Anyone using Windows Vista?

[ken]

I got a new computer a month or so ago and it was loaded with Windows Vista. I was upgrading from windows 98, or so I thought. First of all I'm not the brightest bulb on the tree when it comes to computers I often find myself going to my 15 year old for help. Anyhow this system is twice a slow as w/98 was. It as problems ripping and burning cd's (sometimes it will and sometimes it won't) it's like it has its own taste of music. Sometimes it takes over 10 minutes just to start up. And after start up if you click on a certain area it may take another 10 minutes tp open a page. Is anyone else running this system with these problems, or does anyone know how to fix the issuesor it normal?

[Jtalker1965]

I have a Acer and I use dail up at work. Most people I have talked to have gone back to XP. I have XP on an older Dell and have not had the chance to use it anywhere but at home. I had a heck of a time to load a $30.00 printer to it. But did get it to work.

Qestion for you? How much memory are you running. You want atlest 1024 if not more. Just thought I would ask. JT

[Redneck]

I'm running vista and all I can tell you is it sucks. This computer crashed and I thought I will fix this so I tried to load xp on it and couldn't get it to load the kids couldn't get it to load. I took it to best buy and the geek squad couldn't make it load and finally determined the hard drive won't run xp. I'm thinking I may try a mac.

[Aimhigh]

My son knows quite a bit about computers and he has advised me to avoid the Vista and stick with the XP. Vista uses much more RAM and I've been told some of the peripherals (especially printers) are difficult to connect. Wish you the best.

[ken]

I have a Acer and I use dail up at work. Most people I have talked to have gone back to XP. I have XP on an older Dell and have not had the chance to use it anywhere but at home. I had a heck of a time to load a $30.00 printer to it. But did get it to work.

Qestion for you? How much memory are you running. You want atlest 1024 if not more. Just thought I would ask. JT

 

My new one is an Acer 1g memory and 260g on the hard drive

[ken]

I'm running vista and all I can tell you is it sucks. This computer crashed and I thought I will fix this so I tried to load xp on it and couldn't get it to load the kids couldn't get it to load. I took it to best buy and the geek squad couldn't make it load and finally determined the hard drive won't run xp. I'm thinking I may try a mac.

You bet it sucks! Today I also tried to load XP but it would not take. I spent several hour trying to get it to go, gave my kids a shot at it to, cause of course they know eveything. lol. I'm going to guess my hard drive won't run it to.

[jbillerzippo]

I purchased a new laptop for my daughter for Christmas. It's running vista everything seems fine no trouble so far.

[ken]

I just found a site that gives step by step on how to install XP on a puter that came with Vista.http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/install-windows-xp-on-your-pre-installed-windows-vista-computer/

[Sawhorse]

My Dad got a new laptop for Christmas with Vista, he didn't like it so I loaded XP on it. I booted the computer to the XP install disk, wiped out the partitions on the drive and created one large partition and one small one, formatted them and installed XP. It works fine. Word of warning though, you need to make sure you download the XP drivers for your computer before you do the install, you will need at least the Video, Sound and any other perpherials that come with your computer. You can usually go to that computer's website and find all the XP drivers you need.

It's a pain changing and learning a new operating system. I didn't like Vista either. XP is really fase on his laptop with 2gb memory.

Good Luck!

Dean

 

I just found a site that gives step by step on how to install XP on a puter that came with Vista.http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/install-windows-xp-on-your-pre-installed-windows-vista-computer/

[flb_78]

I bought the last laptop listed on Dell's website listed with XP. Vista bad.

[Nighthawk II]

I've had my new puter for about 6 months now and it came with vista. I have found that it depends on the type of security you use. I tried some of the on-line and other kinds and found that norton 360 pretty much lets the program run best and quickest. It's a little on the expensive side but I haven't had any problems yet.

[SilvrT]

I have been in the computer business for 20 yrs (many of you know this) and I can tell you .... I've evaluated Vista for my place of work...there's NO WAY we will be upgrading from XP until we have no other recourse. Our current PC's are only a bit over a year old. They run XP and we've had no issues at all. In fact, I have been running XP on my own system since XP came out and have been supporting it on as many as 1000+ systems in all kinds of specialized environments. When the time comes that we are forced to upgrade to Vista, I hope and pray that Microsoft has brought out a replacement for Vista that works as good as XP. Without question, Vista is one you should stay away from if at all possible. I'd recommend a MAC or going to Linux before I'd recommend Vista.

 

Incidentally, Dell systems as well as many others can be ordered with Linux installed. Linux has way more "goodies" available at no cost and many of them work better than their Windows counterparts IMHO. And while I'm thinking about it, Microsoft Office 2007 sux even worse than Vista.

 

ok, enuf coz I'm getting mad now...

 

 

just my $0.02

[nkbjones]

I agree with everyone else, VISTA sucks. Truth be told I would rather run XP, but have been to lazy to figure out how to install it on this laptop.

 

I have had several problems, but nothing I have not been able to figure out pretty quick.

 

You need to boost your memory, they say that 1 Gig is a minimun and it really is. Your system will run slow on that amount. The best way (and cheapest) to upgrade the memory is to get a 2Gig to 4 Gig flash drive and use the Readyboost function in Vista. Since I added another 3Gigs of memeory, my machine is much much better. You can get a flash drive for pretty cheap on sale at radio shack. I just paid $29 for a 4 gig and you could get a 2 gig for $20.

[lonestarmedic]

Go buy a copy of XP. Boot from the install disk. Choose the option to format the drive. Choose the full not quick format. Then create partitions as you want. I usually suggest 2 partitions on drives over 80gb. That way you can store data on the 2nd partition area and work on the primary partition without disturbing the data. XP will install generic drivers for most of your hardware allowing you to at least boot up. However, your best bet is to find and download the drivers you need beforehand. Burn them to a disk. Good luck. It is not as hard as it seems. Just write down what you need and then keep a record as you go.

 

J.B.

[Guest tx2sturgis]

One word:

 

MAC.

 

 

[Guest Boomerbiker]

I am running an XPS Gen 4 with Vista. I pulled the hard drive with XP and installed a new WD Raptor 150 GB (10,000 RPM) drive, connected all the peripherals and proceeded with the install. Computer has 4 gig of memory and a 4 meg thumb drive which enables Ready Boost, giving Vista a little extra kick. Vista loaded without a hitch, including searching manufacturer websites for compatible drivers and installing them on the fly. No problems at all. If you are running XP with no problems, I wouldn't suggest the upgrade. Best to wait until the second service pack, when most of the bugs will have been identified and fixed.

 

Vista or XP, the 10,000 RPM drive will give a noticeable performance boost.

 

Boomer

[juggler]

Well at least improve it's performance a bit.

 

Turn off all the animated visual effects and drop shadows and transparencies. This will help with the overall system performance.

 

Other than that there isn't much else I can offer to help. Vista is such a bad OS that Dell and other PC makers are offering new PC's with Windows XP again. I will not touch Vista period.

 

If you really want a good computer buy a Mac. My wife uses a Mac. I've work with the new OS X and it is great. Apple restricts who can make the Mac hardware so quality control is much higher. I have decided I will not buy another Widows computer again. I plan to switch to Mac. I already converted all of my PC based servers to Linux and Free BSD OS's years ago. Now it's time to ditch Windows on the desktop.

 

Cheers.

[spear]

When Vista arrived on the scene, I approached my PC shop where mine was built and asked if I could upgrade to Vista. Now, here's a man in the business of selling 'puters and software - and he said "DON'T DO IT!"

So, I didn't! Sticking with XP-Pro on the PC and XP-Home on the lapdancer.

[heatonmt]

yep, I have it. I bought a new computer last year that had vista loaded on it used it for 2 months, then Boxed it up put in the closet and hook up old computer that had XP on it . Iam smiling again.

 

:7_6_3[1]::7_6_3[1]:

[Pilot]

I use WINDEX it doesn't streak.:rotf::rotf:

 

Couldn't help myself.........

[Cougar]

Got my wife a new dell 1721 laptop . it has Vista on it. She love's it.!

 

But I can not stand it. All the other 5 systems in our

home have XP on them and that is going to stay that way!

 

I did find out that if you use and external drive on Vista

It will see it as memory and run faster. I also noticed

how all the firewalls do slow the system down a bunch.

 

One thing I can say it is very protected. (sheesh)

 

Jeff

[stardbog]

One word:

 

MAC.

 

 

 

Yeah That Got MacBook and works out of box. It's Loaded with very useful software, and simply Works. Love My Mac's.

[Guest Popeye]

I have XP at home & Mac at work & all is well.

I've heard all the many negatives about Vistas.

 

Yesterday I hooked a .5 TB external drive since my Toshiba Satellite notebook is ~6 yrs old.

With the Acronis software I can load & use any OS I wish [the menu gives you the option].

 

Also, if my PC konks, I can get another one & load my 'backed up' HD onto it soooo easily, but, at present, I'm only running 512 MB of RAM so its not super fast. IIRC, it'll take up to 1GB of RAM & I'll probably do that.

 

Consumers reports rated thr Toshiba Satellite as #1 for laptops in its latest edition.....I'm a believer.

[Dexx]

I'm not a computer expert by any means, so I won't be using a lot of technical terms, but here's my two cents. I just got a smoking deal on a laptop that came loaded with Vista Home Premium, based on the advice of a friend who works IT at a local university. Here's what I do know. It has a 160gig hard drive and a 17 inch screen and I have all my music on it now and most of my backlog of digital pictures. I could never find anything on my old computer, but the search feature in vista is very helpful and easy to figure out. BUT....before I did anything with it, I had my the friend who recommended it go through and shut down the useless stuff that i'd heard about but didn't really understand when i was researching new computers. So far I really like it.

[FreezyRider]

Well at least improve it's performance a bit.

 

Turn off all the animated visual effects and drop shadows and transparencies. This will help with the overall system performance.

 

Other than that there isn't much else I can offer to help. Vista is such a bad OS that Dell and other PC makers are offering new PC's with Windows XP again. I will not touch Vista period.

 

If you really want a good computer buy a Mac. My wife uses a Mac. I've work with the new OS X and it is great. Apple restricts who can make the Mac hardware so quality control is much higher. I have decided I will not buy another Widows computer again. I plan to switch to Mac. I already converted all of my PC based servers to Linux and Free BSD OS's years ago. Now it's time to ditch Windows on the desktop.

 

Cheers.

 

 

Hey Juggler, if you are wanting to move away from Windows, you might want to check out PCLinuxOS on your desktop. Nice! Fast, stable, pretty.....and FREE! If you don't like it, then you can still spend your money on a MAC.

 

Joe