Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

I was considering making the jump to Windows Vista Home from XP Media Edition until I looked more closely at what features it really had. Want Media Center for Vista Home because you have it on your XP machine? Well, that is found only on the Premium version. How about burning DVD's? That too is found only on the Premium version. Want the 3D aero environment highly touted for Vista? Vista Premium only. How about a Scheduled Backup for your files? Vista Premium. How about Windows Meeting Space to collaborate and share documents? You guessed it, that's found on Vista Premium too.

What Vista Home actually has (2 of 14 features) per Microsoft's website:

Most secure Windows ever
with Windows Defender and Windows Firewall (XP already has a built in firewall.....nothing new here)

Quickly find what you need
with Instant Search and Windows Internet Explorer 7 (you can download IE 7 for free)

If this comes pre-installed on a PC, great, but if you are considering buying this as an upgrade consider what are you really getting for your upgrade money?

I got a hold of a Windows Vista Ultimate disk. It gave the choice to install Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, or Ultimate. I installed Vista Home Basic, because I only have 512 MB of RAM.

Likes:
I like the new wallpapers and the way it looks. My Documents and My Music folder remind me of iTunes.

Dislikes:
Don't like that my less than 6 month old HP printer doesn't work with Vista and my USB net link cable doesn't work with Vista. When you install something screen slowly fades out and then a window comes up asking you if you want to run the program and trust it. It's a little annoying because it forces you to stop what your doing and answer the question before you can continue.

Verdict:
I like it, but the incompatibility issues are enough for me to want to stick with XP. I wouldn't buy Home Basic. If you really want Vista, buy a new computer with Vista preinstalled or install a trial version of Vista to make sure everything works. I'm going back to XP, until HP releases Vista drivers for my printer.

I'll write reviews on Home Premium, Business, and/or Ultimate if I ever get more RAM.

My Computer
2.8 GHz Pentium D
512 MB RAM
128 MB Video Card

After reading some of the lukewarm press Windows Vista has been getting I was a little hesitant to upgrade, but I love to noodle around with computers and took the plunge more or less for the heck of it, to play with newest thing. My system has a 2.93 GHz processor and 1 gig of ram, with a slightly older video card, so I went with Home Basic. So far I am really quite impressed. I think my computer is running just a tad slower than under XP, but only a tad. I think the system overall is smoother, and much more attractive. People have complained that Vista is only `eye candy,' and not a significant upgrade, but after reading about the extensive new features and new underlying technologies on Wikipedia I was convinced that the upgrades in Windows Vista are both far-reaching and positive. As for the eye candy - well, I think if you spend a lot of time on the computer you want the interface the look good. XP, to me, was a bit too gaudy, and Vista seems smoother, not subdued but classier, more polished than XP. I have had no problems with programs or peripherals or drivers. I've got nothing exotic but everything works. The upgrade took forty minutes or so, with very little interaction. I'm very pleased with Vista, quite a bit more so than I expected.

Please note that the notes under "Product Features" are incorrect. You cannot "upgrade" from XP Professional to Vista Home Basic with this DVD. You will be prompted early in the upgrade process that XP Pro can only be upgraded to Vista Business, Enterprise, or Ultimate. You are however given the option to do a "clean install" of Vista Home Basic, thus wiping out all your software and files.

Not good Microsoft -- people want to know the details before they order!

I was hesistant to upgrade to vista for a while but I decided to invest and see what the hype was all about. I have a P4 HT 3.0 Ghz with a good video card and after upgrading my current desktop to 2 GB of ram, I found that vista runs really well on my machine. I bought the home basic because microsoft advised it and I dont need any of the other features offered in premium. I love the graphic capabilities of vista and the functionality is really nice. I had no problems using any of my programs and had to only upgrade my video and sound drivers after installation. Vista installed all of my updated device drivers for me as well. This is definitely a solid OS and I would highly recommend upgrading to vista if you have the recommended hardware requirements.

I bought this version for my old Dell laptop (its graphics card couldn't handle the Aero interface). While it doesn't offer the elegance of the Premium versions, there's still lots to like here--the intuitive "search" capabilities, the increased security features, the sidebar gadgets, etc. Only a few of my older programs didn't work (an old, old version of Norton anti-virus & an old version of Nero). But Vista isn't really built to maximize older programs; it's forward-looking. So, if you don't have the hardware, then you can probably hold-off til you buy a new PC; but if you've got $99 to spare, there's definitely some things here to like. (I just ordered a new laptop from Dell though, so am excited for the full-throttle version soon).

I like this so far but it takes time to get use to.I ordered this from amazon and formated a hard drive ahead of time and loaded windows 2000 profesional before I got vista in the mail to get it ready but when I got vista and tried to install it the vista said it could not install from this OS.to make a long story short I hade to install XP over again plus it would not install with out downloading sevice pack 2. I have high speed internet but it made me feel sorry for people with dial up it would take them all night before they could even install vista.when I did get it installed I was disappointed because it did not have all the cool features like they showed on tv like the aero.so I hade to upgrade to premium to get it.I think they should have put it all in one like XP and windows 98 did. its only a way of getting more money out of everyone I think.maybe in the future microsoft will give aero as a free update download. all that said I like vista. people use to say bad things about windows XP when it first come out. it takes time to grow on you and get use to plus im sure they will get more updates for drivers and such.but if your going to order vista from amazon get the better one the premium or you will not get all the cool features like aero.

You can not use this version to do a clean install in a different partition than your XP SP2. If you want to run both XP and Vista you must buy a full edition version. XP allowed you to do this.

Some existing programs, such as Norton System Works, are not compatible with Vista and Norton insists that you pay for an upgrade to the 2007 version. Other than the compatibility issue, Windows Vista Home Basic works fine for me.


Larry Leikam

I was a hard core windows user before vista was released and I bought two powerfull computers with it preinstalled. After having it installed for a couple of months I have delete it off both machines. On NEW hardware you can expect: Constant BLUE SCREENS, constant serous program freezes that require you to hold the power button shut off, Freezes during most large file transfers causing damage to files, freezing when using external storage devices and much much much more. I was forced to move to alternative operating systems on both of my new Vista computers. If you do anything important on your computer at all avoid Vista for your own sanity and the safety of your data.