Vista

[Nancy Platinum Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close Nancy]

The old desktop is about to boot up for it's last time, so I need to think about a new PC. I know that people were not happy with Vista at first. Has it gotten any better? If you've been using it awhile, how is it now?

I think I read somewhere that there is to be a replacement for Vista. What is it? When is it due out? Is it different than Vista or just an upgrade to Vista?

Thanks for any help.

Nancy

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

go XP avoid Vista

The old desktop is about to boot up for it's last time, so I need to think about a new PC. I know that people were not happy with Vista at first. Has it gotten any better? If you've been using it awhile, how is it now?

I think I read somewhere that there is to be a replacement for Vista. What is it? When is it due out? Is it different than Vista or just an upgrade to Vista?

Thanks for any help.

Nancy

No better and nothing but a resource hog. Get a new PC with xp 9MOST CAN BE "UPGRADED" from Vista to XP although in the neverland of Microsnot they call it a downgrade. They have basically walked away from Vista as they don't refer to it anymore in ads - they just say Windows - and for technical announcements they treat Windows 7 like it exists and skip over Vista (or the "New ME" as it is flatteringly referred to. ME was THE worst Windows ever until Vista came along. It will be 3-4 years before 7 is actually out and business users will force the continued support of XP at least until then and most likley beyond. Few businesses are buying into Vista.

XP support will likely be around for 5-8 more years so stick with what works best in a bad series of OS's. Maybe Lunix can get it's act together or Apple will port their version to PC's and we can dump any version of Windows soon. There is always hope.

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

Windows 7. They are testing it now and I'm waiting for it to come out to buy my next computer so I don't have to settle for Vista. Some people think Vista is OK, but apparently Microsoft even realizes they dropped a bomb.

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

Everything I read about Vista leads me to agree with what has been posted so far by others. If you want or need to get a new PC now you could put XP on it and yes it will be supported for a while, although I think it will be closer to 4-5 years more. Also if you can wait Microsoft will probably push Windows 7 ahead of schedule and get it out before too long.
That being said, my personal experience with Vista has not been bad. I have worked on it on my son's laptop, 2 friends PC's and 5 PC's in a small business network that I support on contract. I have not had any problems with it on any of these boxes. I don't have it on any of my own PC's yet but probably will in near future.

[davhu1 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close davhu1]

My son has been using Vista for about year and half and no problem. I think part of the problem with Vista is when people only get 1 gb Ram. Get at least 2 gb ram if you decide on Vista.

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

I just purchased a new laptop and it has Vista on it. I like its look and feel but you do have to learn where things are. Some different locations and terminology than XP.

I agree about the RAM. 1Gb will be insufficient to run it. I got 3Gb on my new laptop.

[RickR [WINDOWS-TEAM] Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close RickR [WINDOWS-TEAM]]

Hi Nancy, my name is Rick and I work with the Windows Vista Team. I see you are having some questions about Windows Vista. If you are planning on buying a new computer, then it is 99% likely that it will be manufactured with more than enough specs and tested to run Vista. The rumors that surround Vista are just not true, and most of the issue that early Vista users had experienced, were issues with 3rd party software and hardware manufactures lack of support for Vista update, that has changed now. Although Vista does require more system resources than XP, your computer should have those resources to run it and combined with some simple easy to follow Tuning tips found over at www.windows.com/vista you can “tune” or adjust your Vista to run more efficient. Vista is great, and is more secure than XP and more efficient. Good luck with your New PC.
Rick

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

After clicking on the link, my faith in the Vista team has not been increased any.

[bigfrank Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close bigfrank]

Hi Nancy, my name is Rick and I work with the Windows Vista Team. I see you are having some questions about Windows Vista. If you are planning on buying a new computer, then it is 99% likely that it will be manufactured with more than enough specs and tested to run Vista. The rumors that surround Vista are just not true, and most of the issue that early Vista users had experienced, were issues with 3rd party software and hardware manufactures lack of support for Vista update, that has changed now. Although Vista does require more system resources than XP, your computer should have those resources to run it and combined with some simple easy to follow Tuning tips found over at www.windows.com/vista you can “tune” or adjust your Vista to run more efficient. Vista is great, and is more secure than XP and more efficient. Good luck with your New PC.
Rick

Thank you for comng here and posting. I could not agree more. I will say that I have Vista on 4 computers and I feel it has been the best that Microsoft has had to date. I do have some issues if I have over 10 pages open , It will close them if it does not run proplerly. I hope you say here to help out with computer questions it would be a pleasure to have you here.

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

I agree with Frank on a couple things:
I haven't really had problems with Vista, it is just different and you have to get used to the way that it operates and searches, not bad-just differently.

And second, Great to have RickR here for that type of question.

[RickR [WINDOWS-TEAM] Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close RickR [WINDOWS-TEAM]]

Frank and Vintner, thanks for the kind words. I will be honest I am not true tech support, so there is a limit to my knowledge, but the goal of the Windows Outreach Team is to provide some level of presence, and hopefully bring some value to the community. I will attempt to answer questions or find solutions, if possible or at the very least point you in the right direction. Sometimes things can be confusing and I would like to think if someone was there to help sort things out it would do a lot to ease stress.
Rick

[Nancy Platinum Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close Nancy]

Thanks all

Thanks everyone for the info. I think I've talked myself out of a new computer until maybe May or so. It has nothing to do with Vista. I'll only be using this one for about 5 more weeks then head south for winter. If this one holds up, I'll just wait until I come back north in May. This one is over 7 years old and has had many upgrades and a lot of hard use, but at some point you need to quit spending money on it and just buy a new one.

Of course, I may see one and just buy it.

Thanks everyone

Nancy

ps. Welcome RickR.

[lawren2 Malibu Beach Barbie & A Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close lawren2]

Rick I also welcome you to TS4Ms.

Two purchases in the last 11 months. The desktop is Vista, I paid a bit extra to keep XP for my laptop.

In all honesty I haven't had issues with Vista except for the memory hog that it is. I don't use the desktop that often and my son has had no problems with it. My biggest annoyances have been the necessity to purchase the new Microsoft packages (Word, Powerpoint XL) to work WITH Vista and I have to say that I HATE them absolutely.

I finally took the new version of that software off my laptop and installed the last copy I had of the older versions.

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

Nancy- the last I heard, the best deals on computers are in January - so you might want to move that up a few months.

[Nancy Platinum Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close Nancy]

Who knows

If I see a good deal, I'll grab it. I'm interested in the HP touchscreen desktop.

Nancy

ps. If this one dies, I may have to act faster, or be really really nice to DH so he'll let me use his laptop.