[GalaxyHead]

I have a new computer with Vista, but I haven't tampered with it yet. I hear it is fairly annoying, though I have no knowledge of what makes it so. Any suggestions?

Pondering installing XP instead.

[analogos]

Why don't you actually give it a chance to present itself as annoying before worrying about it either way? It's just as likely that we'd convince you of something you may have not even given a shit about otherwise.

[GalaxyHead]

I plan on doing this. Vista just gets a bad rep amongst my computer nerd friends, and I haven't had a new OS since XP. I figured I'd get a head start.

[BalbanesBeoulve]

The annoying things are the constant warnings whenever you open a program or try to install something. It's vista's stupid ass way to provide security or something.

Just go to the security section in the control panel and turn off "User Account Control." After turning that off I haven't found it much different from XP.
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[BenoitRen]

Vista? You should have gotten XP with it. Install XP and your machine will fly! Vista is just bloat, and I speak from first-hand experience.
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Get Xenoblade Chronicles!

[Toups]

Listen to BenoitRen. He speaks from first-hand experience.
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[psiga]

After I got past all of the warning alerts, and tweaked my laptop to not turn the fan to maximum at all times (probably not Vista's fault), Vista stopped being obnoxious.
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[sawtooth]

i've seen many people use vista before with no complaints but they weren't usability nerds get a mac lol
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[Laurel Soup]

Unless you're constantly moving stuff around in your Program Files folder Vista isn't that bad at all. The UAC thing is just a slightly clunkier version of UNIX's sudo thing.

[extrabastardformula]

Turn Aero off, and install the updates, because out of the box is kinda ugh. Also download 7zip and NEVER open compressed folders with the file manager.
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[manmachine plays jazz]

install xp

[Lestrade]

I like Vista just fine. I'm a lapsed Windows user who has been using Macs for 11 years or so, and after getting used to Vista again, I'm pretty impressed. I love Aero and if you customize your system tray properties to hide most notifications, it's a nice, simple, out of the way, experience.

Windows 7 looks really nice, with lots of very welcome improvements, but I think the hoo-ha over Vista isn't warranted.
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Illustration Portfolio | The Gamer's Quarter

[km]

I thought I would hate Vista, but I installed it on my new laptop and I actually really, really like it. Turn off UAC yeah, but wow, the OS is actually really solid. I can't actually think of anything I don't like about it.

The whole new look is really lovely too. The new icons are classy, Aero looks great, and the font rendering is excellent.

Explorer is a little different but once you're used to it really an improvement over XP.

Networking finally doesn't suck. Discovery is really fast and painless, and file transfers are orders of magnitude faster than before.

Even the copy file dialog is improved!
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vi) RPGs (Role-Playing Games)
For adolescents; half-formed personalities roaming (in packs) in search of identity.

[BIGJ420COOLDUDE]

yeah i use vista on my main computer even though i could be doing just fine in linux or whatever

quick recs:
use launchy
use dexpot for virtual desktops


i actually leave uac on because it's kind of there for a reason (though it is really poorly implemented).

it would be nice to be able to turn off aero without also losing hardware windowing acceleration.

there's some way to define the default style of all your folders in explorer (so it doesn't try to figure out your media folders and give everything different styles) but i forget how.

vista basically got a lot better in sp1--the only people saying it sucks nowadays are the slashdot gallery.

[GalaxyHead]

Guys I don't have a copy of XP except some illegal slipstreamed one and I don't trust it.

This computer came with vista and its service pack 2 installed. I didn't feel like paying them 150 bucks more to put XP on it.

[Talbain]

[Ebrey]

My friend got a new lap top with Vista and it crashes every 10 minutes. Would downloading Support Pack 1 fix that? It's really awful.

[psiga]

[Touran]

[CubaLibre]

[Talbain]

The only thing that I really like about Vista is that there's drivers for it. A lot of hardware manufacturers are phasing out XP support unfortunately. I guess extra RAM recognition is nice as well, but that doesn't really mean much to me since my computer hits the max amount that XP can handle anyway.
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[BenoitRen]

[GalaxyHead]

[spinach]

[manmachine plays jazz]

yeah i'm only opposed to vista because an OS shouldn't chew up as much memory as it does

[BIGJ420COOLDUDE]

[GalaxyHead]

Man these warnings are pretty annoying, but then I won't be installing programs left and right constantly.

[Toptube]

Have a look at KM's post, and Touran's, too.

Unless you plan on being dedicated to downloading updates every 2 weeks or so, I'd recommend leaving Windows update on and just tell it to not install the updates until you tell it to (which can be done as you shutodwn your computer). MS releases updates and hotfixes for a reason. 90% of the time they are for your security and you should be installing them. Windows is the most widely used OS, so its the most targeted. But, If its all patched, it is also the most secure. another 5% are performance and reliability improvements and the remaining 5% are things you probably don't need. but autoupdate does an ok job of leaving most of that stuff out.

Apple and Linux security claims are based mostly on security through obscurity. If someone really wanted to, they could wreak some quick and widespread havoc on those Operating systems.

The complaints about the ram footprint are pretty skewed because the way Vista manages ram is so very different from how XP manages ram, you cannot compare them. After the intial footprint is made in your ram from the currently running processes and appications, it then caches your recently and most commonly used stuff in the ram still available, often greatly increases start up speeds and initial response times to your applications. Especially after a fresh reboot. There is also a snappy smoothness brought to everything that is not felt in XP. Its true that Vista has a higher minimum for ram requirements, but is that really a suprise for a new OS release? no, it is not. Also, ram is fucking cheap. There are $500 computers shipping with 4, 6, 8 gigs of ram. If you have at least 2 gigs of ram, you shouldn't experience any ram related problems with Vista. because with 2 gigs or more, it has enough to properly utilize its new features. So, the ram footprint seems large.

I use 2 gigs of ram on the 32 bit version of Home Premium and have never ever ever experienced any problems related to ram usage that I didn't experience in XP. Also, initially Vista is actually going to feel a little slower than it should because as you first start to use it, its constantly caching and re-adjusting to your usage habits. After you settle into your computer with your own everyday groove (after 2 weeks maybe?), Vista will figure it out and it will become smoother. Long term, Vista is much more enjoyable, stable, and smoother to use than XP ever was for me.

SP1 brought Vista up to the same level of gaming performance as XP, its actually often even a little better now, when compared apples to apples. It also fixed some peculiarites with data transfer, particularly large files, and it toned down the UAC. It fixed some other little niggles too, but those were the big things that I remember.

My only recommendations are to use an Anti-Virus that's less invasive than what likely shipped on your machine, and as with any version of windows, to set the pagefile to a constant size of about 3 or 4 gigs. Its default setting is dynamic size, so its constantly changing. I personally use Avast! home edition and cannot attribute any performance loss to it. I used it on XP, too. 2 other popular and comparable AV are NOD32 and AVG. All 3 of these should be free.

Home Premium is the only version anyone should pay attention to unless they need advanced networking options or want Media Center integration. Home Premium retail copies come with a license for the 64-bit version. You can get a disc from MS for $10 shipping. I will be installing it after I upgrade my computer soon, as I will move to 4 gigs of ram (32bit OS can't use more than about 3).

I've been using Vista Home Premium since day 2 of its release.

[Lollerskater]

I do believe that there are people out there who genuinely have bad luck with Vista. My former roommate must have tried installing Vista on about 7 machines, of which most were specifically designed with Vista in mind. However he could get none of them to run properly.

On the other hand I have so far enjoyed Vista on 3 different computers of which 1 laptop. And in all cases the experience has been more than enjoyable. Vista is still my main gaming OS.

Experiences with Vista really seem to be a hit or miss for everyone. But I'd say if you're good to go it's pretty much rock-solid. Oh and as mentioned keep Aero on if you can (e.g. you've got a pretty good graphics card). I haven't seen any noticeable performance differences between it being switched on or off and from what someone told me Aero should actually be GPU accelerated.

[Felix]

By the by, there's a Windows 7 beta making the rounds, and all initial testimony points to it being Vista minus the bloat - and all Vista drivers work fine on it.

Also, there is a Vista Service Pack 2 coming down the pipeline very soon.

But really, there's no reason to uninstall Vista in favor of XP anymore. If you have one, stick with it.

[BenoitRen]

[km]

[manmachine plays jazz]

[Panoptic]

Doesn't Vista release the memory used for "superfetch" when it's required elsewhere?

[Predator Goose]

[GalaxyHead]

So how much ram does the home edition use? I only bought 3 gigs of ram. I haven't had time to do anything heavy duty yet to test it (Photoshop CS, Reason) but so far I see nothing lacking.

[Toptube]

[Toptube]