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Windows Vista Ultimate

By Robert Vamosi on 29 January 2007

Windows Vista is essentially warmed-over Windows XP. If you're currently happy with Windows XP SP2, we see no compelling reason to upgrade. On the other hand, if you need a new computer right now, Windows Vista is stable enough for everyday use.

Editor's rating:7.8 User rating:7.5

• 

  Cool gave 7/10 on 24/09/2007 23:56 Report abuse

  Look great, but memory eater. Good thing my laptop have 2gb memory!!!

  • Good: They look great. Future upgrade might improve the system.
  • Bad: They are memory eater it take mine computer 1gb to run it window.
    I need to upgrade my laptop in to 3gb in order to play future games.
• 

  nitin gave 5/10 on 09/09/2007 19:56 Report abuse

  thi sos is ao good
  

• 

  GUESS WHO gave 10/10 on 15/08/2007 19:53 Report abuse

  I like it easy to use

  • Good: ITS STABLE
  • Bad: IT TOO MUCH
• 

  Tony A gave 4/10 on 31/07/2007 19:35 Report abuse

  Vista is in most ways, nicer to use and looks more modern. One of the major disappointments is its handling of USB devices which is so painful and retrograde, that even windows 98 makes it look very sick. An example of this flaw is demonstrated when inserting a flash drive, any drive, it detects it, queries the internet for "latest drivers" then eventually prompts you for a disk (which you don't need) and finally you have to select "I have no disk for this device" and then confirm the location of the drivers. That is totally DUMB!!!! and if you're really lucky, you might have to do it all over again next time you insert the same drive. Also, reflash your DVD drive and its the same story too. By comparison, on XP the drive is detected, configured and made available in less than a minute.
  Finally, the stupid and primitive design of the tool bar and task bar really gets my goat, any idiot could have come up with a more functional interface. It seems that Microsoft's engineers have no imagination at all and are clearly one dimensional thinkers. I don't think Apple OS X or Ubuntu or even OS/2 have much to worry about with this dull OS.

  • Good: looks nicer
    stable
    fast on a fast current technology system.
  • Bad: UAC - Stupid and pointlessly annoying
    USB device detection and configuration slow painful and just DUMB!!!
    Hibernate mode doesn't work, (used to work in my computers seven years ago but not now!)
    No real improvement to the desktop design
• 

  jd gave 2/10 on 31/07/2007 10:50 Report abuse

  Windoes Vista Home Premium - Who want a PC to run like a lame duck? Too slow loading on the internet! Just far, far to slow. Suggest checking it out in 12 months time to see if any improvement.

  • Good: Pretty packaging and Installed easy.
  • Bad: Just far, far to slow.
• 

  Michael Lowry gave 2/10 on 29/07/2007 09:30 Report abuse

  After Having problems with HP Customer Service for over 4 months I decided to chase up how many other people have the same problem as me.
  
  I checked on Google and came up with 44,600,000 entries re HP Vista Windows XP.
  
  Mosy of these people have all had problems with Vista and with HP, so I have now established a site where you can all have your say.
  
  And yes I have told HP and Vista that I am establishing this site and their head Technician Patrick told me to go ahead so have your say now at
  
  http://hpvistacrap.lowry.id.au/index.htm

  • Good: nIL
  • Bad: nIL
• 

  Vomitron gave 2/10 on 23/07/2007 12:30 Report abuse

  XP SP2 is stable this is not, I don't have Vista, but my friend does and I have played around with his machine. In the few hours I have seen two BSODs, relentless admin prompts, failed apps. He was playing Company of Heroes for a while but their were no explosion graphics or sound, just craters appearing in the game. After looking around for drivers the machine crashes, and on and on...

  • Good: Nothing to go out and get.
  • Bad: Too many see comments.
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  otm gave 9/10 on 23/07/2007 00:34 Report abuse

  The x64bit suport is amazing, drivers and peripherals that didn't work in xp pro x64 now do in vista. It may cause the system to be slow, but in time more and more people buying computers will get the right spec.
  
  I mean the jump from windows 98 to xp was massive and people complained, but look now, everyone thinks xp is amazingly good. Give it a year or two and you'll find yourself loving it.
  
  Think of it like this Compared to a windows 95/98 machine XP is a memory and cpu Hog
  
  When the new next generation operating system comes along in 5 years you'll find yourself defending vista saying theres no reason to upgrade

  • Good: x64 support is amazing,
    Looks great,
    Nice function to stop unwanted programs running,
    Doesn't crash as much as Xp,
  • Bad: slow (if you have the wrong specs if you follow the recomended specs you'll be fine)
    
    no software specially written of it (But it will come)
• 

  skodamike gave 5/10 on 22/07/2007 01:08 Report abuse

  after having my Dell 1300 stolen I got a Dell 1501 with Vista BIG MISTAKE it take hours to download upgrades and just as long to SHUT DOWN sometimes going into SLEEP MODE even though I have disable it all in all a load of rubbish and I wish I think I will get it uninstalled and install XP

  • Good: Good graphics nothing else I can think of
  • Bad: Dont think it is any better than XP in fact I think it is worse
• 

  Soldano gave 2/10 on 08/07/2007 00:06 Report abuse

  I have officially broken up with Vista. have been running this piece of dreck software for about a month and have decided to ditch it. Why you might ask?
  
  Well were to begin.
  
  I am seasoned pro in Windows, Mac OSX and Various Flavors of Linux. I work with them all on a daily basis as a contracted IT professional for various corporations and businesses.
  
  I waited a while before loading Vista, the lack of 3rd party drivers meant 1/3rd of my systems components would not function. Finally I had all the drivers and Vista in hand and I was ready to load this onto a rather beefy unit. AMD AM2 5200+ nForce Chipset with 2 Gig of DDR2 800 memory and an nvidia 8800 GTS 512 meg Video card and my primary HDD is 10k spin 74 Gig WD Raptor (with 3 Gb/s bandwidth).
  
  Technically this rig should fly as it did with XP 64 bit edition. But No!!!!!
  
  The graphics were cool initially but after 5 minutes who gives a rats ****
  The hard disks get pummelled with its shitty indexing features which cause other programs to cease functioning ie DVD watching, TV Viewing(have a TV Dvico Digital Card) It stutters and stalls and then comes back to life again when Vista decides to no longer hijack and hog CPU cycles.
  
  Some of my favorite programs no longer function under vista however I managed to find replacements.
  
  I run duel hi-res monitors and the functionality with the nVidia software to manage windows with hotkeys and screen jumps ect is lost in the vista driver set. Having to manually move screens around is a real nosebleed.
  
  Microsoft’s own browser IE7 at times decides to crash with no rhyme or reason.
  
  I open a DOS box and i get an error so it has to shut down.
  
  Defender is another piece of uninstall able crapware which i have totally disabled.
  
  Turned off Aero and switched the screen to classic Windows.
  
  All indexing on my multiple drives (I have 5) is disabled.
  
  And it still behaves nowhere like the speed and usability of XPSp2.
  
  What was Redmond thinking in making what was a 2 click process to find my IP address and making it 7 click process. This is only one example however vista is full of many additional clicks when accessing the same in XP is only 2 or 3 clicks away.
  
  The retards at M$ and fanboys can have Vista and I will likely not be going back to it ever again for my personal use. I have no need for hack software especially when I have a final development copy of Leopard on my MacBook Pro that just has logical improvements on Tiger that really work. (Thanks to WWDC07).
  
  I will be very surprised to see if this OS see the desktops of any corporate computer systems in the next 3 years which by the way will be time for MSofts new OS to replace Vista.
  
  All in all Vista is shaping up to be a huge fizzle in pan for me and reliving the pain is not something i’m doing again with or without a service pack considering it really never delivered on its developmental thunder of a new file system heavily based in a relational database structure.
  
  I love all things IT however they have to be practical and work effortlessly. Vista does neither. XP has it’s issues but nowhere near the level I have endured this past month.
  
  Just my thoughts

  • Good: Hmmm...well it did install O.K and with little fuss.
  • Bad: Vista at best is a Beta in it's late stages...if you want to be M$'s beta tester go ahead.
    
    I have better things to do like work.