Windows Vista Home Premium

[troy]

Well I've had Windows Vista Home Premium for over a month now and decided that I should post my review on it.


I decided that I didn't want to do a clean install so I just installed over windows XP. The install time was about 3 or 4 hours which sounds about right since it put a lot of files on my PC. The specs of my PC are in my signature, I'm surprised it installed as smoothly as it did.


After installation and once vista actually boots up, everything seems new if you're used to XP. I was worried that it would be a new learning curve. I had tried the beta version but wondered if there had been any changes since the beta. Turns out it wasn't too much of a difference, at least I couldn't tell the differences. It was more stable.


My overall impression of the OS is better than I thought initially. I figured that it would be a resource hungry, DRM restricted and hard to use OS. I was wrong on all of those things. It isn't as resource hungry as I thought it would be, I haven't had any issues with software or DRM restrictions, and it's not hard to use. Here's what I like and don't like about Vista.


Pros:
Easy to use even for beginners
New interface, the XP look was a bit dated
More stable
Far more options for customization
More secure
Better games and software included, I especially like the new solitaire and inkball is fun
AERO is really cool!
New media center is improved over XP media center
Sidebar and gadgets are a nice touch
Improved Firewall
Some old games such as Sim City Classic actually work under vista, I've been playing that game since windows 95 and it still works well on vista with no issues!
Breadcrumb trail in windows explorer is helpful when navigating through lots of folders
New start menu is less cluttered and easier to use
Search function actually works well compared to XP
Better system sounds, doesn't sound like windows is barking at you as with previous versions but instead sounds more futuristic and high tech
Readyboost


Cons:
UAC is a bit annoying and overly paranoid, they could lighten up on this a little bit especially when deleting or moving folders.
RAM usage is a bit higher than XP but not too bad
AERO is a bit graphics intensive but that's understandable
Windows classic theme is STILL included in windows, we've seen that theme for 12 years and it's time to ditch it, it is nice for older and slower machines
sidebar is a bit RAM hungry
Windows Defender isn't as good as most other anti malware programs but it's good for basic users and you can't argue with free!
Some programs don't run well under vista
Still some driver issues but not as many as when vista was first released
Still a few issues such as UAC that should hopefully be worked out in SP1


Conclusion:
I highly recommend this OS and like it better than XP. If you have the specs to run windows Vista then definitely go ahead and buy it. I promise you it will be worth it. I do recommend running the vista upgrade advisor before upgrading to avoid any issues.

[dude_se]

it should take about an hour to install. other than that i pretty much agree with you. most of the cons are isuues that will be resolved in time and when they are i will like it a lot more

[troy]

Originally Posted by dude_se

it should take about an hour to install. other than that i pretty much agree with you. most of the cons are isuues that will be resolved in time and when they are i will like it a lot more

I found it odd that it took so long to install, at least it installed though. I was worried that I'd have to do a clean install to get it to work but thankfully it worked copying everything over.
I hope they work out the issues, once they do I think it will be a top notch OS, the one microsoft has needed for years.

[LA061]

Yeah, Vista's better than what the people that haven't tried it say it is.

[CompMan]

Took me an half hr. to install Vista.
With a clean format.

[Brian_Fenner]

I did a clean install and it took less than .5 hour. I don't like installing over another OS as it never seems to operate as smoothly as a clean installation.

Great write-up.........pretty much what I've been saying for the last 3+ months and getting mostly flak for it.
More and more people will come around as time marches on.........I would NEVER go back to XP. I like most things about Vista and have had zero issues with two separate systems running over 3 months

[Toby]

I'm on Vista Home Premium 64-bit right now and I have to say I do like it better than XP. The only annoying thing is compatability issues with some programs and games that I would of normally used. That's why I still have a dual-boot setup.

Oh yeah, plus I can't get my wireless printer set up on Vista yet. Maybe I'm just doing something wrong.

[dude_se]

the worst thing on my laptop is the power options dont work at all which has been a big reason for me to not move to vista which sucks

[Rudster816]

my sound drivers are no where to be found and i love listening to music so until then im not going to use vista at all really

[lhuser]

Troy, you can tunr off UAC in the Users option in CP.