[rgeiken]

I think that a lot of satisfied Vista users would disagree with this story. If you disable UAC through the control panel, you can get Vista to work like XP only better. I have had Vista on a computer that I have had for over a year, and I am very satisfied. Companies may want to stick with XP if they have vast amounts of older computers with that O/S installed, but that is no reason that home users can't move to Vista. Best to buy a new computer with a quad processor and 4 gig of ram or more if you are going to install 64 bit Vista. I love Vista and all the new programs that work fine with it, and would not want to go back to XP under any conditions. I also have been able to get some 10 to 15 year old programs to work with Vista. Also older hardware can be more easily installed than with prior O/S's

[Grouchy]

I'm sorry, but I disagree. There is nothing wrong with Vista. It has its quirks yes, but what from MS doesn't ? It's people like you who cant accept change that are making things bad for everyone. I was glad to be away from Xp. I do not miss the online freezes and even to this day finding drivers for hardware that work as advertised. I have had no issues with drivers or software on my Vista machine at all. Simply right click and run as admin ! In Xp you have to jump through the compatability hoops. Get with the times and realize that change will happen whether you like it or not !

[Pizzaboy192]

i agree with jackthebomb

i had to reinstall my laptop TWICE in 1 night with xp, because while online with DIALUP i got hit with maleware, while downloading my antivirus software.

i installed vista onto my new desktop computer, and ran it for 2 weeks on DSL, without any viruses.



i like my copy of vista, because it actually works, with xp, you have to tweak it wayyy too much to be woth my time, i had xp on my new machine for 2 days while i waited for my vista disk to arrive, and 15 minutes into my copy of vista, i had re-partitioned my old xp partition into more storage...

TAKE THAT XP

<please read my blogs>

Pizza-OUT!

[mmm111]

No company in history has ever made billions of $'s off such an exceptionally poor quality product as MS has made from Vista. Their denial of Vista's shortcomings is a text book example of poor leadership.

[Rickster]

i'm actually a fan of windows vista because, let's be honest, where else would you find this much eye candy in one place?

[jrbales]

Vista: I like it! It runs great for me and does everything I want. But I should have guessed: after bashing Vista for seven paragraphs, we get to the meat of the article: Why not try Linux (or Mac OS X). Just another Microsoft bashing.

[PastorDonnie]

copy, that, vista is running well for me now a little over a year- I vista business ultimate w/office 12 and having no problems with any; people are just looking for something to bellyache about, it will work for if you want to use another then the guy who wrote article which we both are reponding to should go get Linux, red hat, or any other os, install on his machine and do what it is he wants..........

[onecookie]

So what are you supposed to do if you are not too computer savvy and have a laptop that came with Vista???

[cb3431]

Consider yourself lucky. Vista is easy to use.

[rgreen4]

Onecookie - Welcome to the PC World Community. It should be obvious that many users have no problems with Vista. If you are having a specific problem, I would invite you to post the particular problem and give our diverse group of members a chance to work with you to solve it.

[crazy4laptops]

start by removing all unneeded crap from startup

goto start > run > type "msconfig' (no quotes) and goto the startup tab uncheck everything but the mouse(synaptics or alps), video(ati/intel/nvidia), audio(conexant/idt/etc.) and your antivirus/firewall

Then defragment the hard drive using a nifty program called jkdefrag

Free replacements for various programs-

use songbird instead of itunes
use firefox intead of internet explorer
use foxit pdf instead of adobe

all of the programs above are open source, safer, faster, and more secure than the closed source counterparts
Or you could switch to linux. Head over to wubi-installer.org to learn more.

[Richard2000]

I do not know who Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols is but he seems to lack experience. I have used XP-Pro for years and like it a lot but my new desktop and laptop both came with Vista installed. I did have early problems to get some of my old software to run but now everything runs perfectly. On the Vista laptop I also installed XP-pro and loaded it with exactly the same programs that I have running on the Vista. There is no difference that I could see except that Vista is prettier. And so how can Vaughan-Nichols say Vista is awful? I now do not use the XP system anymore because I might as well enjoy Vista's better looks. I would say that if you buy a cheaper computer which is not so fast than you should definitely install XP because for Vista to run properly you must have a fast computer.

[rtfire1]

be happy you a great os and make sure your laptop has 2 gb of ram or more.

[onecookie]

Thanks for the feedback. I have taken all the startup programs off that I don't use or need and you are right, it does help. I do the usual stuff; like defrag on a regular basis, and try to keep the email from piling up. I just feel a little trapped and manipulated, and sometimes wish that I knew more. Too bad we can't go back to the days of build your own and no worries about viruses, worms, and such. I like to keep my life simple, as much as I can at least.

[rgreen4]

When I upgraded my first machine to Vista a year and a half ago, it was with the free HP supplied upgrade but there wasn't very much information available. So I did something that I did when I first went to XP and when I first went to Win2000Pro. I bought David Pogue's book published by O'Reilly Media. The book is titled "Windows VIsta: The Missing Manual". He has a series of books Windows 2000 Pro, Windows XP Pro, and Windows Vista, Microsoft Excel 2007, Microsoft Word 2007 among others.

The book is thorough without being over the head, but doesn't take the postion of treating the reader as a dummy either. There are two versions, I have the full version, but there is a shorter version "Windows Vista for Starters: The Missing Manual" Both are listed here on Amazon.

[dragon69]

windows 7 is vista without the vista name
Microsoft has done this in the past and is doing this again windows 7 is just a repackaged vista so don't expect anything great from windoze 7 in my humble opinion
they can't sell ( and hardly give it away ) so they repackage it so most noobs will not know the difference
Microsoft is in the business of pushing their customers to apple macs and linux ( but in this regard they are doing great lol)
good luck and take care
chuck

[rgreen4]

If you are trying to convince yourself that Vista is a failure, go ahead, but be sure not to confuse yourself with the facts. The only operating system in the world with more licenses than Vista (some 200 Million at last count) is XP. And of course it's been out for 7 years and VIsta has not yet been out 2 years.

The legions of satisfied Vista users are beginning to post that they are tired of the constant Vista bashing. The worst Vista will fare, is second place in sucess to XP. That is not a failure, and as XP ages, it will be replaced by a version of a Windows OS whose prime version number is 6. Whether it be Vista (ver 6.0) or Windows 7 (ver 6.1), does not matter. There are many who are posting in other discussions that they have experienced fewer problems with Vista in a variety of circumstances than they did with XP.

[Pizzaboy192]

Thank you Rgreen.

I have been using Vista for 1 year now, and I can honestly say that the only BSODs I get are always in the VM I use so that I can give support to my customers who do not have Vista yet. I love how easy it is to get a device working on my system, just plug it in, and have fun. XP used to crash with my new flat panel monitor, Whereas Vista actually works on it. The problem I see with XP is the fact that is OUTDATED!!!!!!!!!!! I had trouble finding xp drivers for my old hardware, and now I have found it hard to get Xp drivers for my new hardware. People will be changing away from XP as soon as they see that they are pushing against a brick wall.



Please stop Bashing Vista, especially when you base your opinions from people who tried vista when it first came out, or from a review on some site that has unreputable reviews. The only thing worse would be basing your opinion from Wikipedia.



Pizza-OUT!

[Tech4me]

Hey Pizza. Good point.

I have mine for over a year without any problem and I love it more after SP1. I find myself so depressing if I have to go back to XP.

Tech.......out.

[piyushsingh]

Its good to see so many vista fans now.