# Vista Dread



## donsgal (May 2, 2005)

Well, judging from the sluggish performance of my current laptop and the fact that I have worn the letters off of my E, N, and S keys, it looks like my 18 month purchase of a new computer is right around the corner (hopefully I can hold out another couple of months, since I have JUST now hit the one year mark on my present Dell).

I am really, really, really NOT looking forward to having to deal with Vista OS. Everything I have read about it is bad. It's bloated, awkward and there are endless issues with peripherals. I have some older printers (one circa 2003) and I KNOW that I'm going to have a problem with them.

I understand that Microsoft has given an "extension" to XP for new computer purchases, however, I cannot boogie down to my local store to buy a system (time is not on my side), so I have to order from an online source.

My question to you all is - really and truly how bad is VISTA? I'd love to hear your stories about the learning curve, the performance issues and those nasty stories about peripheral problems. I'm hoping that maybe the negative is over-hyped and it's really not *that* bad. LOL

dosngal


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## Gary in ohio (May 11, 2002)

donsgal said:


> My question to you all is - really and truly how bad is VISTA? I'd love to hear your stories about the learning curve, the performance issues and those nasty stories about peripheral problems. I'm hoping that maybe the negative is over-hyped and it's really not *that* bad. LOL
> 
> dosngal



Several things, While XP has gotten an extension, its going to get another one. Vista is going to go down just like ME did. Vista is not getting acceptance within the business community and XP will live on. Windows 7 will be the next true release of windows and its not out till 2010.

Second vista is big and bloted but so are the computers your going to buy. People are getting by default way more cpu power than most can use, the price is cheap, the CPU is fast, memory is cheap and disk are big so even if you do go vista from a typical user stand point turn vista classic mode on and make it look like XP.

I personally right now would not buy from a vendor that forced me into vista, most major vendors still offer XP solutions


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## gccrook (Nov 21, 2003)

I will say that I was dreading getting Vista on my new HP laptop, but I have had zero issues with it. It is bloated, but so are most modern OSes today. It's default settings as installed are terrible, but they can all be changed. HP and probably every other OEM installs way too much stuff that runs at startup and slows down the computer. I fixed that. I have had no issues with my printers which are much older than 2003. Really, I cannot say that much against Vista other than the default setting they install it with. I use Winpatrol to control what starts up and what runs in the background all the time. I use Firefox for surfing and in general do not use any Microsoft apps other than the Vista itself.

My HP has 2 Gb RAM, 250 GB Hard Drive, 1.9 Ghz AMD Turion. It really is a good machine and runs great.


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## WisJim (Jan 14, 2004)

We got Vista on our new laptop, and our five year old desktop is fast and easy to use by comparison. I have done everything suggested in this forum to try to get Vista to work better, and it is just awful. I am beginning to feel like we through away the money that we spent for the machine. We got it with 2 gig of memory so I don't feel that should be a problem. sounds like our machine is the same as what gccrook mentioned above. It sometimes takes 5 minutes (and yes, I have timed it by the clock on the kitchen wall) to get started--from the time I turn it on until the screen appears with windows ready to go. 

It is just awful.


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## OntarioMan (Feb 11, 2007)

As Gary mentions - lots of vendors still selling XP systems, so if that is what you're comfortable with, go XP.

As for Vista - it would appear that folks are about half and half. With the way new computer prices have plunged, continue to drop - and since an operating system is included with the purchase of most PCs, I see no pressing reason to get Vista now.

Will Vista be a flop? I don't know - ME certainly was, XP certainly wasn't.

.


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## gccrook (Nov 21, 2003)

Interesting. Can you tell which Vista you have? I have Vista Home Premium. Just wondering if there are significant differences in the different Vista versions. I would not claim that my system starts up super fast, but certainly not 5 minutes, and no slower than my XP desktop of similar configuration. My brother, who just hates Vista on his laptop, says that it runs much better now that he got SP1. I cannot get SP1 yet, because HP has not updated the driver for the audio on my laptop, and it is one of the items that keeps SP1 from being available to me. Probably the biggest complaint that I have is the speed of copying files, and I hear the SP1 has addressed that issue.


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## MaineFarmMom (Dec 29, 2002)

We have Vista Home Premium on two laptops - love it.


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## MoBackwoods (Mar 13, 2008)

The combination of Windows Vista and Dell is an absolute disaster. My Gateway laptop died after about 6 yrs and never had any problems running XP on the Gateway (the hard drive just self destructed, it was due being 6 yrs old). I bought a Dell Inspiron and had trouble from the get-go. Went to hook it up and get on the internet, found out my computer was shipped with no internal modem. Dell's fix, sent me an external modem like we used back in the 80's sqeulching and all. All contacts with my problems were routed to CS centers all over the world.... India, Japan, Korea....u name it (outsourced CS). I finally lost my cool and told a U.S. Rep I wanted my money returned on a computer that was ordered to certain specs but not delivered. After much anger and high blood pressure, Dell agreed to send me a new system in exchange for the one I was sent. Time elapse - 2 months!

When I first started using Vista, any time there were download updates, Vista took control of my computer and made it go thru the restart process without warning or asking if you wanted to restart now. It just took control! This has since been fixed ( I think). There are so many problems using Vista and the internet that I can't list them all. One example, starting AOL is a crap shoot. Sometimes it starts right up, other times you will get the message, "This page (homepage for AOL) can not be located." Now...does that tell you something, can't find the AOL homepage!

My advise.....Stay away from Dell and Windows Vista. This was my first 
experience with both and my last!

Good Luck.


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## Sumer (May 24, 2003)

I got a new computer in January and still have mixed thinking about Vista.
One thing I didnt know was that Vista didnt come with the normal Microsoft Word/Works programs my last computer had and what I use all the time. You have to buy them seprately at I think it was $150ish. Or have a computer literate kid like I do.
My old printer didnt work properly, It printed but didnt have all the options and no ink monitor to tell me what ink was low or out. Scanner didnt work either, was a shot it the dark if it did scan, like it had a mind of its own. So I Bought a new printer scanner combo (wanted one anyways) that suposadly worked with Visa and it worked fine untill it conflicted with opening Works spreadsheets. The good thing was the computer told me what the problem was and I was able to get a patch pretty easily. XP never told me what was wrong and how to fix it so I was left clueless when things didnt work.
Some of my old programs didnt work either. Autocad didnt work untill I found a patch now it works fine.
Getting stuff off of a disk that I saved with XP takes F O R E V E R to convert it to Vista. 
Now the latest tweek (just tried to do this this week for the first time) is me trying to save stuff onto a disk takes just as long. Seems it has to format the disk first. I dont get it, did they change the way disks work in the last 8 years too? Why should it take 30+ minutes to save to a disk? 
Im not the brainest on computer stuff, and I probably havent found all the flaws yet, but so far every problem I have been able to fix, cept the time saving to a disk. It better stay that way cause its all I got. Other than all that its working OK.

All in all I would say the problem with Vista is that it has problems.


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## WisJim (Jan 14, 2004)

We have Vista Home Premium on our HP laptop, with 2g of memory. I see in the news today that Microsoft is going to stop selling XP in June.

I sure wish I could use our new laptop, but Vista is just impossible for us. I have tried everything suggested in this forum a while back, no noticable improvement. And then I discovered that a GIS map program that I have uses ArcReader in a version not compatible with Vista, and the deciding factor in getting the new laptop to supplement our old desktop computer was so I could use this program out in the field in the new job that I am developing. So I certainly feel that I through $750 or $800 away on the laptop with Vista.


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## L-MO (Apr 17, 2008)

We have two laptops running Vista. One just received and installed SP1. Both function well but the two users for each laptop are the 'perfect' Vista users. Only one laptop prints anything. Both are mainly used for internet browsing (not Internet Explorer). One uses the greatly enhanced Media tools.

SP1 took forever and a day to download and install. It behaved very badly for the first couple of days. I had to re-establish WLAN connectivity and reinstall AVG Free Anti-Virus and AVG Anti-Spyware after the SP1 'upgrade'. Easy Cleaner used to run very nicely prior to SP1 - now it hangs up often - during the Deleting Unnecessary Files operation.

Vista is okay but you are rolling the dice if you don't have brand new Vista compatible external devices (camera - for direct USB connection, printer, etc).

We also have an XP, Mac, and Linux computers on our home network. Vista is the least preferred by me ... I am the one who takes care of the machines.


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## WisJim (Jan 14, 2004)

We regularly run all updates etc and they haven't made a noticeable difference. I usually use Firefox as a browser, but didn't notice the difference that I do on the other computer, between Firefox and Internet Explorer. Neither one runs very fast on Vista.


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## L-MO (Apr 17, 2008)

Not bashing Firefox (because I do like it) but it is not fast on any OS. If you are interested in looking at a gecko-based browser (like Firefox and SeaMonkey) that is fast, check out K-Meleon. Just a suggestion.


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## LvDemWings (Sep 11, 2005)

Vista came installed on this laptop. I wasn't thrilled about it but thats all the stores had at the time. It has taken some getting used to but I don't have any problems with it working. I don't like where it wants to put things and with having a partitioned hard drive I'm finding that I have quite a bit of unuseable space. This is a personal issue and one that I can fix if I bugs me enough.

I have a duel core processor and 2 gig of ram and find that it is way faster than my desktop that has 3/4 the processor speed, 2 gig of ram and runs windows 2000 pro.


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## mnn2501 (Apr 2, 2008)

MoBackwoods said:


> The combination of Windows Vista and Dell One example, starting AOL is a crap shoot. Sometimes it starts right up, other times you will get the message, "This page (homepage for AOL) can not be located." Now...does that tell you something, can't find the AOL homepage!
> 
> My advise.....Stay away from Dell and Windows Vista. This was my first
> experience with both and my last!
> ...


My advise, stay away from AOL also :bouncy: Seriously as someone that does Tech Support for a living, I will be sticking with XP as long as possible (ie til my 2 computers die and I can't get parts to fix them) hopefully Microsoft will have a good OS by then.
Vista reminds me of Windows ME - get it to market fast cause Bill Gates needs the cash and work out the bugs later


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## OntarioMan (Feb 11, 2007)

For those folks wishing to purchase any system with XP on it, you're more than likely going to have to order the system (online or phone) - eg. Dell, HP, IBM/Lenovo, etc. Most stores appear to carry only Vista powered machines, especially "Big Box" stores.

.


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## NewlandNubians (Jul 10, 2003)

I got a new PC with vista basic on it over a year ago when it hadn't been out long. I HATED it. I tried to downgrade to XP but long story it didn't work out. I did some reading and learned that the PC I bought BRAND NEW *barely* had enough RAM to run Vista BASIC and there was a lot of talk about that about on the 'net. And I didn't even buy the cheapest one they had in the store!!! I kind of blame the computer manufacturer for that (It's an emachine). So I maxed out the RAM my computer could hold and now it runs great! And RAM for this new PC is extremely, extremely cheap and although I'm moderately good at computers I am not an expert but I still managed to install the RAM myself. Read up on RAM requirements and check out RAM prices before you buy, I feel like I made out pretty good as the RAM cost about $50 for a max of what the motherboard can handle. I can't remember what mine had to begin with, but it says it now has 2 gig ram. I suspect it had less than that on the single original card because I bought two 1 gig cards and removed the original card. Processor it came with is still in it, 3 ghz intel pentium 4.

As far as putting your peripheral devices goes, I have found Vista to be very compatable with my ancient computer equipment. I installed an HP printer on it that was ten years old with no problems using the computer's suggested drivers. I also installed my Epson scanner on it of about the same vintage and it works great and was harder to install (had to get Epson to help with a problem I was having with the TWAIN driver) but once installed it is working fine. I was surprised at that. Very surprised. I just bought a color laser printer and it too installed beautifully and it communicates with Vista very quickly. I have a USB foot pedal that works great with it too - no problems.


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## mikellmikell (Nov 9, 2005)

Tiger Direct has 24 XP Pro notebook models starting at 399$ and 68 desktop starting at 179$

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/category/category_slc.asp?Recs=10&Nav=|c:3449|&Sort=4


http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/category/category_slc.asp?Recs=10&Nav=|c:1815|&Sort=4


XP LIVES

mikell


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## beorning (Apr 14, 2006)

I just sent out an order for new components to build a computer and decided to go with Vista for my OS after a good degree of research. XP is on it's way out, and wasn't without it's share of issues and problems, nor was it embraced immediately in business applications. It was just around long enough for Microsoft to work out some of it's kinks. A lot of the issues I've heard about with Vista seem to stem from it's higher system requirements. It isn't going to run well on an old machine, and it requires a lot more ram than XP did to function well. Ram is cheap, these days. There are multiple versions of Vista out there, and I've yet to hear anyone recommend Vista home basic. Home premium seems to be where you want to start if you're considering upgrading or doing a clean installation on a new PC. There are also two different versions of the software, 32 bit and 64 bit. If you buy the OS retail, you get access to both versions. If it comes on your machine from the manufacturer or you buy the OEM version you get one or the other. 32 bit is being recommended for most users right now as it it will support more hardware/software applications than 64 bit. 64 bit is the "wave of the future" but it seems to still be pretty far out at sea and lacking at the moment.

Here is a link to a site that has a laundry list of Vista-themed "beginner's guides" with good information on tweaking the OS to perform better, upgrading on an old machine from XP, as well as problem solving info for when Vista makes steam come out of one's ears:

http://www.pcstats.com/articlesearc...gory=220&CategorySearch=Get+Listing&sort=date


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## Sumer (May 24, 2003)

Breaking news story LOL:

*Man gets Windows Vista to work with printer*

http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/microsoft/archives/141343.asp?source=mypi


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## HermitJohn (May 10, 2002)

I've not tried Vista and probably wont unless a computer with it installed already crosses my path. But what exactly does Vista and 2gb of ram do for anybody that Xp didnt do? Especially for home users? All this bother just for more eye candy? Buisinesses dont seem to be jumping on the bandwagon. I'd say its just an interum M$ revenue enhancement like winME. Makes me wonder however if windows 7 is going to need like 5gb ram just to run......

I will mention that there are "pruned" pirate versions of Vista floating around on web, they should be much faster though without lot of the so called "benefits" of bloat. Think they were made with n-lite which is free so you can actually prune your own copy of Vista which is perfectly legal. I'd make a backup first. Pruning willy nilly might get you an unstable mess. 
Takes some work and trial and error to prune down bloat in a truly effective manner. I've got little pirate version of XP I found and it is most stable version of windows I've ever seen. I ditched my full install of XP for tiny version and it does excellent job running the two windows only programs I use offline. I am lazy and not going to use ANY windows online, just too much hassle to keep clean and updated.


I did just set up a new no operating system bargain computer for a friend and installed Puppy 4.00. This computer was designed for XP/Vista though came standard with 1gb ram, the second 1gb needed for Vista would cost $30 more as option. Puppy never has needed more than 256mb ram to run anything in the linux world so didnt go for the second 1gb. However Puppy flies on this thing, fastest I've ever seen it or any other operating system. Computer is amazingly quiet, even the power supply. Havent seen anything close since ancient computers that had just heat sink and no fan and those generally had kinda noisy power supply. I was impressed, not expecting such in bargain basement computer.


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