the-box improvements, but they are negligible compared to the downsides, since they're going to get infected anyway, so at least they should do it with low-spec requirements.

Mrk

 

Nothing.Windows Vista is not better than Xp.

 

You'll likely get many opinions. For me, the answer was/is nothing. I bought a new Dell laptop and had them downgrade it to XP Pro. Which means I have a copy of Vista Business in the box. And it will never be loaded...

 

There's really not a whole lot of difference between Windows XP and Windows Vista. I use Windows Vista just because the GUI is better.

 

As mentioned before Vista is more than the new gui. If you are a "power user" you can use hips ´n´stuff to secure your admin account in XP. Or if you´re smart you use limited account

If you dont have the money to upgrade your hardware or if you dont feel like you dont need to upgrade - you dont have to. It´s not worth the money tbh. The security hysteria is blown out of proportion anyway, youll do fine with old XP as long as you use common sense.
Personally I use it (64bit) because it is a bit faster and more stable than XP ever was on my machine. And I like the updated security in Vista, makes my life easier.

 

I gave Vista a fair shot and I agree with Mrkvonic

XP

 

IS there any software to improve xps GUI other than vista mizer and windows blinds.I am using vista mizer ,for appearance.

 

NOTHING.
The fact that it is pushed to the average consumer make me wonder about the code and real purpose of the design of vista
seems like a facilitates easier monitoring of the masses.........

 

UAC is a very bad copy of sudo in linux.
with unix based operating systems you dont need a administrator account. all you need is limited user accounts and a root password. in the rare event something needs root rights then you will get a prompt asking for root password.
you can get outbound firewalls for xp from third partys and they are much better and easier to use than the vista two way firewall. try creating rules for the vista firewall without a thirdparty gui.
i have brought vista oem and i am very dispointed with it.
quite alot of the time its slower than my old pc runnin xp. old pc specs is single core amd ahlon 3200 with 1gb of ram.
new pc running vista quad core 2gb of ram. it should run much faster but since i run vista i may as well be running a pentium 3.
it still has the registry and drivers still crash the whole OS.
thank you microsoft for once again wasting my money XD.

btw dont waste your money on office 2007 eiether its just office 2003 with a new gui, loads of bugs and uses more memory.

i never got infected on xp and it genrally works well. i say genrally since it still has more issues than *nix os's do.
if you want to play games buy a games console. just make sure its eiether playstation 3 or nintendo wii.

 

Lot's of things:

1. Coping or transfering files takes more time; this way you can be sure that your files are being copied/transfered.
2. For arriving at the various places you 're obbligated to click with the mouse 2-3 more times than with xp; it gives you the necessary time to reconsider what you want to do...
3. UAC will popup a lot but it does not have a "remember this action" feature; helps novices to excersize with left clicking...
4. Microsoft will collect at the end of the day your habbits, what programs you use and how they perform (unless you disable the 3 tasks in the scheduler - 2 normal and 1 hidden); it makes you feel being protected...
5. You cannot kill task manager service and you cannot disable it (unless you do it through regedit); this way you can be sure that your schedules will run...
6. It will use most of the resources of your pc; this prevents malware from using them...

I could go like this for all day long but it has no point. You can no longer get a high-end pc with XP so why you should care?

ps.I have nothing against microsoft. Their support is great (I mean it, every time I had a problem I got an answer in a few hours) and I do hope that they will learn from their mistakes and give us a windows 7 that will perform better than XP and Vista.

Panagiotis

 

A no-no for techies? Let me recount my days events. This morning I got up and checked email and various message boards. I then logged into my server to check the status from the centralized nightly backup and weekly scanning of all my machines (both reporting OK, thank you). I then proceeded with some household chores.

This afternoon I laid down in bed and watched a program I recorded last night via streaming from the server to my laptop. Then, feeling aggressive, I played a couple of hours of Crysis:Warhead (with Psycho's immortal words, "I'm British, you muppet!"). I then remembered I had some pics from my niece's birthday party in my camera so I downloaded them into the computer and emailed my sister copies of the pics. After finishing supper I am now laying back down and typing this.

And now some rebuttals to various comments on this thread:

1. I have mentioned this many times before but here goes again anyway. I have not had any type of infection since Jan '07. This is fact.

2. Since processing power and ram is getting cheaper by the day why waste it? It is like having a 20 gallon tank in your car and only putting one gallon in it.

3. I have not observed any more UAC prompts than root prompts I got with linux. Of course with both you will have a lot of prompts at first when setting up but it settles down after a while. Vista did have some strange prompts (like moving a shortcut into a folder on the desktop) but SP1 fixed those. Unless you are just constantly changing settings for some reason you will hardly hear from UAC. Any other prompts are from bad programming in software but those are on the decline since software is being written more responsibly.

4. Vista has actually decreased the amount of clicking. The other day at work I was working on an XP computer when I needed access to the list of it's services. But for the life of me I couldn't remember how to get to them so I sheepishly had to ask the SysAdmin how to find it. This is because in Vista all I do is type "services" into the menu search box and it comes up. I do not have to remember where such and such is anymore with that magical box in the menu.

5. If you can take the tin foil cap off for a bit I would like to know the names of these three "spy services" mentioned.

 

Hi midway,
why should i pay for decent hardware and then be limited by a slow and bloated OS? as i said at times my old pc is faster... windows 2003 server converted to a desktop OS is way faster on this computer.
not all my programs work under a limited user account on vista. so im forced to use a administrator account.
i always ignore the privacy problems people report but what i cannot ignore is not being able to use my computer because with vista its so darn slow...
i mentioned most of the issues above that plague all window's os's such as drivers and programs being able to crash the whole OS. unix based systems have had the GUI seprate for years.
im hoping that the rumours are true and there will be a $800 macbook which is roughly £400. plus i hope for more netbooks with linux.once people relise how stable and reliable unix based os's are they wont want to go back to unreliable windows that needs a reboot to install the simplest of programs.

btw microsoft say they have improved the sound,networking etc but i dont notice any improvement. seems like they went backwards IMO.
windows search box. how about you do what i do and organize your files? plus since vista took so long to come out microsoft realesed desktop search for xp before it came out.
flip 3d. looks good but gets boring about 5 seconds.
windows sidebar not really needed.
paint,notepad etc are from what windows 3.1? why havent ms upgraded the apps?
microsoft still expect you to pay the crazy prices for office.

it still cant read pdf's without a third party program
it still cant burn .iso files on its own. you still need a third party program to do that.

windows media player is in xp as well so doesnt count.
IE 7 may have protected mode but its stil easy enough to get infected.

 

Well my day was a bit different.

I connected through vpn to my parents pc (desktop 3200 barton, windows xp with no firewall, no antivirus, no antispyware) and to my sisters (core 2 7300, with vista 64 and NIS 2009) and I did not have to check for viruses because I know that they are malware free; group policies exist for this exact reason...
Then I watched greek tv streaming from the barton pc to catch-up with the homeland news. (I live in Italy)
Then I played a bit with Crysis:Warhead on my xp game fd-isr snapshot, because it performes better than on my 64 vista ultimate on my quad 6600, 4gbram and 8800/512 gts...

Good for you. I have never being infected since my first win2000 system. As I already said group policies do exist...

Well since I have 1,5 TB of internal disk space it does not mean that I want to see an OS to occupy it all. And I prefer to use the processing power for my video editing tasks and not from my vista snapshot...
The ram is not worrying me because vista is better/smarter in handlying it than xp.

I agree on this one. What it bothers me with UAC is that I'm obbligated to respond right away if I want to continue with the other tasks. Root prompts in linux allow you to open another window/application. But the mighty UAC does not....

I agree the search is one of the good additions in vista. But believe me is not that good in every language as it is for the english version...

Never wrote anything about "spy services". Microsoft does not hide this info from the users. It is mentioned in the EULA and is also mentioned under the tasks descriptions. Anyway the task names are:
Consolidator, OptinNotification and RACAgent

Panagiotis

 

I don't know that Vista is really any better than XP or not. I bought a new PC with it and so far after 3 months I really like it. This is x64 also, which I find very stable and pretty well done in general. I like the GUI much more than XP, I do think there is more 'security' built-in now. I don't find it annoying either (UAC). It performs plenty well on new hardware. I have run XP x64 on the same hardware, and sure, that performs even better all around. But........... Vista is just more interesting and much better looking to me, so all things considered, I like it and I use it most. Also use Linux x64 distros here and there, right now using a great one that I love called OzOS, fastest performer I have seen yet in Linux distros. So here it's the 2, Vista and OzOS, dual booting off 2 separate HDs.

Anyway, guys and gals, you can't fight it. Vista is the future (for now), you won't find much XP on new PCs, not in stores anyhow. It's here, and it's not going anywhere for a while. You can wait for the next one, Windows 7, but it will be more of the same I think. Might as well accept "what is" and move on. I was this way with Win2k (holding on to it and not wanting XP). But eventually I let go, and went with XP. Glad I did. Now, I let go of XP and went with Vista, glad again..

You can keep using XP as long as you want, but you can't stop "progress", even if you don't consider it progress technically. It is what it is, and it's on every new PC now.

You can hold onto XP for as long as you want, but it won't be returning, ever again. Things keep marching on and on and on....... and changing....

Nothing ever remains the same...

<so that's the end of my philisophical semi-rant>

 

Control Panel/Default Programs

Control Panel/AutoPlay

Snipping Tool

I could go on ...

 

Using Vista, I enjoy the longer time it takes for file operations on large files. On XP, copying a large file and pasting it was too fast. Thank goodness Vista fixed this. Also, I needed to buy more memory and a newer video card - it was about time because my computer was over a year old. I like the way Vista questions my every move because I might forget that I am not in charge but Vista. For me, Vista is better because it costs more therefore it is the Rolls-Royce of Windows.
SourMilk out

 

Resistance is futile.... you WILL be assimilated.....

 

Ok... I have used Vista and went back to XP essentially losing my money to try it out since I replace my computer roughly every year...

Here is my short overall summary:

Vista was supposed to have a new file system and more. Instead what we got was dumbed down security (are you sure you want to run this?, really sure?, super sure? ok then) and a pretty face. Look at the pretty icons, taskbar, sidebar and more. Of course, you need 2 gig minimum to see the pretty icons. Frankly, its an annoying version of Vista. Of course Microsoft usually needs 1-2 service packs to perfect their OS since Windows 98. I can't seem to get on their operating system beta tests to tell them this up front, so I guess they wait until the consumer tells them the obvious.

Years ago, games went 3D, everyone wanted 3d games. Then, once they got pretty pictures, they realized what they wanted was a better game because all the fluff did not make for a better game. They were willing to take a visual hit for a better game. Same with realism. If video games were super realistic (for example how guns fire) then games would be no fun, hence they add rwealism where they can while making sure the game remains fun. I think this is where Windows needs to be next. Less fluff, more simplicity. I have a Macbook Pro. Its not perfect, but it looks like Linux with a cool dock (or their version of the Windows taskbar if your not familiar). Install a program? Drag and drop. Remove a program? Delete the icon. Easy. Simple. Beautiful, but not fluffy. All Apple needs to do is price it cheaper and Microsoft will be #2.

P.S If Windows 98 was not unsupported and frankly scary to run in todays market, I would be using that. Lean, mean gets the job done. Service Pack 2 of course

 

WOW...great to know about that. I am such a newbie here and I happen to have a new gateway laptop on Windows Vista, it was a gift to me but since I use Windows XP and am used with it I am still learning and had a lot of questions with regards to Windows Vista. By reading all post and threads here will help me in future. With regards to your 64bits you enjoy that's cool

 

lodore, it is like what I tried to explain in another thread, natural progression. XP on a P2 with 48MB RAM would be bloat, etc. etc. Since we have multiple core processors with cheap memory and storage why not use them to their fullest potential? RAM is not there to collect electronic cobwebs, it is meant to be used to it's fullest extent (at least with Vista and Linux). The size of Vista hardly concerns me with the amount of drive space I have (close to 1.75TB). If someone is running a P4 with 512MB RAM and 100GB drive space if course I wouldn't recommend Vista for the same reason as the forementioned P2 would be bloated with XP.

pandlouk, I only related my day's experience because it was implied that Vista was just a pretty interface to be used by simpletons. I wasn't implying that you could not do the same things with any OS (that would be asinine) but you can be just as "techy" in Vista as with any OS. In fact I am more techy now than when I was with XP as far as networking with multiple computers and a server is concerned. It has been mentioned that Vista's networking is better than XP's but I cannot comment on it since I first started networking with Vista.

Also forgive me about the "spy" comment as I had misread it. It kind of sounded like some FUD that was going around before Vista came out about it "calling" home to MS, RIAA, and even the FBI. But still I do not see anything wrong with the three processes in question:

Consolidator and OptinNotification--part of the Customer Experience Improvement Program. You can opt out on this as with any software with similar programs. It would help MS out in improving Vista from it's data but ultimately you decide to do it or not.

RACAgent(hidden)--I did not see anything mentioning this service transmitting any kind of data over the net. It's purpose is to gather data for the Reliability and Performance Monitor (source).

 

If you want lean and mean, might as well return to good old MSDOS 6.22 right?

 

Ahh, I used to surf the net in DOS early on in the old day, Prodigy was the provider I think. Back when porn was free.... and safe