Xp Verses Vista

[jaideeguy]

I've been holding out on [upgrading?] to vista because my XP seems ok for most of my needs and mainly because I'm familiar with it. Also reluctant to switch for fear of limitations of software availability.

Those of you with Vista obviously moved up from XP.......so how do you like it??

Pros and cons please...

[A_Traveller]

Here we go again... Perhaps a review of this thread would be helpful, you might of course take the view that it has now become emotional topic, so people seem to respond to question about 'their OS choice' rather as they might if one said 'Well that's the ugliest baby I've ever seen' to a parent

Regards

PS Not sure we'll ever see settled dust.

Edited July 11, 2008 by A_Traveller

[joskydive]

When I bought my notebook, it already had Vista installed on it but when I tried to install my printers, I kept getting the message back saying they weren't compatable with Vista. The same with my Trio phone.

My husband also couldn't get his programmes working that he had on his USB.

Luckily, he has his own in his office but I had to specifically ask for XP Windows Professional to be installed on that one as nearly all computers are set up already on Vista.

[JSixpack]

it has now become emotional topic

Even a religious one. The XP advocates are fairly rational, but the Vistas tend to evangelize with the zeal of recent converts. New has got to be better!

[dotcom]

Sorry A Travler. That thread sure does not discuss the pros & cons. I've yet to hear any pros - apart from the way it connects to a network (slick).

btw - I was up at Seri the other day. No MS OS discs for sale? What's up with that? Pantip got em?

[bangkokrick]

When i bought my laptop with vista installed i was not happy that my peripherals would not work. I looked high and low for the drivers without success and indeed had to buy a new printer that was vista friendly. My camcorder which is only 1 year old will not communicate with vista even though i have downloaded the drivers from the manufacturers web site and tried many times to get the connection. One of the most annoying aspects of vista was the fact that it took forever to shutdown.

Service pack 1 has helped a lot and with the exception of some of the above i am quite happy with it.

Cheers, Rick

[britmaveric]

Most stable OS on the market - used VISTA for quite some time now, and not even one crash. I did have to upgrade my printers because of driver incompatibility, however that being said my printers were 6yrs old anyways.

So if you have legacy hardware, might also consider upgrading it because chances are VISTA won't play nicely with it. Other than that don't see any reason why someone wouldnt upgrade, far superior OS than XP.

[dotcom]

TY for unemotional feedback.

[Guest Reimar]

Just installed Vista Ultimate on an 5 years old ECS 550G Laptop with P4 M 1.90 GHz CPU, 2 GB Memory, 100 GB HDD!

Upgraded from XP Pro which was quite slow comparing to Vista with SP1 right now. OK, haven't installed any Application Software yet because still doing the last updates from MS!

But it looks like that even on those old system Vista works ok! Will see tomorrow after installing the Applications!

On my own computers I didn't have problems with the OS but with the Printer and Scanner Driver for the Lexmark X215. But this can't be blamed to MS but to Lexmark!

Otherwise with up to date hardware vista is the most stable OS I working on and maybe on the Market as well!

Cheers.

[b19bry]

jaideeguy,

As A_Traveller indicates, this really has been done to death on this forum.

If as you say "XP seems ok for most of my needs" and "because I'm familiar with it" you really need to ask yourself "What do I expect from Vista ?" and secondly in the best 'Dirty Harry' tradition "Do you feel lucky ?"

The reality is, Vista is a bit of a resource hog, so if you've older hardware that was designed for XP, Vista may struggle to run well and you likely will forego many of the graphical niceties of Vista. But it really depends what you want from Vista and what hardware you are willing to throw at it.

I moved from XP to Vista cos I got new company laptop which proudly bosts the the Vista logo, yet is a source of constant daily frustration from a performance and usability perspective.............

[dotcom]

I can never remember XP Pro crashing or freezing in 6 years on multiple machines. So it's totally stable too.

I think we've been sold a pig in a poke.

[JSixpack]

I can never remember XP Pro crashing or freezing in 6 years on multiple machines. So it's totally stable too.

I think we've been sold a pig in a poke.

+1. My XP is and has been solid as rock, runs fast & smooth, and looks great w/ added themes (and bblean alternate shell).

No compelling reason at all to upgrade, waste of time and money. I figure it'll take Windows 7 SP1 to introduce something I might really want. WinFS? Oh, well, maybe those wonderful "updated versions of Paint and WordPad" . . . .

[A_Traveller]

WinFS is very unlikely to be in 7, maybe the OS {Midori} afterwards.

Regards

PS Your avatar is puzzling me, is it of an actress?

Edited July 12, 2008 by A_Traveller

[jaideeguy]

The OP is sorry for opening old wounds, but was just wondering what most user's opinions are now that vista has more of the bugs worked out.

Bottom line.......is vista any faster?? or slower??

[britmaveric]

Faster if you have the ideal specs.

[Guest Reimar]

Faster on today's hardware! Special on Dual Core 2/Quad and/or Am2 x2/Quad!

But even installed the right way is faster on 5 years old Laptops, which are designed for XP!

Just Vista need more memory than XP!

And Xp was designed for Hardware available at 2001 and later while Vista was designed for hardware available in 2006 and later.

Windows 7 isn't in the Beta yet, just a Milestones but MS is already started to brewing Windows 8!

Cheers.

[sjaak327]

Both Operating systems are stable, Vista is more secure out of the box.

In terms of functionality Vista has a clear edge over XP, especially when you purchase Vista Ultimate. That edge isn't only clear in the looks department. New features that Vista brings are (just to name a few):

New improved Media Center

Better security, UAC is only one aspect of this

Windows Sidebar

Integrated search

IE7

Bitlocker

DVD maker

Windows Photo gallery

Aero and Flip 3d in the looks department

Windows Media Player 11

Of course there are plenty of utilities that you can use to add these functions to XP as well, but I'm talking out of the box.

If you would purchase a new PC, then no question, get it with Vista, upgrading is a different story, ask yourself a few simple questions:

Is my hardware recent, ie. will it be able to run Vista

Do I want to spend the money, as in, you might as well wait and when it's time to get a new computer, you can get a vista OEM license on that new machine, as opposed to spending money to upgrade XP to vista.

As for this quote:

"No compelling reason at all to upgrade, waste of time and money."

I have tried to at least list a few enhancements that are in Vista, maybe for some people (myself included), reason enough to upgrade. I'll give you a hint, look at the greenbutton, the main site for Media Center people, here you willl find a lot of people, that found a good enough reason to upgrade, in the improved media center application that comes with Vista.

It's a bit like having a Mercedes or a Lada, they both will get you there, but the Mercedes might have a few optionals, but hey if I would drive the Lada, I probably would say that the Mercedes isn't worth the money either

I hope I'm not being irrational here

[Shah Jahan]

Ubuntu?

[nikster]

If you buy a new PC, it usually comes with Vista, and installing XP would a pain, so in that case Vista is better.

If you have an old PC and can't think of a single reason why you would need Vista, that's because there is no single reason to get it. PC performance will nosedive and all for some shiny looks that you'll get over in a flash.

I found Vista's "slick" networking interface to be a complete pain, to be honest. It's just one of many areas where Microsoft "improved" things by making them more shiny and more verbose. More clicks, more dialogs, more bizarre error messages when things go wrong. All in the name of making it "easier" which clearly backfired.

How do you connect to a new wireless network that you have not connected before?

Mac OS X- 1 click

Ubuntu - 1 click (good job swiping this simplest possible interface from OSX, no really, this is one of my most favorite features in ubuntu)

Windows XP - 3 clicks

Vista - 9 or 10 clicks

Just an example. Vista's problem is one of design, unfortunately. If you like large dialog boxes; if you like lots of text in those dialog boxes. If you dislike simple OK/cancel choices and instead prefer reading through 3 paragraphs to select one of them. If you like shiny things that may take a little longer than the non-shiny siblings in XP. If you like an OS that is constantly reminding you of something, or preventing you from doing something for your own safety. Then Vista is for you.

If I had to describe my Vista experience in one sentence, it would be this: It takes longer to get to where you want to be.

Edited July 13, 2008 by nikster

[nikster]

It all really depends. Kudos to you for trying to find actual improvements. My 2ct...

New improved Media Center - Good, if you use it

Better security, UAC is only one aspect of this - UAC is broken, better security marginal, e.g. where and how, are there fewer viruses for Vista because last time I checked all the new malware infects both Vista and XP.

Windows Sidebar - Same as the free Google sidebar or Yahoo sidebar, and eating away just as many resources. Eye candy.

Integrated search - Non-working, just like in XP. Google Desktop search at least works for simple things

IE7 - If you are not using FF by now, you have a problem. Talk about better security

Bitlocker - Cool

DVD maker - Cool

Windows Photo gallery - Cool

Aero and Flip 3d in the looks department - Aero is a good improvement over XP, Flip 3D useless and, dare I say it, rather ugly.

Windows Media Player 11 - Does it suck less? I have been using VLC only... not only does it play more, it's also much more secure.

There's much discussion online of whether Vista is the new Windows ME, and I have to say I am pretty solidly in the "yes, it is" camp.

As outlined above, that's not because the improvements don't IMHO add up to much, but rather because of the many user interface tweaks the majority of which I found to make things worse than in XP.

[raro]

Just bought a new Acer 4720Z - dual core and 2 GB Ram. I run XP on it faster than ever before (well...lots of memory after all..).

Only humps were the drivers, allegedly no longer available for such modern machines. If you ask nicely at the Acer service center in Fortune Town, Ratchada, they have a comp in the public area with ALL the drivers for you to download from. Just bring your memory stick.

Oh, one more thing: Do NOT install the latest XP with SP3 already included. It will NOT work with the laptop. After making a clean install with my XP 2006 and the drivers from the Acer center the laptop runs fast as a fox.

I have the distinct feeling that the SP3 release was a deliberate f%#$-up to make people use Vista. See lots of other problems reported on this and other boards.

Why should I go for Vista? No idea, really!

[raro]

Mac OS X- 1 click

I had a real computer savvy guy over to my place a while ago and he is a real Apple aficionado. After he has set up all his equipment, my house looked like an Apple store...I was impressed...HDDs in shiny cases that connect wireless with his Applebook, remote keyboards...the full nine yards.

I was less impressed that he did not manage to get connected to my wireless after more than half an hour of cussing and sweating. Good that he had a USB drive with him so that we were finally able to swap files like in the good old days of 5 1/4" floppies....

[JSixpack]

WinFS is very unlikely to be in 7, maybe the OS {Midori} afterwards.

Regards

PS Your avatar is puzzling me, is it of an actress?

Unlikely, yes of course.

My avatar? That's Maj. Kendra Shaw, who last held the position of XO aboard the Battlestar Pegasus.

More on the tragic Maj. Shaw: http://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/Kendra_Shaw

And about the actress herself, Stephanie Chaves-Jacobsen: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephanie_Chaves-Jacobsen. Sigh!

If you're into SF and Battlestar Galactica, you'd surely enjoy Razor.

Edited July 13, 2008 by JSixpack

[bdenner]

I dual boot XP SP2 and Vista Ultimate primarily as I'm on a Vista learning curve.

Had a few problems with Vista including this:-

My only connection to the outside world is via GPRS using my Nokia phone on a USB2 port, no other option is available. XP is never a problem and initally I had good modem hardware handshake and connection using Vista. I spent quite some time setting up my ethernet networking on Vista as it fort every inch of the way but in doing so lost the modem handshake and can't get it back.

Device Manager – Modems tells me all is OK including pinging diagnostics, but I still get the Error:- Windows could not detect a dial up modem.

[JSixpack]

It's a bit like having a Mercedes or a Lada, they both will get you there, but the Mercedes might have a few optionals, but hey if I would drive the Lada, I probably would say that the Mercedes isn't worth the money either

I hope I'm not being irrational here

No, w/ Vista it's more like, you've got a fine 2001 Benz but you want to look like you're really cool and trendy to impress people who don't know better. So you junk your perfectly good old Benz and buy the new higher-priced. Actually it's pretty much just the old Benz but w/ distinctive new bumpers and a few extra but very basic gauges you don't really need--and if you did, you could just add better ones to your old Benz for free. Actually you could just buy the extra bumpers too and that would also be much cheaper.

It turns out w/ all the added weight the new Benz of course tends to run slower. And you have buy a lot of special parts for it, because the old 2001 parts won't work now. Besides that, it's in your face all the time, and seems to make things that were simple before needlessly complicated now.

See nikster's post above. Most if not all of the added features can be replaced by as good or better freeware utilities. I'll add:

Bitlocker - Truecrypt, free, better

DVD maker - Sothink Movie DVD Maker, free

Windows Photo gallery - Faststone, Irfanview as good or better; lots of free slideshow maker/burners out there

Serious photographers and video creators will have to go payware. Windows DVD Maker will never, ever touch Avid, for example.

Dunno how many really need Media Center. Friends got that, tried it, promptly went back to their usual blackboxes w/ TIVO--which also didn't tie up their computers. Me, if I wanna listen to some MP3s I use the latest Foobar (free), which will do a lot more with music files than Windows Media 11 ever thought about. Besides VLC that nikster mentions, I like Media Player Classic, very fast & bloat-free, doesn't try to "phone home" all the time like WM11.

And as for Aero, it can be approximated w/ freeware or done better w/ far more flexibility w/ WindowBlinds (USD 20) if eye candy is very important. Check out http://www.wincustomize.com/Skins.aspx?LibID=1

Edited July 13, 2008 by JSixpack

[sjaak327]

I'm glad you found lots of freeware utilities that will add functionality to XP, I think I already mentioned that these are available, that wasn't the point, Vista has these features out of the box, no need to purchase or download these utilities.

I don't think anyone would need media Center, the only thing I can tell, is that I used it with XP (which is a special version that is only available as OEM version with a media center pc), and the improved version that came with Vista, and I never looked back. I simply love it, and have a computer that I only use as media center, as a replacement for my tv.

As for trying to impress people, I couldn't care less. A bit difficult to impress people in that way, (unless you walk around, showing people your desktop or something silly like that). But I hope there is also room for people that have actual experience with Vista and are very happy with the OS. I'm one of those, Vista user from the beginning (far before it was actually on the shelves). It performed better then XP on the same hardware, it had more features and to refer to nikster's post, no way it would take me nine clicks to connect to a new wireless network, and as an OSX user, also no way you can accomplish this with one click, regardless if the network is secured or not (this will obviously add more clicks to connect).

Edited July 13, 2008 by sjaak327

[sjaak327]

It all really depends. Kudos to you for trying to find actual improvements. My 2ct...

New improved Media Center - Good, if you use it

Better security, UAC is only one aspect of this - UAC is broken, better security marginal, e.g. where and how, are there fewer viruses for Vista because last time I checked all the new malware infects both Vista and XP.

Windows Sidebar - Same as the free Google sidebar or Yahoo sidebar, and eating away just as many resources. Eye candy.

Integrated search - Non-working, just like in XP. Google Desktop search at least works for simple things

IE7 - If you are not using FF by now, you have a problem. Talk about better security

Bitlocker - Cool

DVD maker - Cool

Windows Photo gallery - Cool

Aero and Flip 3d in the looks department - Aero is a good improvement over XP, Flip 3D useless and, dare I say it, rather ugly.

Windows Media Player 11 - Does it suck less? I have been using VLC only... not only does it play more, it's also much more secure.

There's much discussion online of whether Vista is the new Windows ME, and I have to say I am pretty solidly in the "yes, it is" camp.

As outlined above, that's not because the improvements don't IMHO add up to much, but rather because of the many user interface tweaks the majority of which I found to make things worse than in XP.

The big difference with malware on Vista as opposed to Xp is that under XP it's much easier to run under elevated authority and hence wreck the system. Under Vista the user at least will see the UAC, and if the user is not completely stupid it will not allow it. Before you start and continue the UAC whinge, on a proper configured system, such a dialog will set off alarm bells. As UAC will only show itself in the case where you actually run a program that needs this authority (for instance if you run device manager). If you as a user hasn't initiated such program, and all of a sudden UAC dialog appears, then it might be a piece of mallware trying to do something. XP will not show such warning.

IE7 is IMHO a nice browser, much more improved over IE6, and it is a secure browser, which under Vista runs with added security. I also run FF and Opera but I prefer IE7. Actually I would prefer Opera over FF.

The online discussion about ME being Vista is utterly useless, as Vista isn't the new ME. Vista will be the basis for Windows 7, is already 1,5 years the main desktop OS from Microsoft and will be until 2010, ME was windows 98 with a few added features, and was never MS's main desktop OS, at the time of ME's release Windows 2000 was already around, and one year later, XP marked the end of the separation between the home OS line (win95,98,me) and the business OS line (NT3.X, NT4, Windows 2000).

[JSixpack]

the user at least will see the UAC, and if the user is not completely stupid it will not allow it.

Oh, but so many are completely stupid. That's why I stopped installing two-way firewalls for average users. They will either always allow everything or they will disallow a normal program like Outlook Express and then can't check their emails. Then they can't change the rule to allow Outlook Express. And they'll do this repeatedly.

The online discussion about ME being Vista is utterly useless, as Vista isn't the new ME.

Oh, we're very aware of the technical gap. But the analogy is nonetheless apt (and hence useful) to understand the offer of something at a higher price to replace an existing product without commensurate improvement. And although XP was based on 2000, it was initially difficult to change to 2000 because of the same old problems of hardware/software incompatibility and hence not really worth it even for the added stability. That is, it wasn't really a choice for the average user.

To take pity on you for having spent all that money for little real benefit, I'll give you a link to some real Vista tweaks so that you can get more out of it and make it a nicer experience. You can even pretty much turn off UAC, for example. Here you go, pal:

http://www.howtogeek.com/tag/windows-vista#tips

[sjaak327]

Thanks for the link, however I'm perfectly aware of vista tweaks, NO way I woud turn UAC off. Utterly stupid to do so. And not needed, as it doesn't get in my way.

Regarding ME, I think the whole discussion is about the fact that Vista does offer substantial improvement over XP. That's why the ME discussion isn't applicable. Also to move from Win98 to Win2000 wasn't that difficult. I actually moved from Win98 to Windows 2000 at that time, after I found out that ME wasn't for me. It took me all but 45 minutes to find the applicable drivers for all my hardware.

Oh and for this line:

"To take pity on you for having spent all that money for little real benefit"

You don't have to, I have a Microsoft subscription, paid for by my company, I don't have to pay anything to run vista (on as many pc as I want to)

And again I don't think I'm stupid, yet I found a lot of benefit running Vista over XP.

Edited July 14, 2008 by sjaak327

[dominique355]

My question to MS would be: Why do you keep cranking out new OS (and any other application software) instead of making finally one flawless version of the existing software?

My suspicion is that this way you can sell "new" products, which are not really new and work halfway acceptable only after bugfix (aka service pack) 3, after which you quickly announce a new version, repeating the process over and over again. I am still waiting for a MS WORD version, which can handle large documents without crashing. And WORD has now been on the market for how many years? 20 or so?

My motto: Whenever possible, use a non-Microsoft product and I never regretted it. Having said that, my new ACER 6920 had Vista Ultimate pre-installed and it drives me nuts!