Is Vista the pig that everyone seems to think?

Just recently I bought a new PC, it's a dual-core AMD system and I've tried running x64 XP for a while (because of the RAM restrictions with the 32-bit version), but I've noticed there's a serious compatibility problem with drivers, apps etc. so I've got to considering Vista (even though I promised myself I wouldn't).

I've done the Linux thing, and still do to an extent but I opted to return to Windows for various reasons.

I was wondering what peoples' experiences have been with Vista, seeing as it's been quite a while since it's release. Is it a competitor yet? What sort of spec does it need to run at full tilt?

Any comments will be gratefully received as I need the food for thought.

Cheers,

Forget it. Go back to XP Pro. Bloated S....l.....o...o...o...w.... Lots of compatibility issues. I got my kid a laptop with it pre-installed and even he hates it and he's only 12. Download a sample and give it a try but I guarantee you will switch back. The RAM restrictions really don't mean too much. What really needs 4gigs of RAM?

If thats directed at Vista then im sorry but your completely wrong.

I run Vista Ultimate x64 and its fine ,not had a single problem running games since SP1 ,and only 1 driver incompatibility problem ,which was resolved by searching on Google.

12+ months ago then yes your statement was probably correct but since SP1 was released its a LOT better,turn off UAC in vista and its great ,its way more stable than XP ever was,games now run just as well as they do under XP.

I suspect your saying its slow and bloated simply because your running Vista on a laptop which probably isn't really up to it ,if you have a half decent desktop Vista flys tbh,and that 4gb ram does come in handy
i'd say give it a try for a couple of weeks and see if you like it ,its better than XP x64 and much more compatible with things,on the other hand if your only going to use Vista 32bit then id agree and say stick with XP.

A common mistake ppl make with regards to Vista is that it uses a lot of ram.. it's supposed to use a lot as it speeds things up no end ,if u decide to play a game then it will release the ram for the game,if you have 4gb or more Vista makes good use of it ,and if you have that much Ram may as well make use of it ,wat good is having 3gb free ram on any OS ? if its there use it.

This post has been edited by xu: Sep 16 2008, 07:21 AM

Thanks for the opinions guys.

My PC's currently running 4.5gb of RAM, soon to be 8gb so if i can make use of it i'd like to. The only game I play on the PC is CoD4 and soon to be CoD:WaW , also my mainboard's an Asus running an Nvidia chipset and my gfx card's an Nvidia so i'm hoping not to run into too many driver issues, part of the reason I thought about Vista was to make use of the hybrid thingamabob where you can add extra RAM to your gfx card if you've got an Nvidia chipset and card..

AFAIK you don't need an nvidia chipset to make use of that feature to use system ram as gfx ram ,i run an Asus P35 Intel based board that is actually only Crossfire compatible and not SLI but i run an Nvdia card ,if i check on 1 of those games system spec test sites they all report i have 2.2gb of ram available for gfx
i have a total of 4gb system ram + 512mb on the gfx card.

Like i said ,i suggest you try it for a couple of weeks to see if you like it,if not you can always go back to XP so your not losing out ,but i think ull like it tbh,I was a die hard XP user until I actually tried vista x64 ,i would not go back to XP now.

I think as long as most of your hardware is pretty recent you wont have any problems with drivers ,the only driver i had probs with was for my rather ancient BenQ scanner which i found an alternative driver for after some google hunting

Just to add another pro-vista vote:
I'm running Vista on my new laptop ('cause it came with Vista on it) and I have no complaints so far. Was skeptic at first but I've gotten used to it really fast and so far it works quickly and tidily.
Only using this laptop for office work so far, though, so I can't tell about gaming issues.

But as far as my experiences go:

Been using Vista just under a year now. To start with I would have switched back without a sesond thought, now there's no way I'd go back.

I have Vista on 3 laptops *yeah I know, flash git!!* and the only compatibility issue I have had is with the epsom driver
for my printer, ok it prints but if you want to look at the properties, ink level etc you can't. As for games and general use
I can't fault it, it's fast and not at all bloated and does what it's supposed to.

What you've got to remember that vista is designed for billions of variations of setups Lenny has 3 laptops and I bet they're all completely different maybe similar but used differently... No two pooters are the same and so vista has lots of features you'll never use to allow for almost infinite variations of software, cameras, phones, printers, etc etc etc... There are lots of sites about the problems with vista and working around them 10 problems

All new software especially one expected to do so much is gonna have problems....

I like it.... It's is power hungry but there are websites to give you tips to reduce that, I just can't find one now, I'll add it later if I find it... hope this helps..

This post has been edited by bigbaldybloke: Sep 18 2008, 03:22 PM

I LOOOOVE Vista. I really do.
For some reason my 8 SATA drives would sometimes just freeze up XP and I would have to restart and recheck ALL my torrents which was a pain in the ass to do every day. I have tried and searched for solutions and installed and uninstalled countless drivers but to no avail and since I installed Vista it has never happened again!!!! Just fiddle around a bit with a few options in Vista and it feels almost the same as XP. Just have to use ALT-uparrow to go up a folder but thats ok.

If you have the rig and you certainly do u should like it too.

Top 10 Windows Vista Performance Tweaks

Windows Vista is a great looking operating system with some awesome features, but it can be slow as molasses unless you've got a hugely powerful PC to run it. For most computers however, a few quick Vista tweaks can make a massive difference in the speed of Vista for everyday use.

Here's our list of recommended Vista performance and speed tweaks:

1. Turn off Windows Search Indexing

Windows Vista search indexing is constantly reviewing files on your system to make their contents available for quick searching. This is handy, but can severely impact system performance.
To disable this constant indexing:

* Click Start then Computer
* Right Click the C: Drive
* On General Tab, Uncheck Index this drive for faster searching
* On the subsequent dialog box, Select Include subfolders and files

2. Turn off Remote Differential Compression

Remote Differential Compression measures the changes in files over a network to transfer them with minimal bandwidth rather than transferring an entire file that has previously been moved. By constantly checking for file changes, this service can hinder system performance.
To disable this service:

* Open Control Panel
* Switch to Classic View
* Select Program Features
* Choose Turn Windows features on and off
* Scroll down and uncheck Remote Differential Compression

*Special Note: Windows Vista has the same tendency as XP to get bogged down with a bloated and corrupt Windows registry and file system. We strongly recommend keeping Vista running in optimum condition using an app like RegCure PC Optimizer: Free Download (Recommended)
3. Turn off Automatic Windows Defender Operation

Windows Defender real-time protection against malware continues to run despite having Automatic operation disabled.
To disable this feature:

* Open Control Panel
* Select Windows Defender
* Choose Tools from the top menu
* Select Options
* Uncheck Auto Start at the bottom of the window

4. Turn off Automatic Disk Defragmentation

Windows Vista and its always-on defragment feature isn't really that necessary and can cause system slow down. Just remember to run a defrag manually every week or so.
To disable this:

* Click Start then Computer
* Right Click the C: Drive
* Select the Tools Tab
* Uncheck Run on a schedule

*Important: Keeping your hard drive defragmented is key to great system performance, but it's very important not to neglect Vista's core files, dll structure, and file/path reference system. PCTuneUpTips advises regular Vista system scans and maintenance with RegCure: Free Download (Highly Recommended)
5. Add a 2GB or higher USB Flash drive to take advantage of Windows Ready Boost (Additional Memory Cache)

Ready Boost is Microsoft's name for using a USB thumb/flash drive to provide some quick access memory the operating system can use as extra RAM. The Ready Boost system can significantly improve system performance.
To set this up:

* Insert a USB Flash Drive (preferably 2GB or more)
* Click Start then Computer
* Right Click the USB Drive in My Computer
* Select the Ready Boost Tab
* Choose Use this device
* Select as much space as you can free up for RAM usage vs. Storage

6. Turn off Windows Hibernation

Windows hibernation background services can use a large amount of system resources. If you don't use the Hibernate feature on a regular basis you may want to disable it to give Vista a performance boost.
To disable Hibernation:

* Select the Control Panel then Power Options
* Click Change Plan Settings
* Click on Change Advanced Power Settings
* Expand the Sleep selection
* Expand the Hibernate After selection
* Crank the selector down to zero
* Click Apply

7. Turn off System Restore

Analysis and restore point creation by Windows Vista can eat a fair amount of system resources. Disabling this service will obviously mean the system restore feature in Vista will not be available in the event of a system crash. Change this at your own risk.

* Control Panel>System
* Click System Protection on the left panel
* Uncheck the main system drive
* Agree to the confirmation

*Note: The best protection against ever needing to restore your PC is regular file cleaning and maintenance. We strongly recommend regular Vista error detection and repair scans using RegCure PC Optimizer: (#1 Recommended)
8. Disable User Access Control (UAC)

This much-loathed new Vista feature attempts to protect your system from malware infection by making you manually confirm a whole host of everyday user operations. While it doesn't directly impact performance, it can be annoying and might be more hassle than good.
To disable User Access Control:

* Click Start then Control Panel
* Select User Accounts
* Select Turn User Account Control on or off
* Uncheck User Account Control Box
* Restart as recommended

9. Disable excess Windows Services that Auto-Launch at Startup

Just like Windows XP, Vista ships with all kinds of services enabled that load at startup and may never be used by most users.
To see what loads at startup and disable the ones you likely won't be needing (they can always be started manually later):

* Click Start then Control Panel
* Select Administrative Tools
* Choose System Configuration
* Click the Services Tab
* You can safely deselect:
o Offline Files (unless you're using Offline File Sync)
o Tablet PC Input Service (unless you have a tablet PC)
o Terminal Services
o Windows Search (If you have already disabled indexing)
o Fax (unless you're using a fax modem)

*You can also control Windows Vista strartup programs very easily with RegCure:
10. Disable Excess Windows Features

Windows ships with other features that are listed separately in the Vista operating system from the startup services.
You can view and disable these features by:

* Clicking Start then Control Panel
* Select Program Features
* On the left panel, select Turn Windows Features on or off
* You can safely deselect:
o Indexing Service
o Remote Differential Compression
o Tablet PC Optional Components
o Windows DFS Replication Service
o Windows Fax & Scan (unless you use a modem for faxing)
o Windows Meeting Space (unless you use the Live Meeting Service) Can somebody move this to a guide section or not?

This post has been edited by Stiffchicken: Sep 18 2008, 06:37 PM

I'm sorry, but IMO it's the worst thing ms since ME.
First of all it's HUGE for such a crappy performing OS. My 10 gig windoze partition was not enough. It took me more googling and plowing through ignorant twits forum posts to get everything working than I could imagine. On top of that all it decided that my raid needed rebuilding. It did so without even asking me for it or giving me an opportunity to stop it save from shutting the crap down and reinstalling windows (which is "a tad" faster than rebuilding a perfectly healthy 500 gig raid5 array).

In short: I truly hate it.

Back on xp x64 now.

Linux may be faaaaaaaaaaaaar from perfect (depending on your hardware), but at least you have some real control over it.

Thanks for the posts folks, all the information is greatly appreciated.

This post has been edited by m15hun: Sep 19 2008, 04:55 AM

Well, I'm writing this from Vista Ultimate and I have to say that so far, so good. It installed without any problems, found most of my drivers, the others I had on DVD and they installed without any issues. It's rated my system as 4.7, apparently that's top end and it looks and feels quite quick and responsive, it looks good too.

I thought it was going to be murder..