 "I installed it on my MacBook Pro under Boot Camp. Runs really fast!" | 2008-04-07 |
| - Reviewed By doodlebug94 |
I didn't take off stars for Basic's lack of features, unlike other reviewers, because Microsoft advertised Basic without them. You can't fault Basic for things that you were forewarned on before buying it. Instead, I awarded it five stars because of its flawless adherence to the capabilities I was told it has.
I find that most people don't use any of Vista's features that aren't on Basic. For most people, Windows Vista Home Basic is all they need but they just don't want to have the bottom-of-the-line product. I found it to be very proficient at handling the tasks even computer nerds do.
Believe it or not, Windows Aero can be done without. Basic's graphics are good, too, and they look much better than XP's.
Overall, this product will fill the needs of the vast majority of users, and it's a cost-effective way to stay updated with the latest technology. I'm very pleased with it. |
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 "Don't Get Suckered By Microsoft" | 2008-03-23 |
| - Reviewed By User: A2CDM45LL7S5XR |
| Another horrible product by MicroSatan. XP is much better, and much faster. If you love to waste your time and money, buy this junk. I'm sure that little freak (bill gates) would love to take your money, and, as usual, provide horrible customer service. If you have XP, keep it. Or save your money and buy a Mac. |
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| "Windows Home Basic" | 2008-03-05 |
| - Reviewed By User: A38GN0RWWX6H05 |
| I bought Windows Home Basic for my Gateway MX6124 Laptop because it was the recommended version. I have been extermely pleased with this upgrade, the computer seems much faster and is very stable. I know most of the computer magazines really look down on the Basic version, but in my thinking less is actually better. My computer is not bogged down with a bunch of asthetics that I do not really need to get my work done. Installation was much easier than XP even though I bought the upgrade version. The installation did a clean install moving everything on the drive into a files named "windows.old". After reinstalling all my old programs and savinf any documents, I just deleted "windows.old" and defragged the hard drive. I recommend this version to anyone with an older computer. |
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 "Broadband a must for installation" | 2008-02-26 |
| - Reviewed By frankwj |
My reason, because of the 60 if not more updates that vista downloads during and after installation.some one said that installing vista with out
CD Key on the first time install, worked for me on a warm boot.I did find out that once you have it installed it runs fine,but you have to run the install again over vista to enter the CD key and complete the install as a upgrade.this was a clean install,tried to go over XP Pro kicked me out.
in general I like vista,waiting for service pack 1.Im running a AMD 64 X2 4000 2.10 Gig cpu 1Gig Ram,try to stay with dual core Cpu for vista it seems to like the horse power.I pushed vista pretty hard the first night put a lot of my programs back on,they all seem to work.not real happy with Soundblaster my Audigy 2 software don't work anymore,vista loaded a driver for the sound part of the card. Didn't give 5 stars because of Soundblaster. |
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| "Grandkids are now Happy as CLAMS...!" | 2008-02-13 |
| - Reviewed By User: AMK32U6MRDVUQ |
| Product upgrades older Dell CPU(s) with Vista which make both of the Grandkids very Happy; it runs smoother, and faster. It is a real HIT! |
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| "Great Value" | 2008-02-06 |
| - Reviewed By ryubooksales |
Okay, first we need to discard the whole notion of Vista Aerio right here and now. Vista Home Basic doesn't offer it, but I feel this a superb upgrade for someone using a previous edition of Windows.
This review is based on the upgrade of a Dell Dimension E310 running a previous edition of Windows, Windows XP Home
Specs on upgraded PC:
Pentium 4, 3.06 GHz
1.0 gig RAM
DVDRW
Now thats out of the way, I'll grant the upgrade on my Dell took a good bit of time, I think it was 1.5 hrs if I remember right, with a couple reboots along the way which were fine, thats apart of the process of upgrading an OS on any computer.
Afterwards and after finishing the upgrade, I'll be honest. I love Vista. I came into this unsure and with a very negative view of Vista and to be honest, I was very tentative coming into this. I'd seen a computer not take so well to Vista and was fearful of the same experience with my Dell.
That was not the case. My case with my Dell proved to be a very positive experience. While Basic does not have Aero, there are plenty of benefits to this version that are not listed and plenty of software out there to customize Vista, such as Stardock LogonVista, that allows some very nice customizations of Vista logon screens, plus a few other pieces of software that allow for some nice customizations of Vista along with already existems schemes loaded on Vista.
The security on this system is very nice, it alerts the user to any program access, love it or hate it, it is a layer of security thats nice to know it exists. Windows Defender isn't much of a surprise, I was able to download it onto my Toshiba tablet that couldn't quite make the jump to Vista, but it is a decent piece of software to have on a machine. Security is the same as XP and I don't have much to comment on that, only thing that would upset me is if it was worse or weaker than XP Security, but since all security is in place and does a nice job defending the system, I have no issues with secuirty. Disappointing that there's nothing new, but at least its up to par with XP.
Functionally, I've not experienced some of the problems I've witnessed on other machines running Vista, and operationally, I'd say Vista has speeded up and optimized my system a good bit and optimized its performance for both graphics and overall performance of my machine.
In conclusion, I'd say that Vista is a very solid OS, that has plenty of options for customization and for performance. Only thing I would say that for someone interested in Basic and other versions of Vista is just how much value do they as users want to place on Aero and the advanced options of Vista Business, Home Premium, and Ultimate, or as end users if they want a simple, customizable OS that has solid performance and don't let the lack of Aero fool you, graphics on Vista Basic are drop dead gorgeous.
In the end, its up to buyers and what they want.
Some things I would really suggest before upgrading to Vista is to consider just how much RAM and processing speed their computer has, what graphics their computer can support, and how much hard drive space they have. If your computer barely gets past the minimum requirements to run Vista, I'd very strongly suggest either upgrading your system to clear the minimum requirements a little better or hold off upgrading to Vista.
I have seen Vista backfire on a system, and it was one with a weak processor, minimum RAM, and a hard drive that almost wasn't enough and it doesn't and it nearly destroyed the computer, so I do suggest that before anyone upgrades to Vista, they very seriously review their system and whether or not its wise to upgrade.
If your system can handle Vista and go a little above minimum requirements, then Vista is a wonderful OS for anyone interested in a solid, customizable OS that can be alot of fun to use. |
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| "good product for me..." | 2008-01-22 |
| - Reviewed By User: A2856LQGH4DGU6 |
| Installation depends on what computer you have. It took 1 hour for one and only 10 minutes for the other. So it is a random draw of the straw. You will need to sit through the whole process because if you pass it, then you will have to start allover again. But as earlier review indicated, you can always create a new installation on a different partition. This is terrific because you can dual boot and still keep your old files on the old OS. The performance is much faster than XP Professional. I would recommand it. |
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 "windows vista" | 2008-01-18 |
| - Reviewed By User: A3UEN2O7XKOAU7 |
| windows vista is ok the use account proctol is annoying if you are the only one using the computer it darkens the screen and asks you each to continue or cancel everytime you want to run or add a program to your system. if you are the only one using the computer, it is very annoying and time consuming and distracting. |
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 "Vista?" | 2008-01-13 |
| - Reviewed By User: A2KZOIOFXXMC1H |
Microsoft moved everything around so you can't find it anymore. Forget about My Computer and the File Menu. I give Microsoft 1 thumb down for that. Also, most existing hardware isn't compatible with Vista. Another thumb down.
I upgraded from Windows 2000, but had 2 problems. First of all, the upgrade did a 'clean install' removing all installed programs. Second, Vista won't install on a FAT32 partition. I had to convert it to NTFS first. I had to restart the installation 4 times before it finally worked.
Home Basic lacks the Aero interface and Windows Media Center. I really don't care, because I don't want more buggy bloatware hogging my system resources anyways. For some reason Media Player 11 can't open as many file types as Media Player 9. I don't get it.
Vista also comes with Internet Explorer 7 and Tabbed browsing. I don't like the Tabs, because a separate window works better for me. Also the Phishing Filter really slows down web browsing performance. As a workaround, I use the Firefox web browser instead.
Vista also comes with Windows Defender by default. When I run a scan, AdAware by Lavasoft still finds Spyware anyways. Windows Defender seems ineffective.
I really don't see any compelling reasons to upgrade from XP to Vista. Upgrading from Win2k to Vista was ok, but the system overhead just isn't worth it. If you don't have 1gb of RAM, 20gb of free disk space and 256mb of video RAM, it's hardly worth the trouble installing this bloatware.
Also, since I installed Vista, Windows Update installed almost 70 patches and bug fixes. Even though I bought what was supposedly bug free tested software, my buggy OS has to get patches more than once a month. XP and Win2k seem more stable.
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| "No problems on a Mac Pro" | 2008-01-08 |
| - Reviewed By sptco_man |
I upgraded to Windows Vista at the same time I upgraded to OS X Leopard in October. So far after three months, Vista has done nicely. Like all Microsoft products it's not a straight forward process. There's a lot of rebooting, and waiting for the upgrade process over Windows XP. Appearance wise Vista is a big improvement over XP. I like the 3D window bars below and the new start button. The quick launch is a helpful tool. The desktop sidebar is a ripoff of OS X's widgets. I suppose it's helpful for those wanting to keep track of time, weather, etc. However it's poorly executed in comparison with OS X. Otherwise there's not too many different functions from XP. You get used to the "allow" messages after a while, and they are not that bothersome. I use Windows on my Mac Pro for only one reason. Games! From a gaming standpoint I don't have any complaints with Vista. Except for Star Trek Legacy, all of my other games work well with Vista. I haven't had any large slow downs or terrible errors that have been rumored on the internet.
Now to get the most out of Vista, you should visit your services manager. This is where you can optimize Vista manually. Right away I turned off the automatic indexing. This improves Vista's performance by quite a bit. Vista then will only index when you want to search for a file. There's several other services you may want to disable depending what you are doing in Vista. I've also elected to choose the download updates and let me choose what to install. Too many people select all the automatic settings for Vista. This is the worst thing you can do as it may install unnecessary drivers or software. Always check the list of available updates, and install what you need. The rest is usually fluff.
in closing Vista is not all that bad, and about as dependable as Windows XP. If you have an older computer you may want to wait on Vista. Otherwise at around $40 for a basic upgrade it's not bad at all. |
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