Customer Reviews

Windows Vista Home Premium with SP1 Upgrade [OLD VERSION]

5 star:		(34)
4 star:		(28)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(84)

 

 

I wrote a review of Vista not long after I started using it. I gave it two stars and suggested that while it's not worth replacing XP with Vista as there are a few annoyances, chiefly the lack of some of XP's best features, Vista isn't too bad. I am not a Microsoft basher, as I think XP is an excellent operating system. I've now realised just how good it was after a few months with Vista. I have wasted more time sorting out problems in Vista in two months than I did during the seven years I had with XP. It is fair to say that I now hate this OS to the point that it turns me into a kind of Basil Fawlty with Tourette's more often than not. My shiny new laptop has the imprint of my fist following a time when Vista just pushed me too far. Therefore I have deleted my original review and replaced it with this new one.

Let's start with Vista's good points. It looks marvellous, with its transparent windows and 3D effects. There is a display pane which gives you an overview of the contents of many file types without you having to open them. The sounds that herald failures or errors are far less annoying than those in XP. The colours are lovely too. And, er... that's it, unless you're the kind of computer user that enjoys spending hours and hours solving OS problems. If so, you'll have a field day here.

I'll start with the minor irritations, in no particular order.

Searching in XP was easy. You typed in the name of a file, specified your search criteria and you always found your file if it existed. Alas, Vista is very different. Search is done by indexing, which means that although the searches are faster your initial search won't find files in all but the most obvious locations. You can index every file on the computer of course, but this takes ages, uses a lot of space and (I am told) slows the computer down. There is an option for searching non-indexed files but you can't do this until you've done the indexed search first. Even then I have found search results to be unreliable. I would bet that people use Search to find system files rather more than they do to find a letter (it's likely to be in Letters, right?). Worse still, Service Pack 1 removed Search from the Start menu, and you have to download third-party programs or do a registry tweak to get it back.

There is no Network Connections folder - one of XP's more useful features was this folder where you could check and modify your internet connections all in one place. You can get it back, but it also involves a registry tweak.

Windows Update in XP installed the majority of the updates while the computer was running. Vista does this on shutdown and startup - which means that if updates have downloaded and you do a restart you can wait over 10 minutes to get your computer running again.

XP had a facility to associate a particular icon with certain file types. Not Vista - you have to download a third-party program to do this.

Screensavers often don't work properly.

In XP you were given useful information when you copied files, for example which particular file was being copied at any particular time. Vista doesn't do this, it just gives you a progress bar and a time estimate which is usually wildly inaccurate. Copying is painfully slow, too.

Say goodbye to Outlook Express - with Vista you get Windows Mail. It is similar to OE and indeed has some improvements, but whereas OE used your spell check from Word, Windows Mail only has a choice of 4 languages and the English option only allows for US English. I am not one of those Brits who gets sniffy about US spellings - they're just as valid as British spellings - but for work I need to use British English and get fed up with having to tell it that "realise", "marvellous" and the like are NOT wrong.

Unexpected shutdowns, freezes and the dreaded "not responding" are far more common than they were in XP. At least with XP you could, as a last resort, pull the plug and XP was savvy enough to recover from it. Do this with Vista and more often than not you'll have to wait while Vista repairs itself - admirable in one way, but it created the flipping problem itself!

I've gone on too long already, but please indulge a little further. I would like to describe how Vista ruined my computer today. I tried to copy a large collection of files from one folder to another. Halfway through the OS froze and stopped responding. I managed to restart - same thing. I mirrored this on my XP computer and there was no problem. Third time lucky...not quite. Halfway through the copy Vista froze and all the screen icons disappeared. No way to get Task Manager so I had to pull the plug. Vista then spent hours repairing itself on restart. Eventually I moved the files in small batches. Then I wanted to transfer some of these to DVD and got an error half way through. Another freeze - no way to restart normally so another unwanted switch off with the off button. Since then Vista refuses to start at all - any attempt to do so generates an error or just sits there halfway through startup. Somehow it has corrupted the hard drive and I am now waiting for those nice people at Dell to send me a new one.

There are worse things in life than OS problems, I know that all too well. But if you want to save yourself a lot of hassle, time and stress, stick with XP as long as you can. It sounds like Microsoft have already recognised that this shoddy product is a disgrace and if you're lucky, there will be a better OS (or at least a decent revamped version of Vista) before you are forced to change OS.

Thank you for listening.

I am a web programmer and owe my career to Microsoft products. I have to be on the leading edge (or bleading edge) so I know what my clients will want in the years to come. For me, upgrading to Vista wasn't an option -- I had to do it.

OK, let's not confuse upgrading to Vista with upgrading Office 2003 to Office 2007. Upgrading Office is a huge change but upgrading your operating system to Vista isn't providing that the following is true:
1) You have a fast computer (like one made in the last two years)
2) You have a fast video card (and I mean fast -- like for gaming)
3) You have a to have a lot of memory (4GB is, in my opinion, the minimum)

If you don't need the multi-media features, then stick with Vista Home Basic or just stay with XP. If you have a bunch of pictures, videos and music then Vista Home Premium is the way to go. If you are running a small business, then Vista Small Business is a better choice because it allows you to create a backup of your entire disk (which none of the home versions allow -- WTF?).

Aero is pretty cool; but, if that's your only reason to upgrade then save your money. The real bang-for-the-buck is Windows Media Center. Let's say you have a Sony PS3 on the same subnet (your home network) as your Vista Home Premium computer. The PS3 sees your Vista computer as a Media Server. That's really cool because you can watch videos, listen to music and view photos on your HDTV with no additional cabling. The only trick is to load all of you media into the \users\public area and not into your machine-specific user account.

The cons:
1) You need a fast computer with tons of memory and a fast video card
2) Windows 7 is coming in a few months (but is uses the Vista engine). It's already out in beta format but I don't install beta products. When It's released for real, I'll write another review.
3) Vista asks you to confirm everything operation at least three times -- sometimes more. The repetative nature of this process kind-of defeats the purpose because Vista asks you to Confirm, Accept, Agree, Install, Run, etc. so often that you just fall into the bad habit of saying "yes" to everything. Once I say "Go" then just do it and stop asking me questions.
4) Adminstrator access is diffferent than XP. Even if your account has Administrative rights, you have to "Run as Administrator" things like CMD.EXE to perform many functions (like ipconfig). If you don't understand this statement, then this doesn't apply to you and don't worry.
5) There are backward-compatibility issues. If you have any third-party software (e.g. not made by Microsoft), then make sure it is Vista-compatible or be prepared for probable problems. There's an XP compatibilty mode but my experience using it has not been good. Basically, if it doesn't work in Vista, it won't work in XP compatibility mode.

All things considered, I like Vista in the home despite the shortcomings. I don't know of a single business that uses Vista -- and they probably never will. At this point, I would just wait for Windows 7 which should be released late in 2008 or early in 2009. I already have access to the beta version of Windows 7 but haven't installed it yet. Windows Server 2008 is going on my dual xeon server this week. Vista Ultimate is on my laptop and one desktop. I still have an old Dell with XP. Vista is pretty good but far from great. XP works and Vista just doesn't measure up.

I just upgraded two computers to Vista Ultimate since I get it for free with my MSDN subscription. I don't really see any tangilble difference except I can do backups -- woohoo!

I'll be putting Windows 2008 Server on (strangely enough) my dual xeon server this week. I've heard good things about Windows 2008 even though it uses the Vista engine. I'll review that product seperately.

Windows Vista takes everything that has ever been fun under Windows XP and attempts to make it impossible. You liked being able to use multimedia under XP? Forget that!

The software vendors (RIAA and MPAA) have been screaming & suing the last eight years because canny computer users are pirating their products. Vista is Microsoft's way of throwing them a bone. It imposes crippling DRM all over your machine, degrades the viewing experience of HD video, and rats out the contents of your hard drive to the Mother Ship so that the RIAA and MPAA can spy on you and start sending you lawsuits if there's anything on your hard drive that might have been pirated.

Boot-up time is much, much slower, and the bloatware of this OS causes your hard drive light to come on and stay lit. I'm running this turkey on the latest dual-core machine with 2 gigs of RAM and a fast video card, and it still chokes and sits there like a dead rat, as it spins the hard drive and thinks about maybe responding to a mouse click. And then it pops up the security windows and asks if you think that you should be doing what you just tried to do. No information as to whether or not you've just clicked on an attachment that might be installing a Trojan or Keylogger. Just an annoying window that pops up that means you have to click an extra time.

Oh yeah - and here's another fun feature. If you buy into the hype that Windows actually is trying to make it easy for you to work with the wonderful world of multimedia, that is a BIG FAT LIE. Vista is designed to make it frustrating and impossible for you to 1) capture video (the system resource hog means many dropped frames and bombed-out sessions), 2) edit video (the DRM settings are so arcane and hidden that to turn on the setting that allows you to display full HD video in your editing program takes 4 (four) days of work on the Windows forums to figure out, 3) encode and compress video and most of all 4) upload and share video.

If you have any dreams or designs on being a multimedia content producer, Windows Vista is not for you. You cannot use this OS to do what you need to do to earn a living. It will not allow you to create video content. It will degrade the signal if you do manage to create the content so that the video that you see on the screen, and the video that you turn in to your clients are radically different. Your clients will ask you what happened, and you will not have a good answer.

If you travel, and try to work with clients in other countries, as I have, Windows Vista will try prevent you from logging on to the internet. You will come to know the Network and Sharing Center. It will be your new home. You will struggle and scream over all the settings you will have to know about there. Nothing will work. You will thrash and re-start and re-boot for hours. Imagine the fun! Finally, you will find out that some obscure security setting is at fault, one that is not documented in any appreciable way. And then, the next time you turn on your computer, you will have to go through this whole process all over again.

I've used Windows my whole life but as more and more friends buy Macs and have remarkably fewer headaches getting them to do basic tasks, I've finally changed my mind.

Goodbye, Windows, forever.

I don't care about your next version, I don't care about your service packs - I've heard it all before. We are through. Get lost, and take your hang-ups and BS "you don't have permission to delete the folder you just created" messages and blow it your electronic a**.

I'm sick of having to Google for hours to continually fix the problems you give me. I HAVE HOMEWORK TO DO, YOU INCONSIDERATE JERK. I'm sick of your "admin" account that STILL won't let me change any important settings. I'm sick of your wildly slow USB transfer speeds. I'm sick of how hard it is to burn a CD or make a DVD or watch a downloaded video or even a store bought DVD. I'm sick of your tacked-on crappy "widgets" that you think make you look hot, like a Mac. They look trashy, Vista. You're trash.

Here we are in March 2009. I've been with you for eighteen months and have you gotten any better?
Answer - NO.
You still hang the system every third update. You still randomly change important settings. You still bug the hell out of me with incessant nagging every time I try to delete a picture. How come, as of this morning, I can no longer delete folders? Why did you decide that would be a good thing? I spent HOURS figuring out how to delete folders when I first installed you, which is INSANE to even have to do in the first place. Now you just made all that work worthless and I have to figure out what you changed so I can undo it.

Just get lost, Vista. I hate you. I don't care if Bill Gates is an OK guy. I don't care if SP 2 will fix it all. I don't care, I don't care, I don't care.

I bought a new Dell XPS 1330 a few months ago which came with Vista as the OS and it's an inferior and buggy product. Here are the issues I've had to deal with:

1. Right out of the box, Windows would not shut down. Vista gives you something like seven options but all of them led to the same thing--the system froze. The only way to turn off my computer was with the power button.

2. The problem with the system turn off mysteriously solved itself after a month, but then I had problems connecting to the internet. I kept getting a dialog box saying "limited connectivity"--the basic issue was I was connected to my router, but for reasons best known to itself Vista wouldn't let any of my browsers access the net. This drove me bats and I ended paying a tech service a hundred bucks to fix it. It took them about 30 minutes--they said they were seeing the same problem over and over with Vista (they may be the only demographic to really love this OS, it must be making them a fortune).

3. The display driver just doesn't work with Vista (it's an nvidia driver, and this issue is all over blogs and net forums). It repeatedly causes the system to freeze, crash, and when that doesn't happen the screen will at odd moments fizzle into mandelbrot fractals or trippy 60s style lines. These inevitably end in the blue screen of death experience. I've downloaded a series of "updated" or "improved" drivers from Dell and nvidia and, if anything, the problem has gotten worse. This problem happens randomly, and it basically means I no longer use the $2,000 laptop I bought expressly for work for anything but casual web surfing--I simply can't afford to do anything on this computer that is work critical because chances are I'll lose it.

I've got some of the same nitpicky complaints about Vista aired elsewhere (it's HUGE memory hog, the Aero "experience" is more of a pain than a delight etc etc), but really the bottom line is that I just can't fathom putting out a product that is so bad; the biggest fan of Vista has to be Steve Jobs, it's almost as if Microsoft wants people to shift to Macs.

I'm no innate Microsoft basher (I used XP and NT for years w/no complaints), but my strong advice is avoid this OS if you can.

As a computer technician and software developer for over ten years, I suggest that everyone with Windows XP stay with XP, at least until Microsoft comes out with something more worthwhile to upgrade to.

Overall, Vista does come with a bunch of new and useful features, including a prettier interface. But all of these can be easily duplicated with free or cheap software. Many of these alternatives are as good or superior to the features they duplicate in Vista. Check out download.com, amazon.com & elsewhere for free or cheap software for XP that duplicates whatever features you want in Vista, such as antispyware or file/drive encryption.

Vista also has big hardware requirements. It essentially has double the memory requirements of XP (2 GB RAM should be your minimum for decent performance, try 4 GB for best performance).

Also, keep in mind that no version of Vista comes with antivirus software. It's essential to have antivirus software that is compatible with Vista. So pick up your favorite AV program if you're out of luck with your existing program. My favorite is ESET NOD32 Antivirus: very easy to use, lightweight and one of the most effective antivirus programs according to multiple independent lab tests. I also recommend either PC Tools Spyware Doctor or Webroot Spy Sweeper over Windows Defender for extra protection... Windows Defender (which comes with Vista), while moderately effective against adware, is next to useless against spyware & rootkits.

With Vista, you are also asking for headaches if you care about your computer working with your older hardware, such as printers, digital cameras, and so forth. I have seen some devices, even ones certified to work with Vista, not actually work with Vista. Many do work, but be forewarned and check with your existing device manufacturers for Vista support before purchasing this Vista upgrade. You may also run into issues with drivers for existing hardware, such as your sound or video hardware. Check with your computer manufacturer (e.g. Dell) to find out if they offer Vista drivers for your particular computer model. Software as well can be an issue, as some software (especially uncommon programs) may not work well or at all in Vista.

The bottom line: Upgrading from XP to Vista offers nothing you can't duplicate on XP for little to no cost, in exchange for $100+ and the potential for great headaches with existing software & hardware. Instead, find some free or cheap software that duplicates the features you want. If you must have Vista, good luck! Consider a new computer (with at least 2 GB RAM), which will save you from at least some of the aforementioned hassle (at least you'll know the computer itself will work, though perhaps not with existing old software or hardware), and rely on your older computer for anything that just won't work with Vista.

After upgrading my system from Windows XP SP3 to Windows Vista SP1, it didn't take long for me to realize I wished I hadn't bothered. My system takes twice as long to boot-up, and my programs take longer to load. Turning off Aero speeds things up a bit, but Aero is the one thing about Vista I really like. It's not my system either. I have a fast Intel Penryn Processor, and 3GB's of RAM. I'll admit that the upgrade was painless for me, and not nearly the nightmare that some users experienced. I also have no major issues with it. The problem is, everything that Vista and XP can do, XP does it better and faster. Without all the eye candy turned on, you'd think that XP was an upgrade to Vista. I'm currently beta testing Vista SP2 which should be released Q1, 2009. It seems to be slightly faster, but no major improvements. IMO wait for "Windows 7", and hope Microsoft gets it right.

Update:I'm now beta testing Windows 7, and IMO even in beta form, it's better than Vista. Pretty much it is what Vista should have been.

Even if you get a new PC with Vista, make sure you get enough RAM. Sellers do put Vista on 1GB RAM machines but they shouldn't. Read reviews and recommendations regarding sufficient memory, or you'll regret getting Vista.

I've been working with Computers for long time. I've work with all Microsoft OS (including old DOS).

At some point I thought that Windows ME was the worst OS that Microsoft ever released, until Vista came in.

At first I didn't know which one was worst, but after using Vista (not on my PC) on other peoples PC and do a lot of troubleshooting to family members and friend, I will say without any doubt that Vista is the worst, so far by far.

You need almost a server to run this thing.

I'm not going to write a long review telling you why is so bad and why you should stay away from it, because I'll need like 30 or 40 pages, besides, there are a lot of other reviews where the other users already put their frustration and problems, read those reviews and you'll agree with them as soon as you install this virus, I mean OS.

If you don't need Vista, don't even try it. Stick to XP 0r 2000, that's my last piece of advice.

Now I know why Microsoft is working so hard with the new Windows version (7), because Vista is not an OS, it's a virus or something worst.

Please note that I am just rating the OEM system that came with my new HP laptop I bought a month ago. It is Vista home premium with SP1. I rather like it. I have read numerous reviews that don't like it so much, so I am giving my experience here for those, like me, are considering a new computer with pre-installed Vista. My question was: How is Vista better than XP?

Answer: It looks better!

I am not joking. The only attraction is the aero effect thing where a little bit of each window is slightly transparent, the windows also pop up with a magical effect, like a balloon. It disappears the same way too, with some transparency worked in. It has an option of extra large icon that's really big if you want it, though that takes up screen space fast. The files are also a little bit open you so you can see a file or two in there, but in XP you can see stuff inside too, as many as four things, so the open trick isn't much of an improvement. Also, you can get these things called "Vista Gadgets" for the desktop, like a little calender or a battery charge indicator or even a quick search to amazon that just sits there as part of the desktop. Other program covers it, but otherwise it runs on its own without bothering anything.

(And why do I want a quick search to amazon, you might ask, if I already have it bookmarked as a favorite page? Well you see, you still have to click to open a webpage first before you can click your favorite. With the amazon gadget, you just type directly into it what you want, and a webpage will pop up without you having to click to open it! Really saves on the finger energy, you know?)

Other than this, there is nothing to Vista whatsoever that is different from XP. There is heightened security measures in the form of "OS fearfulness", but I always disable those things as much as possible because they are nothing but a nuisance. Whenever you want to do something it asks, "Are you sure?" It can't tell if something is wrong, mind you. It just keep asking YOU, and you have to keep assuring it like it is a scared child. And I can't disable all of it because then it nags constantly, "Security setting is set too low! Please raise it!"

There are a few minor inconveniences. First, the standard picture viewer will not display GIF images, unlike the one in XP. The help part explicitely states that the viewer will ONLY display bmp and jpg format pictures. Also, the Windows Mail, the equivalent of Outlook Express, no longer has the contact pane where you can just double click any contacts and opening a black email to write. You have to open the contact file each time.

Also, the included Internet Explorer has a ton of problems. It freezes every time I go to my hotmail account. I know, they are both Microsoft, so why can't they get along? Who knows. It freezes on certain other sites too, for no particular reason. I don't have any trouble with the old IE in XP, but Vista does not allow you to downgrade. (My Netscape in Vista manages hotmail and other pages just fine, so that's what I use.)

A friend warned that my old programs might not install in Vista. I've installed a few now. So far, everything works.

So here is the conclusion: except for the pretty translucent aero effect, Vista is identical to XP in every way if you don't think about the few bugs. So if you are into pretty (like me), do get it. It looks cool! It's fun watching the windows pop open and then vanish when you close it! But if you think that sounds stupid, then there is no question XP with SP2 is better in the sense that it is more stable and have fewer bugs.

I have to admit that I am slightly disappointed that the aero thing is all that I am getting out of a brand new operating system. Considering how long it took Microsoft to work on Vista, I thought it'd be a lot more exciting. Maybe they have been concentrating on programming "Are you sure" into every move anybody makes. Back when I upgraded from Windows 95 to XP, there were a so many fun new impressive things to enjoy. So the next time another new Windows come out, I won't bother with it.