Vista

[Tyguy]

my friend is about to buy the upgrade right now, i'm trying to convince him to just buy the full package but he says he doesn't want to spend the extra $50 or whatever it is...

why buy the full package?

 

[Kadayi]

I had a look at the beta and I thought it was pretty robust and probably worth ungrading to at some point, however the ridiculous markup in terms of price for the UK editions compared to the US prices has put me off. The cost of the Vista home premium upgrade in the UK is twice that of the US version (150 pounds vs $153) Given the pound is at an all time high compared to the dollar (almost 2 for 1) realistically it should be about 75 - 80 pounds...

 

[Iced_Eagle]

Current exchange rate is not 2:1... It is 1 USD = 1.3 Euro's... Dollar is getting stronger.

You should be paying around 117 pounds if they are going to do a direct conversion.

 

[pomegranate]

Current exchange rate is not 2:1... It is 1 USD = 1.3 Euro's... Dollar is getting stronger.

You should be paying around 117 pounds if they are going to do a direct conversion.

Er, what? He's talking about POUNDS, not Euros. Dollar to pound exchange rate is about 2:1.
Currency/exchange rate converter: http://www.xe.com/ucc/

 

[Kadayi]

Pomegranate beat me to it. But as he says POUNDS (MF UK POUNDS!!!), not Euros.

1 GBP = 1.96348 USD

 

[Space Farm]

With the upgrade version, it looks like if you install it as a trial it can then be reinstalled on itself.
Involves installing it without entering the key which is the 30day trial. Then install it again while at the desktop and entering the key. After it's complete looks like you delete the windows folder from the previous install.

Was about to post that. Looks quite promising.

Although personally, why bother with Vista? What's it got over XP that justifies the hundreds of dollars on the price tag?

The only major improvement/feature is DX10 but that'll be at least another two years before every developer starts using it. Vista is just an operating system, it does everything XP can do.

 

[xcellerate]

while technically it is "hundreds of dollars" it is more accurately...TWO hundred dollars.

and it is nice, the start button is faster, I like the window flipping, i haven't tried out the voice stuff yet, but i really haven't tried to find things, I've just been using it as normal...but so far I like it.

I also really like the searching within folders, my VW pictures folder has like 2,500 pictures, so being able to push "f3" and type in "jetta" and it shows me only pictures that had "jetta" in the title is really nice.

 

[Cole]

Although personally, why bother with Vista? What's it got over XP that justifies the hundreds of dollars on the price tag?

1) Home Premium really doesn't cost that much. In fact it costs less than Xp Pro, which is what I would put it up against. Ultimate is for hardcore gamers, and an upgrade to Ultimate costs less than a new Xp Pro. Not only that but most of the time when you by Xp now you get a free upgrade to Vista. Even then most major computer companies have already put Vista on there computers that there selling.
Also easy way to upgrade: If you have restore discs install them on your computer. Often times Xp(or whatever you have) wont even start up. However, the upgrader will still see it as Xp, and you can easily install right over it with your new OS. Which is why I only buy upgrades.

So obviously many people are going to be bothering with Vista. It's going to be on most computers sold, if you buy Xp now you can often get a free upgrade to Vista, and Vista can end up being cheaper than buying Xp.

Iced_Eagle already pointed out how it produces productivity. I've used Vista and I prefer it over Xp by far. Use it before you start commenting on it.

 

[Space Farm]

It's more expensive for Australians to buy in Australia than it is Americans to buy it from the US, for some reason.

 

[Cole]

It's more expensive for Australians to buy in Australia than it is Americans to buy it from the US, for some reason.

I feel sorry for you guys.
The Ps3 sells $600USD here and $1000USD there. Not that anyone would buy it anyway, but it's another example to show that a lot of the world seems to get jipped when it comes to prices compared to America. hmm... Maybe thats why everyone hates us....

 

[destrukt]

Although personally, why bother with Vista? What's it got over XP that justifies the hundreds of dollars on the price tag?

Vista does everything XP does just 100x better and it has tons of extras. I don't understand how people can say "Umm.. XP is good enough" unless they're practicing their acting skills and are feigning ignorance.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Features_new_to_windows_vista - Look at this page, just look at it and attempt to tell me that it isn't a worthy upgrade. If you say it isn't, I hope your computer falls on you and crushes your face. :angel:

Hundreds of dollars ? I can pick up Home Premium Upgrade for $150AU. I spend $120 on a single game. :|

Cole, The PS3 sells for $1000AU which is $774US. Sucks to be us. :|

 

[Naudian]

Vista does everything XP does just 100x better and it has tons of extras. I don't understand how people can say "Umm.. XP is good enough" unless they're practicing their acting skills and are feigning ignorance.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Features_new_to_windows_vista - Look at this page, just look at it and attempt to tell me that it isn't a worthy upgrade. If you say it isn't, I hope your computer falls on you and crushes your face. :angel:

Hundreds of dollars ? I can pick up Home Premium Upgrade for $150AU. I spend $120 on a single game. :|

It obviously depends on who's upgrading.

I was fine with XP, at least for another year. I had it set up flawlessly, there was no room for '100x better.' Everything worked as it should.
But curiosity got the best of me and I'm using Vista Ultimate right now (I'm uh..trying it out without paying for it...yeah)
It's cool but until I buy some DX10 hardware it's pretty useless to me :\

And by no means does it do everything 100x better...

 

[function9]

I don't know, for me the last tangible upgrade was NT4 to Win200pro. Administrative tasks were streamlined a bit, stability improved dramatically and the footprint was identical to NT4. I didn't need to double my ram or pop in the latest cpus (ran dual cpus at the time). It ran better than NT4 on the same machine.

To say that Vista is a must (at least right now) is laughable. Because I keep track of certain things like what files I download and where I download them to, that must mean I need a real extensive search engine in Windows. Because I police myself using the computer, I should get Vista so I can use all it's features to do it for me. It sounds like a whole lot of nothing I don't need or want, damn I need to go out and buy it right now.

The superfetch sounds ok, that is if it does work right (I do believe XP was supposed to do something like this and it was garbage). But I get the feeling that if you run a program once it's going to load it from there on out, even if you don't run it for another 3 weeks.

Readyboost sounds like kind of a hack job to me. All that money and coders and the most elegant solution is having a little gadget plugged in and sticking out from the case.

The OEM versions I don't think are much more than the upgrade versions. And yes, you can change hardware components, and even use an OEM version on a totally different system (not at the same time obviously). All you'll need to do is reactivate it, the OEM EULA for Vista is the same for XP.

 

[pomegranate]

I also really like the searching within folders, my VW pictures folder has like 2,500 pictures, so being able to push "f3" and type in "jetta" and it shows me only pictures that had "jetta" in the title is really nice.

HAHAHAHAH!
Sorry, that was meant to be a joke, right? You've been able to do the same thing in one form or another since, ooh DOS and very very likely before.

 

[The Brick]

Wut Vista Ultimate full version is 550euro?!?!?!? D: And I don't even know if that's 32 or 64bit. D:

 

[3ssence]

Retail versions include both 32bit and 64 bit, if you buy oem then you have to buy one or the other.

Vista sure does look good, and i will definitely be upgrading, although i'll be buying a third hard drive and retaining my current xp installation and installing vista on the new drive. I'm waiting until there are official drivers for everything before i buy. I know vista has a very extensive driver base, but i'd rather have individual drivers from the manufacturers themselves.

 

[destrukt]

Ah, yes, I was somewhat exaggerating.

After having basically only lived on Vista the past few months I don't know how I ever went through the pain of using XP and I'd die if I didn't have the many, many new and improved things in Vista.

 

[[RnL]Stefan]

i just ordered myself vista ultimate system builder for 180€. once i need more ram ( >3.5 gigs) i'll obtain the 64bit one, too for 180€. sounds like a bad deal but actually i am allowed to use the 32bit one on a different pc when i got the 64bit on, unlike the full version which includes both 32 and 64bit but can only be used once.

Wut Vista Ultimate full version is 550euro?!?!?!? D: And I don't even know if that's 32 or 64bit. D:

the full version comes with 32 and 64bit on one disc and you're allowed to install both but use only one at a time.

 

[CyberPitz]

Would it be easy to Dual Boot with XP and Vista? I real of peoples problems with Vista, and I don't want to have those problems to just have to reinstall..

 

[Dynasty]

Im torn. Im capable of getting Home Premium, but id like to get Ultimate.

Home Premium - ?210.99
Home Premium Upgrade - ?144.99
Ultimate - ?350.99
Ultimate Upgrade - ?239.99

Now, is the 'upgrade' price for the people who have XP already installed?? And does it install over XP? I mean, 15g on my C drive where XP is installed would be a problem, but not on my 40g D drive...

I have a huge overdraft being a uni student, so price isnt REALLY an issue as i can pay it back in the long run (bwaaha).

Now, is Ultimate the more logical choice? I do play alot of games on this laptop; CoH, NWN2, CS:S etc. Should i splash out for Ultimate or play it safe with Premium???

 

[CyberPitz]

I hear that the security on it is badass, IE You can't pirate it well, so when it checks to see if you are legal, it disables windows, and you lose your data...is that true?

 

[Acepilotf14]

IS Spore going to be Vista only?
And will ALL games (old and new) work on Vista?

 

[63]

Would it be easy to Dual Boot with XP and Vista? I real of peoples problems with Vista, and I don't want to have those problems to just have to reinstall..

This is what I want to do as well... Anyone know?

 

[Beerdude26]

You will if you buy a stand-alone version (I.e. Vista Ultimate). If you buy Vista Basic, you can't do anything but upgrade.

 

[Griz]

Would it be easy to Dual Boot with XP and Vista? I real of peoples problems with Vista, and I don't want to have those problems to just have to reinstall..

Yep, it's easy enough to do. In fact that's exactly what i've done - XP Pro on one partition with Vista on another - you just need to make sure that both are primary partitions.

 

[function9]

Yep, it's easy enough to do. In fact that's exactly what i've done - XP Pro on one partition with Vista on another - you just need to make sure that both are primary partitions.

Partition? Hey 1999 called, it want's its HDD back.

 

[Iced_Eagle]

This is what I want to do as well... Anyone know?

If you have a single hard drive, you need to create a separate partition.

If you have a second hard drive it is REALLY easy. Just in setup tell it to install onto the secondary hard drive (assuming you are doing a clean install), and it will automatically create a boot loader and everything for you.

Acepilotf14: It depends on how old you go... However, from my experience, every game I've tried works... It's not like there is a magical barrier that all of a sudden games don't work. Sometimes you need to run games as administrators but that's a simple check box.

CyberPitz: It won't lose your data. What I heard was that basically if Vista discovers that your copy is pirated, it will be a bastard to you. It will allow only like one or two windows open at a time, and it will only allow one hour of internet per day... It will be funny seeing everyone who pirates come piss and moan because Vista locked them out

pomegranate: I think he was rather talking about the use of tagging his media, and so any media that has the tag of Jetta will show up.

 

[Insano]

Partition? Hey 1999 called, it want's its HDD back.

I lol'd

 

[pomegranate]

he said title, not tag.

 

[Narcolepsy]

For those wanting to dual boot with XP and Vista...

I'm doing it right now, with the help of a great article that I can't find for the life of me.

Unless, of course, it was right there in my bookmarks...
http://lifehacker.com/software/top/...-boot-windows-xp-and-windows-vista-179906.php

The trick here is the great little app called GParted. You throw this program on a CD, set your computer to boot to the CD drive, and your computer will boot into a strange Linux-powered purgatory where you can manipulate your hard drive at will.

GParted has a GUI, so it's all pretty easy to use. Simply shrink your XP partition, leaving about 20 GB for a Vista installation. (More, depending on how much you want to install.) Then create a new partition in the empty space you've just created. Let it do it's thing, boot back into XP when you're done, and check to see if Windows recognizes the "two" hard drives. If so, just stick Vista on the empty partition, and you're good to go.

I imagine there would be a slight amount of risk with shrinking an existing partition... so back everything up, of course.

 

[Cole]

IS Spore going to be Vista only?
And will ALL games (old and new) work on Vista?

Most games will work.
Java based games will require a new Java that I believe is already out for Vista.

Some internet games wont work. I think WildTanget(something like that) was getting pissed about this because most of there games didn't work on Vista. There an internet game based company.

However basically all retail games you see in the store, should work perfectly fine. Basically any game you can find should work besides some flash/shockwave/java ones that will require an update. I've had Diablo 1 and Starcraft work, I've had NFS:MW work.

 

[Evo]

Ordered a new laptop earlier from Dell, gonna have Home Premium. If i like it will tihnk about upgrading my main machine properly later in the year

 

[AzzMan]

my friend says Vista wont play any unliscensed music/movies/etc, any truth to this? I personally thought it was just anti-vista bs...

 

[Naudian]

my friend says Vista wont play any unliscensed music/movies/etc, any truth to this? I personally thought it was just anti-vista bs...

Hmm, maybe something to do with windows media player...which I don't use.
For the most part I'd say it's total bs

 

[Cole]

my friend says Vista wont play any unliscensed music/movies/etc, any truth to this? I personally thought it was just anti-vista bs...

haha. Thats bull. The only place DRM is really present is with Blu-Ray and HD-DVD. Other than that it seems exactly like XP. I mean I easily played my music library on Vista and I would say most of it is not licensed.

 

[destrukt]

my friend says Vista wont play any unliscensed music/movies/etc, any truth to this? I personally thought it was just anti-vista bs...

Yup, just anti-Vista BS.

Slap your friend and tell him to stop being Steve Jobs/Linus' personal sex slave.

 

[-Psy-]

Bah! As I've been informed that with the OEM version you have to choose the bit-version which should I get; The Home Premium Upgrade or Full?

I'm running on a OEM Win XP Pro atm.

 

[Iced_Eagle]

Get the Upgrade and then use that little loophole to get a clean install

 

[Naudian]

If anyone's having the stuttering issue I had with source games, I sort of fixed it by turning off Vsync. I had a weird feeling it was something to do with that...

They still all run slower than they did on XP: 40-50 fps and even worse in CSS Still playable though at least

I'm gonna go back to XP soon, as there was really no point to installing Vista in the first place.
I just did it out of curiosity, but it's being too much of a hassle. I think I'll try again when I get a DX10 card, by then things should be all fixed up :sniper:

 

[TCfromBN]

Whats all this talk of 64bit versions not being included in all retail boxes? I want a 64bit version to run on my e6300.