Windows XP or Windows Vista

[TornadoShaunUK]

looking at buying a new PC, my current PC runs Windows XP and I was thinking of getting a new PC with Windows Vista.

For those in the know, which is better and why?

 

[Jeff]

looking at buying a new PC, my current PC runs Windows XP and I was thinking of getting a new PC with Windows Vista.

For those in the know, which is better and why?

I think on the whole Vista is better, but despite being supposedly being an upgrade, they've taken some things away.

For example unless you get the most expensive business version, there's no fax program included, which really pissed me off, as I used it in XP. And more importantly, it no longer includes space cadet pinball

If you do get a PC with Vista, you should get as much memory as possible, 2GB is probably the minimum if you want it to run smoothly.

 

[Beliall]

i have vista, and 2gb memory, and still its a bit slow, vista is very very heavy on your system, so as soon as you start saving stuff on your hard drive, it will slow down. but its pretty easy to use, as you'd expect. but for online, i find fire fox is much much quicker. also, switching off most of the graphical special effects speeds the thing up immensly

 

[Durham Fox]

I have Vista and 1GB of memory and runs as smooth as you like

 

[Matt_B]

i have vista, and 2gb memory, and still its a bit slow, vista is very very heavy on your system, so as soon as you start saving stuff on your hard drive, it will slow down. but its pretty easy to use, as you'd expect. but for online, i find fire fox is much much quicker. also, switching off most of the graphical special effects speeds the thing up immensly

I have Vista and 1GB of memory and runs as smooth as you like

My understanding is that the majority of the speed issues with Vista are down to the GUI, which will be dependant more on the graphics card than memory. Get a dedicated good graphics card and you should be OK

 

[drew]

Don't get one if you're running a small network with printers, it's ****ing annoying.

 

[City Fan]

If you get a new PC, get it with Vista. Whatever you do, don't upgrade an XP PC to Vista, had so much bloody hassle with it!

 

[Durham Fox]

If you get a new PC, get it with Vista. Whatever you do, don't upgrade an XP PC to Vista, had so much bloody hassle with it!

I didnt have one problem upgrading!

 

[Matt_B]

Neither did, but to be fair I just did a clean format/install

 

[City Fan]

I didnt have one problem upgrading!

You're lucky then. I upgraded my PC to Vista not long after it came out, wasn't a bad PC really - P4, 1gb ram, 80gb hd, got a new graphics card for it which supports vista - took 6 hours to install and then it was just ridiculously slow, and I couldn't seem to get drivers for anything.

Then bought a Dell Optiplex 745 and put Vista on that, took literally 15 mins to install and runs like a dream. Although I do keep having problems with it like IE and WMP crashing, etc.

 

[newtonfox]

Windows Vista

 

[Macky]

If I had to choose, for me it would be XP out of the two without a doubt.

I promise not to mention linux at all in this thread, not even once.

 

[bocadillo]

Don't get one if you're running a small network with printers, it's ****ing annoying.

Annoying, but not impossible.

My little home network has the printers attached to the desktop computer which runs XP. Initially I had trouble getting the laptop (Vista) to link up to the printers - this may be the problem that you found - but a little poking in the registry of the desktop allowed me to increase the IRPStackSize and there was no trouble after that.

 

[Matt_B]

Annoying, but not impossible.

My little home network has the printers attached to the desktop computer which runs XP. Initially I had trouble getting the laptop (Vista) to link up to the printers - this may be the problem that you found - but a little poking in the registry of the desktop allowed me to increase the IRPStackSize and there was no trouble after that.

My printer is installed on a desktop with Vista and the laptop with XP can't find it, even though it has the drivers installed. It's very annoying.

 

[bocadillo]

My printer is installed on a desktop with Vista and the laptop with XP can't find it, even though it has the drivers installed. It's very annoying.

Not wishing to teach my grandmother to suck eggs etc - Have you made the printer available for sharing?

 

[Matt_B]

Not wishing to teach my grandmother to suck eggs etc - Have you made the printer available for sharing?

:icon_bigg yeah, I told a bit of a lie, the laptop can see the printer if I type in the exact address (it won't find it through browsing though) but just won't add it, it complains of the wrong type of drivers, even though I used the manufacturer supplied CD. I think the problem is that the version of Vista I am running is 64bit whereas XP is 32bit, so I think it may be conflicting

 

[fludie]

I would wipe Vista off if the PC comes with Vista or choose XP if you have the option to choose.

At the moment Vista is experiencing lots of Compatability problems and driver issues. It does not seem to recognise certain drivers and use them the way that Windows XP does. I would stick to XP if I was you and wait a few months to see what happens with Vista and if these problems are solved well enough before deciding to change Operating System.

 

[Jeff]

I would wipe Vista off if the PC comes with Vista or choose XP if you have the option to choose.

At the moment Vista is experiencing lots of Compatability problems and driver issues. It does not seem to recognise certain drivers and use them the way that Windows XP does. I would stick to XP if I was you and wait a few months to see what happens with Vista and if these problems are solved well enough before deciding to change Operating System.

The compatibility issue is only important if you want to use something that's not compatible. I've never had a problem getting a driver to work on Vista, and to tell people not to use it on the off chance that something might not work is ridiculous. Finding a fix for a driver issue is also likely to be a lot easier than having to install a new (old) operating system.

 

[Durham Fox]

The compatibility issue is only important if you want to use something that's not compatible. I've never had a problem getting a driver to work on Vista, and to tell people not to use it on the off chance that something might not work is ridiculous. Finding a fix for a driver issue is also likely to be a lot easier than having to install a new (old) operating system.

Seconded

 

[fludie]

The compatibility issue is only important if you want to use something that's not compatible. I've never had a problem getting a driver to work on Vista, and to tell people not to use it on the off chance that something might not work is ridiculous. Finding a fix for a driver issue is also likely to be a lot easier than having to install a new (old) operating system.

Fair enough.