Zen Internet Support Forum

Hi,

I've just installed windows vista ultimate edition & would be interested to hear what other people think of vista?

Ivan

cyteck:

Hi,

I've just installed windows vista ultimate edition & would be interested to hear what other people think of vista?

Ivan

When you have had a few days to play with it then I expect a full in depth report Ivan

I checked both my machines but they would need graphics card updates to cope with Aero and most of the software I use will not run on Vista.

This will be the first new MS OS that I have not installed on the day of release so I am either getting to old or I have learned a bit of common sense.

Can't see me buying a new PC in the foreseeable future either as these two (2Gh and 2.8 Ghz) are coping with XP Pro and my software.

 

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Ken

Zen Active 8000

Middle age is when your classmates are so grey, bald and wrinkled that they don't recognize you.
-Bennet Cerf

Hi Ken,

YES! well I feel much sympathy with your comments. I've had windows XP pro for the last 7yrs and its been totally brilliant too and I think XP has been possibly "the" best version of windows ever. Plus I'm not keen to pay more into the Bill & Malynda Gates pension fund any more, they've already had a few hefty payments in the past too.

**My current system was top notch when I bought it back in 2000, i.e. top notch hardare but now my system only meets the medium spacification for Vista. Vista is massive (15GB just to install it), 1GB RAM to run it, 3Ghrtz CPU.

**I have to say I feel Vista is a rather mixed bag so far initially. YES! definately some things I like lots like Aero Glass GUI and I'm very pleased that MS have finally addressed the deep seated security inssues.

**But Hate what MS have done with the bloated split start menu (YAK!! YAK!!), file management is utterly counter intuitive and dreadfully confusing (& I consider myself an experienced user). Dont like the built in search feature much. Much of the visual organisation is just more clutter after XP which seems very simple & logical by comparison.

**In Vista MS have added a large number of its own programs thus locking the user into yet more MS products & software. Humm! how other vendors are going to get a look in is a wonder? More later!!

Ivan

I got the Vista Business version in my MSDN kit and installed it on a 2nd system with some trepidation... expecting major hardware/driver issues and a general lack of zip. I also thought headline features were not really going to be worth my while... I was ready to abandon it and switch back to my trusty XP Pro in necessary.

I must admit though that (so far!) it has behaved well. I got most of my devices (and I've got lots!) installed and running... the only exceptions are a Dymo Labelwriter 320, A TV tuner and a couple of Netgear SC101s (a NAS-a-like) which are supposed to have drivers 'real soon now'.

The minor changes that I thought would not impress me actually do... the Aero is frivolous but it's still nice to have ... the integration of search everywhere is nice (thank you Apple! LOL) and it definitely does a better job of sharing tasks between the 2 processors (Athlon 64x2) than XP did. My graphics cards is nothing special - Nvidia 7600GS w/512Mb RAM... certainly not an 8800 but it zips along. I do have 2Gigs of RAM which might give me a rosy view but then I do run some memory hogs - Delphi 2006, MS Developer Studio, 3D-modelling, etc. In general use it actually feels more responsive than XP did.

I like it enough that I have migrated over to using it full time. The XP box is in semi-retirement under the desk - acting as a file server and I switch to it via a KB-video-mouse sharer for games, labels, etc.

 One thing it does seem very slow at for the present is gaming... the XP box still beats it by a good 20fps in most games (about 20% faster).

I have been looking on the Dell site and noticed that they have lowered the spec of thier PC's to keep the price down with Vista.

Some are down to 1.8Ghz which can't be a good move with such a hungry OS.

 

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Ken

Zen Active 8000

Middle age is when your classmates are so grey, bald and wrinkled that they don't recognize you.
-Bennet Cerf

Hello guys,

**YES! having had to provide support for AppleMac G3 & G4's a few years back (year 2000) I was REALLY suprised just how much Vista is like a Mac in the GUI, LOL!!!

**Ken, I'm running Vista on my old box which is only a 1.5hrtz CPU with only 512megs of RAMBUS ram. This is about 50% less than the minimum harware required according to MS. My graphics card was top notch a few years back is now looking abit elderly its an Nvida quattro NVS with 64megs memory onboard. (way below whats required really).

MS Hardware requirements are abit mad (gross) really but most new systems will comply probably.

CPU 3Gig hrtz ideally

20GB min HDD space

1GB or more RAM

Graphics card should have 512megs ran onboard to run Aero Glass at its best i.e. in translucent mode.

**DELL are probably dropping their prices out of sheer desperation as its a buyers market and DELL are nolonger top dog any more in terms of market share (over taken by HP as I understand it?). **DELL are the Ryan Air of computers!!! :-)

Ivan

Hi

 

I installed Vista 32bit Ultimate as an upgrade 3 days ago. Big mistake. My 3-4 year old XP had so much crud still floating about, I had all sorts of issues.

 

So, I fomatted my hard drive and did a clean fresh install. So far so good. It's now running well.

 

The ATI graphics card drivers still need a lot of work. OpenGL is very poor with many extentions missing. Video playback is standard with no acceleration available.

A few programs don't like it. Nero is one (got loads of OEM copies of version 6 & 7). Apparently, I'd have to fork out and buy 7.5 for it to work with Vista.

 River Player, which I recently move to as MusicMatch had got so big causes a few issues, so I uninstalled that.

 RealPlayer has no support for Vista yet, I've not even tried installing it yet, I don't want to mess anything up.

 My old Mustek 1200 UB scanner doesn't (and probably won't ever) have a Vista driver for it.

My Soundblaster X-Fi does have beta drivers, but I do miss the consoles. It's just basic drivers at present. But it does seem to work without any issues.

My Philips webcam does have Vista drivers and works fine. But VLounge that originally came with the software doesn't. So I have to use other aps to look at myself lol

3DMark 05 and older doesn't support the fancy Aero GUI and Vista resorts to standard. But they do run. Although the information doesn't show up. The demo and tests run OK.

Digiguide throws up errors in the log files of Defender which is now built in. But it does work if you press 'allow'

Vista makes Paintshop pro7 work in compatability mode. But it works.

 CuteFTP works fine

Not installed PowerDVD yet as I got a warning about it when I run the compatability thing.

 DivX says it has issues with Vista and to wait awhile. They are working on it.

Only about 20% of my 350+ demoscene demos run. But I'm sure ATI will get round to fixing their crummy drivers pretty soon.

Apart from that.... I love it. Rock solid, stable, good looking, secure to the point of annoyance, heavy on hard disk (with file shadow back-ups, auto defragmentation, complete PC back-up image, indexing etc. All the disk activity does make 3D stuff stutter. 

I have updated my RAM to 4 x sticks of DDR4 512mb PC3200, yet I wish the disk would take a rest for a while. This rate, it's going to wear it out.

But honestly, I'm glad I made the change and begining to enjoy it.

Give it 6 months and a little tweaking - it will be just fine! I do like it!

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Hello thecaretaker,

I have a copy of Vista Ultimate which I am just playing with right now (its a master copy) & I had the devils own job installing it. My machine (DELL workstation) wouldnt let me install it on a spare disk partition, in the end I had to do abit of jiggery pokery with disks, cables, bios settings and the like but finally got a clean installation on the spare disk.

**Thanks for your very interesting posting & for taking the time to write so extensively about what things worked & what refused. It proves once again, no matter how many new windows versions are launched its the same old issues keep popping up. Its "alway" the lack of device drivers for the new version thats a problem, but as you say give it 6mths or more and the drivers for vista will have caute up.

**YES! all the advice I've seen says stay away from vista upgrading on XP as its fraught with risks & problems.

**Try adjusting your Page File in Vista and that should help your hard disk, its to be found in system properties, performance, advanced, virtual memory. Set it to custom size, to work out the size. Take your physical RAM size x1.5 so for example if you have 512megs your page file could be set to (min)  700megs to 1500megs (max). This only has to be approximate!! as this isnt a science here more of an art. That should help system performace overall.

**I have to say I'm still very torn by what I've experienced in Vista as I still love my XP system alot. Feels like Vista is massive, has too much eye candy for me, & I can see it has to have much higher hardware than I currently have. I'm not planning to spend out on a new system just for Vista & given how vista runs currently on my present workstation I cannot say I'd run out & buy it to install as my main system right now. Although I could change my mind in a few months perhaps? I think its going to be a wait and see game with me.

Ivan

Thanks for the advice cyteck

Just updated my old J River Media Player 10 to the latest version 12. Many of the previous issues have been fixed although I do get an error at start up re CD burning.

I used to know how to run as administrator under XP, but can't figure out how to do it under Vista. Any ideas? 

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Running as Admin... er, yeah... right click on a shortcut or link to the programme and choose 'Run as administrator' from the popup.

I've found a few programmes that need that to register or update themselves... and a couple that need it to run at all.

 If it's a service or a device driver then it's a bit more complicated. Use the control panel and find the 'Adminstrative Tools' and 'Services'. Most things seems to correctly install to the 'system account' which has admin privileges but you can change the account a service logs into if it does not have the rights it needs.

 

Could you please tell me where you found the site offering philips web cam drivers for vista, i cannot seem to find them and my cam won't work.

Thanks 

robbyberry:

Could you please tell me where you found the site offering philips web cam drivers for vista, i cannot seem to find them and my cam won't work.

Thanks 

 It was on this page http://www.support.philips.com/support/html/index_gb_en.html#../~scripts/xsltransformsearch.asp?url=http://www.sms.search.philips.com/xmlSearch/search?sid=SMS||xml=true||all=true||l=gb_en||s=consumer||fld=SMS.CATID||val=PC_PRODUCTS_GR_GB_CONSUMER|PC_CAMERAS_CA_GB_CONSUMER|WEBCAMS_SU_GB_CONSUMER||first=1||last=75&xsl=search_result.xsl

You will have to look up your model number, but that's where I got mine.

 

It takes you to the product page. Check that it is the correct model and use the link on the left side that says 'support and drivers'

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Hi all...

Like the caretaker I installed vista as a upgrade.... what a mistake... it took over 1 and half hours to install... so decided to do a dual boot system, with my xp and vista sitting on different drives, that only took 25mins!

 First impressions... I like a lot and I am not using Aero... wish I could however my "6 month" Sony laptop will not work cause the C**ts at Intel said they would not be making the driver for the graphics card!!! 

I am sure the machine runs a lot faster now, and looking for something is much better with the built in search on nearly every window.

Also like the new office... much better!!!

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Connected via Zen & Glasgow Caledonian University

I am running dual boot XP Pro and Vista Ultimate.

 

My first impressions are:

It's like Windows for morons it keeps asking you if you are sure you want to do stuff, sometimes it asks three times.

You can turn all this stuff off but that kind of defeats the purpose of the security.

It's slow. The Vista start menu takes 2 seconds to open some of the sub menus (I'm runing a 3.4 Ghz Dual core with 2 GB of RAM) Moving or copying or deleting files takes bloody ages.

Some software doesn't work,

ACDSee Pro (the compatitibility patch from MS that mentions ACDSee makes it even worse)
Zone Alarm causes a total system hang requiring a repair of the O
Albatross Golf (for those addicted this is serious LOL)

 
I love the sidebar and it all looks very nice

 
All in all I'd have to say hang on for a bit until other vendors catch up because it really isn't ready yet.
 

Hello malum,

Like many others I have spent years using & enjoying XP Pro, I've also installed Vista as a duel boot system on what was top notch hardware back in year 2000 (I have a DELL Precision 330 workstation) its medium low specification for Vista though.

My Vista Ultimate installation took a quick 40minutes from start to completion, but I have to say I thought the setup had hung at one point it, it was so slow.

My main problem today is not being able to get my D-Link DSL 200 ADSL modem to work with Vista (works lovely on XP), its been incredibly annoying & frustrating. Been a hairs breadth away from a successful connection that works. Keeps returning a 720 unable to connect to remote computer server didnt respond?

**Vista doesnt like my copy of AVG Free anti-virus (would load or run due to problem with AVG kernal/core files) so had to uninstall it which is abit of a blow because AVG has been so great in XP.

**I've tweaked the Vista system services (turned off loads of junk I dont need & turned on others I do) & It definately runs better than before but its still slow as toffee. Yes! like the interface but theres still too much eye candy for my liking and so many features have been moved or removed to places three or four menus deep to find them. Vista feels incredibly complicated & although I do like the Aero GUI Vista deosnt have the responsiveness of XP in my opinion. But there again I'm running it on far from ideal hardware.

**May be if you have a spanking new computer with current leading edge hardware, a 3gig hrtz CPU, 2GB RAM, 2GB of virtual memory, a 512megs graphics card,etc. Then MAYBE vista will run at the kind of speed it was intended too?

**I'm NOT committing myself to a complete move over to Vista yet though.

NOTE: for those interested XP has 40million lines of underlying code but Vista now has 50million lines of underlying code. Talk about MS Bloatware!! :-)

Ivan