Should I just go back to using Windows XP?

Well, first of all let me say that I was rather hyped up about upgrading to Windows Vista Business. I just managed to download Vista files off the net, and use the key that my school gave me and installed Vista Business today. Spent my entire day on installation of OS, drivers and re-installation of software.

Now my question is: Was it worth it? Everything I had ran fine on Windows, except that the brightness settings won't stay - which someone has already suggested a fix for it. I suppose the eye-candy is nice, but it's taking a hit on my battery life and performance. It uses up to 800 - 1000MB of RAM when I'm doing practically nothing! Also, I thought it was bad when my temperatures in XP were idling at a maximum of 71 C. Over here in Vista, it idles at temperatures like 73 - 76. It even went up to 78 - 81 C while doing nothing more than web surfing!

Plus, I'm a mobile user, so at least half the time my Aero will be turned off. No pretty eye-candy. The other half of the time I'd be playing my games, and although Vista is improving, XP is still better when it comes to games. The programs that I use for schoolwork all work fine on XP anyway. C++, Maya, Microsoft Office.

Furthermore...compatibility issues with ATITool. I know most of your prefer using RivaTuner, but I seriously prefer ATITool. Way simpler to use. Plus there's the fact that I just can't seem to get it to work! I don't know what I did wrong. I followed whatever was done in the "Overclocking and Stability Testing Guide" thread, as well as here to boost my maximum clock limit, but nothing seems to happen when I change my clocks and hit 'apply'. I've got TF2 running in windows mode and there's NO performance difference at all. I recall I could get about 30 - 60 fps boost when changing my clocks from 375/502 to 600/900 using ATITool in Windows XP. I probably am just screwing something up and neither RivaTuner or Vista is to blame, but I guess I've just grown comfortable with some programs, which get killed in Vista.

So, back to the question: Was it worth the change at all? Is there anything useful in Vista Business other than the eye-candy? It's nice, but I'm not going to sacrifice so much just for it. I'm considering wiping out my Vista partition and going back to XP tomorrow. I'm only worried about problems when I finally go back to Vista and have to re-install, as I suspect the key given by my school is an OEM version. Will I have problems re-installing it in the future even if it's back onto the same computer?

 

Why don't you switch to mac completely?

 

Windows Vista is a big change from XP, and it takes time getting used to. Certainly, it uses much more resources than XP in every way, but once you get used to it, Vista is a very user friendly and easy to use operating system. With Service Pack 1, many hardware compatibility issues have been resolved and the overall performance of the Operating System improved. I would recommend you stay on Vista for a while longer to get used to the OS, since it is a great improvement in many ways over XP.

 

theres a new feature called power saver in vista, if you click on the battery icon in the taskbar there are three seperate settings:"high performance, balanced, and power saver, you can also create your own power plan with specifics. and about your idle temps: my temps are usually in the mid 50's, maybe you need to clean out your computer, and have a look at the guide to cooling your notebook?

they run fine on xp, but do they run fine in vista? being mobile user=aero off

maybe your drivers are preventing overclocking?
which programs get "killed" in vista? have you looked for updated versions of those programs? you'd be surprised, i was in the same boat with my printer drivers, but luckily i found them on the canon website.

I think you can re-install on the same computer with an OEM key as long as you don't change hardware I think theres a built in backup program, theres no windows media center(saves space ) And you should try tweaking vista using the tweak guide. and when vista is first starting off on your machine, its taking programs and putting them into your ram just incase you decide you want to open them, it'll be much faster to open. i'd suggest you give it at least a few more days.

 

The key from your school is most likely a volume license key for educational users, which is a bit different from an OEM key. Usually there is one key per campus, so it will work to re-install Vista on your computer as long as your campus has a Microsoft agreement.

 

That in itself is not a problem. Who cares how much RAM it uses when you're doing nothing?
The RAM would otherwise be unused, so why not let the OS use it?
It can free up a lot of it at a moments' notice when more RAM is needed by other applications, so this particular point shouldn't worry you.

Not much. It's an OS first and foremost, which means it's just the platform for your useful applications to run on. By itself, I'd argue that the OS doesn't really matter. It's not *supposed* to matter.
Vista does have a couple of new features, of course, but only you can decide if they matter to you. Like I said in the XP petition thread, I personally find the start-menu search function sexy, but the rest of the new features don't really offer anything I need or use. Your mileage may vary, of course.

Only one person can decide if switching OS is worth it for you. Guess who that person is.

Whatever you do, I highly doubt reactivating your XP key would give you any problems. Most likely it's not an OEM version. OEM versions are locked to specific hardware (or at least, their licenses are), so unless they gave you a harddrive along with the key, it's not an OEM version.

 

I'm in 100 percent agreement.

 

I agree with what Jalf said. However, your temps seem crazy high to me. Maybe laptop cooling and heat tolerance has changed a bit, but mid-70s is pretty toasty. Putting Vista in Battery Saver mode will probably help quite a bit.

What were you so jazzed about before installing Vista anyway? Are the features not as good as advertised? As Jalf said, it's an OS first and foremost...mainly a platform for your useful applications. Has it locked up, rebooted randomly, BSOD'd?

One thing worth noting is that the Vista machine will take time to get up to speed. It needs to create its index and get everything straightened out since the installation.

 

70 C on idle is normal for Macbook Pro users running Windows actually, partially because the MBP is so damn thin, has almost no air vents, and the fan only runs at 1000rpm as compared to 2000rpm on Mac OS X. However, 75+ C and even up to 80s isn't normal at all. In XP I've never hit past 73 C unless I'm running a game or 3D application. My computer was just cleaned 2 days ago. I've read through the cooling guides a dozen times, and there's not much to lowering my temps other than getting a notebook cooler, cleaning out the dust and jacking up my fan speed. It's got nothing to do with my power settings, because my GPU has already been downclocked to 100/169 for 2d performance. Yet, it still manages to hit 80 C somehow. I hit 81 C on my GPU simply by running IE7, downloading files & installing Adobe Reader.

Why I don't want to just stick to Mac OS X, is because over 75% of the stuff I use arn't compatible with Mac OS X. For another 15% of the stuff which are compatible, a seperate key is needed for the Mac specific version of that program. Although...I'm pretty tempted to use it now till I get my school to burn XP SP 2 for me. I actually prefer using it over Vista, which says a lot, seeing how I've used Windows for 15 out of 18 years of my life. I installed Windows XP on the second day of getting my Macbook Pro. Also, my uncle has been using Macs for the past 20 years, but I used to run Virtual PC most of the time when using it. Furthermore I haven't touched his OS X ever since dual booting was available. This is the only time I actually chose to do all my stuff in OS X over Windows. (don't even start the arguement on why I even got a Macbook Pro for. If you really wan to know, it's because it's the best value for money - other brands are overpriced here; school offers Macbook/Pros + insurance + warranty at a discounted rate + bundled software - and it's portability.)

Regarding my drivers, I doubt they're preventing overclocking. I'm tried both 169.04 and 174.74 which are both known for their excellent overclockability. Heck, I used to overclock my GPU up to 600/900 with 169.04 drivers under XP. Running on battery power doesn't mean that Aero is off; it's just that I read Aero eats up quite a bit of battery power, hence I turn it off when on battery power.

Regarding my Vista key, KimoT's probably right. Well, I tried installing XP only to find out my CD isn't working properly so I had to go back and re-install Vista. No problems there. It's licenced by MSDN Academic Alliance to my school btw.


Why am I upset with Vista you ask? Well, honestly I haven't had many crashes, and just 1 BSOD, but that's not it. It's these:

- Both GPU & CPU run 5 - 10 C hotter compared to XP, for some unknown reason. 80 C for my GPU is just completely unacceptable especially when it's practically doing nothing.
- Aero decreases battery life.
*- ATITool doesn't work. (I'm used to using ATITool) RivaTuner won't let me overclock for some unknown reason too. In short - no overclocking.
- Lousier fps in games.
- Noticeably choppier performance. Such as my browser lagging a little when scrolling down quickly, and CPU-intensive games like CS:Source and TF2 running slower.
*- Can't connect to my school's network under Vista. It's probably a driver problem, but I have no freaking idea how to fix it. I get some error message telling me network drivers can't be loaded, even after two clean re-installs of Windows Vista Business. (yes, bootcamp drivers are installed too)

I actually do quite like Windows Vista, especially the prettier look as well as Aero. I actually quite like UAC despite it being annoying. Found out it prevented quite a few random stuff from installing even after using it for just a few hours. But the problem is that I'm taking a performance hit AND raising my temperatures like mad. Furthermore I can't seem to overclock or connect to my school's network, which aggravates things even more. In Windows XP everything runs fine, and I'm comfortable with it. It may not be as pretty, but I sure as hell can live without it as long as everything runs fine, and it doesn't take a toll on my performance and jack up my temperatures. If it's not broken, why fix it?

* Edit: Vista probably isn't to blame for some stuff I mentioned above. It's just that they ran fine in XP, but it's giving me problems in Vista.

 

If you have to ask, then yes.

 

I concur. Go back to XP.

 

Mmm...I think I pretty much made up my mind.

It's just that everytime I'm not using Vista, I try to tell myself stuff like, "it's the future", "it's prettier too!" and "there're lots of cool functions". But well, everytime I boot up into Vista and everything runs so slowly, nothing seems to work, notebook temperature soars so high, I just tend to ask myself, "why am I even putting up with all this crap when it runs fine in XP?" =/

 

If you simply like XP better, then use it.

However, Vista should run quite well on a system with specs like yours.
My system is similar except:
1) I have a slightly better GPU
2) I have a lesser CPU
3) 17" laptop so I have significantly better cooling.

And I have absolutely no issues with Vista and will not choose to use anything else on a new computer.
(my reasons are based in security and resilience to attack, the interface I quickly modified anyway)

 

Stick with XP until Vista becomes competitive. Right now the only advantage it has over XP, besides DX10 is that it`s newer and won`t be discontinued.
But as you said, choppy performance is something I can`t deal with.
XP FTW !

 

There is something wrong with your hardware then. Vista runs as smooth as xp in my notebook.

 

Cathy why don't you just stick with XP and use a Bricopack to make it look like Vista?



http://www.crystalxp.net/galerie/en.id.130.htm

 

I would go back to Windows XP. Support for Windows XP will not end until sometime in 2014. I've been using Windows Vista Home Premium for about one year and it hasn't been great. I'll so glad I did not sell my retail version of Windows XP Pro. Going to load that on my next computer.

 

Vista does run fine on my notebook. However my games mainly take a hit in performance. Temperatures are retardedly too high too.

 

I think it's a matter of preference. I use both Vista and XP. Well, actually, the rest of the office uses XP while I use Vista on my personal laptop. IMO Vistas best features (Image deployment, unattended installs, great remote diagnostic utilities, better security) will hardly be noticed by most users. from your post, it looks like your main frustration comes from the inability to use ATI-tool

If ATItool is that important, then YES, switch back to XP. If you don't mind a more secure operating with updated drivers and, in general, belonging to the wave of the future, then stick with Vista.

 

i was one of the vista beta tester back to 2 years ago, microsoft even sent me a copy of vista ultimate after the product was finalized. But ironically I rather stick with XP pro.

 

Sums up my feelings as well. I received a free copy of Vista Ultimate from Microsoft, I have no plans on using. Maybe i'll sell it on ebay. What an annoying OS, I try and like it, give it time and every time I go back to Windows XP. As a gamer who likes to tweak stuff, Vista just doesn't cut it. The performance is below what it should be when compared to Vista.

If XP were a turd i'd put up with Vista but XP is just to good and stable to be bothered with Vista.

Why did MS drastically change boot manager. Again another bonus for XP as it allows me to edit the thing and save the configuration. For Vista I need to rely on a third party utility to access and edit boot manager. And if Vista's boot manager burps you have to repair the file.

I'm sticking with XP and i'll wait for W7 in hopes Microsoft learned it's lesson from Windows ME, Jr.

 

If your temp/battery life are worse , I would look into your drivers/configuration immediately. Battery life on SP1 is supposed to be better than under XP, and my C90S agrees.

Aero isn't turned off on the battery, just the transparency.

EDIT: You say you are overclocking your 8600M GT from 375/502 to 600/900? ARen't the default clocks 520/700? I doubt that would give you a 30-60 FPS boost, except maybe in 640x480 absolute minimum

EDIT2: Which video drivers are you using? From the sound if it it's some unoverclockable drives like 163.xx ....