Is Vista Really That Bad?

[Si Hunt]

We're about to get a new PC and they all come with Vista. Is it really that bad? When my new work laptop arrived with Vista on, they made me re-install old Windows over the top!

It can't be that bad, surely. If it is, what are you supposed to do if you need a new PC?

Si.

[SiHart]

You could do what I'm doing and brave it out for a few weeks and then go straight to Windows 7. With my new Acer PC there was a deal to upgrade to the new Windows package for £13! Too good to miss.

Oh, and if you're in the market for a new PC, I could reall recommend the Acer Aspire I bought. It's about half the size of my old one, runs almost silent and really rather lovely!

Si xx

[Lissa]

Vista does have some good features - I like the shadow copy in the Ultimate version, the "bread-crumb" file navigation and the favourite folders pane on the left side of Explorer. Things like this are a clear step in the right direction, albeit most are borrowed from Mac OSX. Windows 7 is going to build on these while also fixing Vista's most obvious flaws.

Vista runs badly - on my PC at least - and seems to take ages doing basic things. The hard drive regularly churns away at full capacity because it's doing behind the scenes stuff all at once, it takes far too long to boot up, windows hang for no obvious reason, the hibernate function doesn't work at all, the "do you really want to do this?" prompts appear way too often (and are quite scary until you get used to them) and it randomly takes and gives back tens of GB of disk space on a whim.

I want Windows 7 to improve performance, stop knackering my computer by doing everything at once and stop giving me a black screen every time I launch a program it thinks might (despite hundreds of launches to the contrary) be unsafe.

[Pip Madeley]

One thing I hate about Vista is the dumbing down of disk defragmentation - before you have a detailed display of everything going on, now there's no control whatosever, simply a message saying "this could take a few minutes or hours"... not even a percentage bar! Ridiculous.

[Perry Vale]

Oh, and if you're in the market for a new PC, I could reall recommend the Acer Aspire I bought. It's about half the size of my old one, runs almost silent and really rather lovely!

Si xx

I bought an Acer Aspire 5735Z a few months ago with Vista pre-installed, and I've been very happy with it. I've been thinking of starting a 'Is Vista that bad?' thread myself, as I keep reading all these bad stories about it, but haven't had problems with it myself. The only thing I've found not to work correctly is WMP11, but getting an iPhone & iTunes has made that redundant now anyway....

Having said that, I guess if you can hold on for a bit it would make sense to get one with Windows 7.

[WhiteCrowNZ]

I've two Vista machines at home, and on my laptop it's a pretty good system. I suspect it's a slightly dumbed down version.

On my desktop it's kind of troublesome and slow - even though technically the machine is double the spec of the laptop.

Another problem is Vista has major compatability issues with XP programs. And a lot of companies refuse to release the patches to allow it to work.

I'm kind of interested in Windows 7 - but I'll wait to see how people assess it. Vista has definitely been a difficult system from the off, and Microsoft have really annoyed me with their attitude over it (currently essentially - hey we give up, let's bring in a new system).

[Si Hunt]

Thanks for your responses - the Acer sounds good but I've been looking at Dell makes and we could probably get a good flat screen HD monitor with the base unit and bits for the same price. I'll have a think about it. It seems like a free Windows 7 upgrade is coming pretty much standard with all Vista PC's at the moment.

Si. :mobile

[WhiteCrowNZ]

I guess within a few weeks of Windows 7 going live, you'll have a good indication of any problems/issues with the platform.

Microsoft does have one of the largest testing departments in the world - roughly 6 billion at last count!

[Lissa]

Because Windows 7 will insist on a clean installation to avoid building on Vista's foundations, it might be best to wait until the PC will come with 7 on it rather than relying on the "free" upgrade. You don't want to spend weeks getting all your programs et al right only to have to start again if/when 7 formats your hard drive.

[Paul Clement]

Windows 7 has one thing in common with Vista that will still cause problems. Where you wanted to close down in XP, if a program wouldn't close automatically, then XP would prompt you whether you wanted it closed down. In Vista, and apparently Windows 7 too, the OS sends a message to the program to close, and as long as it gets a response, will wait for it to close normally. That's why when Vista hangs, you can't shut down properly.

Hope that makes sense, as the technical explanation is a little beyond me.

[Jeff]

Because Windows 7 will insist on a clean installation to avoid building on Vista's foundations, it might be best to wait until the PC will come with 7 on it rather than relying on the "free" upgrade. You don't want to spend weeks getting all your programs et al right only to have to start again if/when 7 formats your hard drive.

I'm sure an article I read said it only needed a clean installation if you were upgrading from XP, and that it wasn't that difficult to upgrade from Vista (but you have to be upgrading to the exact same edition - Home to Home or Ultimate to Ultimate I guess). The problem is that the majority of people will be upgrading from XP

http://finance.yahoo.com/career-work...rklife_balance

The system for upgrading is complicated, but Vista owners can upgrade to the exactly comparable edition of Windows 7 while keeping all files, settings and programs in place.


Unfortunately, XP owners, the biggest body of Windows users, won't be able to do that. They'll have to wipe out their hard disks after backing up their files elsewhere, then install Windows 7, then restore their personal files, then re-install all their programs from the original CDs or downloaded installer files. Then, they have to install all the patches and upgrades to those programs from over the years.

My question then is, if you are upgrading from XP will an Upgrade version work, or will you need the full version. And if you can use an upgrade while wiping out everything, then what exactly is the difference between the upgrade version and the full version. Just that it checks to make sure you have an OS installed before allowing you to continue?

[Lissa]

I think it's different in Europe because we're not getting an upgrade version thanks to the EU vs Microsoft lawsuit. Windows 7 was going to have an E version for Europe which didn't include IE so it wasn't possible to produce an upgrade version. They've changed their minds about IE now - it was a pointless gesture - but we are still not getting full and upgrade versions. We have the full versions at upgrade prices (ish). That's why all the UK magazine previews include a clean installation which deletes settings, programs etc.

[Jeff]

Full versions at upgrade prices? I don't suppose buying a full European version and shipping it to the States would work would it? Since I want to put the OS on a different hard drive than what I'm using now anyway... Though I doubt I'll be upgrading any time soon.

[cyberchris35]

I just got a new laptop yesterday, a Compaq CQ60, that came with Vista and so far, touch wood, I am not having much trouble with it.

[Lissa]

It looks like minds have changed yet again and EU users can now get upgrade versions but according to Amazon they cost the same as the full versions. Home Premium currently costs -

UK
Full £64.68 / $102.19
Upgrade £64.99 / $102.68

US
Full $119.99 / £75.94
Upgrade $199.99 / £126.58

Amazon UK won't ship software to US addresses though.

[Lissa]

I am speaking to you from within Windows 7. I'll have more detailed thoughts later but it definitely seems a step up from Vista, albeit with a slightly steeper learning curve than the last few incarnations of Windows.

I hate that bit where you have to wait for hours while it insists on downloading every single email you've ever received and marking them as unread. I have three thousand unread emails - I'm Stephen Fry.