Moving to Windows Vista (1 Viewer)

[Adam Sanchez]

Hey all,

This post is probably going to be a barrage of questions so forgive me while I type out my stream of thought.

I decided this week to give Windows Vista a try. It's been out awhile now and I assume...or HOPE it's pretty stable at this point. Maybe it was from the beginning, i never checked into it.

So my Upgrade copy of Home Premium arrived today. The nagging question I have had since I ordered this have been: A: Where to put it? B: How to install it?

My 2 computers are:

Laptop:

Dell Insprion 9400
Core Duo @ 1.86Ghz
2Gb RAM (Max for the system)
200Gb 7200 RPM HDD
Geforce 7800 GO with 256 Meg of RAM

Desktop (Built by me)
Abit Motherboard
Core 2 Quad @ 2.4Ghz
2GB of DDR2 RAM, (Max for board is 8GB)
XGX Geforce 8600 GTS with 256Meg RAM
X-Fi Fatality Sound Card with front Bay
3 Hard drives
DVD Burner Drive
1 expansion card for Firewire (If I recall right)
My 3 hard drives are split into about 6-7 partitions ranging from storage, one for games, one for regular apps, windows is on a partition alone for the most part except for other programs that force me to install there.

Both my systems I'm sure will run Vista fine, with the edge going to my Desktop. The video card in particular is DirectX10 compatible so i would be able to try that out...not that I have many games to take advantage of it. I think Bioshock is it.

After thinking about it for a good while, I am leading towards putting my first copy of Vista on my desktop and doing an UPGRADE from XP. I know a clean install is ideal, but I frankly don't know if I feel like reinstalling every darn thing I own. An Upgrade would get me up and running quickly and get me to the point of all this, trying out Vista.

I do want to ask though, is there a major downside to not doing a fresh install that I am missing? i know it's always better, but unless it's like some MAJOR performance difference, I rather save myself the hassle of a fresh install...at least for now. I do periodically reinstall windows anyway so I'm sure it will come around again eventually.

If a clean install is Vital, I might do it on my laptop first. It has alot less I would have to reinstall afterward.

Just looking for some thoughts/opinions. Thanks!

 

[schalkt]

Vista itself has always been pretty stable...the problem has been with the compatibility of the software and drivers of 3rd party vendors (not to say it's their fault...MS needs to share some of that blame). That's going to be the major issue in performing an upgrade - it's easier to find problems after doing a fresh install than it is doing an upgrade.

Anyway, I'd be somewhat hesitant about upgrading your desktop right away. The laptop may be the better choice if you're just interested in trying out Vista. Try an upgrade first, if you want, and then if you experience problems do a fresh install.

Another option would be to use one of those partitions on your desktop to install Vista on. Then you could dual-boot between Vista and XP, giving you the opportunity to try out the OS without losing anything. There's a pretty good description of that here.

 

[Johnny Angell]

My recommendations would be to not upgrade. I bought a new Dell about 6 months ago and it came with Vista Home Premium. This pc has more than enough power for Vista, but I haven't seen this many BSOD's on once pc since I've had pc.

What's more, I had to disable hibernation mode, because everytime it came out of it, BSOD. While I'm not looking to downgrade (maybe it's an upgrade?) to XP, I do believe MS missed the boat on this one.

 

[drobbins]

I bought a laptop with Vista last march. In July I had to but a desktop. I made sure it had XP. From a users point of view, I found no improvements in Vista. Only things rearranged and renamed for no benefit, only frustrating moments trying to find stuff. As for the "extra layer of security" it is just an extra layer of pop up windows asking "are you sure you want to..."

 

[Stephen Orr]

I plan to stay XP on my 6(!) home computers, but am willing to live with Vista once I begin replacing them in the next 3-5 years.

 

[Diallo B]

imo, vista works well once you tweak it to your tastes. i have had none of the major issues that many people claim on my laptop and desktop with vista. well i guess i tweaked it to my tastes from day one as well by eliminating those annoying nanny pop ups and adjusting a few other features.

with that said i also believe that if it isn't broke don't fix it. why are you trying to "upgrade" anyway. i build and fix computers as a hobby so i just play with computers to see what will happen. i tried to install vista on a PII and that was funny.

but anyway, the above post about dual booting is what i would do. and i definitely wouldn't mess with the laptop. imo, you MAY have more trouble with the drivers for certain parts on that machine than you would with the desktop.

now with all of that said the best part of vista imo, is built in media center edition, and the graphics capabilities which you should be able to take advantage of with the 8600. i have two 8600's in sli on my laptop and they really take advantage of the aero interface. it looks spectacular on my 47" toshiba lcd via hdmi.

 

[Adam Sanchez]

Hey guys

Thanks for the replies and input. After making my post, I kind of forgot about it and hadn't been back to check. Just noticed today I was getting the notifications in my junk email.

Weird, but anyway after I wrote my post and before anyone had really replied, I already had decided what I wanted to do with Vista. I did an upgrade install on my Desktop PC. Turns out I really like Vista and everything has been great, no major problem or anythng to make me regret trying it. I like how it looks, the gadget bar is really handy, especially for me with 2 screens. All my hardware has worked, as well as my programs.

Like it so much I even stuck it on my Laptop too. I just wanted to be current again with an OS, and I also just got a brand spankin' new GTX 260 Video card which makes my desktop...very very current for awhile at least.

Now on my mind is to REALLY put my desktop to the test and try Vista 64bit. All my hardware and my cpu is a 64-bit one. I might as well take advantage of it. I know going to Vista 64 will require a clean install...which is why I haven't fooled with it yet. Got another 2 Gigs of RAM on the waay though, and will probably do it after it comes.

I appreciate all the input though. Guess I have been Lucky with my systems liking Vista pretty well.

 

[Bryan X]

Guess I have been Lucky with my systems liking Vista pretty well.

 

[Bryan X]

I'm glad you like it, Adam. I've got Vista installed on two desktops and a laptop and other than compatibility with couple of old programs I've never had any problems at all. Vista has been very stable.

I think Vista has gotten an undeserved bad rap.

 

[Joseph Bolus]

I run Vista at home and XP at work.

In a productivity environment I still prefer XP. It just does things required in an office in a more stable fashion. (Especially if you need to continuously move a huge number of files around from your workstation to multiple servers and vice versa. For some reason, Vista SP1 will still get "stuck" occasionally trying to perform this trivial task.)

Vista is great in a consumer environment though. The "look and feel" of Aero is very nice and it seems very stable on home networks. (Just don't try to plug two USB "Flash Drives" into your workstation at the same time. Vista SP1 still doesn't like that.)

I really think that MS would have been better served to have released Vista exclusively as a 64 bit OS from day one. If they had done that we'd have plenty of compatible drivers for 64 bit Vista by now *and* there would be a clear advantage to running Vista over XP; even in an office enviorment. For one thing, Vista would be able to take full advantage of 64 bit Workstations (and dual core processors) which 32 bit XP currently can't do. This would allow it to directly address a much larger RAM space which in turn would speed all office tasks.

Why they didn't do this remains a mystery to me ...