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i have installed vista business on my dell, dual core, 4gb ram. it's fast, but too many things just don't work. this is driving my crazy. i've tried to search a harddrive and then move some of the contents over to another external....no! vista just doesn't want to move my files. it's bug after bug.
i guess they were so pressed to release longhorn, they just released it 98%. xp was so much better. and i guess all these problems are the reason they 'extended xp's' life.
i do enjoy the new office suite - with little problems. but you can use xp and the new office together.
it's just not time to upgrade to vista. don't give microsoft any money for a product they haven't finished or properly tested.
Though assured that my nearly new laptop would support Vista, I have not found that to be the case. I feel as though I have wasted my money, but will hang on to it in case I have to buy another machine. My, how I wish I could go 'Mac!' Why can't Microsoft pirate Mac's software and make it run? The prices that go along with the upgrades, such as Microsoft Office, are ridiculous! If it keeps going this way, I will have to switch to Mac. I will take a killing with software, but it may prove worth it.
My business software did not work with Vista and it is rigged to make it impossible or difficult to downgrade without buying a new Windows XP.
There are serious speed and compatability issues with Vista. Count on some of your software not running at all and if your computer is less than brand new it will probably slow dramatically as Vista is Processor and memory heavy.
No one therefore should be considering upgrading a less than brand new this year computer to Vista and would be putting their business at risk with compatability issues. Wait at least a year and check all of your hardware and software for compatability issues.
I have the "business" version installed. I depend on a reponsive systemfor my livelyhood. VISTA does not deliver. WHomever designed does not have the end user in mind. It forever is going into a heavy disk activity mode and freezes the user out during this period. in esence you are not able to do any work until it gets done doing "what ever". XP-pro is a more dependable application. Maybe if Microsoft ever gets this worthless system to work I will use it until then Goodbye Microsoft VISTA. Maybe Apple has something to sink my teeth into.
I installed this with no problem and absolutely love it. I enjoy the Vista interface and have found the navigation to be pretty user friendly.
Before anyone installs this, they have to do their homework. Microsoft offers a Vista Upgrade Advisor to let you know of potential problems with your current hardware and also software that you currently have installed on your system. If you decide to go maverick and install anyways then you get what you get...a mess.
I had a friend that didn't do his research and guess what. I got the call that Vista is crap. WRONG! He didn't do his homework. So I ended up helping him reinstall XP to factory and THEN installing Vista. He is rocking and rolling now.
So people, do your homework and here's some advice. Run the Vista Upgrade Advisor, look at the programs you all ready have installed and get in touch with the vendor to make sure their software plays nice with Vista. If it doesn't then look at incurring a fee to buy the version that does. If you look at everything in advance then there are no suprises; and yes, Norton Internet Security will have to be upgraded to the Vista capable version but I all ready knew that because I did my homework.
Excellent O.S
"Setbacks" Problems w. registration & use of some of my favorite Win XP. softwares
e.g Nero 6.0; Dragon N.S 8.0 & Pinnacle Studios v.9.0
I have not found any software that will run reliably on Vista without eventually crashing. Every game crashes. Microsoft Office crashes. Even Internet Explorer and File Explorer crash routinely. You may need to run Windows DVD Maker a dozen times to get it to actually burn a DVD. This on a year old computer that has never had problems running XP and Debian Linux. And yes, it just crashed again killing Never Winter Nights 2. Microsoft has become a sick joke.
Be careful before you install this "anytime" upgrade. I installed it on a new Dell that came with Vista Home Premium on it and first of all, besides wiping out all my data files which it said it wouldn't do (I did have backups but still), wiping out drivers such as for the computer's speakers that it came with, it turns out that Dell will not help with ANYTHING because they say that I have voided the one year warranty by upgrading the OS from one version of Vista to another. It's probably in the fine print somewhere but it still seems that a more visible warning should have appeared courtesy of Microsoft OR Dell.
I purchased the Vista Ultimate Upgrade disc in April and have had alot of trouble with it since then. I'm still having trouble getting Vista to share my HP printer with the other computers on my home network. Everything on Vista seems to takes about twice as long as it did with XP and three times as long as with Windows 2000. I get this performance with 2GB of ram, a 4.2 mhz intel processor and a 7200 rpm 350 GB hard drive.
I had trouble with my Yahoo Music Jukebox software, Nero 6.6, and several other applications. I running Office 2003 and that has also slowed noticibly. This Thanksgiving weekend I'm uninstalling Vista and reinstalling XP Pro. I'm hoping that when more of the bugs are worked out performance will increase. At that point I'll give Vista another try.
Oh yea, I forgot to mention that I also had problems upgrading from XP to Vista. Microsoft's authentication process said my Vista product ID was invalid which prompted a call to the help line and a lot of time working with a tech trying to figure out what happened. Vista happened.
I upgraded to Vista and have had numerous compatibility issues with the previously installed programs and drivers. It's also slower than XP. Not recommended!
Long awaited, but well worth it....... installed it in less than 15 mins. Yes, plan for a bigger Hardrive, and unlike many other reviews, the Driver issues are all being worked out. I didn't have to search the world over to find my driver, it picked everything, even things that only got as far as Win 98 SE support.
Microsoft has many enemies. That's what happens when you are #1 and many below you wish they could be at the top.
Vista is a solid product. It was not as solid the day it was released, but what is? It's now only been a few months and the updates that apply the moment you install or upgrade to Vista provide you with a smooth experience.
Is the interface different? Oh yea. Is it bad? Is it slow? No. It's fine. Vista runs only SLIGHTLY slower on an older PC with a Pentium III chip or older but why wouldn't you expect that? You can't get more features AND more power and expect a faster machine when your hardware is getting along in the years.
In addition, if you simply don't understand the nature of Vista, then you haven't yet read Greg Perry's "Sams Teach Yourself Microsoft Windows Vista All in One" (Amazon 978-0672328893) and frankly, this is hands-down the best way for a newcomer - even if you are or are not comfortable with XP - to master EVERYthing you REALLY need to know about Vista.
Software is not always obvious. That does not mean it's bad or difficult to use or requires a huge learning curve. Once you get Vista, beg or borrow or buy "Sams Teach Yourself Microsoft Windows Vista All in One" and you will be ready to become a MASTER at the product. I went through what YOU are going through and I know most Vista books and sites DO NOT give you what you need to make this product work well FOR YOU. This book does and I've read all the top-selling Vista books.
Now I don't care if you get "Sams Teach Yourself Microsoft Windows Vista All in One" or not, although you should, but you need to stop listening to the hype of those who have axes to grind with Microsoft. If you want to move FORWARD with your computer you need to have the juice needed which means a moderately recent PC and you need Vista.
The number one reason for getting Ultimate and not a lower Vista product is the BitLocker encryption technology and the ability to make a ghosted image of your disk drive that Vista can restore. If you've used Symantec's DriveImage or Ghost products then you know these alone can run you more than $50. It's thrown in with Vista Ultimate and you'll REALLY use these tools a lot.
The best yet. Solves networking problems once and for all. Must get used to new user screens..AGAIN, but graphics are better looking.
When Microsoft says this is an upgrade, that's exactly what it is. Unless you are an advanced user, forget clean installs; also, do not think you can install this on one machine, uninstall it, and then install it on another. Microsoft has changed the rules. Overall the interface is beautiful. There are some glitchy problems with the windows update feature. Many of your software programs will require upgrade due to incompatibility. The bottom line? Do your homework before upgrading.
Do your homework on hardware compatibility. While you may be able to run Microsoft's analysis tool during install which is supposed to alert you to any problems with existing hardware ... it does NOT work in all cases.
Good luck !
First of all, let me say that I have only really been working in the IT Field now for about 6 years, but DO know what I'm talking about (Famous Last Words, right?).
I have been using Windows Vista since last October and even THEN, I haven't experienced as much grief with this product as all of these people. It really leads me to believe that they really just don't know what they're doing. When I purchased Vista Ultimate on it's actual Release day in January, I purchased the Vista Family pack as to get the two additional Upgrade licenses of Vista Home Premium and I was able to install Vista, both editions, onto 3 completely different PCs with virtually no problem issues at all; no driver compatibility issues, no major performance issues (2 of the PCs that got Home Premium are about 3-4 years old, so of course they are going to run a bit slower than my main PC with Vista, a P4, 3.4Ghz).
I am using a Linksys WRT55AG Wireless Router (Absolutely NO Issues at all)that was discovered right away and I have yet to have ANY issues with it. I also have an NVidia GPU and other than not having the ability for Desktop Spanning, all is well on that front as well. Even both of my WD External Drives Drivers were installed with no problems. My Printer was also installed right away without any issues. I have an HP PSC750, and it's about 7 years old.
Like I said in the Title, I just don't get it. So many people want to find ANY reason to hate Microsoft... Well, why did you buy this in the first place if you were just going to bash it? Why not just stick with all of the cracked copies out there and save your money?
I purchased Vista because I believe it to be a far superior product over XP. Yeah it's flashy and looks like another very famous OS, but it's not that OS. It's not XP. It's new and better and over time, people will see that it's not just another Windows Me.
Microsoft has many enemies. That's what happens when you are #1 and many below you wish they could be at the top.
Vista is a solid product. It was not as solid the day it was released, but what is? It's now only been a few months and the updates that apply the moment you install or upgrade to Vista provide you with a smooth experience.
Is the interface different? Oh yea. Is it bad? Is it slow? No. It's fine. Vista runs only SLIGHTLY slower on an older PC with a Pentium III chip or older but why wouldn't you expect that? You can't get more features AND more power and expect a faster machine when your hardware is getting along in the years.
In addition, if you simply don't understand the nature of Vista, then you haven't yet read Greg Perry's "Sams Teach Yourself Microsoft Windows Vista All in One" (Amazon Sams Teach Yourself Microsoft Windows Vista All in One (Sams Teach Yourself)) and frankly, this is hands-down the best way for a newcomer - even if you are or are not comfortable with XP - to master EVERYthing you REALLY need to know about Vista.
Software is not always obvious. That does not mean it's bad or difficult to use or requires a huge learning curve. Once you get Vista, beg or borrow or buy "Sams Teach Yourself Microsoft Windows Vista All in One" and you will be ready to become a MASTER at the product. I went through what YOU are going through and I know most Vista books and sites DO NOT give you what you need to make this product work well FOR YOU. This book does and I've read all the top-selling Vista books.
Now I don't care if you get "Sams Teach Yourself Microsoft Windows Vista All in One" or not, although you should, but you need to stop listening to the hype of those who have axes to grind with Microsoft. If you want to move FORWARD with your computer you need to have the juice needed which means a moderately recent PC and you need Vista.
The number one reason for getting Ultimate and not a lower Vista product is the BitLocker encryption technology and the ability to make a ghosted image of your disk drive that Vista can restore. If you've used Symantec's DriveImage or Ghost products then you know these alone can run you more than $50. It's thrown in with Vista Ultimate and you'll REALLY use these tools a lot.
Don't buy Vista--any version, yet. MS released it WAY too early. Some examples why:
* Too many hardware drivers not yet available, i.e., Creative Audigy sound cards; Nvidia graphics cards, and Linksys wireless network components, just to mention a few. When I contacted product manufacturers, I sensed a ho-hum attitude. Moreover, some peripherals are totally incompatible. Example: My Epson Perfection 1650 scanner was rejected by Vista, so I was forced to buy a newer model (Epson Perfection 4990 Photo). Hmmmm. One wonders whether these sorts of incompatibilities result more by design (purposely?) than from insurmountable technological deficiencies.
* Too many Vista compatible application updates are not yet available.
* The "Upgrade" versions of MS Vista (versus the "full" versions) seem to be full of bugs. Soon after I installed Vista Ultimate, I encountered a major problem that MS tech support has been trying to resolve for over two weeks. It is so pervasive that MS Outlook 2007 has been affected to the extent that some of its features are not available. It appears that during the installation process, something went awry with "Windows Event Log" and the "Event Viewer." Furthermore, the latest version (Vista compatible) of Diskeeper 2007 Pro will not launch, most likely for the same reason.
* It appears MS went way overboard on security features to the extent of paranoia. Every time you click on just about anything, a pop-up will appear asking your permission to "allow" it to launch. Very annoying, and VERY unnecessary. It's as though MS adopted an underlying assumption throughout the development process that the average end user has an IQ of about 85.
* MS tech support quality has deteriorated substantially. Most of the time when you call you will reach someone in India. Albeit these people are very polite, they cannot think "outside the box." Nor are they in touch sufficiently enough with the nuances of the English language, thus impairing expeditious understanding on both sides of the conversation. Based upon my recent experience with these folks, I sense that a soccer mom could be trained as a MS tech support rep in very little time. What I mean by that is this: During my multiple contacts with them I developed the feeling they rely totally on reading from manuals, scripts, and on-line knowledge bases. In other words, they seem not to be able to analyze and troubleshoot problems independent of external references.
* Bottom line: Do NOT purchase Vista until AFTER service pack 1 is released, or whatever they happen to name their first major fix-it update package. For now, stay with the more reliable XP versions. I truly regret that I had to discover all of this the hard way. It has been very costly in more ways than one.
The Code needed to activate the software did not work. I called Microsoft and they said that the product (which I bought as new) had a code for a product that should have been installed in a new computer. It should not have been sold as an off the shelf software. I returned the product for credit.
Office 2007 Upgrade is all I expected and more. Installed like a breeze. Works great. One thing my wife says, while typing email in Outlook, the screen lags somewhat behind the typing. She says not a problem for her. She's confident MS will correct the problem. Can not understand why some take issue with the software. I think it's great and a big step forward in office software tech. Hats off to Microsoft.
After all these years, the trolls in Redmond still have not learned how to produce user-friendly software. There was no reason to make the changes to Office that they've made; it was simply a way to justify an unnecessary upgrade that has turned out to be a downgrade. Users with a moderate understanding of how Office operated will find themselves flummoxed when attempting to do things they had finally learned how to do in the old version.
The much-vaunted ribbons are confusing and counter-intuitive. Microsoft addresses this problem by offering free self-paced trainng courses, apparently oblivious to the fact that time iS money, unless of course, it's Microsoft's time.
At the very least, one expects backward compatibility, that is unless you're dealing with Mr. Bill's minions. I loaded Word files created with Office XP, only to find the Office 2007 converted them with serious defects, like inserting tabs in all paragraphs whenever you inserted one in a single paragraph. And, of course, if you delete a tab stop from one paragraph, you delete it from all of them.
Useless.
This new version of office has it all. Finally all the promise that we had heard was coming is here. In general all the apps are much improved. My only negative is that outlook takes a long time to start up and needs lots of memory. If you can deal with that, this is a huge improvement over previous versions.
Right out of the box you are going to have to get used to the ribbon interface but once you get it down, it is much quicker than the old way.
Most of the naysayers here are anti microsoft anyway so pay them no mind. If I worked at Sun or Apple I would probably badmouth microsoft all the time too. But I do not and I don't work for Microsoft, so I just use the software, and this was a great upgrade.
The best part of it was the publisher upgrade which is a huge improvement over the last version of publisher. I use it all the time for making flyers, postcards, invitations etc.
Excel, Word and all the others have been commented on by tons of people, but almost noone talks about Publisher. In this version it really is a competitive piece of software to the basic and even some of the advanced Adobe tools. If you could edit PDFs natively that would be great, but because ADOBE is a monopoly, you are stuck overpaying them to edit pdfs. Anyway, you can create pdf files in publisher and save them, which is all anyone really needs.
Sorry Microsoft, but your "ribbon" user interface is the most retarded upgrade feature ever. It renders all your Office applications useless. I have no interest spending hours to learn a completely different UI and to recustomize the toolbar all over again (I'm not even sure if it's even possible to customize the "ribbon"). The ribbon is ugly and WAY, WAY, WAY, WAY too big.
My advice: try to avoid upgrading for as long as possible.
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