Windows Vista or Longhorn

R

Rostitute

New Member
I have heard alot about the 'new and improved' Operating System from Microsoft.
But because of the System Requirements there must be new features other than fancier graphics and a shiny new look.
What has been changed?
I heard that they have created a new feature which checks that you haven't downloaded anything illegal 30x a minute, can anyone tell me if this is true or not? Because if it is, it's no wonder it need such a huge amount of speed.

Any information at all would be greatly appreciated!
 
The newer version of Windows has made some serious improvements in security as well as including the full version of the Windows Defender and depending on which version Home Premium or Ultimate not Basic or Business the Media Center seen as the last release of XP for 2005. The Windows validation tool has been inplace with XP as well as Vista when going for updates at Microsoft.

You no longer need to prepare driver floppies for installing Windows on a sata due to improvements in hardware detection and having a larger driver base included. The real problems faced with Vista at this like with any version when first released is the lack of updated drivers for the current hardwares(sound cards mainly) and you applications will need a newer version if they fail to install or run after.
 
Thanks this has been a great help guys.
I will rethink installing Windows Vista now after of course I get the neccesary updates, you said you thought Home Premium was better?
And another thing I have heard iTunes does not work on Vista or is this an easily navigated problem?
 
The latest Apple Quick TIme and ITunes will go right on without problems. That's one a few media players that they make sure works. Other softwares for dvd playback and video capturing will be subject to need for a newer version. A so called compatibility list proved inaccurate lately when pointing to PowerDVD 6 and 7 as Vista compatible. The 6.0 version is far from it.

You can look over the different softwares in different catagories at http://www.iexbeta.com/wiki/index.php/Windows_Vista_Software_Compatibility_List
 
Flip navigation?

Whats new with the flip navigation tool on Windows Vista?
If my computer wasn't able to run it would I be missing out on one of the key improvements of Windows Vista?
I know you can install it without using the Aero Flip Navigation but would that be a mistake if I bought it?
 
At first I even had to look that one up! :P The new Vista look sees the Start menu bar and other items seem transparent. An older article discussing this is seen at http://www.techweb.com/wire/software/181400593

To give you an example take a look at one desktop I captured lately since installing the Home Premium version on a second hard drive a few weeks ago. The backdrop here was taken as the game Prey was initially loading and shows the new sidebar and configuration screen.

vistadesktopsidebarbp9.jpg
 
I would only concider installing vista as a second operating system for know that way i can use my printer and various other devices in xp
 
meanman said:
I would only concider installing vista as a second operating system for know that way i can use my printer and various other devices in xp
Click to expand...

Second? Vista totals about the 15th here being the 3rd currently installed. There were those dos and 3.1 days followed by the 9X family like 98. And of course you throw in a few Linix distros and... :confused: you soon lose track! :P
 
Second OS

meanman said:
I would only concider installing vista as a second operating system for know that way i can use my printer and various other devices in xp
Click to expand...

Do you mean to dual boot it? I have always had trouble setting up windows xp and another operating system to dual boot. I have also heard from another posting somewhere on "Computer Forum" that people have had a few problems with Vista and XP dual booting. Wouldn't your printer etc. work on vista if you just got the right drivers?
 
I personally like the new look of Vista, I think the only down side for me is having to upgrade my computer to get a version that is worth installing... and I guess my real question is, is it worth it to upgrade your computer to get vista (and in my case it would mean updating alot of different things) or are you quite alright with Windows XP?
 
Vista is still in it's infancy as the new release of any previous version knows only too well. Besides the obvious changes in appearance Vista offers some improvements in security like mentioned before plus some additional items depending the version. The business and Basic versions alike will lack some things seen in both the Home Premium and Ultimate versions.

Presently current applications but not games need newer versions for use on Vista. That along with the initial lack of driver support for sound cards and other devices is a real annoyance. Dual booting Vista along with XP still being the primary OS allows getting familiar with it while not having everything working like sound and a tv tuner card just bought recently to use as the new default OS. With a tight budget XP will still work for some time to come.

Dual booting OSs also including multibooting different versions of Windows or different OS like Windows/Linux, Windows/Mac, Mac/?, Linux/?, Solaris/?, and others does entail getting accustomed to partitioning and formatting drives as well as customizing boot loaders like XP's boot.ini file, the Grub or Lilo for Linux, the Apple/Mac loader, etc.. You generally will find drivers for XP and older versions of Windows as well as Mac being more readily available. Linux drivers are starting to become more common at support sites fortunately.
 
PC eye said:
The business and Basic versions alike will lack some things seen in both the Home Premium and Ultimate versions.
Click to expand...

Do you know why this is? I mean isn't the Business version of Windows XP Professional better than Windows XP Home?

I know I wouldn't go for anything less than Windows Vista Premium
 
Rostitute said:
Do you know why this is? I mean isn't the Business version of Windows XP Professional better than Windows XP Home?

I know I wouldn't go for anything less than Windows Vista Premium
Click to expand...

The business version of Vista cant play back DVDs or something similar... and XP pro is only better for networking than Home. Otherwise, they are almost exactly the same.
 
compfreak4334 said:
better security, better word processing, better networking

Its a huge improvement over XP
Click to expand...

I tend to disagree with that statement

File sharing is messed up, and I hate how it automatically shares media with out you even knowing it. Also, they changed the interface completely with the networking clients and such that it takes longer to access them now. SMB2 basically botched all non windows file sharing, so if you are sharing to a mac or a linux box it will most likely have issues.

Security is the most annoying thing I have ever seen, I had to disable the security proxy or whatever it is that asks you if you want to do something. After the third time it popped up in .02 seconds I wanted to put xp back on

The installer is a huge POS, taking extremely long compared to XP. The drive set up utility is also in the dark ages. I was unable to do custom partition set up on an existing install, I can only assume this because MS changed the boot strap process and got rid of several things. Which, doesn't matter to a user like me because I use a freaking boot loader!

My CPU usage is almost doubled in vista running basic apps. I spike up to 80% usage running freaking MS word, where as in XP it would spike at the highest around 40%. I am now running Office 2007 as well so we will see how much that has changed.

The different versions basically have a few features which are key to it.

basic - no multi media, no ecnryption, no domain
home premium - no encryption, no domain
business - no encryption, no multi media
ultimate - everything.

I don't plan on running encrypted file systems, that just seems like a can of worms I would never want to touch, not to mention touch on a windows box

windows multi media has always sucked, and I never use it. Hell you still can't even play a DVD out of the box on a windows vista install, you have to download some codecs first. I run VLC on all my machines (os x, linux, windows) and scrap the crappy windows multi media software. I don't consider that a selling point considering there are free open source apps that are better and play everything out the box.

If you have to install vista or just want to, I suggest doing the following first. Download gparted live cd and boot off of it (http://gparted.sourceforge.net/download.php) and create a seperate partition for your vista install. Even though vista fully supports NTFS you will not be able to modify the drive during the install. Instead your only option is moving everything from the windows xp folder to a folder called old.windows which is retarded.

Since I was unable to dual boot, I just downloaded VPC 2007 from MS instead and am running an XP virtual machine for everything that doesn't work in vista.

The major downside to vista is you will be forced to upgrade to get access to certain features and at the same forced to upgrade because your older apps won't be compatible. My main point with this now, is with Direct X 10.

On top of all of that BS, MS has already announced that they have slated Vienna (their new OS) in 2009 which will have some key features vista was suppose to have but didn't

1) EFI support
2) A decent installer
3) Direct file system access
 
Such "wonderful, encouraging" words about the latest MS flop?! When trying to install Vista's Home Premium version onto the second drive's second partition it "wouldn't" go on! It had to upgrade the XP Pro installation on the first there. :rolleyes: Will Vienna also need an SP2?

The lack of audio driver support along with the patches? for current softwares used on your current hardwares is quite evident for the moment. You can see the original 8bit dos version of an old pc game known as Duke Nukem and Nukem II run on Vista while Cyberlink's PowerDVD 6.0 will not. Yet that is on the Vista compatibily list. No you have to buy the new version of that and other programs like their PowerDirector and PowerProducer softwares that come bundled with your tv tuner card. Toss your tuner card! Vista's version of the Media Center won't even detect it with the new driver for Vista installed. :rolleyes:

GParted 0.3.3.0 is the last version before the new "must mount first" version with the new automatic graphics configuration you start by typing "startx" in at the prompt where everything stops. When going to type in the startx command the error message appears atating "you cannot mount on.." such and such. :confused:

With the older versions like those that are "platform independent" you simply keep hitting the enter key until reaching the 1024x768/1280x1024 screen to change the screen resolution. That works and you are then at the gui for creating, deleting, and resizng existing partitions. But you get things done since GParted has far better "hardware detection" for a free not retail tool.
 
It would. But drivers for some printers are not yet available.
I'd wait few months before upgrading to vista.
 
I still forgot to print out a shopping cart for a friend on a laptop gosh! I will have to see if Vista Home Premium will work with the cntrll-p combination or simply search for a new driver. HP should have those out soon otherwise I'll have to boot one of the XP drives to see that done. The laptop there will see XP Pro as advised due to the lack of any SP1s or SP2s to make it worth while at the present time.
 
interesting article

http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/12/16/196213&from=rss

The fact remains the vista changes so much stuff in their OS it will already be a support nightmare. The fact that they now have executables running in the boot strap is something that is not very desirable IMO. SMB2 pretty much breaks networking with all other platforms. Pitty since I run Linux boxes and own a few macs, plus we have macs at my work. They also have issues with routers and lose their internet connection, and yes its an OS issue. Read an article on BBC's website yesterday that talked about how vista was killing internet connections over there.

The differences in the OS are not even worth the cost. Like I mentioned before, MS multimedia software sucks, and there are a lot better free and third party ones out there. I am under the impression a lot of people are buying ultimate and in reality they would never use the features it has over lets say home basic or even home premium. They just want it because it says ultimate.

I have vista running on my desktop and I am not impressed one bit. I already have a VM of windows xp pro running so I can actually use stuff that isn't broken. A lot of the websites I have to access for work are Active X, and vista and IE7 broke a lot of that stuff too, and guess what, IE6 only runs on XP....so ya that is why I have a virtual machine of XP. I also have IE6 on my Linux box via WINE, and boot into that to do work as well.

My professional opinion is vista is no where near worth the upgrade, Vienna might be since they may finally have EFI support, which would be awesome. Apple computers already use EFI and it will be the new standard eventually, sicne BIOS technology is pretty much ghetto.
 
Here I run WMP 10 on the two versions of XP for the dvd playback and other support over the default WMP 9 that stinks! Cyberlink's PowerDVD has been the default software used with great results for both video and audio playback while WMP 10 is used for audio only.

You have to remember what happened when people rushed into the initial rlease of XP after the ME flop was seen. Instead of an XP 2nd edition you now saw Windows following the 2000 trend of four separate services packs and the subsequent SP1 and SP2 releases of XP. Fortunately Vista is still not the primary OS here. It feels good being able to multiboot back to the primary whenever. :D
 
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