Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit for System Builders [DVD] Reviews

• If you need a new computer

  
  By A26PXT2T01LBSF on 2007-02-26
  there's no reason not to get a Vista box. It's fairly stable, but not without it's bugs. In the 2 weeks I've been using it, I would say it runs into more problems than XP. But recovering from those pitfalls is smoother than XP. On the whole, it's a wash as an upgrade.
  
  If you have a stable XP box that meets your needs, there's no compelling reason to make the switch. The software is on the pricey side, but the expense is not limited to that alone. To get the most from the new bells and whistles of the Premium edition, you'll probably need to upgrade some hardware for the new Aero graphic interface.
  
  Some of Aero is nice. The sidebar gadgets are nifty, as is the flip between windows feature. OTOH, the transparent title bars get old after a few days and it locks you into a default lilac color scheme for the menubars and whatnot. You can revert to a classic window layout with complete control over the appearance, but it takes away Aero's nicer features when you do. I'd much prefer it if I could keep the sidebar and window flip, without being tied to Aero's window appearance. Maybe they'll fix this annoyance in a future upgrade, then again, maybe they won't.
  
  By far, the biggest annoyance with this OS is the security 'feature' designed to protect your computer from - you. Sometimes it seems you click more warning and approval boxes than you do just using the computer. You can disable this completely - at a price. It can cause some software - such as Adobe Acrobat to not install. Like with the Aero feature, it's all or nothing. There are no in between settings. Switching back and forth between the settings also carries a price. After the required reboot, many personal settings, passwords, cookies, etc are gone. The thing to do is to set up a user account with each setting and switch back and forth as needed. Again, maybe they will fix this aggravation in a future upgrade.
  
  Sooner or later, all PC users will be using this OS. It's inescapable and we all know it. That said, there is nothing about Vista Home Premium that should make you feel any need to rush into it.
  
  

• It's ok, but u can only use it forever on just 1 pc.

  
  By A3I9GLO19EX6JF on 2007-05-20
  well, i ordered this system builder ver. of vista home premium, but changed my mind & went w/ the FULL VERSION vista home premium, in case my hard drive bombs, or 1 guy even said that if u swap out your motherboard, the single system vista won't recognize or work w/ what it considers the 'new' system. i recommend to buy the fullv version vista as a releif to your mind.
  
  

• Buyer beware

  
  By A2KVTZPSA0C1V8 on 2007-02-16
  vista home 32 premium OEM is OK.
  Just be sure that your hardware is relatively new.
  My Lexmark printer and Sound Blaster Live card are
  not going to be supported in this OS. If your happy
  with your system and arent buying a new computer for awhile
  get the OEM its cheaper and is the same as the $100 more on.
  I recommend waiting to buy Vistas till the first service pack
  comes out, Vistas is still unstable. I am getting Blue Screens
  of Death daily (yeah they brought it back, grrr). But it did fix
  problems that I had with my video card and once more companies make
  their product Vistas compatible I would give this product 4 stars.
  No 5 stars since they released a product far far to early.
  
  

• Works great on Dell laptops!

  
  By AR050RED6Z13O on 2007-02-12
  So, I bought this for my Dell Inspiron 9300 laptop and it installed flawlessly. It replaced a OEM version of XP that came with the machine, so what better way to upgrade than with a OEM version of Vista? I just couldn't justify spending the full amount for the retail version. This is the same exact thing. If you don't plan on moving it to another system (which, I've never heard of people doing that anyway) then get this system builder's version. It's the cheapest here and with free shipping, you can't beat it.
  
  

• So far so good

  
  By A3SRSLM7HD3YZ8 on 2007-05-09
  I bought the OEM version for my Mac Mini. I installed it under Boot Camp 1.2 and it works fine. Aero looks great and it runs very good. No issues yet. I use the OS for compatibility and I'm still a Flight Simulator fan so I use it for that. However I still use OS X for my mission critical programs. For an Intel Mac - I highly recommend.
  
  
• OEM Price is right
  By A1B7J1NVRR2YVN on 2007-03-08
  Having used the beta since last year, I kind of new what I was getting. I enjoy it very much, though I still have some reasonably small complaints.
  
  I wouldn't really recommend for the masses though as I think XP is still a very good system. The difference between Windows 98 and XP was huge and made it worth installing a new OS. I really can't say the same for Vista. Bells & Whistles and security are improved no doubt, but the average consumer really doesn't need them or the upgrade it'll take in hardware to do so.
  
  Having said the above, If you got XP keep it and maybe get a "Vista Transformation Pack" to give you the look.
  
  
• To vista or not to vista.
  By A33V9HJH40C8YZ on 2007-03-19
  I'd been running vista beta releases since October 06, so I knew what I was getting into when I decided to purchase this. So I'll list the reasons I decided to buy the retail and hopefully that will help you with your decision.
  1. Media. If you don't have issue with DRM, then Vista's Media Center and cohesiveness with Media Player 11 make this a great buy. You do not have to have an analog tuner to have a HD Tuner in Vista Media Center which is a great improvement over 2005.
  
  2. Beautiful GUI. Microsoft does what it has always done and takes the best features from other OSs and incorporates it into its own. Here Microsoft has taken Linux and OSX graphics, multiple desktop features, and general ease of use and put them into this release.
  
  Now for the not so great; downloading and installing applications from the net requires response to 4 dialog boxes to do so. Rather expensive to upgrade all of your systems to. New OS so expect bugs and security issues down the road.
  
  I really like the look and feel of Vista, and enjoy having it on my set up. I currently use this for a dual boot system so I can switch between XP as needed, since compatibility is not 100%. Vista is a bit of a resource hog, so you need to exceed in all of the system requirements.
  
  
• Great, but not for pc hardware more than a year old !!
  By A11Y478PJDW2QV on 2007-05-06
  It's fast, cool looking, & more stable than XP BUT if you have a pc with any hardware thats more than a year old you take your chances.
  The problem is DRIVERS !! while Vista has a pretty large
  built-in driver base there are many video cards, soundcards
  network cards, printers,digital cameras, usb devices etc that have no driver support and probably never will.
  This is not all Vists'a fault, the oem manufacturers of these items
  want you to buy their new models and don't want to spend the $$ to
  re-write drivers for Vista. While some of the XP drivers will work
  they can also make Vista unstable and prone to freeze (especially USB devices) which kinda defeats the purpose of getting Vista.
  
  
  
• Stunning upgrade from Windows XP!
  By AMHIBGQ1RM65A on 2007-09-01
  The negative reports you read about Vista are most probably two things: 1. The computer being installed into is rather legacy and needs to be upgraded or improved with more memory. 2. The upgrader, whether clean install or update, should get some help. Vista is *miles* and a significant improvement over XP. It is more stable than XP because the video hardware is not directly linked to the OS kernal (and audio) Vista rocks in my Macbook Pro 2.2 even with the stock ram and I have not gotten one crash or error since I put it in (weeks). Too much to list that has been improved. How many years can a person stare at Windows XP? This is refreshing. It is a beautiful operating system with many add-on features. Organized more sensibly and has impressive video effects. Do not listen to the sheik negative reports on the OS - Vista is an amazing upgrade and in my computer, runs as well as OSX 10.4. Macbook Pro runs it amazingly well, though I will say that Apple configured the drivers for Vista for the Macbook Pro by burning on a CD from Bootcamp. Amazingly impressed and quited me down somewhat of the far superiority of OSX, being, I really like both. I DO use VMware Fusion beside clean boot into Vista allowing me to run Windows in the OSX desktop or just Windows apps. Parallels bogged the system downed and I overwrote the Bootcamp partition (Vista) with a backup and installed VMware that works perfectly and fast. (interestingly enough, VMware Fusion is 160+ megs and Parallels around 80, so much more coding and it shows though one cannot judge alone with size of product, with Parallels taking almost a half-hour to load drivers was quite annoying and was shaky in my view) "Wait for the SP1 before buying" is nonsense because any material tweak or fix of the system would be available by using Windows update before a service pack if needed by unique users that have reported a specific problem with a specific system and Microsoft-verified.
  
  
• Do Not Buy Anything from TigerDirect even through Amazon
  By A2FQLGT3IHD6QY on 2007-03-08
  As noted ordered a 3 pack of software.
  Was shipped only a single pack.
  Amazon could not help as order was through TigerDirect.
  Finally got to Tiger customer service and was told price
  was a "typo". (Note "typo" was on PriceGrabber, Amazon and
  TigerDirects own website.)
  Was told nothing could be done, get and RMA number and return
  if not wanted. Was lied to by c/s agent that said I would be reimbursed for return shipping. Emailed receipt for cost of return shipping and
  was told they would not reimburse cost.
  
  Bait and Switch at its best. Best advice NEVER order anything from
  TigerDirect even through Amazon.
  
  
  
  
  
• Vista is a great.
  By A273N7S4UCVGAM on 2007-04-20
  This oem version of Vista Home Premium is great. Vista is miles better to look at then XP and all my programs work great. If they don't just run them in compatibility mode as if it were XP. There are a lot of great features built into Vista that you have to use programs for in XP. Over all, I really like Vista, and am glad I bought it at this cheap oem price.
  
  
• Not worth the upgrade particularly with Paralells
  By A23TY8BVT4C43U on 2007-07-12
  I bought this in order to be able to use it on my iMac using the paralells virtuall machine. The aero interface and hardware acceleration isn't available yet. Obviously part of this is due to the virtual machine software but even standing on its own Vista isn't ready for prime time yet.
  
  
  
• Excellent result
  By A1V5CGIT4ZWEYZ on 2007-12-30
  I purchased this OED version of Windows Home Premium to install on my new iMac because it was about $100 less than the cost of the 'full' version. It installed easily and without problems, and works wonderfully. My concern that I am not really the builder of a new computer and that perhaps I would not be permitted to install this operating system on an iMac proved to be unfounded. For the record, Apple makes it so difficult for a long time user of Windows systems to learn how to use their Leopard system that I'd certainly not advise anyone to switch from Windows to a Mac.
  
  
• Vista Home Ultimate OEM
  By A97P8D0V0K0BY on 2008-02-28
  I was afraid to jump to Vista after hearing about bugs and the 'new' cumbersome interface. After finding Vista Home Premium OEM on Amazon for $100 I decided to give it a shot. I purchased a video card, so I was complying with the bundled hardware clause for OEM software! All I can say is, if you have trouble with XP, and can run Vista on your machine, do it. I was running XP Pro on an AMD-3500 with 2gigs of ram, 2x GeForce 6800's in SLI, and a 4x80G SATA RAID 0+1 array. I was constantly losing my RAID array, and ruled out everything but drivers and OS. I would have weekly RAID rebuilds. And don't even mention BSOD's, XP has them in spades. Well i can safely say, Vista is not plagued by these woes. IT picked up my RAID setup right away, and i've only crashed it 2x in 3 months, each time due to hard shut downs before the drives sync'd so it just had to rebuild upon reboot. And no more BSOD's, Vista seems to be able to isolate corrupt threads and just kill them. It just kills the offending app and goes back to the desktop. With XP i was used to a BSOD or lock up several times a week. With Vista, i've only had a couple of hard resets needed, and any software crashes, are limted to the application. Vista stays up stable, and ready to just restart the app that crashed. My only vista problem has been static in my sound. Since i'm running an unsupported Mobo, i can only blame myself! I'm investigating my DX10 install, to make sure i have not hosed a driver. Just Do IT!
  
  
• Company did not stand behind their advertised price
  By A2Z69KZON39TI0 on 2007-04-02
  Tiger Direct and/or Amazon screwed up and advertised this item at an incorrect price, a much lower one than they had meant to. They refused to stand behind their mistake. If this had been a reputable brick and mortar retailer, they would have acknowledged their mistake, but still sold the item at the lower price to anyone who had ordered it before the mistake was rectified.
  
  
• It's ok
  By A17WC9G26XD8UX on 2007-05-15
  I have to always have the latest technology so I spent my money on Vista. It's a pretty decent o/s, except not a whole lot has changed. If you're switching because you want all the new eye candy, you're better off switching to a linux distro like ubuntu and using xgl/compiz and beryl or just buying a mac.
  
  
• Works great!
  By A203Z9VXIB95W0 on 2007-12-22
  I just finished building a new computer and need an operating system. My old computer was a cheap Emachines that only came with a recovery DVD which you can't use on any other computer. I searched around and read alot of complaints about Vista but I decided to try it. It was very easy to install, everything was automatic! I have been using it for over a month now and haven't had a single problem with it. Its fast and has very easy to use features! This System Builders version is alot cheaper with everything that the retail version has! I would buy the 32-bit version because there isn't alot of support for the 64-bit version yet.
  
  
• Don't get what you see
  By A221Y9QCB4RDZU on 2008-06-20
  when I'd order my item I sow a totally wrong picture of it they show an original Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit for System Builders [DVD] picture, and they send me a operating system disc that works whit gateway computers only, (used) that was some thing I can not used at all.
  
  
• Very Pleased
  By A3JE4BZFUKEJ6J on 2007-03-31
  I've been using Vista since the Beta came out last year. I just installed Home Premium on my system and its been prefect. One note for power users you definitely want at least a Gig of RAM this baby loves it.
  
  
• Great for home use
  By A3F84EU6YX5CJK on 2007-07-29
  I think Windows Vista is an improvement over XP in many ways. It does seem to run some games like "WOW" a little slower than XP, but it mite be a drive issue with my video card. I work in printing there still are not print drivers for our canon and xerox printers. I think if you don't have mission critical projects Vista should be great. Just make sure drivers and software are ready before buying Vista.
  
  

• PC World
• Windows Vista: The Definitive Guide
• Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium UPGRADE [DVD] [OLD VERSION]
• Smartlink Cable
• Microsoft Windows Vista Business UPGRADE [DVD] [OLD VERSION]

• VMware Fusion [OLD VERSION]
• Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Quad-Core Processor, 2.40 GHz, 8M L2 Cache, LGA 775
• Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007
• Mac OS X Version 10.5.4 Leopard
• Parallels Desktop 3.0 for Mac [OLD VERSION]