Windows Vista or Windows XP?

[TWINKLE]

Which is best and why?

Please[:)]

[ChezShells]

My advise would be at least 2gb memory and a decent cpu for vista, it can get very slow, looks and feels good at first but after a while I wanted XP back

[TWINKLE]

Ok - and thanks!

Anyone else prefer XP to Vista?

[Tim]

I've got three machines running Windows - two on XP and last year we bought a laptop with Vista - albeit with some trepidation. Having said that, I have had absolutely no problems with Vista although I must admit I've turned off most of it's 'whistles and bells' - none of them really grabbed me so now my Vista looks very familiar to users of XP.

It seems to be a little more resiliant to some of the nasties out the on the web. I run a programme every week called Advanced Windows Care on both the XP and Vista machine - it helps keep the machines clear of junk - there seems to be less to remove from the Vista machine.

So, bottom line - I do like XP - but I'm getting on well with Vista. Probably doesn't help much - sorry.[:$]

Tim

[Clair]

[quote user="Timco"]

I've got three machines running Windows - two on XP and last year we bought a laptop with Vista - albeit with some trepidation. Having said that, I have had absolutely no problems with Vista although I must admit I've turned off most of it's 'whistles and bells' - none of them really grabbed me so now my Vista looks very familiar to users of XP.

It seems to be a little more resiliant to some of the nasties out the on the web. I run a programme every week called Advanced Windows Care on both the XP and Vista machine - it helps keep the machines clear of junk - there seems to be less to remove from the Vista machine.

So, bottom line - I do like XP - but I'm getting on well with Vista. Probably doesn't help much - sorry.[:$]

Tim

[/quote]

Ditto!

[tel]

Hi,

Have been running Vista Premium on one of my computers for a year now and like Timco turned of the annoying novice user Bells & Whistles, now when I use my XP Pro PC it feels outdated and bland.  So IMHO Vista, provided you have above the minimum spec on your computer.

Regards

[Rjpfrancais]

I largely agree with what's been said above. A couple of things I would check on;

 

If you have existing expensive software, does it fully support Vista? And, are there any issues that will affect you? (A quick Google should identify these).

 

If you've got existing peripherals (e.g. printers, scanners etc) are they fully supported under Vista?

 

To give you an example of what I am getting at by 'fully supported'; My wife has a greetings card creation package, yes it will run under Vista but some features don't work. Also to add further annoyance, her Hewlett Packard  photo printer is 'supported' under Vista but HP have only issued a 'generic' driver which lacks several of the features of the older XP driver, and produces poorer results with photos.

 

Actually, this last issue may mean that we swap my wife’s PC back to XP. But that’s no big issue as XP will be around for many years to come and be fully supported by Microsoft.

 

But don’t read into the above that I have a big downer on Vista, I don’t and it’s getting better with each update but just don’t assume it’s 100% backwards compatible.

 

Incidentally, if you are a light user (emails, web surfing, photo editing, music and a bit word processing), I have found that most new PC’s will run Vista okay with 1Gb of RAM, but make sure that the RAM size can be increased later if you need it.

 

.

[tel]

Hi,

Before changing to Vista (from XP) you can download the Vista Upgrade Tool (see link below) run the diagnostic and it will generate a report on what Hardware and Software you have and whether it will run on Vista.  I did just this and found I only had to change my Graphics card.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/buyorupgrade/upgradeadvisor.mspx?wt_svl=20409a&mg_id=20409b

I didn't 'Upgrade' but bought an O.E.M. version of Vista at a quarter of the price of the Retail version and did a clean install.  Upgrades can sometimes cause all sorts of problems.

You pays your money and you takes your choice.

Regards

[tenniswitch]

We had 2 machines running XP and I recently bought a new laptop, also with XP, partly because of software (Photoshop, etc.) and partly because I wanted to be able to transfer files seamlessly amongst the machines.

I had to buy Office 2007 for the laptop and find its "ribbon" concept quite annoying, which makes me think I would not adore Vista.

It really depends on what you have (in terms of memory and other software) and what you want to do.  Vista requires a good bit more memory than XP, and the most recent consensus among the experts seems to be that it runs a bit more slowly.

[Tim]

[quote user="tenniswitch"]

We had 2 machines running XP and I recently bought a new laptop, also with XP, partly because of software (Photoshop, etc.) and partly because I wanted to be able to transfer files seamlessly amongst the machines.

I had to buy Office 2007 for the laptop and find its "ribbon" concept quite annoying, which makes me think I would not adore Vista.

It really depends on what you have (in terms of memory and other software) and what you want to do.  Vista requires a good bit more memory than XP, and the most recent consensus among the experts seems to be that it runs a bit more slowly.

[/quote]

Although I think your comments could be true, I have to say that in my experience I have had no problems either with the speed of Vista nor with accessing and exchanging files between Vista and XP machines. As I said' I have switched off the gimmicks and even with only 1 gig of ram it certainly keeps up well with one of XP machines which has 1.2 gig of ram and is considerably faster than my other XP machine which only has 512 meg.

I had an old copy of Office lying around which I have put on my Vista laptop  - 2002 I think, so I'm not sure what this 'ribbon' thing is, but Vista runs it very well.

I wouldn't say that I'm fully converted to Vista over XP as I am more familiar with XP, but Vista, in my opinion, is certainly not the ghastly beast it's been made out to be.

By the way Twinkle, how is all this in helping you make up your mind? [8-)]I suppose if you're buying a new machine it's more than likely to have Vista by default.

Regards - Tim

[Alex H]

Nice to know you're all having a better time than these 3 Microsoft VPs [:D][:D][:D]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/09/business/09digi.html?_r=1&ex=1362805200&en=9899c43e9a2c10fb&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin

[TWINKLE]

Hi!

I was hesitating between keeping my computer and changing the modem for an XP but realised that I could have the whole shebam with Vista for the same price. 

Thank you for your comments - they helped me make the decision to go out to-day and buy a 'hp' Pavillion pc package with Windows Vista.  It has 3gb, 48 x 30 cm flat screen and it cost 750 euro. 

Husbands group birthday present that I'm allowed to play with[:D]

[Tim]

[quote user="TWINKLE"]

Hi!

I was hesitating between keeping my computer and changing the modem for an XP but realised that I could have the whole shebam with Vista for the same price. 

Thank you for your comments - they helped me make the decision to go out to-day and buy a 'hp' Pavillion pc package with Windows Vista.  It has 3gb, 48 x 30 cm flat screen and it cost 750 euro. 

Husbands group birthday present that I'm allowed to play with[:D]

[/quote]

Good luck with it Twinkle - although I'm slightly confused about your comment concerning the modem. Let us know how you get on.

Regards - Tim

[TWINKLE]

I'm a bit confused about it all[:)] I think maybe I meant an XP tower - without the screen and keyboard if you see what I mean!

[tenniswitch]

[quote user="Timco"]

Although I think your comments could be true, I have to say that in my experience I have had no problems either with the speed of Vista nor with accessing and exchanging files between Vista and XP machines. As I said' I have switched off the gimmicks and even with only 1 gig of ram it certainly keeps up well with one of XP machines which has 1.2 gig of ram and is considerably faster than my other XP machine which only has 512 meg.

I had an old copy of Office lying around which I have put on my Vista laptop  - 2002 I think, so I'm not sure what this 'ribbon' thing is, but Vista runs it very well.

I wouldn't say that I'm fully converted to Vista over XP as I am more familiar with XP, but Vista, in my opinion, is certainly not the ghastly beast it's been made out to be.

By the way Twinkle, how is all this in helping you make up your mind? [8-)]I suppose if you're buying a new machine it's more than likely to have Vista by default.

Regards - Tim

[/quote]

I wasn't suggesting that Vista is horrible, but it's enough aggro keeping our 3 machines synching happily that I didn't want to bother with a new OS.  And I know that some people who have the architectural and phot software that I run have had serious conflicts with Vista. 

It all depends on what you're going to be doing.

As far as Office goes, unfortunately I didn't have an old copy of Office 2003 around and couldn't find one from any source I consider completely reliable.  I don't find the "ribbon" format in Office 2007 any simpler or faster than drop-down menus; both Word and Excel have default file formats that are not backward-compatible (so that you must either change the default formats or else install a "compatibility" program on your older machines); and MS has down something very strange with the Word templates.  It's all do-able, just annoying.

[AnOther]

The jury is still out for me. I have a "Lite" version of Vista installed on a second drive for my 4 year old laptop and it runs surprisingly well (boot up in 45 seconds, but I do have 2gb RAM). I don't have the Aero eye candy because the graphics in the laptop don't support it but frankly I regard that as a plus not a minus.

I'm still trying out my favourite programmes to see if they all run properly, which all do so far, but not yet wholly convinced of the benefits of changing over. 

Some might want to wait for VIENNA which could be a radical diversion from previous offerings, but then again, with Microsoft's long history of delayed releases, you might not live long enough [:'(]