Any Vista Users Still Out There?

[jmurray01]

I hate change and therefore only upgraded from Windows 2000 to Windows XP a few years ago.

My old Viglen which ran XP had recently got to the point where it took at least 5 minutes for Mozilla Firefox to load after clicking on the desktop icon and even for a patient person like me that was too much. It couldn't be helped though as the hard drive was over 90% full.

I did actually buy a brand new laptop (Emachines E520) back in February 2009 which had Windows Vista Home installed. Despite the negative reviews of the operating system I never had any issues with it whatsoever and despite getting rid of it in 2012 due to the laptop itself failing, the OS worked fine right up to the end.

Therefore when I decided a few weeks ago to replace the desktop PC I opted for the most cost effective option - a Dell Optiplex 760 (Ultra Small Form Factor computer) with Windows Vista Business. The price was under £40 which sold it for me immediately.

All I have to say is the memories I have of Vista are still 100% true, the OS is very fast, smooth running and reliable.

At work we use full size Acers and HPs with Windows 7 installed and not one of my colleagues has not complained about the slowness of the operating system. Personally, my work PC is almost as slow as my Viglen I just got rid of and that was manufactured in 2004 with Windows XP!!

I'm not saying Windows 7 is bad, on a higher performance PC it may be brilliant - but if you are looking to buy a low spec PC then in my opinion Windows Vista is the best OS to install even in 2014.

[Stoney871]

I found Vista to be terrible for conflicts when installing plug'n'play devices and too many naggy pop up windows.

Can't stand Windows 8/8.1 either.

I've just bought a new gaming PC and was very glad that I could still specify Windows 7 as the OS.

Many computer magazines have published OS survey rankings and 7 still comes out on top but is followed very closely by XP.

Vista is way down the list.

[Goodkat]

Sent from my Gen 1 WAP phone

[Nathan_M]

Windows 8 looks nice I think, I ventured into Devon christmas shopping the other week and popped into pc world to see if i couldn't get myself a from me to me, windows 8 looks really nice on the all in one pc's, I'm in 2 minds though between giving osx a go on imac or just getting a windows system, I'm a funny boy though because I didn't mind vista for what it was:blink:

[Figgis41]

hi,,, just to let you know,,, windows vista was and still is a very good OS, but windows 7 is the finnished product.

Thats correct windows 7 is windows vista.

Most software companys finnish their products in the market place,,, after all the early versions have been tested and ending with the beta version they relese to market to iron out all bugs.

A few hundred million machines with any new OS installed all reporting back to Microsoft is the quickest way to find and fix bugs,, hence windows updates with hot fixes etc.

MS released windows Vista to the market in the same way as usual, they also informed all perefial makers that they would have to make new drivers for thier hardware and software and submit them to MS for certification,, this would have cost them money and if a driver for a printer worked on 2000 and XP why not on vista, so the printer makers and all other related hardware makers did not bother.

Vista is based on new framework that was coded,, it was not an upgrade or an update but a whole new beast, so older drivers that worked on most previous windows OS did not work on vista,,,, there was the mistake of not making new drivers.
Quickly the other hardware makes blamed Microsoft for this and it snowballed and Vista was seen as a dog,, even the release of better generic drivers by microsoft to cope in service pack 1 to vista could not stop the bad press,,, so eventually MS bit the bullet and released what was going to be service pack 2 to vista,,,

this was windows 7, which is probably the best OS ever made.

The reason your computers at work seem slower is because the IT department will have most comunial software saved on the company servers and not in individual workstations,, its easy to maintain and keep an eye on, all user accounts will be on a server, all security ,, all office software etc, so accessing this will be slower as there is traffic that needs routing, permisions to be given by the system admin's and more than 1 workstation will be accessing a program at any 1 time.

Where as on your home pc its all instant as its on that computers harddrive and not on a servers harddrive.

I have installed Vista on hundreds of computers, if donr correctly and fully updated they work wonderfully,, yest vista runs a few more services in the background but its a good OS.
I have also installed win 7 on a hell of a lot of machines and it is far quicker, neater and will run vertually anyting out of the box, but it is only a finnished article called Vista.

As for windows 8,, Microsoft tried to be the first with a cross platform OS to steal back ground its lost to Android,,, its not working at all as regarding computers,,, no IT dept in any company will ever go to windows 8 as its just not good enough to do the job, so they wait for 10 or install windows 7.

sorry for some of my spelling , but my spell check will not work on this site and my dyslexia kicks in a bit when im typing, lol

[hywelkidd]

[Goodkat]

Windows 8 is fantastic as a touch screen OS, but non touchscreen, not so much.

Sent from my Gen 1 WAP phone

[Stoney871]

Using the Windows 8 style interface has all but killed Nokia.

It's horrible.

[jamesm182]

I used to have Vista on my home laptop and had no issues with it other than the machine slowing down when the hard drive got full. I recently chucked a new 500gb hard drive in it and stuck on a copy of Windows 7 Professional to give it a new lease of life. Feels pretty much the same just a bit more modern and much quicker now with a bigger hard drive and clean install.

At work I use Windows 8.1 and I personally quite like it. I don't have a touch screen but barely use the tile interface as I can now boot straight to desktop since Windows 8.1. I thought Windows 8 was pretty terrible to start with but since upgrading to 8.1 it's made it subtly better in a lot of ways and I quite like it now.

[Stoney871]

Microsoft totally misjudged it with Windows 8.

They reckoned everyone would rush out and buy touch screen monitors but due to the lack of any real usefulness and expensive screens they really dropped a clanger.

Updating to 8.1 was an attempt to salvage the Win8 OS but was too little, too late.

I'm glad I could still get Win7 on my new PC, it's an OS I like and trust.

I also have XP pro I can run via VmWare so that my Microcat access is preserved.

Best of both worlds with no BS or stodge.