[PCWorld]

Post your comments for Performance Results Mixed with Vista Service Pack 1 here

[aweysham]

Interesting article but I would like to know if some of the well known Vista problems such as remember folder settings and installation of updates have been corrected.

[snorg]

What is the file size of SP1 ???

[Yakumo]

SP1 needs hours to days to recreate performance data, same as the original release, testing prior to that is meaningless for real world results, showing actual use performance.
"The Windows Vista SP1 install process clears the user-specific data that is used by Windows to optimize performance, which may make the system feel less responsive immediately after install. As the customer uses their SP1 PC, the system will be retrained over the course of a few hours or days and will return to the previous level of responsiveness."

[jakthebomb]

i just installed the sp1 for vista and my laptop is so far faster than before. it took about 1 hour to install. no crashes so far.

[aweysham]

Well that's a good sign! I only use a laptop also.

[Yakumo]

You'd be far better off asking for the crc32 and md5sum, much, MUCH safer way to evaluate a legtimate copy.

Final official word on the RTM build number would help too.

But either way downloading from anywhere other than a microsoft hosted server invalidates the licence.

[JB1234]

Melissa,

Thanks for the story. Do you know if the network improvements carry over the Windows Media Center and how it interfaces with the Xbox 360?

I have been disappointed with the lag time between my Xbox and PC, and wonder if the "improved network performance" will carry over to the PC/Xbox with reduced lag times.

The lags appear to be related to the massive amount of photo/music I am pushing to the Xbox and thumbnail generation.

[BENDZ]

I purchased a new machine that came with windows vista. The machine had double the memory that an older machine I had with windows XP. Vista ran slower that the old machine and the security was a pain. Kept asking if I want to do this or that. Of course I did or I would not have done it. Found out one thing. Dumped Vista in favor of Windows XP Pro. Learned one lesson - stay away from Vista. I am not the only one with this opinion. - I suppose that MS will force everyone into vista. But if they play that game they may force people into
red hat

[aweysham]

I tried to buy my last computer with xp, not available. so I bit the bullet and accepted Vista, I figured I'd have to use it sooner or later so might as well get in on the ground floor. I hated it at first, still do not like it but got use to it. I configured the Start button with the classic view, that helped. I do not find the new method any faster. I'm OK with the speed of things thanks to nice notebook with good specs. MS has been talking quick boot up and shut down for years. Doubt that will ever happen. The best move I made was search the net for forums like this one where people can exchange ideas and solutions. I belong to several and have solved some of my Vista problems thanks to people on forum like this one. Lots of brillient people out there with solutions that MS can never come up with. Really amazing.

Im getting along with Vista, not great but Im making it work. Still a few hiccups I cannot get resolved. Many people have the same problem as I noticed on the net. Visat refuses to remember folder settings. I have no idea why it would even assign music type folders to other folders at random. Update downloads another hiccup, even if I download manually then installation fails.

I thank all you people on forums like this one for helping me live with Vista. Please keep up the good work. MS is not listening

Andy

[PCWizKid]

Despite SP1, windows will never be without the need of manual house cleaning of the OS and tweaking for performance. we cannot expect a Service Pack to do it all. Its funny how Microsoft released an article on how to speed up performance on Vista.
Read the details here:
http://pcwizkid.blog...ving-vista.html
Cheers
PCWizKid

[martin77084]

Well, I'm sticking with DOS 'til they get the bugs of this windows thing. I'm just not sure it'll ever work.
martinl77084

[wcblaser]

Does sp1 expand software compatibility?
Upgrading software is the primary reason that I am reluctant to purchase a new computer running Vista. Replacing legacy specialty software that serves my needs very well,and even widely used software such as Acrobat 7 pro (which isn't all that old) could cost $1000's.
The other major issue is that I am not aware of anyone who has developed program to transfer program set up from XP to Vista, which means a huge amount of time reloading programs that may or may not work under the new OS. With manufacturers no longer supplying disks with the OS, makes cloning an XP hard drive and upgrading windows to Vista a challenge that I am not willing to tackle. If Mac's OS is more compatible with windows legacy software I may be tempted to buy a Mac the next time around.

[reddout]

Why oh why doesn't Microsoft get it that many of us don't want bells and whistles (and the bloat that comes with them), we just want performance. Give me lean and mean and speed any day. Pretty is nice but not when I'm on a deadline and just need to get things done. I just bought a Dell 1721. The hardware is the fastest I've ever owned. But becuase I'm now running Vista (because it came with Vista), it's one of the slower computers I've ever owned. It's much slower to do normal everyday things like boot up and open files than almost any machine I've owned since Windows 95. they also screwed up Word 2007. Don't they field test with real users?

[anandranawat]

using a hp dv5000..
1.83 ghz 2 gb ram 160 h.disk and ge force 7400 g.card
using vista business 32 bit
playin fifa manager 08
and while playing if i need to go to the main menu in the game..
it crashes..
will the service pack solve this issue..
earlier it didnot but now it does?

[Yert]

Vista's file copy is really slow compared to XP. Which was a problem for a friend that I had to assist in transfering 40 GB from a network drive. To an XP computer the whole process would have taken at least half of the four-five hour process that it took, if not faster.

[aweysham]

Agree with you 100% reddout. I turned off that silly Aero mode. What a waste!!! I spent hundreds of dollars on 07' software, have top of line notebook and its slower than my older computer. Office 07', forget it. Im buying another new computer and was thinking formatting and purchasing XP but unfortunately the new computer does not support XP, no drivers avail on the manufacturer's website. Vista only. So I'll bite the bullet again and put up with Vista but Im buying Office 03', Project 03' and then will not have to learn another program as in Office 07'.

I'm with you. Lets keep it lean and mean. Productivity is the key for me. I can't be productive having to sort out Vista glitches. MS should give us a choice, lean & mean or bell & whistles. Im still fighting folder options daily. Now I cant get into Documents and settings, another glitch to surf the net and seek solution. what a waste of time. MS are you guys listening?? I'm real happy Yahoo turned down the MS offer or I'd have to ditch my Yahoo.

[Searinox]

Dunno what to say. I've been using Vista ever since beta 2 as my primary and only OS. As new builds kept coming, RTM was reached, and patches kept coming in monthly, and then I applied the SP1 release candidate, the slow progress to performance was offerred in small bits, so I can't say for certain when performance began improving, although if I think back to the RTM stage of Vista I can definately say that overall performance has been improved. One patch in particular released back in fall 2007 I remember made sensible improvements to file copy, startup, and shutdown.

To me Vista hasn't been the godawful OS that so many people talk about, even though my experience index is an unimpressive 3.6. Yes I disabled Aero because I found overall scrolling performance to be better without it. App compatibility was solved by time, and today with SP1 RTM installed I find myself on a quite enjoyable OS which never crashes on me or gets infected. It runs about the same way XP used to run back almost 1 1/2 years ago. True it needs 2GB RAM and 3.06Ghz + hyperthreading to run like XP did but how is that different from when XP came out and 98/ME machines were kinda overworked by the newfangled XP?

My worst Vista experience was during the RC2 to 3-4 months after RTM, when many apps weren't compatible. Today I find only very old and non-updated software to have these issues, and I don't use that anymore. SP1 feels like a polished Vista RTM with performance tweaks and bugfixes, all in all I like it. It feels mature, stable, secure, and performant -- what you'd expect from an OS. No it's not gonna run faster than XP would on my current configuration, but then again Windows 98 would run even faster on it so that's a nonsensical topic. Vista is the future. Already I had to deal with tring to downgrade someone's laptop to XP and it didn't have drivers. XP's starting to grow old and Vista is certainly not a step back. XP is.

To the companies who need Vista in a work environment but have compatibility issues with their proprietary software, shame on you. You had one whole year to adapt them for Vista but instead just waited for it to start behaving like XP. That's the problem with people they're expecting Vista to be XP. Then what's the difference? Again, it's all nonsense. If someone bought a competent computer todaythey'd have absolutely noooo problem with Vista SP1 that XP would alledgedly solve. Start busting the myths already. This save XP charade has been going on for long enough.

[wcblaser]

I think that Searinox misses the point. Most individual users don't have the cash to upgrade a sizable number of apps to run them on Vista. It is very costly for businesses, including software producers, to refit old software.

There is still the issue of migration to the new OS. I am still looking for a true migration program that can transfer programs and settings from an XP machine to one running Vista. The lack of xp drivers for new hardware complicates things even more. Most of us individuals and businesses just find it hard to justify the time and money required to transition to a new OS. Heck, just a 18 months ago I worked for a large furniture store chain that was still using dos-based database software for their inventory, etc.

Many of the vendors who published the research software that I use are no longer around -- probably because there wasn't a market large enough to support further development. Of course, I'm one of those folks who thinks that Lotus put out an office suite that is still in many ways superior to Microsoft's. (I have serious doubts that its apps will run properly under Vista.)

[Searinox]

If these natural obstacles, such as migration costs, app compatibility, and hardware requirements - which exist whenever there's any OS migration under way - are what's holding Vista back, then it's really not Vista's fault. And no compatibility hasn't been improved by SP1. It's not their job to try so very hard to get what was living on an old infrastructure to work on new platforms anyway. Be glad it didn't BREAK any compatibility like SP2 did.