Customer Reviews

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Basic FULL VERSION [DVD] [OLD VERSION]

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(20)

 

 

I'm an IT guy at a University, and I recently had to start installing Windows Vista.

First of all, you need a minimum of 2 Gigs of ram to run this bloatware. I installed it on this guy's laptop, and with NOTHING else running, it was using between 650 - 750 megs of ram TO DO NOTHING! As soon as we started doing anything, it was using over 1 Gig of RAM. Way to go Microsoft! Just want people wanted. A bloated OS that won't run on older machines and will run slow even on new machines.

Avoid it. Don't buy it. Switch to Linux. I use Ubuntu at home.

I paid $199 for this product , which is being sold at Best Buy,
Circut City for 50-75 dollars less.
The product has many flaws and leaves people like me with a problem.

I know you offered refund my money, however I would than be left with
no operating system, since the other is now deleted .
I am sure this is one of many complaints. It would appear to me
that MicroSoft should reimburse Amazon for this inferior product.

Windows Vista Third Party Hardware/Software Incompatibility

Anybody who is thinking about getting a new computer or has recently bought one will know that there seems to be only one option available: Windows Vista. I have never used a Mac before so I decided to stick with Windows when I was ready to buy a new computer and upgraded from my five year old Toshiba Satellite (Windows XP) to a fancy looking HP Pavilion Desktop with a 19'' wide screen LCD monitor. While the computer is Great and comes with a lot of great features such as 250GB local drive, small and stylish tower, very fast speed for multitasking, wireless capability, and great DVD writer; it also comes with Windows Vista Home Premium (I assume they call these different names just to make one look fancier than the other just like with XP and in the end everybody ended up with Service Pack II).

Even though I love the new HP Desktop (Slimline is the model by the way), why oh why Windows Vista? XP has corrected many of its glitches over the last several years and Service Pack II was becoming tolerable after years and years of Windows updating and error reporting (you have done this many times). Now XP CDs are on sales for less than a hundred bucks and Microsoft will start telling people to upgrade to Vista if there are problems.

Here are some practical issues that you might want to know before getting a new computer which will undoubtedly come with Windows Vista.

1)Wireless adapter recognizes my wireless signal, but no way on earth it will let me connect to the Internet. I tried repairing the network (fancily called Network Diagnostic on Vista) got the message saying my adapter has an unknown problem and the reason for my not being able to connect to the Internet is unknown. OK, don't tell me to contact my network administrator anymore. All the help offered on Microsoft and HP websites told me to do that. Did they think they actually had to tell me to contact the person who manages my network? Of course the first thing I did was call him and make an appointment. The problem is that the HP computer is new (just been in the store for one day when I bought it), and the Vista is new. Nobody on the 1 800 helpline number knew the problem. My Internet guy had a hard time working around the Vista just like I did. He tried everything and my computer still won't connect to the wireless Internet. Obviously he is not someone inexperienced. He provides Internet service to an apartment town with more than 500 apartment units and they are all connected because they haven't switched from Windows XP to Vista. The reason for my switching is my Toshiba Satellite was getting too old and slow. You know the feeling. I just wanted a new computer and I could care less about Windows Vista. Now back to the wireless Internet problem, I am still not connected to it. Thanks to the alternative service that my Internet service provides, the wired local area net work in which Internet is provided through power line. Sounds weird but here we want to avoid having to have a phone line just to connect to the Internet. So I am using my power line Internet and sitting here and hoping my Internet guy will figure out the problem. The wireless one he offers is a lot faster to download videos but the power line is fast enough for surfing the net.
2)If you are a gadget junkie like me, you will find that Vista is not compatible with many of your not so old gadgets. For example, I have a Skype cordless phone made by Linksys and it worked fine with XP, now when I installed the driver on my new computer, I got a message saying it is not compatible with this Windows.
3)Although I followed everything suggested by Apple website to transfer my music to the new computer in order to also transfer how the library is organized (play list, play count, rating, etc), but it didn't work. Only the files and folders were copied to my new computer, not how they were organized in the iTunes library. I had to to redo the whole play lists and grouping music on the new computer. We are talking about over 3000 files!
4)Yahoo Messenger Music: If you use LAUNCHcast Radio by Yahoo, you will know what I am talking about. This feature allows you to add the radio as a plug-in on your Yahoo Messenger. From the small screen on the Messenger, you can access your radio station, or other stations by clicking on the little link Stations. A drop menu shows up and a list of radio stations will appear, allowing users to choose what station they want to listen to. Well, drop down menu is there all right, but I cannot click on any of them. Only way I can change a station is by opening the Yahoo Jukebox Program itself and choose a station there, play the station I want to play there, and open the Yahoo Messenger, the station I have just played on Yahoo Jukebox will be listed on three of the recently played stations on my Yahoo Music LAUNCHcast plug-in on my Yahoo Messenger.
5)I tried to change my iTunes skin, but none of the plug-ins that allow skin change are compatible with Vista yet.

As usual, Microsoft rushed its newest operating system out of the factory door much too soon. It is filled with errors and shortcomings, and the unfortunate consumer once again will have to suffer for years while discovering what the arrogant Microsoft corporation failed to get right in the process of inflicting another faulty product on the general public.

I'm sure there are more problems and I will report them as they come my way.

If you're buying a new computer, choose one with an XP option

Vista stinks, for two reasons.

First it foists a completely new navigation system upon you, imposing an learning burden, whether you like it or not

Second is its widespread incomptibility with hardware and software with what you currently own. For example I have an HP all-in-one printer/scanner purchased within the past few months. I got the printer to work, but not the scanner (though U am allowed to photocopy) So I went up to HP's website where I has gaily informed that they have no plans for developing Vista compatible drivers, However -surprise- they have new, equivaleent, Vista-compatible products avaialble that they would be delighted to sell to me.

PROs: none

CONs:

- freezes too often. Even if you just turned on your PC and opened your browser don't be surprised if you get the annoying message "(Not Responding)" rightaway.

- Uses around 1 GB of RAM BEFORE even starting any programs.

- Video capturing is almost impossible in some cases. Vista can't handle video capturing the way XP does, resulting in out of sync, skipping frames, slowdown, etc.

- Windows Movie Maker won't let you use external capturing devices, only direct transfer from the camera. Where XP lets you capture with whatever device you choose. Don't bother trying to get an earlier version of Movie Maker, Vista won't accept it.

- You can't alter the main volume. On XP you could compensate when watching a video with low volume or something like that by going to the Master Volume and altering the different levels. On Vista, you better have speakers or headphones for this.

...there are many other things but I guess I'd have to write a book about it.

If you have XP, TREASURE IT!! keep the back up disks, if getting a new computer have it custom made, but PLEASE don't waste your money or support this horrible OS.

I now have several experiences with this new OS on a number of platforms and can offer a bit of advice/experience from the perspective of someone often asked by friends and family to work on their computers. I generally prefer to build my own systems from parts. However, most of my experience below is on machines that were purchases - 2 HP systems and a Lenovo laptop. I'm still choosing XP when I can.

1. Don't assume things will work in Vista like XP. Driver incompatibility, and differences will slow you down -- budget mucho time to resolve these issues. For example, many cite driver and device incompatibilities, some virus and spyware programs work, and some don't. The mature members in my family use Juno over dial-up. Forget this in a web client -- dialup is way too slow. The Juno remote client that downloads email for off-line reading in XP doesn't work in Vista. Supposedly, one can configure Windows Mail to do this (Outlook is gone). However, I haven't had an opportunity to try it. I usually suggest taking them back to XP since the look and feel will be similar to what they've had on their Win 98 systems.

2. No matter how hot your box, Vista is slow to start and shut down. I recently worked on a Vista box having a Pentium quad core processor and 3 GB of ram. The system takes several minutes to start and shut down. Vista loads about 2x more resident processes than XP. On the same hardware that translates to about 2x as long for Vista v. XP.

3. Make the restore disks! My daughter's Lenova laptop running Vista stopped booting up. Lenovo service is pretty helpful (Cheers to them in NC)and we had no hardware errors- just a corrupted drive that had to be re-imaged because the onboard restore files were also corrupted. If we had made the restore disks when we first got the laptop, we could have fixed it ourselves from the backup. When you make them, the first disk has to be a CD, then the others should be DVDs or you'll have a huge number of restore disks. Its better to do this when you first get the computer. This is different from XP where I had the disks in hand (ie you don't have to create them).

Summing Up

Vista has a nice look and feel to it. I can navigate it OK from my XP experience, and we prob. will all have to live with it at some point. Understand that its slower than XP to start and shut down, and it may not be the best choice for everyone (esp mature users, those that are challenged). Budget lots of time to work out the incompatibilities and make the backup/resote disks asap!.

Best wishes!

I needed to install this OS to get the greatest "benefit" from a new system I built for my wife. She uses Photoshop and needed the hottest hardware. I built a dual core AMD 64 bit system with 2G of RAM and installed Vista. It was very difficult to get used to and ultimately I had to disable the application filtering. I have converted all my other computers in the house to Linux - simplyMEPIS. Don't upgrade to Vista unless you have no choice. It is painful.

Vista finds everything strange and suspicious, even other microsoft products. Even word documents you wrote yourself will not load without permission being given by a supervisor (I forget the exact title they use) even when you are the only one who uses the computer. You have to do virus checks et al several times a day even if your computer (like mine) is not connected to the internet. It constantly runs programs without asking if you want them or telling you they are running. and then turning the computer off when the program you aren't using turns itself off. Although it is supposed to be compatable with XP programs, it crashes the computer 1/3 of the time if you try to load one. The ones it will run, run at half the screen size. Even programs on your hard drive are pronounced strange and unknown if you dare to try to use them.

I was lucky enough to not have to pay out of pocket for Vista but that is the only good thing. This version is NOT easier to use. It is harder to find things on it. One example of mine is that with XP I could easily find ALL my music and transfer songs between iTunes and Windows Media Player. Now? Yeah I can find the songs after searching for a while but I can't transfer anything, anywhere. The Apple commercial that aired saying Vista asks for permission to continue on EVERYTHING is true. I've had to give it permission to access things I've already used tons of times before on it which is VERY annoying. If I didn't trust the program then why the heck would I be trying to run it???!!! I too encountered compatability issues with my HP All-In-One Printer/Scanner/Copier which I assumed would be compatible with Vista considering I bought the computer it is installed on at the same time I as I got the printer. But nope. I was wrong... I had to spend six hours searching the Internet for tweaks to get it to install. I am able to use all of the features on my HP All-In-One but I'm used to putting a disc in and having to just follow instructions on the screen to install a program. I am by no means computer savvy so don't ask what I did to get the printer software to install. All I remember is that it somehow rolled back my version of Windows to XP to install but didn't completely wipe out Vista... too bad it didn't because I prefer XP so much more. Yeah Vista may be safer to use but if you've got anti-virus software and a firewall up and update them frequently you should be okay. So, all in all if I had the choice I'd go back to XP in a New York minute. Bottom line is that Microsoft found a way to screw some people out of at least $200 for a program that isn't even worth two cents.

Vista only lives up to what it supposed to be only if your computer has all the right hardware to support it.
Majority of computers that came with Windows XP should stick with Windows Xp.
Vista has as many reqirement's as a new Computer game, and you need to exceed all requirement's for it to run the way it should be.

NEVER TRY TO MEET THE MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS, doing this will only allow you to use the software and not let it perform the way you want it.

UPDATE YOUR HARDWARE TO EXCEED ANY MINIMUM REQUIREMENT FOR YOUR SOFTWARE TO RUN THE WAY IT IS MEANT TO BE RUN.

If you are on a budget than you should stick with XP. It is still a great product and I still recommend it most user's especially people who use it with their current computer right now.

If are considering buying a new computer and choose Vista, please customize your computer for it to exceed your specific need's. Any computer that you see in store's that may be a bargan or look's cheap to buy is probalably living up to be what it is. A "cheap""worthless" computer, something you wish you never bought.
Salesman are all the same; from selling computer's, car's, house's, etc. They are there to sell you what they have and make a profit off of it.
Computers decrease in Value just like cars and homes.
Value is kept if you take care of your computer same with anything else.
BOTTOM LINE, MAKE SURE YOU HAVE THE RIGHT HARDWARE FOR YOUR SOFTWARE TO PERFORM THE WAY IT SHOULD BE.