Should I switch to Vista, finally?

Hi everyone

I have an HP Pavilion dv6137tx notebook (Intel Core 2 Duo T500 CPU, 1 GB DDR2 SDRAM, 120 GB hdd, nVidia GeForce Go7400 GPU) purchased in February 2007, with Windows XP Media Center Edition preinstalled.

Here follows a fairly long tail of my disappointing experience with HP's services over a period of about 1.5 years. I hope at least some of you who have faced similar problems reply to this thread.

Via a scheme floated by HP, I got an HP Express Upgrade to Windows Vista (Home Premium Edition) kit a few weeks after getting my notebook. For some reason, the kit wouldn't allow an upgrade, so I had to do a clean install (I later figured out a way to install Vista from withink XP, so I could actually upgrade if instead of booting from the DVD, I started the installer manually in XP). There followed a series of problems related to in built hardware such as sound card, network card, modem, etc. Even the display drivers wouldn't work properly. So, I downgraded back to XP. But the webcam stopped working in XP. HP was clueless at the time and kept telling me to reinstall Windows XP using the Recovery DVD (which had XP MCE) and reinstall "new" camera drivers. None of their solutions worked.

I kept putting off the problem during my academic semester but early this year, one day the notebook switched off during usage and wouldn't turn on. A simple test posted by HP on their web site attributed the problem to a mainboard failure. My notebook was submitted to the local HP service center and they gave it back to me after about a month. The webcam was working again and I have been using XP MCE ever since. I was told that I could upgrade to Vista without worrying about the webcam, but I was concerned whether the webcam would work again in XP if I were to downgrade in future. (As I understand, the firmware upgrade required to get the camera to work in Vista was irreversible, at least at the time and HP seemed to have no idea to get things back to normal.)

Now, I have heard that Microsoft will soon cease to provide support for Windows XP and will focus its attention almost entirely on Vista. I am therefore thinking of "upgrading" to Vista so that in the long run, at least I have "fresh" updates from Microsoft. But I am also a heavy Linux user and have had a dual boot configuration (XP and Fedora 8) for quite a while on my laptop.

Upgrading to Vista means I first use the recovery DVDs to install Windows XP MCE, repartition the drive using gparted (a GNU partitioning utility that runs off a bootable CD), install Linux and then use the HP Express Upgrade kit to upgrade XP to Vista. But I don't have answers to the following issues which might crop up at some future point:

1. Will the camera work if I downgrade from Vista to XP?

2. Will driver support from HP for computers which have been upgraded to Vista be better this time? (Last time I used Vista, HP was very stepmotherly in its treatment to Vista upgrade kit owners even though this copy was legally obtained after payment!)

3. Will HP Battery Check work under Windows Vista? My local HP supplier replaces a battery only if I give him a screenshot of HP Battery Check, which is used as a proof that the battery is bad. I have had to replace the battery twice due to extremely poor backup performance. So I really have to use HP Battery check when I use Vista.

HP's Total Care application does not work on the upgraded Vista system and their suggestion to use a new version of Battery Check for Vista didn't work as the battery check program would display a message saying that no battery is connected, when one was actually connected!

4. As Microsoft will probably offer no new updates after Service Pack 3 to XP users, is it a good idea to upgrade to Vista? (using the express upgrade kit)

I would have stuck to Linux, but I have some programs which will run only on Windows and not even on Windows emulators. Plus, it becomes necessary sometimes to share windows specific files, so on my notebook I cannot make do without Windows even though Linux is my first choice.

I would appreciate hearing your opinions about these issues.

Thanks in advance
Cheers
Vivek.

 

Anyone?

 

Hi

MS have only stopped selling XP. Support and updates will continue for several more years.

You will need at least 2gb of ram else or you will have a horrible Vista experience

 

I have 3GB RAM and it was still a horrible experience. If you have to use Windows, just stick with XP - it's the least worst

Flipfire is right, you won't be able to buy any more retail copies of Windows, but the updates will continue to be released, as most companies are still using XP.

Edit: Upgrade that Fedora to 9, or better, get Kubuntu

 

Thanks for your inputs. I am told that updates will not be available after a few months. Of course, all this is speculative.

As for the RAM, well, Vista wasn't all that bad. I didn't have any speed problems, and after turning off Aero things were pretty smooth. But I have always liked XP better

Haha, Fedora 9 rocks

 

No. I would stick with XP. Businesses aren't making the switch to Vista, so support will continue for a while. I know two users who bought HP laptops new with Vista, and downgraded to XP. They had to look around for a few drivers, but both say it's the best thing they ever did. The machines were slow hogs with Vista, but super speedy with XP. Plus SP3 for XP included many of the security features of Vista.

 

Just curious on if you tried getting the Service Pack 1 that is now available for Vista. It helped me out a bunch in terms of performance increase, and reduced the battery drain on my laptop as well. Now it runs pretty well.

 

I suggest you stick with XP. Personally I try to go to Vista and hated it.

 

I don't see a reason not to switch to vista, I have 2gb of ram and it runs fine. I actually had to use XP on another computer and it just made me realize how much I appreciate some of vistas features.

 

I would not waste the money to buy Vista for a computer that has XP on it, but I really like Vista and won't buy a new PC without it going forward unless it was a really underpowered machine like an Ultra Mobile or something.