Microsoft Windows Vista Business FULL VERSION [DVD] [OLD VERSION] Reviews

• Wow! An expensive service pack!

  
  By A9Z857MFLV8L5 on 2007-01-30
  I received a copy of Windows Vista Business from a program that Microsoft had a few months ago. I am reviewing a full, legal, and complete version of Windows Vista Business.
  
  A shiny new interface, new security features and that's about it.
  
  Everything I'm seeing with Windows Vista is that it's a service pack for a price. $100 for Home Basic Upgrade (but I consider a downgrade as XP Home/MCE 2005 users will lose a lot) all the way to $399 for Ultimate Full Version.
  
  I am very glad that I received my copy the way I did, because I would be highly upset if I paid $200+ for "Eye Candy". There is no upgrades, just updates.
  
  I don't consider Security an upgrade because I feel it is Microsoft's RESPONSIBILITY to ensure a safe and secure (as possible) OS. I would say differently if they were open source, but they refuse to go this route. Just as it is GM, Ford, Dodge, ect. job to ensure that their vehicles are safe to operate; it is Microsoft's job to ensure that their OS is secure.
  
  The new interface is nice. I does look good. Is it worth $200+? Not at all.
  
  What shocked me was that promises made by Microsoft when XP was released are still issues now. When you do system updates, a restart is still required. What happened to never having to reboot after updates, Mr. Gates? The registry is still there along with CMD.exe. These are things that an upgrade should have made obsolete.
  
  Solaris from version 9 to 10 added zone arcitectures (allowing multiple desktops to use the same kernel from my understanding of it), a whole new file system, ZFS, which is dynamic and "living" from what I've read. Yes, I know the whole WinFS story. It's hush hush and not to be talked about from Microsoft...C'mon. These are things that a 5 year upgrade should bring! Not what Microsoft is giving us with Vista.
  
  I would avoid purchasing Microsoft Vista until a computer upgrade, and if possible I'd ask for XP just to make a statement to Microsoft.
  
  PS - We won't discuss DRM and how Microsoft wants to take the user out of the Operating System and tell you how and in what way's you can use your computer. I suggest searching Google and researching on your own Microsoft's implementation of DRM in Vista and see if you agree.
  
  

• Will be better in six months

  
  By A1V39XXSBT5QTC on 2007-02-22
  Windows Vista is clearly better than Windows XP in a hundred little ways, from the search boxes to the sidebar. The new and improved Vista features are listed all over the place, so I won't go into the details. I will say, however, that they do make an improvement in everyday computer use.
  
  On the other hand, Vista suffers a thousand little flaws. For one thing, iTunes isn't compatible yet. Then, NVidia doesn't have decent drivers yet. Firefox doesn't work with the Windows Media plugin yet. For some strange reason, whenever I save a file in Microsoft Visual Studio, I get impossible-to-delete temporary files in my working folder. Some piece of incompatible software is creating them. Is it Windows Live OneCare? Visual Studio? Tortoise SVN? Who knows? Oh, and did I mention that Vista crashes whenever it tries to come out of sleep mode? I could list more problems, but you get the picture. Vista is not really stable.
  
  My advice is this: If you are building a new system, go ahead and install Vista. You will have a bumpy road, but it's better than buying XP now and upgrading later. Otherwise, wait about six months for Microsoft and the other software companies to get their act together. You have been warned.
  
  

• Worst OS from Microsoft Yet!

  
  By AJETFLAXRDTKJ on 2006-12-15
  I was a private beta tester for the new OS. I tested the software for a whole year and I am not pleased with it.
  
  If you depend on stability for your existing software, you are out of luck. The hardware and software support for the new operating system is horrible. Many businesses will have to upgrade their hardware to use Windows Vista.
  
  You are better off upgrading to a Mac. After all, Microsoft did steal many ideas from Apple Computers.
  
  
  
  

• No need to buy full version, just get the upgrade!

  
  By A3MVU8X8EC9VRT on 2007-02-01
  The upgrade is $75 cheaper and you DON'T need to have a previous install of Windows to get it to work. Simply do the following:
  
  1. Boot with the Windows Vista Upgrade DVD.
  
  2. Click "Install Now."
  
  3. Do not enter a Product Key When prompted.
  
  4. When prompted, select the Vista product edition that you do have.
  
  6. Install Vista normally.
  
  7. Once the install is complete, restart the DVD-based Setup from within Windows Vista. Perform an in-place upgrade. 8. Enter your Product Key when prompted.
  
  This is according to Microsoft's internal documentation, and reported by Paul Thurrott at Windows IT Pro.
  
  

• I can't belive it's this bad!!!

  
  By A26VRVHKZK1H9G on 2007-05-06
  So I have a brand new Dell laptop. Came w/ XP and a free upgrade to Vista Business Edition.
  
  I have just backed up my computer to take it back to XP. Not even the slide show works in Vista, drivers are not as well supported (even with the 32 bit release that makes waste of my 64 bit processor), no up folder toolbar icon, annoying security, IE is still not as good as FireFox, stuff is harder to find, can't connect to external monitors for some reason, and the picture slide show built into XP does not work, camera and GPS driver problems, the list goes on ... They only good thing, the search box they should have put in 5 years ago when Google did it for them (with their desktop plugin)
  
  At this point I wished I bought a Mac ... but I guess I'll go back to XP for now ... I have always been excited about Microsoft products, I was even one of the first adopters of Windows 95 when it came out and everybody had mixed feeling ... but this time, I think Microsoft has SERIOUSLY messed up. This OS is worse than the previous OS ... bad sign for them ... and I've never used a mac much, but I'm sure it's the way to go now. Why didn't I get a mac?... not really sure still, but I develop software (mostly on Windows OS platforms) ... So I thought it would be safer for my development future. Oh well ... XP works pretty well.
  
  
• Dog Slow
  By A3GQT6IS2IZ3IS on 2007-05-21
  This must be the slowest OS on this planet. All the DRM 'enchancements' and other bloatware that MS decided to put in the kernel has made this the slowest operating system ever built, you need a 20% faster computer to get to the same level with XP.
  Then there's the issue of endless 'Are you sure you want to do this' confirmations whatever you try to do. Clicking thru these dialogs gets so annoying you wish to throw your PC out the window. This is definitely the last piece of MS software I'll ever buy.
  
  
• Vista Can Put You Out of Business
  By A3T1S9ZTHNLVJY on 2007-08-30
  There are serious compatability and speed issues with Vista. Count on much of your current bussiness software not to run. Count on having difficulty downgrading back to Windows XP as Microsoft has rigged Vista to make it difficult to downgrade without buying a new XP from them
  
  Vista is processor and memory heavy. It will dramatically slow older computers. Even with a newer computer it may appear no faster than windows xp and possibly slower. I however, have the home edition on my brand new home computer and it is plenty fast. However, the premium and business editions are much slower and require more memory.
  
  I recommend never to put Vista on a computer with less than a duo core processor and 2 MB of memory. All businsess owners should stay away for at least a year until all compatability issues have been resolved - assuming that is possible.
  
  
• Veni, Vidi, Vista - - I Came - I Saw - I wasn't impressed
  By A3C9SLIWJRC5TI on 2007-04-22
  I have had to set up a few new installs of the Vista Business on some servers and I was disappointed with the overall performance.
  
  My biggest gripe is when I tried to remotely log in from another PC and I sat there waiting and waiting only to discover that the Vista default setup is to ask permission to run even the most basic operations and was actually sitting there waiting for someone to click 'YES' to allow the process to run. How irritating! Kinda self defeats the idea of remotely logging in doesn't it?.
  
  Also if you happen to rename the administrator account the change is not registered somewhere in the Remote Connections authorization. So when I *thought* I was remotely logging in under the new admin account name Vista wouldn't let me in and it was only after searching for what seemed an eternity - some hidden place it took me 15 minutes to find, I discovered that the the new admin account name had not been authorized when I did the name change. yikes!
  
  For those who need to run VNC Server on Vista, be aware there are issues - installing and running that you will need to work around as well.
  
  It seems like Microsft drastically changed the menus, overdid the default security features, and installed a new hood ornament. Other than that I don't see what the big deal is.
  
  
  
• DO NOT BUY THIS PROGRAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  By A1IN2WELWHS5Q1 on 2007-05-11
  This program is two years away from being ready for the public use. WAIT until there are many updates and repairs before you buy. It is so bad that I am thinking of changing to Apple, no computer should be this much work. I would pay twice what I paid for this program to get back my old XP version.
  
  
• Slow, buggy, not ready for prime time. Stick with Windows XP.
  By A1THLMNCO7TFT6 on 2007-09-11
  I am a web developer and I had a test run of Windows Vista Business on my development machine for about a month. To sum it up -- a terrible and painful experience.
  
  I do most of my work on my Dell 640M laptop:
  1.6 GHz Intel Dual Core
  Built-in video
  2 GB RAM
  80 GB hard drive
  
  My laptop came with Windows XP and I got Vista Business as a "free" upgrade, even though I had to pay over $30 for shipping.
  
  First, I installed it as upgrade -- a terrible idea. It was incredibly slow and would freeze on simple tasks like copy/pasting text or files. Many programs would crash or simply would not load.
  
  Off goes the upgrade, on comes the clean install...
  
  Things are better this time around, but boot time is at least twice as slow compared to Windows XP.
  
  Next thing I tried to do is to use a briefcase to synchronize my development projects. There's this big site I'm working on with probably 1000 files in it, and Vista could never quite finish copying all the files to the briefcase over my home network (no such problems with XP). About half-way through, it would just freeze.
  
  The Aero interface looked nice, but I had to disable it because it was just too much for my built-in Intel video chip. Still, simple operations like copy/ paste result in a small freeze, then up comes the system warning which other reviewers mentioned and then finally the "paste" part.
  
  Same 5-10 sec freeze when I do development work and call up some application or try to display a simple HTML page from my local IIS server. Again, no such thing with XP.
  
  Next gripe is the system shutdown. The default option is now "Sleep" which is real fast. But if you select, "Shut Down", prepare to wait. Possibly, forever. All in all, it ends up turning off about 30% of the time, other times you just see the never-ending "Shutting Down..." screen and have to turn the power off manually. All my applications/ drivers are Vista-capable, so this should not be caused by 3rd party application sotware "in theory".
  
  Next, what is up with changing item labels? "Add or Remove Programs" is gone. "Programs and Features" is apparently much cooler according to Microsoft's marketing dept.
  
  I get a feeling that they just moved the stuff around to make it look "newer". There are no improvements and often things are hard to find/ not intuitive on the control panel, in display properties and other areas.
  
  Windows Explorer used to be great. I'd add copy/paste buttons to the toolbar and such operations would be a matter of a few clicks. Not anymore. Even simple browsing ("directory up" for example) buttons are gone. So you go through Desktop, then my computer, then C: to get to your main hard drive partition. Ridiculous!
  
  Applications in general (I work mostly with Adobe/Macromedia Suite -- Photoshop, Flash, Dreamweaver, Acrobat, etc.) run *much* slower on Vista compared to XP, often with the beforementioned freezes whenever a simple operation is performed.
  
  After about 1 month I had enough. Back to Windows XP Professional. Couldn't be happier. Everything is fast, responsive. It lets me do my work without getting in the way just as an operating system *should*.
  
  Sorry Microsoft, I am not going to be a beta tester for your unfinished, bloated product just because it is "new" and shiny. An "upgrade" usually implies a better, faster, more intuitive O/S. Vista offers none of these things except a shiny interface and a few useless visual effects. All they do is drain system resources.
  
  If you're looking for a fast, reliable and secure O/S, go with Windows XP Professional. Don't waste your money on Vista.
  
  
• This is insane....
  By A2QLZTIP268RKK on 2007-02-06
  You can get Mac OS X for 129 bucks and it has everything as opposed to the Microsoft's 227 dollar Home Premium which is the low end. Buy Mac and get all the functionality in one OS. When spec'ed out the system are comparable in price, except apple doesn't offer low-end hardware options which is why they seem more expensive.
  
  
• Is that all ??
  By A1S3XZ1BQCO0HF on 2007-03-30
  The new Vista Business is packed with a lot of new/improved features: Shiny new interface, sidebar gadgets, great desktop search capabilities, decent speech recognition tool, vastly improved security, photo-editing capabilities etc..
  
  But it also adds its share of problems: Overpriced, Annoying User account control, 3 minute boot up time, demanding graphics and CPU needs, forces you to upgrade everything, Incompatible with a lot of apps Nero, Adobe Acrobat, Visual Studio ....
  
  I'd like to have seen the WinDVD maker, Drive encryption, UNIX-based program support on the Business edition given its high price.
  
  Any considering an upgrade/purchase Vista should look out for a number of compatibility issues before buying it or maybe wait until Microsoft rolls out a Service Pack 1 for it.
  
  Given the six year wait, i'm a bit disappointed.
  
  
• Most stable windows yet!!!!!!
  By A115XZEN223WAE on 2007-04-23
  So I did the unthinkable. I put Windows Vista Business on my Mac--specifically my Mac Mini. it works great, no system slow downs and no crashes. The Mac handles Vista beautifully. I had no problems using Boot Camp 1.2 in order to install it. The Mac Drivers for Vista (included with Boot Camp) all worked fine. The Vista installation took all of about 30 minutes including some updates and such. I had Windows XP home on my mac b4 and while it worked well , Vista Business works much more smoothly.
  
  As you may or may not know a Mac Mini is not exactly a powerhouse computer. I have a 1.66 gigahertz Core Duo with 1gb of Ram on it. It displays the Aero interface perfectly especially hooked up to my 32 inch Widescreen LCD TV. Seems even the lowest cost Mac can still make Vista shine while most PCs cant. One disclaimer tho. All intel macs can run Vista Ultimate without a hitch except the Mac Mini (which can only go up to Business/Home Premium)
  
  While Vista is still behind OS X 10.4 (Tiger) its a much better release from XP. Now im just waiting to upgrade my little Mac Mini in October for the release of OS X 10.5 (Leopard).
  
  
• God help me ( Epileptics keep away from Vista ! )
  By A33B44XPTW0WOA on 2007-07-20
  Vista features cause seizures in people with pattern sensitive / motion sensitive epilepsy and they can not be disabled. ( There are options to turn off blinking cursor and "unnecessary animations" if you search for them, while having seizures of course while you do so )
  
  I wanted to purchase a newer notebook than the one I am currently using to write this review so I purchased a brand new HP Pavilion ( HP Pavilion dv9500t ). See order below. I wanted better screen resolution as I have fairly serious eye problems and I wanted better performance than this Compaq R4010T that I had to go back to to write this review on..
  
  I have really bad epilepsy ( and it is getting worse and worse because I keep getting clobbered by this bad technology ) and I am having seizure after seizure using THE NEW COMPUTER WITH WINDOWS VISTA ON IT because of Microsoft Vista's inaccessibility.
  
  The problem is that Microsoft has gone from the innocuous "hourglass" icon to the Apple "spinning wheel" style icon whenever you click on almost ANYTHING. I have turned off every option, feature, flag that I can trying to stop this and I can't.
  
  I absolutely can't use this computer and I can't use Vista. What sort of idiots are these people? Haven't they ever heard of epilepsy? I abandoned Apple Macs because of my epilepsy and now Microsoft has to try to out apple Apple with this lemon.
  
  My brain really can't afford to have any more seizures. I have repeatedly told my doctor that I have to go to ZERO blinking / flashing / animations with NO exceptions. Good luck with all this terrible technology. Unfortunately, nothing will kill me so I have to suffer and suffer and suffer. I have to use a computer as that is the ONLY way I can get anything done such as shopping.
  
  The problem is that I can see that the clock is ticking and it is just a matter of time before I, and people like me, are totally disenfranchised from the moder world. ( Recently I had to go back to a rotary telephone because I no longer tolerated my higher tech LCD phone )
  
  Anyways, this review won't last long because we all have to have a rosy view of how great everything is and we don't want to be disturbed by roadkills like me on the information superhighway.
  
  $1823.27 down the drain.
  
  Thanks, Bill.
  
  Roy S. Miller ( I'd give me name, address, phone number and shoe size but I am so ill that all I am doing right now is trying to survive. The best analogy that I can come up with is that someone chained a concrete block to me and I was thrown off the stern of the Love Boat. Everybody on board is too busy partying to care about anyone or anything but themselves. )
  
  
  
  - Upgrade to Genuine Windows Vista Business (32-bit)
  - Intel(R) Core(TM) 2 Duo processor T7500 (2.20 GHz, 4 MB L2 Cache, 800MHz FSB)
  - 17.0" WSXGA+ High-Definition HP BrightView Widescreen Display (1680 x 1050)
  - 2GB DDR2 System Memory (2 Dimm)
  - 511MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GS
  - HP Imprint (Radiance) + Fingerprint Reader + Webcam + Microphone
  - Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 4965AGN Network Connection and Bluetooth(TM)
  - 160GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
  - FREE Upgrade to LightScribe SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-RW with Double Layer Support
  - No TV Tuner w/remote control
  - 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
  - Microsoft(R) Works Suite 2006 includes Word
  
  
  
  
• Microsoft made me move to Mac
  By AZ4NX19LRFNDT on 2007-08-25
  Last april, I bought a Dell system with Vista business preinstalled. It came with McAfee internet security that was so buggy that I had to uninstall it to improve system performance. The security prompts are very annoying. I have a year old HP2840 color laser and as of Aug 20, I could not even get updated drivers from HP that support network scanning and printing. My existing versions of Adobe CS, Macromedia does not work without an expensive upgrade so I keep the XP machine beside me to print with InDesign and to create PDF's. This OS is so much trouble that I will be reformatting the drive and installing XP over it.
  
  I've stopped using the Mac for the past 4 years because most of my business softwares are PC based. Last year, I took a serious look at Macs again. I can say with certainty that I'm moving my entire office to the Mac platform and Microsoft made this decision for me.
  
  
• VISTA is GARBAGE - Stick with XP or go to OSX
  By ADZBYWQS2LO40 on 2007-12-06
  VISTA is nothing but frustration.
  
  I'm the IT administrator for a small business. I've installed virtually every version of DOS and Windows Microsoft has put out since the early 80s. VISTA is the worst operating system I've ever seen. It is BUGGY, UNINTUITIVE, a RESOURCE HOG, and INTRUSIVE. It boils my blood every time I have to use it.
  
  The browse boxes are so unintuitive, it is hard to figure out what Microsoft had in mind. They removed the "up one level" button in favor of a button that gives you a list of your most recently viewed folders. It takes lots more clicking around to get to the folder you want. This is total STUPIDITY.
  
  The wireless networking is so buggy as to be nearly useless. You'll need to continuously reboot your machine to get your connection to work.
  
  You'll come to hate the "whirli-gig" and you'll get lots of NOT RESPONDING messages when you try to launch or use applications. If I had a dollar for every time I got a NOT RESPONDING message, our Dell M1330 laptop would be free by now.
  
  So often, I'll launch an application and the whirli-gig will come on the screen and then I wait . . . and wait . . . and wait . . . and wait. What is this Core Two Duo laptop doing??? VISTA has so many intrusive processes, it is frustrating to even launch an application (and my machine is a 2.4 GHZ Core 2 Duo with 4GB of RAM and a 7200 RPM drive). This machine would fly on XP.
  
  If you enjoy spending lots of time trying to figure out why your machine won't do simple things reliably, if you want to spend lots of time talking to technical support people with thick accents who really can't help you because the operating system is basically JUNK, then by all means buy VISTA.
  
  We are abandoning our VISTA experiment and going back to XP because it is reasonably reliable and because we need to get things done on the computer rather than always battling with its VISTA-isms. VISTA is a huge step backwards for Microsoft and I seriously doubt that Service Pack 1 will be enough to fix such major design flaws. Maybe when they come out with VISTA RELEASE 2 their poor sales will force them to listen to consumers.
  
  I sure wish I could convince all my competitors to buy VISTA machine because it would absorb so much of their resources it would give our business a real boost.
  
  
• Accurate Review from a Masters-Level, 18-Year IT Professional
  By A2VLF9FE68LFX6 on 2008-07-07
  Do NOT believe all the knee-jerk garbage you're hearing about Vista, as 90% of it is being pulled out of thin air by people who obviously never even tried it. Linux and Apple trolls scour the internet for chances to add negative reviews to an operating system they'v never even tried.
  
  Then there are the XP hypocrites who have been using XP for so long that they fear anything new.
  
  Hypocrytes you say? Yup. This same negative "new Windows sucks" propaganda wave happened when Windows 2000 was released in 1999 (nobody wanted "NT") and again when XP was released in 2002 (incompatibility problems, verybody absolutely HATED that "Made by PlaySkool" interface). Everybody hated each of them until the next version of Windows came along. Then, suddenly, they LOVED the older version and tried to cling to it. Not only pathetic, but now very predictable. Vista is just the latest victim.
  
  I have absolutely no love affair with Microsoft, trust me. But it's time for an actual professional with a masters in programming and operating systems to set a few things straight.
  
  Fact: Windows Vista was in development a whole year before Windows XP was even released. Microsoft had been working feverishly on this OS for 6 years at the time of its release. Little id you know that nearly EVERY Microsoft product that comes out is extensively tested by a public usability testing program that is totally seperate from their beta testing program. Microsoft doesn't let anything out the door until all the usability testers (the general public that come to visit the Microsoft facility in Redmond, Wa) say they like it. Vista was OK'd by both internal and external beta testers in addition to the usability test program, or it never would have been released. I have personally done usability testing at Microsoft 17 times now (I like to get my 2 cents in), and I know how this process works. Microsoft releases software BY CONSENSUS, and Vista is what the people themselves ASKED FOR.
  
  Fact: For its entire life, the virus magnet that is known as Windows XP has been solely responsible for the onslaught of spyware, malware and waves of viruses. Not Mac. Not Linux. Not DOS. Not Unix. It was Windows XP. Prior to XP, Windows would see a problem virus come down the pike once in a while. Then XP came along, and we've been swimming in viruses and Malware ever since. Even loaded with antispy and antivirus software, WinXP STILL gets infested and slows to a blue-screening crawl. As you read this on your XP box, I guarentee that you have spyware on your system. Run a scan and see for yourself. If you're just running Windows Defender, I guarentee you're LOADED with it and don't even know it - get better software immediately.
  
  Fact: Though complaints about Vista's UAC are many, the Internet is not filled with Vista users begging to be saved from viruses and spyware they can't recover from. Those poor souls are pretty much all XP users. The Vista users complaing of any viruses and spyware are the ones who turned UAC off or clicked right past the UAC warning prompts without evn reading them.
  
  Fact: OF COURSE Vista is going to be slightly slower than XP on the same machine - just like Windows XP was slower than Windows 2000, which was much slower than Windows NT4, etc. etc. This is the natural way things are SUPPOSED TO BE AS HARDWARE GETS FASTER AND FASTER. C'mon, what do you honestly expect? New operating systems are about new features, not "running faster" on the same hardware (anybody that knows anything about operating systems knows that new versions are NEVER faster than the previous version, no matter what operating system it is - just take a look at any Linux distro or new version of any Mac OS). It's up to HARDWARE to make things run faster, not the OS. Your system is not fast enough to run Vista? THEN GET FASTER HARDWARE LIKE YOU HAD TO DO FOR XP. Has everyone forgotten that today's hardware is anywhere from 4-10 times faster than than the hardware that was available when XP was first released? And that XP absolutely crawled on our systems when it first came out and that we all complained about it? And that Vista runs at virtually the same speed as XP once booted up - only with tons of new features? And that soon you will need a new OS to even be able to operate the dual quads already on the market and the dual octo-core systems right arounnd the corner? C'mon, people, get a grip and get kick that common sense glad into gear.
  
  Fact: Since SP1 came out, Vista runs GREAT. I can run any Win32 program I want in Vista that I install, and as of SP1. I might even be able to run old 16 bit apps now, haven't tried that yet. Thanks to the freeware release of VDMSound, I am running old DOS games under Vista with full sound. I repeat - DOS games. Some of the few remaining software products currently being described as "Non-Vista compatible" can be made to work under Vista if you do a little reading and tweaking.
  
  Fact: Before SP1 came out for XP, XP ran like crap and had tons of compatibility problems. Everybody hated it, even the way it looks. Bet you forgot that.
  
  Fact: Turn UAC (User Access Control) off if you want Vista to behave like XP and not prompt you for confirmations. It's as easy as un-checking a checkbox in Control Panel (User Accounts). Note: This will drop Vista security down to the same "virus magnet/pants down" level as Windows XP, however, so you decide. The nice part is that you CAN decide.
  
  Fact: Are you a gamer? Then you already know that Direct3D (DirectX) 10 is Vista-only. All you XP gamers can sit in your own DX9 drool if you want to. Meanwhile, we Vista users are walking around in DX10 games that look like movies. You oughtta see Crysis with dual nVidias running SLI.
  
  Fact: Think you don't like Vista? Waiting for Windows 7 to come out in Q1 of 2010 (at the earliest without any of Microsoft's now legendary and predictable postponements)? You might be interested in knowing that Windows 7 is merely a re-packaging of Windows Vista - just like Windows XP was a re-packaging of Windows 2000 because 2000 didn't sell well (see for yourself at the command prompt - type "ver" and take note that Windows 2000 is Windows version 5.0 and Windows XP is version 5.1). Windows Vista is version 6.0. Dig up all the screen shots of Windows 7 you can find on the internet - take note that the title is "Windows 7" but the version number is 6.1. In other words, STILL VISTA. So get used to Vista. Better yet, GET Vista, or you'll eventually be two Windows versions behind when 7 comes out - which won't be until 2010 (at the earliest), and then that version of Vista will be around for 5 years until the next version.
  
  Vista's here to stay, folks. You have a choice of slipping into even more obsolescence with XP (which is just Windows 2000 with lipstick, a 9 year old product) or you can move forward with Vista and Win7.
  
  For me personally, Vista has been spoiling me rotten since SP1 came out. Every time I get up from my Vista machines and sit down on my XP machines, it feels like I'm sitting down on a machine in "Safe Mode". Vista makes XP feel old, limited, cumbersome and inadequate. The search functions of Vista alone remove all need for clicking through layers of start menus, even often allowing me to not have to touch the mouse - this alone makes XP feel like an antique. I wont even get into how cool Desktop Search is, SuperFetch, ReadyBoost, or the other many new features that make Vista MUCH faster than XP in many respects. Read that last sentence again, and then look those things up. You may commence drolling on your poor ol' outdated XP box's keyboard.
  
  BTW: No, I do not work for Microsoft, and I have been a huge Linux fan since 1997 (SUSE Linux, to be exact, version 11 is fantastic). I ignore the fact that Linux always takes much longer for apps to load up (and runs clunkier in general) and that both KDE and Gnome always seems to look/work a lot like the latest version of Windows.
  
  
• Candor
  By A3OL775NHQAXOO on 2008-01-20
  It's difficult for me to type this, even now after months of careful reflection. I'm still a relatively young man, and I don't have a family.
  
  I purchased a new laptop from a Dell affiliate and Vista Home was pre-installed. After a few short days, I upgraded to the "Enterprise" edition. I can't say with certainty if the forthcoming review is an accurate statement on the "Home" edition as my experience was so limited.
  
  The aforementioned events took place about 7 months ago, so I'm a bit foggy on my initial impression of the O.S. In addition, since I installed the O.S. my drinking has increased tenfold. Maybe the tendency was already there, but I would like to think something pushed me to the drink, rather than some predisposition. Specifically, I'm quite confident that "something" was Windows Vista.
  
  Most reviews of the O.S. are bad, and I agree with every one of the sentiments and specific technical problems mentioned above. I'm not going to waste your time re-hashing the wireless internet connectivity failures, blue screen on reboot, routine tasks that now take many times longer than they did under XP, lack of NVidia compatibility, the fact that when you defrag it says something to the effect of "this will take several minutes to several hours" rather than give you a simple status bar, etc...What the reviews fail to communicate effectively, however, is the extreme and outrageous turmoil a man endeaurs when subjecting himself to the O.S.
  
  When navigating the O.S., you are frequently subjected to a barrage of tedium that you have likely not experienced in many years, if at all. The reason is that rudimentary functions on which you have come to rely either a) no longer work or; b) work very poorly, and by that I mean, SLOWLY. It is not infrequent, and frankly, it is not limited to a few obscure functions that I feel could be corrected with a patch/update...Unfortunately, the entire kernel of the O.S. seems to be fundamentally flawed. I've heard that the O.S. is very resource demanding, which logically implies that furnishing it with a substantial rig should fix the problems...I disagree. First of all, my computer is top of the line. Secondly, the problems cited in all of these reviews are not indicative of hardware limitations...they're indicative of lousy programming. There's no reason why cutting and pasting has to be more tedious than threading a needle while drunk (I should know, sadly).
  
  The bottom line is this: Previous to my experience with Vista, I had a relatively tranquil and traditional personal life. Since my experience, however, I am alone and drunk about 90% of the time. My friends and family have abandoned me because apparently I've "changed." For the most part they're right...I have changed. Maybe Vista was the one example of depravity that finally broke my spirit. I can't say that I'm unhappy overall, but I don't know that society needs more people like me...
  
  Save yourself and your family. Do not use Windows Vista. This is very serious, and I mean this with every ounce of what's left of my soul. I have lost so much and feel I now have an obligation to teach others what I know; And to try with what's left of my life to find a goodness and a meaning to this life.
  
  
  
  
  
• A real review
  By A18YAN2YVPLX5R on 2008-03-18
  First off I want to respond to the previous users who have upgraded your pc's from Vista, obviously not a good idea whatsoever, you always want a clean copy of xp or system restore the laptop/desktop if you bought a name brand PC.
  People who are experiencing freezing, what are you guys talking about? There is obviously something wrong with your pc's. I have a Sony Vaio with 2GB of RAM and a Core 2 Duo T5600 with Business on it, and the thing works very very well.
  Programs not working? Yea, only some of them if they require specific drivers that aren't developed for Vista. People saying Itunes, Firefox and other programs like that don't work, you've got to be extremely dumb not to realize that everything works perfectly. All the programs work listed above and even more now.
  Service Pack 1 will be released soon enough to fix any minor issues that haven't yet been fixed.
  If you don't know how to turn things off in the control panel, like UAC you probably should have someone do it for you. That is there for your protection.
  Windows Aero, can also be turned off if you don't like its little featuers like the popup windows and flipping.
  My Background:
  I have 6 computers running all versions from Home Premium to Ultimate of Vista and I have only had minor driver issues, with my sound card. THATS IT. Every company that I know of has perfectly stable drivers for most devices. People who say they can't find drivers for their printers and or other devices must be something that company doesn't support anymore and or they haven't looked in the correct places.
  
  Speed? I haven't noticed anything different, but I guess there obviously would be differences because Aero does take more memory to run the 3D interface.
  
  Epilisy? Uhh I suggest you go to a doctor, or stop using computers all together if you have this issue. And by the way its under mouse features.
  
  
• No Problems here...
  By A181WZ2IC9JQNC on 2008-01-22
  Configuration: Toshiba Satellite P100-9742 Core 2 Duo, 4GB RAM, 120GB Hard drive, 512MB video RAM.
  
  I got a free upgrade to Vista Business from Toshiba for this laptop, originally sold with XP. XP Pro worked great. I decided to do a clean install using upgrade media - you know the drill: boot from the DVD, install clean from scratch without specifying a product key, then do an "upgrade" the same way, this time specifying the key. The problem was, Toshiba didn't supply a bootable DVD. So, I had to borrow a 'normal' Vista distribution DVD (either full install or upgrade dvd will do), which then worked fine.
  
  After installing my applications - all of which worked, including Nero 7 - I had a working Vista installation. There have been no lockups, slowdowns, blue screens or other problems in over 2 weeks.
  
  I must admit that even though I'm happy with Vista, in that it runs without problems (so far) and has a bit more polish on the user interface, I find it hard to find any compelling reason to spend money on this upgrade. If I hadn't gotten the upgrade 'free' from Toshiba, I wouldn't have been moved to spend the extra dollars to do this upgrade. XP had worked flawlessly then, as does Vista now, but the difference isn't worth the cost in my opinion.
  
  My 5-star rating is for the 'upgrade' experience and for the final performance of Vista, both of which are superior. The *value* of the upgrade is what I question.
  
  
  
  
  
• VISTA- Apple's most compelling secret weapon
  By AJPH8OQSWKR7K on 2008-02-10
  Disgusting! After 5 years in the making, and promises of a super-duper search engine (that they couldn't get to work in the end), this is just creaky non-productive yet indcrediby expensive flash-in-the-pan stuff. I have to rely on Windows to use my business software. For starters, all office machines needed at least 2 GB RAM to run all those decorative see-through windows (who really cares). It's slow, buggy, already needs dozens of fixes and - hopefully - an SP1 release to address the worst. The annoying 'permissions' dialog requires you to sit in front of the computer, particularly if your office is networked; 'activation' is better called 'aggravation' - seems you are stealing their copyrights - and viruses and worms still infest the system because the browser (incrediby, really) was integrated into the operating system, thereby offering a direct pipeline into the kernel innards.
  
  There is no instruction manual other than pages of denial of user rights. Customer service is "help yourself" via the (highly technical) Knowlege Base ... you've got to be a bit of a geek to start messing in the registry after digesting those pages of legalese that fully protect the company, but offer no warranties for the hapless consumer.
  
  Enough said - Apple's Bootcamp now lets you install and run both Mac and Win operating systems (go back to XP/SP2!), elegantly executing the occasional Windows program such as Quicken or games. Leopard now is a de facto dual operating system product. Goodbye Bill Gates, hello Steve Jobs!
  
  
  
• VISTA = MILLENIUM EDITION
  By AUNBSSKCBPQZ6 on 2008-02-18
  Purchase from Amazon went without trouble: Item shipped quickly and arrived complete and safe.
  
  Installation went without trouble on a Intel motherboard based, Dual Core, 2 Gig machine. Be sure to update all of Intel's drivers and software.
  
  I can't tell much about software compatibility issues: This machine is used by my accountant, and only runs Quickbooks and Office. And so far, runs them well.
  
  Microsoft promised A LOT for this version of Windows. However, as far as I can tell, the transition from Windows-XP to Windows-Vista felt almost as Windows-98 to Windows-ME: Some fixes and features were added, many things got broken. Given that, I believe it's over-priced software. And us, users, feel like beta-testers of an unfinished product, which upon fixing, Microsoft will probably sell to us in the future as another new version of Windows.
  
  
• You will be sorry
  By A2CDM45LL7S5XR on 2008-03-18
  The worst thing you could do to your business is install windows vista on any of you machines. Vista is a bloated, slow, buggy piece of junk that could ruin your business. Stick with XP and don't even think about Microjunk vista. I would give it zero stars as a rating, if I could. May bill gates burn inhell.
  
  
• It Really Is That Bad
  By A33SFSEVHL5SHK on 2008-07-06
  I wouldn't have bought it voluntarily, but a few months ago I needed a new notebook and had a hard time finding what I wanted with XP installed on it. So I took a chance on one with Vista. What I found is that the negative commentary about Vista is all too true; if anything, Vista's critics are too kind. What can you say for a new OS in which one of the most basic functions---Search---is literally unable to find files by their exact names? I've never found one file on my notebook using Search. And although Vista's graphical interface is undeniably attractive (this explains my 2 stars), most notebooks don't come with the memory to run it. I upgraded to 2 GB in order to make it usable. Even though I'm aware that Microsoft and their PC manufacturer hostages always pull this trick, it still rankles when an expensive new business notebook is pretty much useless for basic word / email / spreadsheet programs with 1 gb of ram installed. Even with 2 GB I had to do a lot of streamlining, tuning, and tweaking to get Vista to run smoothly. Forgive me for clinging to the antiquated idea that this is the software designers' job, not mine. Thankfully there is a lot of information online showing how to do all of this, but it shouldn't be so necessary.
  
  I'm not sure why anyone would pay for Vista as an upgrade or stand alone OS installation if they have a choice. Maybe by SP3 the people at MS will have this thing straightened out, but of course by then they'll have moved on to their next OS nightmare, expecting all of us to come along too. What fools we all are.
  
  
• Vista on Mac
  By A3Q2HW41XACQAA on 2008-03-25
  I've installed Vista on Mac using "Boot Camp" for the purpose of running one business software that I own. Vista works flawlessly both native and Virtual on the IMac 2.8GHz Intel Core 2 Extreme 4GB RAM allocating only 32GB to the partition - I would recommend about 80 GB. Running Visa in Virtual - i think - is awesome and you can easily allocate addtional RAM on the fly.
  I would admit that vista is slightly buggy compared to xp and installing a wireless Lexmark commercial printer was a breeze using vista. It was almost as quick as the Mac and xp takes about 45 minutes to set up. Point is, vista is a great improvement over xp. I purchased an OEM product for about 100.00 less.
  Final word - Is it worth updating xp? For my purposes it would not help me in anyway, but when I order more Macs, I will most certainly install Vista on all of them. OEM software is great because it does not come with any, nada, nothing, no junk software and it is about half the price at NewEgg.
  
  

• Windows Vista All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies (For Dummies (Computer/Tech))
• Windows Vista Inside Out
• Special Edition Using Microsoft Windows Vista (Special Edition Using)
• PC World
• Microsoft Windows Vista Instructor-based Video Training

• Parallels Desktop 3.0 for Mac [OLD VERSION]
• Microsoft Office Professional 2007 FULL VERSION
• VMware Fusion [OLD VERSION]
• Microsoft Office Standard 2007 FULL VERSION
• Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007