XP or Vista

A 64 Bit OS can access more ram compared to 32 bit OS can. You can have 4 gig on a machine with 32 bit Vista but it most likely won't be able to use 4 Gig. It should use more then 2 of the 4 but not 4. I've read that video processing applications see more performance increases than any other type of apps in Vista. One thing the is different between Vista and XP is the Vista requires ALL Drivers have signatures which helps with quality of drivers whereas XP will prompt you and say the driver doesn't have a signature and allow you to install it anyways. This will eventually make Vista device drivers better quality than XP.

 

You can manually overide the requirement for digitaly signed drivers. I have done so for a few things.

 

Addon : Overriding is only available in the 32bit OS. 64bit mandates digitally signed drivers.

 

There are 32bit machines with 16GB of memory. They use a technique called Physical Address Expansion, or PAE (which they've disabled in XP because they can't get it to work right.) Typically though, Windows divides the line between application addressable memory at 2GB, so applications get 2GB (2^31 bits) and the system gets 2GB. You can actually switch this with the /3GB switch so applications can get 3GB, and the system gets 1GB, but it's generally not suggested as it can cause instabilities or reduced functionality. But if you need 3GB of RAM for an application, it can help.

 

Makes you feel all warm and fuzzy, doesn't it? You have to have signed drivers that they require DRM checks in just to run your system.

 

xp for performance and vista for features and worse security xp is stable time tested and secure

 

I got a laugh from Andy Pennell's Blog on Installing Vista. It's a quick read.

He works at Microsoft as a developer on the HDi program.

So, if Microsoft folks can't always get it installed . . . well, heck I don't know.

 

Well, signed drivers == ultra stable OS.

 

Maybe so, but it'd be nice if Vista provided a couple basic drivers itself. Somehow Ubuntu (a non-proprietary OS) is able to find and install all but one of my drivers while Vista (an OS backed by an enormous corporation) is unable to find most of them. Hmm... yep, I definitely see how that works...

 

Vista does provide basic drivers for lots of stuff. With my system it installed all of the major drivers except for the graphics card and a few other devices. Windows update took care of the GPU drivers, chipset and the rest(only 1) I had to install from HP.

With Ubuntu OTOH, yeah it installed the rudimentary Nvidia drivers but it lacked drivers for my broadcom wireless. Ubuntu still does not recognise my camera nor my media card reader and there are no drivers for them.

It all depends on what kind of hardware you have.

 

You're funny. Do you even use WHQL drivers? They're the worst as far as stability, features and performance. Most manufacturers don't take the time to get "certified" because the whole thing is a load of crap, takes forever and doesn't really do anything tangible.

Unfortunately, Vista doesn't support your Broadcom card. Broadcom, your camera and memory card reader companies support Vista, and don't support Linux. You've got the relationship backwards. Broadcom chips are just cheap, and don't have frequency hopping features and other stuff a real wireless card has. They're the Winmodems of wireless chips. That being said, you can use ndiswrapper to get your wireless working, and if you update Ubuntu to one of the latest kernels, some broadcom chips work natively.

 

Thats what I was implying in my post, dont blame the OS if the drivers are shoddy. Plus if the installation disc for the OS does include the drivers provided by the respective hardware manufacturers then it does natively support the hardware without the need to install any additional software for the hardware to be recognised.

For what its worth neither ndiswrapper bcm43xx are real solutions. At most they are just hackjobs for the lack of drivers from Broadcom. BTW I use ndiswrapper, the bcm43xx drivers usually have connectivity issues.

 

I don't know, but M$ kept implyijng that " signed drivers are the best for stability as they have gone through the Microsoft's most stringent tests to ensure maximum compatibility with ( put OS name here )". Did i become slightly outdated?

 

My 2 pennies,

Most desktops and laptops now come with Vista. Id recommend removing Vista and installing XP now (make sure to find all the drivers for your devices). Vista will probably be better after another year or two due to service packs and compatibility issues vanishing for most software and games.

 

Vista in the lead by about 20% on the poll ^^ looks like Vista is the overall winner.

 

most users are at ease with XP of course. approximately 7 years in the mainstream hardened xp os so we cannot blame other people to vote XP.

on the other hand, in my opinion and experience, Vista has more to offer. aside from the Aero eyecandy, memory management and security are just two flavors to get along with the bandwagon. of course, you can get an approximate security under XP. it's how you handle or manage your toy. But with Vista, it's apparent that security and enhancement without the need of 3rd parties is a good move. Although there are some shortcomings of vista too, you can always sort out on these by some alternatives specially software compatibility. with regards to driver issues, yes it's also a pain on moving to the new OS. My recommendation is, if everthing works for you with XP, don't move to Vista unless your machine is ready and well capable of using Vista. The laptops that says "Vista Ready" is not a one-way word. you have to do some adjustments too. So it's better to buy a new unit already shipped with Vista.

another minor problem i'm seeing is adjustment or learning curve with the OS since features from Vista are slightly different from XP which requires a little bit of time to learn. but surely after playing with Vista for sometime will eventually keep one from using Vista.

@ViciousXUSMC:

nice sig. LOL.

 

Ut Oh...ok I got a great deal on this Toshiba A 205-S4557 / only $720!!!
It was the last one and it got a double markdown...but big deal if Im going to have trouble with it.

Please someone help...Im a mom, with a small home business of Scrapbooking..so I deal with LOTS of photos..lots in storage but working on them as well with my companies Editing software.

Internet work all day long...at least it seems like that.

I also write so I have to relearn Vista..(.my biggest worry) Just started to learn all the office /writing/ printing stuff on XP when I switched.

Will the gloss screen drive me crazy? or is it best for photos???

I have 4 days left on the stores return policy...

Will this be more headache than its worth?

Or should I order an XP from HP or Dell.

Also would I be crazy to go to a 14" from this 15.4"...I like the portablitly of the smaller size but will working with pics drive me crazy on a smaller screen?

With 2 in college I would like to stay under 1000.
Do I need to up my memory in this one???


Thanks guys
Lady T

 

You will adjust to the OS, the Screen, and the Size ect.

What ever you use on a daily basis you will uventully becomes used too and appreciate what ever pro's it has over its cons.

I prefer matte screens tho because glare is too big of a con for me and also I like accurte color representation wich glossy screens tend to over saturate colors. I think the actual % of people that prefer one to the other is close to 50/50. We have a thread in the forum (or two) on the same subject so try to search for them and read thru.

If Vista does drive you nuts, you can always install XP, but I think you will learn to like it. The exception if you have lots of old hardware thats not compatible.

 

Has anyone tried a dual boot Vista Home Premium + XP pro?
We're getting a laptop - I actually prefer XP BUT the newer models are all Vista
I read on some forums that I might have problems with some programs - like Paintshop Pro 9 or Photoshop CS2. And some versions of Nero.
We've also got a whole bunch of "OLDER" games (pre 2003 games - like Grand Prix Legends, Nascar Racing 2003) that we want to use - but someone said we "might" have problems with them.
We figure we'd try the programs on Vista & if it didn't work then we'd do a dual boot thing. But I was talking to one of the store clerks & he said that they tried a dual boot on one of there laptops & had all sorts of problems after.

 

From what I've read about Vista by some experts,I don't want a bar of it.
Please remind me why its an improvement when it uses 4 or 5 times the hard drive space,has higher req than my 3d mcad software,runs most games slower,has less compatability,gives MS a better platform to flex their DRM muscle,which is the real biggie.
The aero GUI seems to be the reason that its popular with most people,I personally don't buy a pc to look at the OS,the OS is merely there to link all the software that I want to run and the simpler,faster,smaller it is,the better in my view,I haven't had a virus for years,the security thing is just Microsoft BS excuses to infringe on my personal usage of my pc.
Even Dell is towing the line for MS pretty much,making Vista the only option on the new models,doesn't anybody wonder why Vista is being implimented so aggressively,It amazes me,you could still configure a new Dell with Windows 2000 3 years after XP was released,whats the big rush with Vista...I am very suspicious of the reasons.

http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/vista_cost.html

An interesting article on Vista DRM.

 

Ut Oh...ok I got a great deal on this Toshiba A 205-S4557 / only $720!!!
It was the last one and it got a double markdown...but big deal if Im going to have trouble with it.

Please someone help...Im a mom, with a small home business of Scrapbooking..so I deal with LOTS of photos..lots in storage but working on them as well with my companies Editing software.

Internet work all day long...at least it seems like that.

I also write so I have to relearn Vista..(.my biggest worry) Just started to learn all the office /writing/ printing stuff on XP when I switched.

Will the gloss screen drive me crazy? or is it best for photos???

I have 4 days left on the stores return policy...

Will this be more headache than its worth?

Or should I order an XP from HP or Dell.

Also would I be crazy to go to a 14" from this 15.4"...I like the portablitly of the smaller size but will working with pics drive me crazy on a smaller screen?

With 2 in college I would like to stay under 1000.
Do I need to up my memory in this one???


Thanks guys
Lady T

 

I just ordered a Thinkpad T61 with the NVidia graphics card. Because my law school currently advises us not to upgrade to Vista, I got it with XP Pro preinstalled. However, I have been told that the law school expects to announce compatibility with Vista at some point during the semester. I'm trying to decide whether it might be easier in the long-term to (a) take a gamble and switch my order now to Vista, or (b) wait a little bit and upgrade after law school compatibility is thoroughly confirmed. Obviously I'm wasting a little bit of money with (b), but it's probably the most risk-averse play.

Now, some questions:

1) Because the T61 normally comes with Vista preinstalled anyways, will the XP-to-Vista upgrade be difficult with at all respect to tracking down drivers for the accessories that come with the T61 (e.g., the NVidia graphics card, the wireless card, etc.), or will it be relatively smooth?

2) I get the sense the answer to this question is obvious to the initiated, but I'm having trouble tracking it down: I understand that I will have to do a "clean install" to transition from XP Pro to Vista Home Premium. What exactly does this entail? If it's just deleting everything on my hard drive, this doesn't greatly concern me as I don't plan on developing too much irreplacable data in the first two or three months I have the thing. Can I do this with a Home Premium upgrade disc (I would greatly prefer this as I can acquire that for 80 bucks from the campus computer store).

3) If I go the gamble-on-Vista route and it blows up, what would my options be with respect to attempting to downgrade from Vista to XP? Assume I have no other Windows computers in my household.

 

hi,

i'm wanting to build a new desktop recently and i'am confused also, what to buy; XP or Vista?

everyone, friends and store sales person (who was a family friend) tells me to stick with XP.

but i still really need that instant off (standby/sleep) and instant on (wake)...
so i decided to do more research, turns out vista is infested with DRM, that makes the system not as stable as it should've been. there is a problem with transfering files (allegedly vista checks every bit for a sign of piracy). the realistic 32-bit system maximum RAM is 2GB. since the rest will be eaten by video memmory and such, remember that 4GB overhead is applied not just for the RAM but the entire sytem.

we'll i've decided to stick with the ol' dependable and true XP...

and as for glossy screen, i find it easier to read a lot of text, -providing you haven't got a lot of light source of course- as the glossy screen enhance the saturation. but the downfall is that all of the colour seems a bit off, its too sharp and over-saturated for sure, by a long margin, even my favourite laptop -the Qosmio (argueably the laptop with the best screen)- seems got the colour a tiny bit off... but then again i've got an eye for detail. but still...

well, in a nutshell: ur photo will look gorgeous in a glossy screen, but the colour are not true/accurate.

and glare can be countered with adding more brightness.

 

let's clear up some of this FUD right away. Vista isn't infested with DRM, at least not to the point where it infringes on your ability to rip, copy and burn dvds and audio cds. as to your conjecture about file transferring - i recently transferred 30gigs of mp3s from my desktop machine to my new laptop with Vista Ultimate with nary a problem. i stream my divx and xvid movies over my network without issue either. and for any system using over 3gigs of RAM, a 64-bit OS is a must.

 

I know I'm quoting from an early post in this thread and someone may well have addressed the first point already.. I don't have a DX10 graphics card I have a DX9.0c one with the DirectX 10 software loaded on the machine, I'm running OEM Vista HP (64bit). I have been playing HL2, HL2 DM, FEAR, Moorhuhn Kart2 (don't ask lol it's for my 7year old niece!) and have had no problems with any of them.

I'll probably get a DX10 card at some point but by no means is it a necessity to run Vista or to play games on Vista.

From my experience since I installed Vista I can't say there is any noticable difference in speed or stability. Both my previous installation of OEM XP Pro and new OEM Vista have yet to crash, freeze up, BSoD or anything untoward.
Even if I bought a branded machine I would endeavor to get one with no OS and install an OEM version of Windows, in my opinion they always seem to behave themselves better.

 

Uh. No, it can't. Screen glare is a problem separate from the fact that bright light can make a screen difficult to read. Mainly, the glare on the screen is so bright that it not only washes out the screen, it makes it difficult to read.

Try taking your glossy screen into the sun and reading the screen with the sun shining on it. Even turned up. After getting a glossy screen, I'd rather have had the matte. If true color value is a concern, then screen type is a factor.

Glare is an environmental factor that can't be controlled by screen brightness/contrast. Not completely.

 

to be honest, I can't live without XP and Vista. Both of them must exist in my computer

 

XP. In the past month, I've run XP, Vista, Ubuntu, and OSX from my laptop. If I'd gotten wireless and sound to work, I'd likely have switched to OSX as my default OS. Because I couldn't, I went back to XP. Briefly debated reinstalling Vista, but eventually decided against it. I like some parts of it - the GUI is interesting, and the 'type a program into the start menu to load it' function is nice, but I couldn't stand the dumbed-down defragmenter, the inability to monitor my computer going into hibernation, and the decreased battery life. These three were the killers for me. So it's back to XP.

 

Ahh the defragmenter that is one thing I noticed. It works the same as the XP version, but the option to analyse is gone...

So you never know if you need to defragment or not, so its all or nothing. However I have it as a scheduled task to run once a week so I know its ok.

Its worth mentioning tho that windows defragmenter be it vista or xp is junk (maybe vistas is different but im pretty sure its the same) and even MS guys have said so and recomended 3rd party apps like disk keeper pro. They defragment much better, and can also defrag windows files that the windows version wont touch.

That would remedy atleast one of your problems.

I thought vista increased battery life?? My guess is that its the areo interface and stuff causing the shorter battery life because your gpu is in use, id try to turn it off and see if that fixes the problem.

Lastly im not sure what you mean by monitor your computer when it goes into hybernation... so i cant offer any advice.

 

By monitor the computer, I mean the bar of little blue blocks that increases from left to right after you tell your laptop to hibernate. Once it's done, your computer turns off. It's basically a way to tell you how far along the saving into memory is, and how long you have to wait before you can unplug the computer without using any battery power. It's a full screen thing that comes up in XP. In Vista, it's gone - the screen just goes dark and you're left to watching your hard drive light flicker while waiting for your computer to turn quiet, in order to know when its gone into hibernation. Can't stand that.

And yup, you got what I meant about the defrag. I'll look into a 3rd party app though.

WRT the battery life, that's just a Vista feature. I already use NHC to adjust power settings and know to dim the screen, etc, when switching to battery power. However, with all that in place, I can drop to fewer watts in XP than I can in Vista (you can monitor either in NHC on the front page of the program). Turning off Aero improves things slightly, but Aero's half the fun of Vista in itself!

All that said, I might reinstall it by year's end. Hopefully it'll become easy to add new themes in the future. When I used it, I couldn't find any Vista themes that A.) weren't actually XP themes set up to mimic Vista, or B.) didn't require Windowblinds or a 3rd party app to install. And MS locked out XP/2k themes, so things like Luna and other themes I use on XP can't be installed on V without 3rd party stuff.

 

I tell you whats pretty, for vista as far as themes go.

Its the windows ultimate extra "dreamscape" it lets you use movie files and 3d generated effects as your desktop background.

It really brings the computer to life. I have found it "unofficaly" for the other versions of vista tho. It would really hurt your battery life, but if your plugged in or on a desktop its great. You can leave it up and just right click and pause it if you go on battery.

Id take some videos of mine but fraps is messed up on my vista x64 install. Maybe when I get my notebook next week I will be more sucsessfull at getting fraps to work.

There are some videos on youtube and stuff if you want to check it out but none of them seemed to good to me.

 

Yup. Dreamscene rocks!!! anyway, anyone figured out a hack for Vista Business so Dreamscene will work on it?

 

You can get Dreamscene already on XP or Vista by running VLC in wallpaper mode. And to be honest, it's one of those effects that looks cool the first time you use it, but which you rarely end up using again.

 

oops dreamscene not dreamscape I like the stock one with the puddle and lamp but you can get 500+ more with the free plugin by stardock.

http://www.stardock.com/products/deskscapes/

They have some 3d generated ones, alot of movie files and the plugin lets you use any of your own movie files (not sure if stock vista dreamscene can or not because I installed this plugin almost right away)

They also have some neat ones like one that puts random polorid photos on your desktop with pictures from a file on your computer (that ones not free tho :/)

 

Yeah I found a file that lets you use it with any vista version, so its out there. Ultimate is no differrent than the other vista's so you have to figure that its seamless to add any of the ultimte extras to the other vista versions.

 

I am one of the rare species who hate this kind of thing. My desktop wallpaper is solid color.

Also, it may not be sound like an issue power wise while plugged in, do remember that it is adding CO2 emission to the planet.

 

You're not alone - I also have no desire to run graphics on my desktop. The internet provides enough distractions.

 

good thing C02 is not bad for the planet then eh?

 

I'm not getting into a global warming discussion, but I will say that taking joy in the destruction of the planet is as fine a sign as any that one should spend some time on self reflection.

 

Im not eather if you drive a car you cant say anything about notebooks tho

I happen to bike ride to work on occasion just for that reason to save some gas/the enviroment/and for some exercise.

 

I am not very good at cycling especially competing with cars on the road but luckily don't need to drive to work(well take public transport if needed).

I go to places on foot for a 3km radius.

 

public tranportation sucks here... I dont go bike riding much anymore its so hot and im crammed for time with work and kids.

But while I was at my prime I could go 45 miles in just a few hours. You would be supprised just how far and fast you can get somwhere on a good bicycle.

sorry for off topic (forums dead right now anyways and still have 3 more hours to kill before I am off work)

 

You go to work at 7am? Wow...

 

10pm to 8am. Been working 7 days a week for awhile now with not a single day off, but the overtime is how im affording my first notebook, and my freetime at work is where/when I will be benching the heck out of it for my review.

The hard part is not the work, its going home to kids and a wife that keep me up all day so I never sleep.

 

I have been running Vista for the last 2 months. It was a custom build using Aero on a P-M 2.0Ghz w/1GB RAM. I got frustrated with Vista's sluggishness and incompatibilities and last week I reformatted back into Windows XP Pro. I should have reformatted into XP sooner. I'm much happier. Vista is subpar in almost all non-superficial areas when compared to XP.

 

meh, another vista hater. do you have better than integrated graphics. i have vista ultimate on my G1 and it runs fine, just as good, if not better than in xp(yes i installed xp, but it was only so i could play patrician 3)

I find that vista does everything just as good or better in vista.

is this a laptop you're running on? if so, it could be bloatware that's slowing it down.

 

The only real nit I have with Vista right now is network connections. Both the dv6400 and dv2000t seem sluggish initializing and using the network adapter (I have to keep flushing/resetting DNS to sustain an acceptable connection). The WLAN keeps dropping out on both as well.

The r4000 and v5201 have neither of these problems under XP. With the drastic hardware differences between the 4 units, it has to be an os issue. (IMO)

 

A real world example of lousy Microsoft's minimum requirement of 1GB. Usually they should add another 512MB to 1GB as a precaution.

I believe i have a solution (don't format yet!). Under Power Options, and under your current power plan, change plan settings, change advanced power settings, and scroll down to Wireless Adapter settings. Switch the power saving mode to at Low power saving. It is a problem with Vista's power saving mode for the WLAN card while on battery. More info here

 

Thanks! Gives me something to try other than pounding on them.......

 

I'm very happy with Vista. I installed on my HP dv8320us laptop with 1.5 Gb of RAM, Intel Centrino Duo T2050 1.66 Ghz and a Nvidia GeForce Go 7600 GPU. It runs faster than XP, and all my applications are working well with Vista. The laptop came with XP MCE 2005, I installed Vista in the other HD and make a dual boot. Since then I haven't booted to XP anymore...