 "I really don't see what all the fuss is." | 2008-10-01 |
| - Reviewed By pauleth |
| I'm a huge XP fan (well, XP Pro). I love Linux - especially the Fedora and Ubuntu flavors. Can't say much for Macs (because I haven't goofed around on one since the Classic days - but the commercials make me want to chew my own fist off)... And now we have Vista. br /br /I waited until now to finally get the Vista upgrade and check it out for myself. I was hesitant to do so sooner because of the overwhelmingly negative or just plain unenthusiastic response to it. Fortunately, I found a way to keep my existing XP Pro operating system, and just install Vista from the upgrade disc on a separate partition, thus mitigating the risk of plunging in headfirst. br /br /I noticed a few hiccups from the start - like the fact that AVG 8.0 was having trouble installing, or that I couldn't run certain programs from my XP partition for whatever reason. But overall, I feel pretty good about my first Vista experience. I have to say that Aero is just plain sweet - the glass effect is about as cool as it gets. I also activated the 'secret' Administrator account so I didn't have to click through all those nagging security prompts (not that those bother me that much).br /br /The actual Windows environment has changed, and it seems that some tasks have become a little more long-winded or certain features seem to be a little more buried, but for the most part, it has the same classic Windows feel. I was bummed that I couldn't connect to a domain with Home Premium, but a quick tweak of the registry allowed me to continue enjoying the shared directories on my Linux server (running Samba). br /br /I think my impression of Vista is much better than a lot of people's. I also think if you're going to get a new computer, then Vista is totally the way to go, even though XP SP2 (or 3) is still a rock solid OS (and pretty hard to top). I only hope that Microsoft will put out SP2 for Vista before switching gears to Windows 7. |
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 "maybe it's me" | 2008-04-26 |
| - Reviewed By User: A1L2MZ7KGA65R |
| I do not know if it is me or not however my Intel Pentium 4 w/ HT according to HP is supposed to not only be set up for Vista, but is also supposed to run the 64 bit version. Maybe I did not load the program properly. |
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| "A fine upgrade, not great" | 2008-04-15 |
| - Reviewed By kineel |
I'm blown away by the number of "less than accurate" statement made by people here. I'm especially blown away by the Mac Users who come here to say bad things about a product that they don't even use. When OS X came out there were plenty of problems with compatibility because OS X was a completely different system from System 9 for the Mac. Yet most people have decided it was a good move for Apple.
Vista is like that but it maintained much better backwards compatibility than OS X did. The problem is that Microsoft has 15 times as many users, so when a small percentage have problems, it still looks like a lot of people. Simply because a LOT of people use Windows.
Having used Vista Home Premium for a year now I can say that the product works very well. I dual booted with XP for a month to make sure I was happy with Vista before switching permanently. In that time I found that most of the claims that Vista was buggy and performed badly were false.
The two biggest reasons that people have had problems with Vista are:
1) Not enough RAM, Vista needs a minimum of 1GB of RAM and should have at least 2GB.
2) NVidia graphics drivers. The early drivers from NVidia were horrible and caused numerous problems for people, especially gamers.
I personally never put together a system these days with less than 2GB of RAM, and I am an ATI graphics card user, so neither of these problems plagued me. If you knew these things going into Vista, you would be a lot happier.
Today it seems that MS and NVidia have straightened out most of the problems with the Drivers. So unless you are buying a system without sufficient RAM, Vista is a fine upgrade. Not great, but great upgrades are very rare in the modern software world. |
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 "Not since ME have I been so disgusted" | 2008-04-05 |
| - Reviewed By the_lady_a |
I bought two laptops in the last four months. Dell - with Vista - and paid extra to have Gateway load XP - boy am I glad I did that. Not since ME has any version of Windows been to STUPID. I love my Dell. HATE Vista!
What's wrong?
The windows opening is SLOW. IE is slow. Pages stop loading and have to be refreshed. FIVE TIMES! Windows stops working. In email, ALL programs, in browser, it just STOPS working. Bright little thing TELLS you it stopped working, too. You have option of CLOSING the program/browser or looking for a solution to the program AND CLOSING and restating. Of course, you lose anything that is going on. Downloading is a problem. It virtually doesn't want you to make ANY changes to the computer. When you try you have to stop what you are doing allow it to switch to administator (screen goes BLACK while it's doing this) then it asks if you really want to do this you say yes. SOMETIMES it will then allow you to download what you want. SOMETIMES NOT!
I tried installing fonts. Went through the same thing. Asking permission. No way. I say yes, it does nothing. I finally had to load new fonts to my external harddrive and then install from there!
I hate the new look. You end up clicking 2-3 times more just to get to a file compared to old windows. I hate the files' large icons. Instead of the four split that showed the last four images loaded to the file, you get icons that look like pages in the book. You cannot tell what the images are. Makes hunting for files a headache, about as bad as 98 was.
Talk about memory gobbler. I got a new Dell with 160 gig. Imagine my shock to see that Vista took up close to HALF of that before I loaded the first thing!! It gets worse. You have to dump Retore backups, at least once a week. Back up takes SEVEN GIGs to TWENTY GIGs if you allow it to go more than a week. Before you could shut off Restore. Not this one.
Then to Office. You get crappy downsized Office pre-installed. So I bought full Office, install. It installs. BUT - it won't allow you to give it the Key Code. Says invalid key code. Well, its not. Microsoft is aware that if you try to install Office full over office trial you get this error code. They tell me uninstall old office and reinstall new. Tried that. Still doesn't work. TWO WEEKS and I am still dealing with microsoft trying to get them to help me fix this. If they KNOW this happens why don't they WARN you you need to uninstall old Office first?
PhotoStory 3 doesn't work. Seems they are not bothering to update Photostory for Vista.
well, I could go on and on. I see NO REASON to upgrade to Visa. I have talked to NO ONE that likes Vista, and more than a dozen that has gone back to XP.
If I had the time I would go back to XP despite Billy's blackmail threats to force everyone to Vista.
Miscroft screwed up big with this one. I have no hope SP1 will do anything to improve this mess. |
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| "It will make you wish you kept your old computer" | 2008-04-04 |
| - Reviewed By acupunctureworkstryit |
Words cannot express how much I despise this operating system.
Everything has been changed. You will spend hours trying to do something simple.
Norton Anti-virus came loaded. I tried the 2 month trial and ended up getting multiple worms, viruses, downloaders, etc. My computer is continually hijacked in Explorer. In Firefox, it is finally fixed.
It seems Microsoft cared to sell the very best.
In what other industry are you FORCED to buy their product?
They are criminals as far as I'm concerned.
At this moment, I've lost my taskbar at the bottom of my screen. I have no idea where it went or why. I am not even able to pull up control panel to check things.
How can Microsoft make Billions in profits yet sell such shoddy products?
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 "vista premium" | 2008-03-24 |
| - Reviewed By irisheagle3649 |
It's funny i've heard so many complaints about this New Windows Vista,
But i Like it and i thought i would't. i bought this to upgrade my desktop and found out it wouldn't upgrade with this version,( even though the Microsoft advisor said it would), so i used it on my New Laptop that had Basic and it's even better. I would reccomend this to anyone that is expereinced with Windows and it's insides.
you need to know What updates to install and do them manually, i turned off the automatic updates after hearing about issues with "phoning home"
and validation issues.
But over all after the tweaks, it's pretty cool.
Amazon.Com ROcks. Thanks |
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| "My System Wasn't Up To Speed" | 2008-03-19 |
| - Reviewed By c_harris |
| I'm sorry I didn't listen when I was advised to wait until I purchased a new PC. For Windows Vista, your system may lack resources. Though it will run, it runs much slower. At least with Windows XP, I could play my movies on DVD. My video card was not up to snuff for Windows Vista. I had driver problems but finally got the right ones. I found I was happier with Windows XP, so I went back to it. |
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| "Don't waste your money" | 2008-03-17 |
| - Reviewed By User: A2CDM45LL7S5XR |
| As an expert computer user, (started with DOS) I would have to say that this is the worst piece of junk conceived by man. I would give it zero stars if I could. DO NOT down grade your computer with this junk. You will pull your hair out installing it. It will crash. It is much slower than XP. It takes forever to boot. And You Will Be Sorry!!!!!!!! Bill gates will laugh all the way to the bank with your money. The clowns in Redmond WA finally drove me to buy a MAC, and I could not be more pleased with OS X. I hope that this is the beginning of the end for Microjunk. |
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| "Satisfied" | 2008-03-03 |
| - Reviewed By User: A3S039F2JHTI3E |
I originally ordered this mostly because I wanted to play Halo 2, which I had also purchased. Despite the many bad reviews this has received, I bought it as I am a Halo fan and really wanted to play it. I made sure to use the windows vista upgrade advisor before purchasing it as I didn't want to end up with something I couldn't even use. The Microsoft upgrade advisor also tells you which version of Vista you should get. Those of you thinking about purchasing Vista as well should use the advisor before purchasing it, and you can find the advisor at the following site: [...]
So far I am quite satisfied with it (I am not entirely used to the new layout yet, it will take a while, but I am definitely getting there). the install time wasn't too long (took about an hour or so, possibly less but I wasn't timing it). I was able to use the "in place upgrade" option as I had the XP media center edition. I am not entirely sure if the clean install takes longer or less time as I did not do that option.
So far I have not run into very many problems with this, and the ones I do run into have been VERY minor. Someone mentioned that i-tunes doesn't work with this and that is false. You merely need to go to the add/remove programs and select the repair option. The add/remove programs is found in the control panel under the programs section.
The one thing I do dislike about Vista however is that there is a pop-up that comes up a LOT asking if a program should be allowed to run or not. There might be a way to make Vista stop asking permission to run everything, but I don't mind it enough to go looking for one.
Aside from this slight annoyance (which may be more or less annoying to you) and a few other very minor issues, I am glad I purchased this. Overall i am giving Vista a 4 star rating. |
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| "Expert Windows User - Vista is Terrible" | 2008-02-24 |
| - Reviewed By minagpa |
| I have been using IBM since the days of DOS, and Windows from the very beginning. There is no question that this is the absolutely worst version yet of any Windows / Microsoft product. It is literally as if they went through every single element of operation and made it much worse than previous versions. What the ....?! I had NO choice but to receive "Vista" from Lenovo when I ordered my laptop. I did not want it. I had already seen the bad reviews EVERYWHERE. However, as I said, Lenovo/IBM gave me no choice of software. Did someone say communist dictatorship? I am very, very knowledgeable regarding Windows software. I have NEVER needed assistance to fix a problem or do anything whatsoever that I wanted to do. I gave this new "Vista" several months. I will now be forced to pay full price for a new copy of XP, just to throw away Vista which I was forced to pay for by Lenovo (most other companies are also forcing Vista). Utterly terrible. In every possible way, the worst Windows OS yet. And, as far as I can gather, the only solution is to buy a MAC instead. |
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