The Energon Pub

Now, I've heard all the complaints, but really, is it that bad?

Personally, I recently built a brand new system from scratch, and bought a copy of Vista Home Premium for it. So far, I haven't had a single issue. Sure, it takes a little time to get loaded up, but I can forgive 15 seconds of delay in order to enjoy reliable performance once it's loaded. I think most people's problem with Vista is that they're used to XP. Remember when XP came out? Everyone hated it, mostly because they couldnt find all the settings they wanted to tweak. Sure, things got moved around, but it's all in there somewhere. Same with Vista.

So this thread is just for people like me, who haven't had any trouble with Vista, and want to praise its performance for a moment. Although, if you've got some Vista issues you wanna address, feel free. Personally, the only problems I've seen people have, are related to either 1- not being able to find a setting they want to change, or 2- not having enough RAM (Vista is, admittedly, a bit of a memory hog).

I bought a Aser laptop last year that had Vista home basic installed in it. I had intended to strip it down to XP Pro after I had returned from a trip. (I bought it the day before I left and didn't have a ton of time to work on it, before I had to go)

Needless to say it's still running VHB now, Really it isn't bad, and as it is the basic model it's effectively a prettied up version of XP but to be honest, I really have yet to run anything that should really tax the system, so I can't judge how it would fair under all conditions.

I'm using vista on this computer(wife's laptop). We haven't had any issues with it since we got it, but it is used solely for internet surfing/video watching/word processing.

The biggest issue i have seen others encounter is audio/video codecs randomly dropping out.

I'm willing to bet that most people encounter issues with vista when they start trying to use 3rdparty software, but i can't verify that one way or the other.

Personally, I'm comfortable with xp and will continue to use that on my computers.

I actually like vista, i needed a new systhem around the time when vista first came out so the transition was pretty simple ..... never gave me a real problem since, apart from some very old retrogames who refuse to run (they werent retro when i bought them, their just THAT old )

I've never see an OS as bad as Vista. Maybe it's good for a basic user, but I find it not intuitive at all for setting up backoffice stuff. I also find it funny how it says in the original post to praise the performance in light of needing more RAM than XP.

Plus I don't care what company it is, OS upgrades are supposed to make your machine run faster when you install it. Really, what has Vista added to Windows that is more valuable or useful. It's not like NT vs 3.1 where you had 32-bit processing added. All it does is add a crappy pseudo-firewall and a new interface.

GetterDragun wrote:I've never see an OS as bad as Vista.

I think you've forgotten about Microsoft Bob

Mkall wrote:

GetterDragun wrote:I've never see an OS as bad as Vista.

I think you've forgotten about Microsoft Bob

HA. I remember that. It was bad.

I've had a pretty easy time using Vista. People complain that programs don't install easily, but I've had no problems. It runs pretty smoothly, though it may crash occasionally, but it's really no problem.

And turn User Account Control OFF. That's the cause of most of the complaints towards Vista.

On desktops, it's not too bad. laptops seem to hate Vista. it's an okay operating system, but not enough to keep me from switching to mac.

I've never had an issue with it. I managed to snag a copy of Vista ultimate when it first came out for $150 (obtained legitly) and I really haven't had too many issues with it. It took a while to get a handle on some of the interface changes but overall I'm really not disappointed with it. In fact, most of the XP stuff I miss is really small stuff (like being able to view animated gif files through the picture viewer). Most of my programs load fine.

Blue screen error while opening Windows Media Player. That is all. Vista is great as long as you don't mess with it. Like a woman. But the moment you poke it, prod it, or look at it wrong, things break down, you get angry, things get heated, expletives are shouted and in the end you just want throw it down the basement stairs.....

TheMuffin wrote:Blue screen error while opening Windows Media Player. That is all. Vista is great as long as you don't mess with it. Like a woman. But the moment you poke it, prod it, or look at it wrong, things break down, you get angry, things get heated, expletives are shouted and in the end you just want throw it down the basement stairs.....

O_o... Um... *backs away slowly*

For the longest time I had XP Pro on this laptop (even though it came with VHP preinstalled) but I missed my Media Center functionality, so I reinstalled it, but this time I did a fresh install and got rid of the bloatware (added "value" programs by the manufacturer and 3rd parties.) and installed SP1.

...what a difference a Service Pack makes.

I've had the BSOD a couple of times, and had a few problems with shut down, but it was all due to screwing with the boot configuration and registry. (once corrected, the OS has been working as good (if not better than) as XP.)

It's true that Vista can be a RAM hog, but as long as you have 2GBs and above, you'll be fine. Especially if you set it to look like Windows Classic (98/ME) and shut down all of the visual effects. (most folks do this anyway.)

I did this for a while, but after hooking this up to the HDTV in the living room and seeing the detail on Aero...I set it back to the Vista setup. In fact, it's a little easier on my eyes. Plus I love the black taskbar, looks sleek.

Some simple tips to speed up start up and shut down (and none of these hurt your system.)

Start up:

Go to MSCONFIG, click the boot tab, make sure Vista is selected in the OS list (you might have a dual boot system.), click Advanced Options, and make sure BOOT is checked. Once checked, the drop down menu becomes available and you can tell Vista how many cores of your Dual, Triple, or Quad processor you want it to use for booting. The default is always set to one. Easily cuts off 10-15 seconds, and it's absolutely harmless. (NOTE: Restart is required for this to take effect.)

Make sure your external devices (USB Flash Drives, external HDD/CD-ROM/enclosures, etc.) are disconnected physically from the computer. This will also cut a good 15-20 seconds off, plus the multi core trick, you can make the load time pretty reasonable. (If you prefer to leave your USB devices connected, no problem. It just takes time to load each device and whatever software is involved with it.)

Shut down:

Open the Task Manager, and shut down everything related to Media Center, Readyboost (which is another neat feature that Vista has, and does work...) and make sure you disconnect your devices through the safely remove devices feature. (NOTE: They don't have to be physically removed, just removed from Windows like you'd eject a SD card and the like.) then shut down explorer.exe. (yes, the taskbar, Start menu, and all desktop icons will disappear.) Hit CTRL+ALT+DEL and the splash screen will appear. Click the shut down button on that screen and watch Vista shut down in about 15-25 seconds...tops.)

None of these tips will hurt the computer, the installation of Windows, or the registry.

They sound like a lot of work, but once you get into the routine, you don't even notice it, and the speed increase is worth the little bits of extra work.

I can't wait for Service Pack 2. Should help even more. (Due sometime in February I believe.)

Autobot032 wrote:Shut down:

Open the Task Manager, and shut down everything related to Media Center, Readyboost (which is another neat feature that Vista has, and does work...) and make sure you disconnect your devices through the safely remove devices feature. (NOTE: They don't have to be physically removed, just removed from Windows like you'd eject a SD card and the like.) then shut down explorer.exe. (yes, the taskbar, Start menu, and all desktop icons will disappear.) Hit CTRL+ALT+DEL and the splash screen will appear. Click the shut down button on that screen and watch Vista shut down in about 15-25 seconds...tops.)

None of these tips will hurt the computer, the installation of Windows, or the registry.

They sound like a lot of work, but once you get into the routine, you don't even notice it, and the speed increase is worth the little bits of extra work.

Yeah but ... wouldn't it just be easier to click on Shut Down and oh ... go to bed?

I have Vista Home Premium since a year, and so far I've had no major issues with it, surely there are some problems with the update system (it occasionally states that my vista is not genuine on every tenth update, but it looks like it is repairing itself after a genuinity check...)

TheMuffin wrote:Blue screen error while opening Windows Media Player. That is all. Vista is great as long as you don't mess with it. Like a woman. But the moment you poke it, prod it, or look at it wrong, things break down, you get angry, things get heated, expletives are shouted and in the end you just want throw it down the basement stairs.....

You know, I don't remember having BSOD even once...

Autobot032 wrote:(once corrected, the OS has been working as good (if not better than) as XP.)

One of us...one of us...one of us...

No, seriously, welcome to the Vista Side.

my laptop im using right now has vista on it. the internet constantly stops responding EVERY time i log on and i have to go through the process of going in to IE and waiting for it to work properly. my older laptop never had this problem

Celsius/Fahrenhiet wrote:my laptop im using right now has vista on it. the internet constantly stops responding EVERY time i log on and i have to go through the process of going in to IE and waiting for it to work properly. my older laptop never had this problem

IE sux, any of the concurrent browsers is better, faster and relatively safer (Firefox or Opera is recommended)

run ultimate..for our gallery..and fun.delete the temp file
items..recycle..fat your drive..all zen.

lastly..those mac commercials...been with pc for the longest,friends
run..mac as well.

who ever came up with this ad campaign,isn't good a promotions.
very un zen and karmic. same as...cars,bikes,trucks...free
world. people like what they like. instigation..as a marketing
tool..is very unprofessional.

just an expression,and nothing neg. ....gremlock.