R U VISTA?

I ,like a lot of others, will probably be getting vista home edition. I currently run XP SP2 and have a internal HD space of 200gig and a 250gig external. I'm going to back up everything on my internal and clean reformat for vista. Can anyone comment on their own experience do you think this is ok for joe schmoe blow, me, to do with confidence or should i take it to the shop? Would I need to use any software to prep my HD? What about partioning? it's all greek to me.

 

Check microofts site concerning vista. It's rumored to have a very finicky hardware compatibiliy list. Last I looked they had links to the various releases. But no hcl. I believe there are utilities to check your computer for compatibility. As for myself, I'll wait a while. Until at least the second release. Good luck.

 

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/capable.mspx

Req's for vista capable and vista premium pc's. ddp, you ready for the q's?

 

Yeah I meet all the specs.

 

Looks good. But I am always pessimistic of first releases. Be sure to update daily for a while. When people start to use it in a general setting the bugs will crawl. Microsoft will be updating as fast as possible to avoid negative press. Looks to me like it will be one of the more supported os's of late. That's a good thing. Good luck. Post any probs.

 

"In a review by Gary Krackow from MSNBC who reviewed Vista Beta 2 over the last week he had very disappointing problems. "for me [it] was one of the 1. worst operating system experiences that I've ever encountered." Built-in audio and wireless didn't work on his Levono laptop. It took four days to get the first installation."

Heads up.

 

It probably won't matter for a bit now if symantec has they're way because they're suing microsofft for copyright infringement or some shit like that and want to get an injunction to keep them from releasing vista. And yeah i'm not expecting vista to be without fault. I'm realistic that being said i'd still like to run it because it will feature alot of improvements over xp. If it came out and the concenusus was yeah this is a piece of dog doo doo I won't buy it! lol

 

I'm just being too critical. I've always been cynical of the newer technology. But I always give in. I swore 98 was the best, then I ran xp, now I swear by it. If you haven't noticed all of the new technology is really struggling to make market. Everyone wants their piece of the pie. Vista has potential. CD.

 

Content I have read some reports (I think the Redmond Report) saying that Vista will run on an 800 MHz but the HDD never stops.

The summary was to get a decent experience on Vista you will need 3.0 GHz processor and 2 GB RAM.

Also the report suggested that it is probably worth getting the Ultimate version if you have OEM contacts. Ultimate will NOT be available retail.

 

I agree with the other posts that it is generally better to wait for at least SP1.

If you are installing now, then you are using some sort of RTC version which usually has problems when the new release comes out.

It is generally considered a good idea to do a clean install after using a RTC version. Not that that is a particular problem except you will be installing Vista twice...

 

Just to drag this out with one more note...

Vista is heavily dependent on your graphic memory. They are saying a 128 MB card is a minimum.

 

My current gear: 3.2gig p4 HT; 1536mb ram; 800mhz fsb; 128mb geforce 6600gt pci-e graphics card(buying a 7600gt soon!). So my hardware will be allright but yeah alot of people will be borderline in this regard. Like alot of others I see the benefits of vista like IE7 having more of a sensible design. More like firefox is now and its much more safer. More importantly it comes with DX10 which looks spectacular. When you reformat your HDD is there anything else I should do like a deep cleaning software to completely erase any traces of anything or something to condition my hard disk?

 

Windows Vista Minimum Supported System Requirements
Processor 800 MHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor1
System Memory 512 MB
GPU SVGA (800x600)
Graphics Memory -
HDD 20 GB
HDD Free Space 15 GB
Optical Drive CD-ROM drive2
Audio -
Internet -

1) Processor speed is specified as the nominal operational processor frequency for the device. Some processors have power management which allows the processor to run at a lower rate to save power.
2) The CD-ROM may be external (not integral, not built into the system).


the previous about the 128mb is for Vista Premium not regular vista.
think of premium as xp media center.

if you want to check it out you can always download vista from a torrent.
i did
and after review.. im sticking with xp pro

 

I read the Microsoft requirements page too. I understand what you are saying about graphics memory; however, my comments are based on the Redmond Report and some non-Public Microsoft documentation.

When XP came out Microsft said it would run on a Pentium 233 MHz, but would you?

Vista Premium is more like Windows XP Pro and Vista Ultimate will be more like your Media Edition comparison.

I agree, stick wit XP Pro... For now...

 

I have never had to use "deep cleaning software" before, unlees you are referring to FDISK. My standard practice for upgrading is FDISK and recreate the partition on the HDD. I always partition my drives to increase performance and to increase disaster recovery.

For Windows 2000 and Windows XP, Microsoft has recommend installing cleanly on FAT32, load drivers, especially any chipset or controller drivers, then do CONVERT. Microsoft "claims" this will improve performance. I believe, but do not know for sure, that it does this by moving MFT and the swap file to the center of the partition. It is a small gain, but gain none the less. Vista may not require this.

I have installed Windows onto a new NTFS partition will no problems, so I can not say that that the FAT32 then CONVERT is that much of an improvement.

I general I make one primary partition at about 20 GB. I install Windows as mentioned above and do a CONVERT. This is the C drive and in Microsft terms it is the SYSTEM drive (the bootable partition) and the BOOT (where Windows is located). I install all my application/programs on the C drive.

I then make a secoond primary partition (I use primary instead of extended for security reasons). Then i store all my data on the D partition. That way if a proggy chocks my machine, I can cook the C partition without loosing data.

The second advantage to having another partition is that you add a second swap file on the second partition and any version of Windows after 2K will use either partition depending on realtime disc usage. This can smooth out Windows nicely.

 

Here is some public documentation from Intel

Here they recommend a 600 series processor.
http://www.intel.com/business/bss/products/client/vistasolutions/desktop.htm

Here they compare several processors
http://indigo.intel.com/compare_cpu/default.aspx?familyID=1

You can see the 600 series start at 3.0 GHz and have 2 MB L2 cache.

The GPU usage, and hence the remarks about graphics memory, is due the desktops they will be offering. It is like they are bringing back the multiple desktop idea Norton and Symantec used in the Mid 1990s with Windows 95/98.

 

From what I have read and initial experience with early XP I'm going to stay with my current XP Pro...until Vista is relatively bug free.

 

What happens if I stay with XP would I still be able to use DX10 or will they just make the games DX9 compatible?

 

dx10 should work and if not someone will end up patching an installer.

 

Here's a report on vista.

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=66