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    Been spoiled by XP.. about to take a dive into Vista.

    Discussion in 'Windows OS and Software' started by Asmodan, Oct 10, 2007.

  1. Asmodan

    Asmodan Notebook Consultant

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    Greetings -

    I've been using XP for a few years now, but now I'd like a change. I've heard of the good and the bad about Vista, but I'm going to take a dive for it anyways. Does anyone have any recommendations that I should do before/after upgrading to Vista? (Premium). Thanks.


    PS - I'll be upgrading before noon CST
     
    Asmodan, Oct 10, 2007
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  2. Andromeda

    Andromeda Notebook Consultant

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    The most important recommendation would be to ensure that your hardware is capable of running Vista with all it's eye candy smoothly. The tweaking and optimization is of limited benefit if you are pinned down at the hardware stage itself.

    Most of the poor performance of Vista I've seen has been from inadequate hardware struggling under Vista's load.

    Make sure you have atleast 2 GB RAM. Vista loves RAM.
     
    Andromeda, Oct 10, 2007
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  3. Silas Awaketh

    Silas Awaketh Notebook Deity

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    Don't! I'm another "fan" of Vista now reverting back to XP Pro. Wait till SP1.
     
    Silas Awaketh, Oct 10, 2007
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  4. jb1007

    jb1007 Full Customization

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    I'd do a test run ... don't dive in 100%. Would you go on a blind date ready to propose? Use it for a while, it might turn out that the drawbacks aren't worth the headaches or it could be the OS of your dreams!

    I've bounced back and forth a few times.
     
    jb1007, Oct 10, 2007
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  5. Sub-D

    Sub-D Notebook Evangelist

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    Tried out Vista and I've stuck with it. I've found it to be more reliable than XP and offer an easier and more relaxing computing experience.
     
    Sub-D, Oct 10, 2007
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  6. Mr.Ric

    Mr.Ric Notebook Guru

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    I went for vista 64bit, it was strange to get used to at first but now i'd never go back to XP. No driver problems at all and all my software works well.

    The only annoyance is that it keeps getting my mouse speed confused with my trackpad speed... But this is my first laptop (and it came with vista) so i've no idea if the same problem occured with XP.
     
    Mr.Ric, Oct 10, 2007
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  7. cvx5832

    cvx5832 Notebook Evangelist

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    Vista x64. Never looked back!

    Well, except when i'm at the office, of course. Now that I think about it, both OS's (Vista and XP SP2) have served me very well, with a slight edge to Vista for reliability.

    Good Luck. Don't forget to have the SATA drivers handy if you're running a SATA drive on that machine.

    Regards,
    Paolo
     
    cvx5832, Oct 10, 2007
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  8. Jalf

    Jalf Comrade Santa

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    My recommendation is simple:
    Keep a full backup, so that *if* for whatever reason, you want to switch back to XP, you can do it easily. Can always delete the backup image when you've verified that Vista runs well enough to use.
     
    Jalf, Oct 10, 2007
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  9. JesterX

    JesterX Notebook Consultant

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    JesterX, Oct 10, 2007
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  10. MonsterMaxx

    MonsterMaxx Notebook Evangelist

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    I suggest you dual boot. That way when Vista won't do what you know you could do in XP you can just reboot and go into XP and get your work done.

    my setup was on a 200gb drive, 170gb allocated to XP, the rest to Vista.
    Install XP first, then Vista. Patch, update, drivers, etc. Get them both running. You can use programs like EasyBSD to clean up the boot loader.

    When installing applications for Vista, install them over the top of the XP installation, that way you don't use up extra disk space.

    Example:
    XP running, installing office, installed into C:\programfiles\microsoft\office
    Boot to Vista, now XP's C: is D: because the Vista drive is C:
    Install office into
    d:\programfiles\microsoft\office

    It will work fine. I've yet to find a program which won't do this (other than ones that don't run in Vista.)
     
    MonsterMaxx, Oct 10, 2007
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  11. Commander Wolf

    Commander Wolf can i haz broadwell?

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    Take a look at the "Top Vista Tweaks" thread:

    http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=166532
     
    Commander Wolf, Oct 10, 2007
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  12. Asmodan

    Asmodan Notebook Consultant

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    Thank you all for your help/suggestions/recommendations.

    Vista is running like a beauty so far.
     
    Asmodan, Oct 10, 2007
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