windows xp or vista

[henryandlesley]

who likes the vista to the good old xp the wife and I have vista on our new laptops and we prefer the good old xp

[steve howes]

my brother in law works for a well known computer firm and he recons he wont touch vista with a barge pole its xp every time for him  :clap:

[thermidorthelobster]

I use XP, Vista and OS X all day every day.

I don't think Vista's as bad as people say, providing you turn off all the junk (Aero, UAC etc).  That's not to say it's good;  it's just saying XP isn't that much better.

OS X all the way for me.

[waveydavey]

What is Aero and UAC? More to the point how do I turn it off?

I use vista as I have it and it seems silly to take a step backwards - would you change coils for leaf springs?

[thermidorthelobster]

UAC is User Account Control;  it's that thing that annoyingly nags you a dozen times every time you want to do a simple freaking task.  Disable it like this.

Aero is the fancy graphical interface that they put in to try to make Vista look / feel like a Mac.  Unfortunately, it just makes it feel like a piece of crap, because Microsoft just don't get it at all*, and it also has the same effect on the speed of the computer as cracking it in the kneecaps with a baseball bat would.  Disable it like this.

Vista does have some benefits over XP (I find the wireless networking less unstable than XP, and it also has a much better tablet interface for us tablet users), but by doing these 2 things at least you're removing some of its most hideous features.

* This is cargo cult user interface design.  Microsoft see the Mac planes landing, so they lay out the landing strip in the dirt, make the little control tower out of palm leaves, put on the little bamboo headphones, and just can't understand why the cargo doesn't come in.

[discowoman]

we have vista 32 bit on our new pc - and I hated it for about 3 weeks - then lost most of the attatched crap - and its been fine ever since.

[simdeb]

Was told by a computer nut that visa is being scraped to many problems they are keeping xp going for a bit they are not  even making a server version of vista set a few systems up in vista it has a few nice bits but i would not use it myself , just bying a new laptop and thats having xp on it

simon

[Disco Matt]

Win 95 isn't that safe...it has security holes you could drive a bus through!  :lol:

I'd pick XP over Vista, and a well-sorted Linux installation over both.

[strapping young lad]

if it does what you need it to then what does it matter if its vista or xp, the interface is difference but i prefer vista on that basis and it seems to work fine, ive no gripes about anything that i can think of, i like the media center bit, never tried it in xp but i like the fact that it works more or less like sky + with series recording and stuff

cute :)

now to get a hdmi graphics card and plug in baby!

[marjan]

Wouldn't touch Vista with a barge pole. The wifes laptop came with it pre-installed and it keeps throwing wobblies. I"ll stick with XP for as long as I possibly can.

[hobbit]

I was sticking to xp until a few months ago, when it became flakey on me, so I installed vista in the same box, as a dual boot system, so it could be used either way, some of the software I have dont like vista, so I can drop back to xp when required

I use vista about 80% of the time now, but still wont get rid of xp, I have enough hard drive space so worth keeping it on

I find that vista is very memory hungry, so upping the ram has helped no end

My daughter has a Dell Laptop, just a asic one, when she got it, it was loaded with vista, but needed a memory upgrade, done this and it behaved ok, but a couple of weeks later whan she was round again she wanted me to install xp instead, so she is back on there

[baz2236]

ubuntu All the way don't line Bill gates pockets with even more gold.

[POTASH]

ive had vista for a year, its great

[carbore]

I would say based on the fact you have just had a baby, just bought a Series 3 and are thinking of going self employed. Dont spend time whit Vista unless you really really need to find something else to do in the 35 seconds free time you must have in a day!

[muddyjames]

My pc is going to die soon I think. It takes 15 mins from pushing the button to start it up to opening Mozilla thunderbird and downloading emails. A tad slow. Even then I have to restart pc to make it all work properly.

If I can find cash I dont want to spend on another pc can I use the xp I have already onto a new pc or is it registered to the pc not the person?

also what is best to look for in a new pc as minimum stuff goes and in terms where I can cross refference to a pc site.  :)

[Disco Matt]

Have you checked for viruses/spyware and cleared all the temporary files out recently? Windows has always been pretty hopeless at waste disposal. I use CCleaner and Avast! antivirus (both free).

[TechnoTurkey]

I would go for XP still personally, Vista is just too 'heavy' for my liking.

As the next version of Windows is likely to hit the streets next year I will be skipping Vista.  However I use Linux more than Windows at home now anyway!

[muddyjames]

Have you checked for viruses/spyware and cleared all the temporary files out recently? Windows has always been pretty hopeless at waste disposal. I use CCleaner and Avast! antivirus (both free).

have avast as well and windows defender runs when I have the time to leave the pc for a few hours as when it is running I can do nothing else. I can tell when it starts by its self at about 5pm and usualy stop it within 3minutes of it starting!

Temp files cleared once a fortnight ish and defrag once every 2 months but nothing makes much difference.

[carbore]

IF you have not done a re install for over 12 months then id do that. Make sure you back up and know all you passwords that get remembered for you etc and driver discs or such like for HW and printers.

Once you have done that look at www.blackviper.com for some very good well explained system tweeks.  You can turn off a lot of rubbish and save lots of space etc.

Also if you have things that get loaded at startup get rid of them, coz I use a lot of printers at different office I had all sorts of help centers and supplies monitors, get rid of everything but the driver.

Get alll the junk off your desktop, especially any files.

I also ditched adobe PDF for fox it pdf reader, got rid of office pre loader and most of the resient stuff that sits there consuming ram just so it loads quicker IF you decide to use it.

[hobbit]

UAC is User Account Control;  it's that thing that annoyingly nags you a dozen times every time you want to do a simple freaking task.  Disable it like this.

Aero is the fancy graphical interface that they put in to try to make Vista look / feel like a Mac.  Unfortunately, it just makes it feel like a piece of crap, because Microsoft just don't get it at all*, and it also has the same effect on the speed of the computer as cracking it in the kneecaps with a baseball bat would.  Disable it like this.

Vista does have some benefits over XP (I find the wireless networking less unstable than XP, and it also has a much better tablet interface for us tablet users), but by doing these 2 things at least you're removing some of its most hideous features.

* This is cargo cult user interface design.  Microsoft see the Mac planes landing, so they lay out the landing strip in the dirt, make the little control tower out of palm leaves, put on the little bamboo headphones, and just can't understand why the cargo doesn't come in.

Thanks for the links, makes vista better than before, quite a noticeable speed up :D

[Rich_P]

I find it interesting how what people are saying about Vista was what was being said about XP when it first came out.  Give it time and it'll become the "new XP", like how everything gradually went from 3.1 to 95, to 98 and then 98 SE etc.

[muddyjames]

IF you have not done a re install for over 12 months then id do that. Make sure you back up and know all you passwords that get remembered for you etc and driver discs or such like for HW and printers.

Once you have done that look at www.blackviper.com for some very good well explained system tweeks.  You can turn off a lot of rubbish and save lots of space etc.

Also if you have things that get loaded at startup get rid of them, coz I use a lot of printers at different office I had all sorts of help centers and supplies monitors, get rid of everything but the driver.

Get alll the junk off your desktop, especially any files.

I also ditched adobe PDF for fox it pdf reader, got rid of office pre loader and most of the resient stuff that sits there consuming ram just so it loads quicker IF you decide to use it.

Not done a re install in ages and to be honest I know VERY little about computers. I can do serfing on web, type a letter, do basic excel and know that dir in dos does something!! How I back my whole pc up etc etc is way beyond my skills. I lost so much stuff last time the pc flopped and files that mean alot to me like a video clip of me going through a ford (ok nothing I cant re do) but it was on a laning trip in memory of my dad. Things like that and it got lost.

Hence why I am still muddling on with the pc as it is.  :roll:

[carracarra13]

i must admit Im using xp pro still and the other system is running suse Linux and if it was not for the kids and school we would not use winblows at all (sorry windows) other than what are needed in the house :lol: also Iv got a mac I use and tbh they all work very well and do a good job , but i have to say I like linux as its very stable dont get me wrong it still has its moments but Im happy with it