# Vista - Advantages and Disadvantages



## Pinchy (Mar 19, 2007)

Note: Please dont flame guys...just make suggestions.

These are the advantages and disadvantages i got with Vista from XP: (so far)

*Advantages:*
Really fast response time
Support for a lot of drivers automatically installed (LAN/Audio/Scanner/Printer)
Internet got faster (Ping on speedtest went from 18ms to 10ms)
Aero looks pretty cool (Not a stat, but my opinion)
Has its own security
Partitioning tool!!!
Sidebar has many features and clock is very handy
Windows Calender and Windows media center
Fast sleep and resume
Enhanced Video Quality
Live taskbar thumbnails
Parental controls
Encryption fearures
Flip and flip 3d window switching (I personally love this )
Games explorer
Windows search, Welcome center, Photo gallery, Sync center and Self-healing system 

*Disadvantages:*
Not as many applications supported as XP, but generally ok (and will get better)
Cant use Visual Styles i.e. Msstyles

*Neutral*
The frequent popups asking you whether you should allow stuff or not. It isnt that annoying, and you can always disable it.
DirectX 10 (Neutral because it hasnt had any perf. increase yet)

*Tested rigs:*
1 - e6400, ASUS P5B deluxe, 2GB PC6400, X1950 PRO 512mb, 500GB HDD in RAID (full specs to left)
2 - (Laptop) PM 2Ghz, Dell 9300, 1.2GB PC4200, nVidia 6800 Go 256mb, 100GB HDD.

* Problems *
1 - Only problem is WMP not playing sound on more than two speakers, and that cant partiton more than 200 of the 500GB hard disk.
2 - Bluetooth driver has a bit of trouble (FIXED - Download latest driver from Dell site), and only can partition 45 of the 100GB hard drive.

*Will test on:*
1 - P4 2.6Ghz, Abit IS-50, 1GB PC3200, 9800 PRO 128mb/X800PRO to XT PE 256mb, 80GB IDE HDD.

Note - im using Vista Ultimate with all latest updates installed.


I, personally, HIGHLY recommend Vista. I have not had any major problems with it, and it has been fine so far.

Comment as much as you want, and let me add to my list 


Now my first question - what security are you guys using?


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## BXtreme (Mar 19, 2007)

Dis- U CAN't use visual styles i.e msstyles ( i think they're either trying to make something new or they're allowing other 3rd party companies to build some for them),
adv-the next os for 3 yrs, has been easily cracked  it's a gd thing really! , 1 click at the clock show a beautiful clock , sidebar is a LOT useful ( i never look at my real clock lol) and sidebar apps are widely available.
EDIT: Security- NONE! I have enough experience about viral sites, trust me  but if you want av go4 NOD32


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## Pinchy (Mar 19, 2007)

I didnt wanna add the crack thing because im not promoting it 

Ive added everything else tho 

I should have re-worded my question 

I meant, do you guys reckon 3rd party anti virus is worth it, or is the Vista stuff good enough?


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## BXtreme (Mar 19, 2007)

3rd party is a MUST, sry but vista will get severe virus not too far from now, vista's own security can't stop it. Even XP and it's av's can't stop it, i think i mentioned it earlier in a thread " attention vista users".


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## Pinchy (Mar 19, 2007)

Ah ok, thanks for that. Id better get an anti virus ASAP then


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## BXtreme (Mar 19, 2007)

sure avg is fine for vista 
some more adv- windows calender, Windows media center, Fast sleep and resume, live taskbar thumbnails, Parental controls, esp. DirectX10 not to forget, encryption fearures, flip and flip 3d window switching, Games explorer, windows search, welcome center, photo gallery, sync center, self- healing system and more info on ms site


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## Pinchy (Mar 19, 2007)

lol, I havent used half of them but ill add em in


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## BXtreme (Mar 19, 2007)

except sync center i've tested all of 'em, and  some dis - the inkball which substitutes the pinball sucks arses, and mahjong isn't my taste, imo the built in games are worse than even xp ones, but the solitaire is really gd


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## Pinchy (Mar 19, 2007)

The Chess was pretty good too...but the pinball --> inkball did suck!

You guys know any programs to partition on Vista?


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## mandelore (Mar 19, 2007)

u can disable the annoying prompts asking to allow this and that, the media center works ok too, for some reason it brings up some adult channels on my freeview usb dongle, tho i cant watch them, at least its trying! hahaha


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## BXtreme (Mar 19, 2007)

Vista has an in-built one used to shrink a volume and then create a new one  I didin't need another one


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## Pinchy (Mar 19, 2007)

whats it called?


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## BXtreme (Mar 19, 2007)

er..inside computer management, 'Disk Management'.More improved


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## Easy Rhino (Mar 19, 2007)

it is a lot faster after using it a bit. at first vista was slow as crap but it seemed the more i accessed files and what not it sped up. dx 10 will be worth the switch alone once games come out for it!


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## Pinchy (Mar 19, 2007)

Cheers BX 

You reckon i should get Zone Alarm, or should Vista firewall and NOD32 be fine?

EDIT - installing Vista on laptop now


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## mandelore (Mar 19, 2007)

Avast antivirus works sweet ass for vista, never had any problems with it


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## Pinchy (Mar 19, 2007)

*A little off from the antivirus*

That formatting tool is DEFINATELY a great advantage! No restart required to create an entire new partition and install the drive. Took 30 seconds!


EDIT - Whats with the avaialbe shrink size  It wont let me Shrink more than 200GB of my 500GB Hard drive...


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## BXtreme (Mar 19, 2007)

I have a 250 gb hdd (i'm working on it), i never did partitioning over 100gb cuz i didn't ever need to. My whole data of 600+games, 170+ movies and other crap are on blu-ray discs i burned using my friends laptop. But, you're saying you can't shrink more than 200gb on a 500gb ? How much space is used and free, it depends on it.
Oh, and Vista's inbuilt firewall isn't BAD, but er..I think w8 for a better firewall for Vista. i somehow feel, something better is coming  If za runs on it, then use it  Otherwise i would really w8 for a better firewall to come...
and, btw Kaspersky's 7.0 version is running in beta, WHICH means we'll see a better av than nod32 in a month or two.


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## Pinchy (Mar 19, 2007)

Ive used 16GB on the primary drive (Which is now 350GB; already partitioned 150 off it), and used nothing on the 150GB partition. Now, on the 350GB, it wont let me partition any more than 66GB.


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## BXtreme (Mar 19, 2007)

You or somebody made a thread for that....somebody had the same error


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## Pinchy (Mar 19, 2007)

Nup, i havent made a thread on it


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## BXtreme (Mar 19, 2007)

Then maybe it's your hdd or raid problem or Vista doesn't like your hdd or 200gb is the limit for disk management on your hdd.
P.s=> Try defragmenting, may work...
1 more adv- better video quality


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## Pinchy (Mar 19, 2007)

Even on the laptop; only 45/100GB can be shrinked

BTW - laptop works great with Vista


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## BXtreme (Mar 19, 2007)

looks like shrink doesn't want to completely SHRINK, but shrink out some space out of the drive.
btw specs of the lappie ? and how much time did it take you to install vista on both desktop and laptops ?


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## Pinchy (Mar 19, 2007)

Laptop specs:

Dell Inspiron 9300
2Ghz Pentium M processor, 533FSB
1.2GB PC4200 RAM
100GB hard disk
256mb nvidia 6800 go
8x Dual layer DVD burner

The video and audio drivers automatically updated and installed in windows update ...bluetooth installed but had to get a newer driver off the Dell site. So far, so good. Not a trace of lag, very good performance.

In regards to installing...it took about the same time, but im pretty sure my computer was faster in decompressing the files, and copying the files (8x DVD Reader vs 16x DVD reader)


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## BXtreme (Mar 19, 2007)

hw much time in minutes ? and I didn't need to install any drivers except video, all other were already installed 
I don't use bluetooth, but wi-fi worked really well


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## Pinchy (Mar 19, 2007)

Didnt time it 

Yeah Wifi installed straight away. I just confirmed that the driver for bluetooth of the Dell site works great


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## xylomn (Mar 19, 2007)

I agree vista works great for myself too....

I have had a few application problems with it:
  - FFXI (fixed with a little patch)
  - Citrix Web Client (used to access my university's servers from home not 100% compatible)

but apart from then I generally had good experience with its compatibility which will only get better...   I've had no problems finding drivers either...

The one area where I think vista falls down at the moment is the number of 3rd party firewalls that are compatible with it atm...   antivirus are fine, theres kaspersky, nod32, bitdefender, avast, avg, etc. that are already compatible.

Atm I'm using kaspersky internet security with vista atm but once COMODO 3 is released on 16th April (I think) I'll start using that with either Kaspersky or nod32...

I believe the majority of peoples negative opinions of vista come from using either the unfinished beta versions or unjustified flaming siple because its microsoft...

A good OS


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## Pinchy (Mar 20, 2007)

Anyone know how to let a networked computer access a main drive, like C?

Ive shared the drive, and enabled "full control" under permissions for "everyone", yet on the laptop, i try to access the c drive, and it says "Blah blah is not accessible. You may not have permissions to access this drive....Access is denied"

The only folder that lets me get in is the "Public" folder.


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## BXtreme (Mar 20, 2007)

check this site out : http://www.driverheaven.net/windows...ta-networking-sharing-problems-solutions.html


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## Pinchy (Mar 20, 2007)

Nothing. It looks like im having the same problem though.


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## BXtreme (Mar 20, 2007)

or this http://www.microsoft.com/technet/network/evaluate/vista_fp.mspx


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## Pinchy (Mar 20, 2007)

I can share a folder fine...but i wanna share the whole drive. 

Ive gone through this:
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies-archive.cfm/681406.html

But my permissions are set to "full control" for "everyone"...seemed to work for them, not working for me


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## fireblade77 (Mar 20, 2007)

i like most of whats been said above but i have a couple of sound problems that r makin me  
i have an x-fi fatality sound card and for some reason i cant get team speak to work right.
if i talk into the mic i can hear what i say come back through my speakers, now some people i know have the none fatality x-fi and dont have this problem  
also 
if u go into control panel and click sound options there is no headphones option just stereo - quad -5.1 or 7.1 but in the x-fi options u have headphones so when i go into counter strike and try and select headphones it always defaults back to stereo and doesnt sound as good.
this also happens if i take the sound card out and use the onboard sound but this solves my team speak problem.
apart from this i think vista is great, but all of the above is doing my head in


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## Pinchy (Mar 22, 2007)

I dont see why so many people were complaining about Vista's "game performance loss"

Ive installed Counter Strike Source, and it works just as good as it does in XP. No perf. loss at all!

The only part i find weird is that in options of CS:S, it says my software is DX9.0, altho its DX10.


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## DOM (Mar 22, 2007)

Pinchy said:


> The only part i find weird is that in options of CS:S, it says my software is DX9.0, altho its DX10.



cuz your card is DX9 I think


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## Pinchy (Mar 22, 2007)

But i remember with my FX5200 and mx440, the FX5200 had DX 8.0 as the hardware and 9.0 as the software and same with mx440; had DX7.0 for hardware and DX 9.0 for software.


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## aboyfahy (Oct 14, 2007)

*Quick question*

*Just wondering does anyone have any problems running vista home premium on a laptop with only 1gb of ram? I have been hearing nothing but bad things about this and im just after purchesing one and its almost delivered so its to late to ask for another gig!!!!!​*


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## Deleted member 24505 (Oct 14, 2007)

even on a desktop,you really do need 2gb for vista,it is a bit of a ram hog,but its easily solved by adding a second gig of ram.

can you not buy a second gig yourself for the lappy?


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## Pinchy (Oct 14, 2007)

I installed it on my brothers laptop with 1.2GB of RAM and it ran perfectly fine. I have added another GB of RAM to the laptop since then, but thats only because he does design work and needed it (altho 1 --> 2GB did boost the general computers speed).


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## aboyfahy (Oct 14, 2007)

*quick question*

*Ok thanks for the replys! I would say ill be safe enough for a while with 1gb. Is it easy to add another gb of ram or should i get someone to do it for me?This is basically what i have on this link so if anyone else owns ownes let me know about there experience with it. www.dell.ie its the dell inspiron 1501 [/URL]​*


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## Kursah (Oct 14, 2007)

I used Vista Ultimate 32bit for approx 6 months and I eventually got it working pretty damn good with minor losses in syn bench scores, most games ran fine with little to no FPS drop. But when my buddies talked me into playing BF2142 and using Ventrillo for VOip, I couldn't get my mic to work at all! Nobody could hear me, they'd just hear a buzzing noise. I go to XP and it works just fine. Well things have changed and now I have an X-Fi Extreme Music, I know Alchemy is getting better with every release. And we'll see what happens after SP1 is released. I thought I remember reading improved defrag, load times, boot times, etc.

Vista is not a bad OS, but I don't think it was worth the wait either. If you're big on the newest stuff, it's the way to go, but Vista seems to take up more resources and such in comparison to XP. I did like the Aero interface, the side-bar features and such, but atm I don't think I could go back to it, just nothing there I could find justifiable enough to keep it on my system as of yet. Again, give MS some time and I'm sure the polish and shine will come through and it will improve. I may just wait for "Windows 7" to come out in a couple years and stay on XP, hard saying.

Overall, Vista is not bad, I may give it crap and call it ME 2, but I spent enough time with it to justify my reasons. For how I like my system to work, it does not work for me, and I got sick of trying to make it work for me when I could go back to XP and in a couple hours have it ready to rock. But that is just my opinion.


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## Darknova (Oct 14, 2007)

Most of what you have put as "Advantages" I personally see as bloat.

I use nLite on every install of Windows to strip out everything I don't use, which would be most of that.

I love XP x64 purely because of compatibility reasons and that there is much less "bloat" than Vista. The only thing I'm disappointed about is no DX10 support, but either Alky will break through, or Vienna will be released by the time DX10 is a neccesity (anyone played Crysis? Screw DX10, it looks amazing in DX9).

In the end I'd just strip out everything from Vista that makes Vista Vista. So it'd be pointless to go out and spend £200+ for DX10 for me.


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## Grings (Oct 14, 2007)

Im hoping i can get server 2008 for a reasonable price when it's released, half the vista problems arent there, and without the fancy stuff running its no more of a resource hog than xp, the only minus is theres no chess


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## imperialreign (Oct 14, 2007)

My father recently purchased the Vista upgrade . . . and I've been debating on moving up.  I'd really like to wait until SP1 is out for Vista, though . . .

Questions:

Does Vista support making a USB boot drive?  XP doesn't, and it's a headache sometimes to make boot disks (cause my crap 10 yr old 3.5 is about to die), remember where you left your 3.5" disk, finding one that works, etc.

What is the typical pagefile usage?  Even with 2GB installed, and running on minimum processes, etc, XP still uses almost 50% installed mem.

Is it really that much faster over XP?  What about with file indexing off?


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## Pinchy (Oct 14, 2007)

aboyfahy said:


> *Ok thanks for the replys! I would say ill be safe enough for a while with 1gb. Is it easy to add another gb of ram or should i get someone to do it for me?This is basically what i have on this link so if anyone else owns ownes let me know about there experience with it. www.dell.ie its the dell inspiron 1501 [/URL]​*



Its pretty easy. On most dell laptops, there is an area at the back which you can unscrew and put the RAM DIMM straight in.



Kursah said:


> But when my buddies talked me into playing BF2142 and using Ventrillo for VOip, I couldn't get my mic to work at all! Nobody could hear me, they'd just hear a buzzing noise. I go to XP and it works just fine. Well things have changed and now I have an X-Fi Extreme Music, I know Alchemy is getting better with every release. And we'll see what happens after SP1 is released. I thought I remember reading improved defrag, load times, boot times, etc.



I get a stack of audio issues too. Surround sound not working in WMP, front panel mic not working properly, having to re-configure the sound whenever I want to use headphones, etc etc. Ive kind of gotten used to using Nero media player and changing all my settings when im gaming...but its something I would really like to be fixed.



Darknova said:


> Most of what you have put as "Advantages" I personally see as bloat.



Vista is nothing special, but if you have to choose between it and XP, id probably go with it .



imperialreign said:


> My father recently purchased the Vista upgrade . . . and I've been debating on moving up.  I'd really like to wait until SP1 is out for Vista, though . . .
> 
> Questions:
> 
> ...



The "create an MS-DOS disk" checkbox when you try to format the drive is still greyed out. But you can always use CD's as bootable disks .

My mem usage after around 30 mins of computer being on, with Nero/IE7/MSN being the only applications I have loaded. (Added as an attachment)

TBH, I kind of forget how much faster Vista is over XP because I havent used XP in such a long time ...


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## Darknova (Oct 15, 2007)

Pinchy said:


> Vista is nothing special, but if you have to choose between it and XP, id probably go with it .



Yeah but I have XP x64...and having to choose between those isn't anywhere near as plain cut. x64 is basically a server OS (it's recognised as one by a lot of programs) with extras to make it desktop friendly. It uses less resources than Vista, installs into a much smaller space, and when fully customised to my liking, loads up into less than 100Mb including drivers.

You can't do that with Vista. The only problem is Vista has DX10.


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