Biggest Vista Complaint?

[ozzfreak]

I am getting ready to build a new system, and I'm more than likely getting Vista 64. I've held out long enough. What is the biggest complaint you have about Vista, especially if you have 64bit. I'm just wondering what to expect. Have XP Pro right now.

[Force Flow]

It's bloated, UAC is a pain, and a lot of the config settings you'd normally use in XP are burried behind layers of menus and icons making them hard to find if you don't know what you're looking for.

Those are my major complaints.

[bd1886]

I personally like Vista.(It is starting to get much broader acceptance w/ gamers lately.) Been checking around other forums and most of what I've been hearing is Vista 64 is better than XP 64. I have no experience with either but...opinions are trending that direction with the younger gamers it seems. (Guess it all depends on how you like learning a knew way to skin the same cat.) It is a HOG in the resource department and if you are a nuts and bolts kind of person, and know XP well...don't switch. If you appreciate the Aero, find it's improvements outweigh the perceived drawbacks, then jump ship. For many, the water's fine. A strong, new build, knocks it down to size in the resource department too.

[not important]

My main problem with Vista:
The price of the OS + the price of the hardware it requires to operate. XP will do the same for much less.

[shadowpr]

I use vista 64 with no problems.

The only problems i could see is if you're running an older computer, but since you're building a new one, then you should be fine.

Other problem is if you have older peripherals. Make sure there are drivers for them. If not, then you would either have to stay with xp, or get new ones.

After you learn where all the setting are, then it's not a problem. If you can't figure it out, use google, or ask here. As for the UAC, that can be turned off.

[ozzfreak]

alright thanks. Sounds like the only thing I won't like is the bloat. I truly hate bloat. But other than that, my new system should be able to handle things no problem. Thanks for the answers.

[Khalil]

I remember the first 2 years of Windows XP everyone complained how bloated it was and how horrible it ran compared to windows 98.
Windows Vista is the future, most people who complain about it don't have the right equipment to run it or they don't like all the new features it has.
To be honest I hated it when it came out and did everything I could to keep all my customers in XP.
Now and after SP1 and a bunch of fixes I am really enjoying it, on my media machine which I play blu-ray movies on I find it to perform substantialy better than XP Pro did.
I just started playing Warhammer and I tested it with both XP Pro and Vista and the game plays and feels much better in Vista.
You will enjoy Vista with your new Rig for sure!

[Chris Linder]

I'm with Khalil , I think if people would just go out and buy a system with Vista on it and stop upgrading there old system that only have 512 and 1G with a 40G drive they would be fine. At the minimum it should be running 2G with a 150G drive , something running over 2.0GHz

[ozzfreak]

alright, thanks. I'm confident now that i'm making the right decision.

[Strider]

I personally would recommend at least 4GB of memory for Vista x64, for it diffidently uses all of it and it makes it speedy in my opinion.

[ozzfreak]

I am going with either 8 or 16 GB, haven't decided yet

[Kuch]

Ozz - Unless you plan to run some type of UNREAL applications, anything more than 4 GB of RAM will probably be wasted. Using anything more that 4 GB and you start to face the law of diminishing returns.

[Chris Linder]

I think what Kuch is saying is there are no applications that utilize over 4G , So why wast the $

[ozzfreak]

Well, for the future. There is no doubt that they will. No telling how long from now. I have made the mistake before of not getting enough ram, and then needing more. That being said, I guess I could go with 8 now, which should last a few years, and then upgrade 8 more. I tend to go many many years with the same computer. This one I'm on now that I built, is going on year number 6 now.

[Force Flow]

Originally Posted by 1life2live4 I think what Kuch is saying is there are no applications that utilize over 4G , So why wast the $

Probably not many *individual* applications, but get a fair number of applications running at the same time, and it adds up fast.

Also, if you use virtual machines more RAM helps in that area as well.

[faulkner132]

Originally Posted by Force Flow Also, if you use virtual machines more RAM helps in that area as well.

Force beat me to it.
I make extensive use of VM's on my Vista machine. I have the 32-bit edition, so I am capped at 4 GB which means I can really only effectively run 2 at once (instead of the 3 or 4 I would _like_ to have).

[ozzfreak]

I do tend to have way way WAY too many things open at once. So this is also a factor in my decision where more is better. I really think I'm sticking with 8 right now though, 16 just costs too much. I can always get more in a few years, and the cost will be a lot lower.

[ConLog]

My biggest complaint about Vista is that it's nothing exciting, exceptional or revolutionary which counters Microsofts "The Wow Starts Now" slogan.

I'd not upgrade from XP to Vista now. I'd wait the 18 months for Windows 7 to make an appearance.
Microsoft are giving nothing away but this new OS does seem to promise things which should have arrived with Vista.

I've just bought an Acer netbook PC which came with XP - and to be honest, it's great to be using this OS again!

[Patch]

Personal preference, of course. Look at your personality. Do you like the comfort of how you have things teaked right now, or do you feel up to trying something new?

I like the way Vista looks and haven't had any more trouble with 64bit vista than I did with 32 bit XP. The menus are different and finding things can be a chore at first, but that's just because it's different - not because it's bad. It's a hog, sure. But so is XP compared to Windows 95. But the cost of HD space, processing power and RAM aren't what they used to be either.

Compatibility is a never ending dilemma. Should you buy new stuff that is compatible with old stuff or compatible with other new stuff? How long do you think new developers are going to continue to support XP? Years.......probably.

I wouldn't hold your breath for Windows 7, though. It may be released in 18 months, but it won't be usable for 3 years.......unless it breaks the OS release mold...

[ConLog]

Originally Posted by Patch I wouldn't hold your breath for Windows 7, though. It may be released in 18 months, but it won't be usable for 3 years.......unless it breaks the OS release mold...

Obviously I don't agree with this comment. I bought Vista as soon as it was released and it was good to go straight away - it just worked well.

You'd be amazed the amount of individuals and corporations out there who are going to bypass Vista altogether until Windows 7 is released.

[not important]

Originally Posted by Khalil I remember the first 2 years of Windows XP everyone complained how bloated it was and how horrible it ran compared to windows 98. Windows Vista is the future, most people who complain about it don't have the right equipment to run it or they don't like all the new features it has.

Personally..........I loved XP from the beginning and I believe "Windows 7 is the future" would be more accurate.
I had more than enough resources for Vista but i still didn't see any point to an OS that does little more than it's predecessor and requires that you spend more money to accomplish the same things.

[IonicBond]

(1) Stupid UAC.
(2) My notebook's touchpad occasionally ceases to function when the notebook wakes up from sleep; only a reboot fixes the problem. It's a recent phenomenon, probably started after one of the windows updates.
(3) Why does Vista have to start writing to the pagefile immediately after boot-up (shows up in reliability and performance monitor)? Renders the system nearly inoperable for up to a minute! Again, this is a recent phenomenon.

Otherwise, Vista is fine for my daily use (non-gaming).

[Captn]

1.I turned off UAC
2.I turned off the side bar

Im using Vista 64bit SP1 with 8gigs of memory(because its cheap) along with using ready boost on my 4gig flash drive. Im having no issues with Vista 64bit at all, have been using it for a whiel now. I play games like EverQuest 2 & Warhammer Online, Counter Strike Source, Madden 2008 and all work very good. Not to sure im gaining anything on my 4gig ready boost flash drive though, it was only $17.99 so i thought i would give it a shot.


Hope this helps you.

[ChromWolf]

I'm gonna kinda "hijack" the thread a bit, but I don't think it's too bad because I basically have the very same question (initially) as ozzfreak.

My "sidetrack" question may be a little foolish, but then I was one of the "XP is better" crowd for so long, so I'm behind on the times with Vista... The question is this: I've heard that within Vista (perhaps it's not even OS-specific?) it indexes even the memory of the video card, such that if you had a GPU with 1 GB of video memory, for example, it uses up 1 GB of your system memory as well. Is this true--can someone elaborate on that? Is that one of the big reasons gamers are going with Vista 64bit (am I even correct that that's the case) to allow for 8 GB of memory?

[ConLog]

Originally Posted by ChromWolf it indexes even the memory of the video card, such that if you had a GPU with 1 GB of video memory, for example, it uses up 1 GB of your system memory as well. Is this true--can someone elaborate on that? Is that one of the big reasons gamers are going with Vista 64bit (am I even correct that that's the case) to allow for 8 GB of memory?

I don't think so - if say your PC had 1GB of system memory and 1GB of video memory then what you're saying is that no memory would be left over - that does not make any sense.

As for your second question - Vista 32 bit can only use around 3GB of system memory and Vista 64 bit much more.

Hope that helps.

[ConLog]

Originally Posted by Captn 1.I turned off UAC 2.I turned off the side bar Im using Vista 64bit SP1 with 8gigs of memory(because its cheap) along with using ready boost on my 4gig flash drive. Im having no issues with Vista 64bit at all, have been using it for a whiel now. I play games like EverQuest 2 & Warhammer Online, Counter Strike Source, Madden 2008 and all work very good. Not to sure im gaining anything on my 4gig ready boost flash drive though, it was only $17.99 so i thought i would give it a shot. Hope this helps you.

8GB system memory and 4GB ready boost.

Woweee! You have some serious memory overkill going on there!!!