OK, so I have my copy of Vista home premium next to me & have browsed the forums all over. It seems there are quite a few horror stories in terms of compatability etc. & some people saying it works perfectly well. The purpose of this thread is to get an idea of how the latest Windows OS has worked for you, post your experiences, opinions etc. here. Please stay on topic, give me your opinions on whether the upgrade is now worth it etc. & what things I should download to improve stability etc. Happy posting.
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Windows Vista Survey
- Thread starter jambus
- Start date
Been using vista for 14 months now, no problems at all really. The only issues are caused by old, poorly written software, rather than by vista.
Just as a warning, plenty of people will recommend things like turning off UAC and indexing, which both negates large reasons for moving to vista and opens the same security holes XP suffered rather than allowing you the additional security from Vista.
Just as a warning, plenty of people will recommend things like turning off UAC and indexing, which both negates large reasons for moving to vista and opens the same security holes XP suffered rather than allowing you the additional security from Vista.
Soldato
- Joined
- 21 Jan 2003
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- 7,251
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- Northamptonshire
Using both 32bit and 64bit vista ultimate on my home machines with no issues, have done for quite some time.
The problems have died down, which were mainly caused by poor drivers not the os itself.
Give it a go. I like it a lot.
The problems have died down, which were mainly caused by poor drivers not the os itself.
Give it a go. I like it a lot.
Disable indexing if you don't search often enough for the performance impact. I know where every file on my computer is, as I'm rather anal that way, so I have no use for a journalled file system.
In regards to UAC - don't disable it, it's there for a reason. The message boxes it throws at you are annoying as hell though, so put it into silent mode using tweakUI.
Since SP1, my machine has been running like a dream, and now that I have no network or sound issues (pre-SP1), I have no reason to fall back to XP
Running 64bit, and no problems at all
I've had a very mixed experience with Vista all the way through from beta to SP1.
All of the beta builds resulted in a BSOD on my old DFI nForce 4 SLI-DR, always resulted in either "IRQL IS NOT LESS OR EQUAL" or "PAGED FAULT IN NON PAGED AREA". That was fixed with the RTM but the machine always crashed when copying and pasting, windows just locked up. Left it for ages till I got my M1710, came preinstalled with Vista HP 32bit. This was before SP1 and it was very slow and the driver support was crap. Graphics drivers were pre 100 gen series and the 167.55's were unstable.
Upgraded the DFI machine to the one in my sig. Gave Vista Ultimate x64 a try without a problem except the crappy creative X-Fi drivers disabling 3 of my 5.1 speaker set. Daniel_K's hacked drivers fixed that. Then a problem came up with my DS4's network card. After about 6-10GB of datatransfer the card just locked up and wouldn't reconnect without a cold reboot, updated drivers from realtek's site fixed that.
SLi has been a nightmare on my M1730, but that is down to bad game support and lack of updated drivers from Dell. Stepmania usually forces a black screen so I have to do the forced shutdown method to restore functionallity. Lineage 2 refuses to load with SLi enabled. 3DMark vantage refuses to run on my M1730 even with the newer 175.12 drivers. But other than these slight hickups it has been ok
All of the beta builds resulted in a BSOD on my old DFI nForce 4 SLI-DR, always resulted in either "IRQL IS NOT LESS OR EQUAL" or "PAGED FAULT IN NON PAGED AREA". That was fixed with the RTM but the machine always crashed when copying and pasting, windows just locked up. Left it for ages till I got my M1710, came preinstalled with Vista HP 32bit. This was before SP1 and it was very slow and the driver support was crap. Graphics drivers were pre 100 gen series and the 167.55's were unstable.
Upgraded the DFI machine to the one in my sig. Gave Vista Ultimate x64 a try without a problem except the crappy creative X-Fi drivers disabling 3 of my 5.1 speaker set. Daniel_K's hacked drivers fixed that. Then a problem came up with my DS4's network card. After about 6-10GB of datatransfer the card just locked up and wouldn't reconnect without a cold reboot, updated drivers from realtek's site fixed that.
SLi has been a nightmare on my M1730, but that is down to bad game support and lack of updated drivers from Dell. Stepmania usually forces a black screen so I have to do the forced shutdown method to restore functionallity. Lineage 2 refuses to load with SLi enabled. 3DMark vantage refuses to run on my M1730 even with the newer 175.12 drivers. But other than these slight hickups it has been ok
Soldato
- Joined
- 19 Dec 2006
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- 9,262
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- Saudi Arabia né Donegal
Major problems here but mainly due to my own mucking about. I can no longer get access to system services such as device manager, they just will not load.
Otherwise Vista is flying here and am really enjoying using it.
Otherwise Vista is flying here and am really enjoying using it.
Wow, a good couple of responses so far, seems like the general concensus is that the problems many people reporting before have been fixed. Think I may begin upgrading the system later today then. =D
Also, does anyone know if you lose your old documents when you install Vista as a new OS, I seem to remember someone telling me they're put into a folder called old.windows or something.
Also, does anyone know if you lose your old documents when you install Vista as a new OS, I seem to remember someone telling me they're put into a folder called old.windows or something.
I have been using Vista 64 for over a year now and it's been a perfect OS for me. In my opinion it's better than XP.
Only problem I had on the move over was drivers for my usb Medusas (no 64 bit ones available at the time). Would have thought they'd be very few problems like that now.
Only problem I had on the move over was drivers for my usb Medusas (no 64 bit ones available at the time). Would have thought they'd be very few problems like that now.
Associate
- Joined
- 5 Oct 2005
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- 760
- Location
- UK - Paignton
Been using vista 64bit for over a year now.
I can't think of any serious problems to mention.
Only ever had 2 bsod.
One due to me forgetting to set the ram voltage right after building my pc at the time and another whilst pusing overclocks to far
Driver wise I never had a problem with drivers apart from finding one for my linksys wireless usb adapater.
A quick search around found a generic driver and that was solved.
Funny enough Microsoft had one for it on windows updates which works just fine(need internet somehow to get it of course) whilst Linksys still do not have it for download on thier own site ;/
X-fi & preclude drivers never been a problem for me either.
Games have never been a problem either for the ones I play.
Apart from slower copying speeds(never affected me that much if at all for some reason) it was fine for me before Sp1.
Sp1 just polished it off nicely.
I can't think of any serious problems to mention.
Only ever had 2 bsod.
One due to me forgetting to set the ram voltage right after building my pc at the time and another whilst pusing overclocks to far
Driver wise I never had a problem with drivers apart from finding one for my linksys wireless usb adapater.
A quick search around found a generic driver and that was solved.
Funny enough Microsoft had one for it on windows updates which works just fine(need internet somehow to get it of course) whilst Linksys still do not have it for download on thier own site ;/
X-fi & preclude drivers never been a problem for me either.
Games have never been a problem either for the ones I play.
Apart from slower copying speeds(never affected me that much if at all for some reason) it was fine for me before Sp1.
Sp1 just polished it off nicely.
Just as a note, the actual copying speed isn't generally slower, the difference is that XP dismissed the copy window from the screen before the copy had been completed (basically when the caching was completed), whereas Vista waits until the copy has been fully completed before dismissing the box.
Soldato
- Joined
- 12 May 2005
- Posts
- 12,631
As echoed in the other replies - I love vista.
I am using Vista 64 on a quad core, 4GB machine. Vista actually feels a lot more responsive, and in general a more enjoyable user experience than my install of Windows XP 32. I admit though, that the XP install is a bit older than the Vista one - but still.
Don't want to ever think about leaving the happy place that is Vista
I am using Vista 64 on a quad core, 4GB machine. Vista actually feels a lot more responsive, and in general a more enjoyable user experience than my install of Windows XP 32. I admit though, that the XP install is a bit older than the Vista one - but still.
Don't want to ever think about leaving the happy place that is Vista
My wife users her PC for image processing in CS3. I upgraded her machine from an E6600 @ stock with 4GB ram on XP Pro to Q6600 @ stock running 8GB of ram on Vista 64 Home Premium.
Performance increase was substantial. Photoshop opens in about 4 seconds compared to 13. Everything is much slicker and smooth. No driver issues or software problems.
Performance increase was substantial. Photoshop opens in about 4 seconds compared to 13. Everything is much slicker and smooth. No driver issues or software problems.
Man of Honour
- Joined
- 17 Feb 2003
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- 29,640
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- Chelmsford
In terms of driver support and ease of use, it's the best OS that MS have come up with imo.
Soldato
- Joined
- 19 Dec 2006
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- 9,262
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- Saudi Arabia né Donegal
Well, now have no problems once more. Removal of SP1 has cured my woes.
This means Vista gets a thumbs up from me.
Before SP1 I found it a bit of a pain, especially when copying large files.
Since that it's been great.
Only major gripe is that it seems to need an activation if the wind changes, and it always requires a phone call. I wouldn't mind, but changing a BIOS setting seems to trigger it sometimes.
Since that it's been great.
Only major gripe is that it seems to need an activation if the wind changes, and it always requires a phone call. I wouldn't mind, but changing a BIOS setting seems to trigger it sometimes.
used vista 32bit for a bit when it came out, had a few issues with apps/games crashing/not running so installed xp pro again.
when sp1 comes out ill give it another go.
i also didnt like the way some of the interfaces have changed, and things were running a bit slower (probably because of unoptimized programs)
when sp1 comes out ill give it another go.
i also didnt like the way some of the interfaces have changed, and things were running a bit slower (probably because of unoptimized programs)