Anybody else using Vista? Do you like it?

[Guest Close Quarterbore]

I have been having computer problems and I cannot be without a computer so I went out and purchased a fancy new Gateway Desktop yesterday. Here is the computer I purchased:

Gateway - E2160 Desktop - GT5468

It is a decent machine with 2GB Ram, 40 GB Hardrrive, and I added a video card for 2-monitors (I can't code with only one), Pentium duel core 1.8 Ghz processor. It was also one of the cheapest with the Pentium and I needed a Parallel port for my fancy laser printer.

For the speed and power the computer came with, I am really rather disapointed with the speed the thing seems to have when opening or working with files. I am also having a tough time adapting to the strange way it works. It kind of makes me frustrated that they "improve" things by adding so much extra junk on the operating system that they don't want to get-up and go!

Those of you that have had yours for a while, are you getting used to it? I am pretty close to whiping the harddrive and installing Windows XP Pro on it. My old desktop machine (it was a P4 with a 2.4 Ghz processor) did not have a lot of extra stuff installed on it so it was real fast. Unfortionately, we had a "brown-out" where the power surged and the computer was really acting up so I had no choice but upgrade.

[Mark @SFX Industry Representative Find all posts View Profile Close Mark @SFX]

I have been having computer problems and I cannot be without a computer so I went out and purchased a fancy new Gateway Desktop yesterday. Here is the computer I purchased:

Gateway - E2160 Desktop - GT5468

It is a decent machine with 2GB Ram, 40 GB Hardrrive, and I added a video card for 2-monitors (I can't code with only one), Pentium duel core 1.8 Ghz processor. It was also one of the cheapest with the Pentium and I needed a Parallel port for my fancy laser printer.

For the speed and power the computer came with, I am really rather disapointed with the speed the thing seems to have when opening or working with files. I am also having a tough time adapting to the strange way it works. It kind of makes me frustrated that they "improve" things by adding so much extra junk on the operating system that they don't want to get-up and go!

Those of you that have had yours for a while, are you getting used to it? I am pretty close to whiping the harddrive and installing Windows XP Pro on it. My old desktop machine (it was a P4 with a 2.4 Ghz processor) did not have a lot of extra stuff installed on it so it was real fast. Unfortionately, we had a "brown-out" where the power surged and the computer was really acting up so I had no choice but upgrade.

Hi Ken - I recently purchased a new home desktop computer that came bundled with Vista Professional... and I hate the damn thing. I will be replacing it with XP.

What really pisses me off is, there is a lot of my software that will not run on Vista and is not backward compatible or is only partially backward compatible. For example Adobe Acrobat Writer, is not compatible with Vista. I paid $250 for that software !!! Adobe has stated they will not be making a patch to make previous version compatible

I also have an HP Scanjet 550c. It's only about 2 years old, not exactly prehistoric. Again... the damn software doesn't work with Vista and HP has stated "they will not come out with a patch"

Bottom line... Buying Vista forces you to go out and spend hundreds of dollars on compatible software, software you already have that is not compatible anymore.... and that is outrageous !! It's nothing more than a way of gouging consumers for more money on programs they have already spent a lot of money on !!

Oh, and another peeve... the security programming is really intrusive and treats you like a 5 year old. Every few minutes you have a pop up asking if you are sure you want to move forward with a next step, or "if you are the person who initiated this, please click next It is totally irritating.

(Can you tell I haven't had my coffee yet)

Welcome back XP !!

[timeos2 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close timeos2]

Those of you that have had yours for a while, are you getting used to it? I am pretty close to whiping the harddrive and installing Windows XP Pro on it. My old desktop machine (it was a P4 with a 2.4 Ghz processor) did not have a lot of extra stuff installed on it so it was real fast. Unfortionately, we had a "brown-out" where the power surged and the computer was really acting up so I had no choice but upgrade.

In summary very little works well, if at all, with Vista. Thats programs, utilities, printer, other hardware - almost nothing but what you get in the preload. No one can support it yet as it is basically a beta program (as all new OS's are for quite awhile after release). I'm not a big XP fan - Windows 2000 is still the best Windows ever made - but XP with all it's updates and patches is far more stable and better supported than Vista. So far Visa is getting the "new millennium" nick name (millennium being the WORST Windows ever and had a very short lifespan). Since Microsoft is already talking about what will replace Vista it may very well be orphaned early too. I'd avoid it and if it's on a PC upgrade to XP.

[tonyg Goomba & Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close tonyg]

When I bought my laptop in the spring, I opted for XP instead of Vista. That was a good move on my part.

[Guest Close Quarterbore]

Yea, I am stuck as I could not purchase a new machine with XP anymore (well, not for this cheap) and I will be hnest I have not tried to install any of my main software yet (I have Adobe Accrobat 6.0, MS Office 1997 (don't laugh it still works), Adobe Photoshop (older verson now), and Dreamweaver.

I just don't know if I am smart to cut my losses and just pull the harddrive out of the machine and put it away and plug in a new hardrive and install the latest Windows XP (or even Windows 2000). If they ever get it fixed and working, I could simply dig the OEM hardrive out of the desk drawer and be where I am right now...

At least hard drives are cheap!

[Sydney Contributor - Bronze Find all posts View Profile Close Sydney]

We chose Vista Home Premium on my laptop that I bought a month ago since I have XP on my old laptop and DH has XP Pro on his. Dell gave us a choice b/t Vista or XP. We did it because we thought if we don't like it, we can always install XP instead.

It is a bit slower than XP and has a few minor annoying problems but I don't do anything fancy on it except surf and use Office. Haven't tried all the other multimedia stuff yet. Mine has 2GB ram & 120GB HD so it should be fast but XP is slightly faster for what I do.

Mark, yes the pop-ups are really annoying!...and pointless!

[taffy19 Gold Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close taffy19]

We don't have it and don't want it either. We went twice to a friend's house who had it on his new Dell. He had never used a computer before. His computer got stuck twice and we couldn't help him either so called technical help. One call was over an hour and the fellow finally took the computer over and could not solve the problem either so he sat the system back to the day before our friend had installed a virus update as that was the cause of his problem.

The second time we were on the phone with technical help again and he must have taken over two hours or longer to help us and finally made us reformat the disk and re-install Vista again. Unbelievable.

Can you still buy XP, home edition? I may do this now so I won't have to use Vista when we need to buy a new computer. I will keep what we have as long as we can.

[tonyg Goomba & Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close tonyg]

Dell may still offer XP and I have seen some Dell computers without an operating system or with Ubuntu.

[tonyg Goomba & Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close tonyg]

Here's a good laptop deal from Dell today with the XP option: The Dell Online Store: Build Your System

Duo core processors are sweet.

[Guest Close Quarterbore]

I had a new one this morning... To copy files from one folder on the harddrive to another the system makes me verify I am the owner of the files

The stupid machine would not let me move them! I had to copy the files to the new folder and then go in and delete the originals. I still have not got to check if I can get into the chat server with it (I know others had problems).

Oh well, I used to struggle with XP a little too but at least XP was a modest pain compared to this...

[JWC Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close JWC]

My computers are my business as I am a Software Designer. I cannot afford any problems so I NEVER will run an OS until it has been out long enough to get the bugs out. I do a lot of Operating Systems design and am well aware of what the problems can be with a new product.

I use only XP Professional and Linux and a couple of proprietary 'Real-Time' operating systems.

[Guest Close Quarterbore]

I was about to kill my new computer last night...

As some know, I have been busy the past 8-months with a new software business I started and last night I was coding away when Vista decided it had a critical update.

Well, the dambed computer gave me one of the million pop-up windows and I just clicked OK thinking it was one of the million "your application TextPad is trying to save a file" warnings... Well, the stupid machine restarted!

I got lucky as I had just saved the code I was working on but here I was with half a dozen applications running trying to validate my code and the machine just shut down.

I need to go out and find where I can get a copy of XP Pro and rip the harddrive out of this machine before I lose my mind!

[JWC Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close JWC]

I was about to kill my new computer last night...

As some know, I have been busy the past 8-months with a new software business I started and last night I was coding away when Vista decided it had a critical update.

Well, the dambed computer gave me one of the million pop-up windows and I just clicked OK thinking it was one of the million "your application TextPad is trying to save a file" warnings... Well, the stupid machine restarted!

I got lucky as I had just saved the code I was working on but here I was with half a dozen applications running trying to validate my code and the machine just shut down.

I need to go out and find where I can get a copy of XP Pro and rip the harddrive out of this machine before I lose my mind!

Are you saying that you cannot turn off the auto-update like you can on XP? I have mine set so it only alerts me when there are are updates. I control whether to actually do the update and when.

I am glad to see you are using TextPad. I have used it for several years.

[Guest Close Quarterbore]

I have not played with the computer enough to figure out how to use it...

Funny with Text Pad, I spent about $300 - $400 for the developer version of Dream Weaver and discovered I hated it and I went back to my $30 Text Pad to write my code on.

Dreamweaver works well for general HTML stuff, but PHP and database driven applications (like this site) give Dreamweaver the fits.

[RESORT2ME Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close RESORT2ME]

What do you not like about Vista

AOL is offering me a free upgrade. Is it something I want?

Robert