Windows Vista Windows Vista - Still a great option!

I am not saying that you should buy it

My point is: is it or is it not worth the upgrade to Windows 7?...

I did purchase a number of copies of Vista. After years of using Vista, I can compare it with Windows XP and Windows 7. Actually, in some of my computers, Vista and 7 share the boot condition (in separate but identical hard disks).

This is only a short article and a very user-oriented one. So, if you are a "regular" user, you may be able to draw some use of it.

I grew tired of having to re-install Windows 9x from scratch every 6 months or so. However, in defense of Windows 9x, I must say that it was a piece of cake, less than half an hour on a slowish PC. All you needed was a copy of your Windows and Documents and Settings folders, plus the Program Files folder. The Documents and Settings folder was mainly not needed, unless something was really messed up with Internet or preferences (basically, the Internet temporary files and the personal copy of the registry "User.Dat" and stuff like that, which usually you did not need to bother about - but always nice to have a backup. The whole procedure was simple:
To make the backup you would simply boot into DOS (better from a Diskette with just the basic stuff, or a CD, equally basic), copy the system folders with another name and then, if a restore was needed (when, better saying...), simply boot again from plain old DOS simply delete the Windows and Progam Files folders, rename the previously made copies to their original names, reboot... And Done!...

Not so easy for Windows XP... from Windows XP onwards, the mighty Registy and the specificallities of the boot stuff invalidated all that and created more problems, recovery-wise.

I will skip and not even mention the problems assotiated with multiple boot systems in the same hard disk. I always reccommend that boot partitions exist in separate hard disks. You cannot even imagine the value of this approach... Until you need it. And you will.

Did I just say something like "no dual-boot in laptops "?... I certainly did - unless you have a Mac with Bootcamp, of course.

So, in my life with XP, Vista and 7, how did each one fare?...

XP was and is the least attractive one. The only reason why I kept it so long (in dual boot first and then in a virtual machine) was a compatiibility one: games!!!

XP was the least stable of the three. It was with XP that I first became addicted to disk imaging programs!

If you want peace of mind... Get a good disk imaging program and USE IT! Like once every forthnight at least.

So, Vista came, much nicer, and I got addicted... Only to be deceived big style in the compatibility department (again, I love games...).

It was just tears and sorrow... Until Vista SP 1 came out!... It is now at SP 2, but SP 1 was the turning point. Suddenly, compatibility became even better than with XP (that's true, especially for 95 and 98) and other improvements in stability came to play.

So, I was (am) happy with Vista post-SP 1.

Well, not totally!!! I had the following IMPORTANT PROBLEMS that I was, due to the prevident policy that I adopt, ready to deal with.

First of all, I have in Vista and 7 access to the Adimistrator account (which I enabled, ask me how, if you want it - or Google it, it's really quite simple).

In Vista I had my User Account vanished!... Yes, it simply disppeared.
Logging in with the other Administrator Account, I verified that ALL my User folder with User.dat and all other important stuff was still there.

I have lost some preferences and info (not critical at all) but I was able to recover, by renaming my old profile folder with the Administrator Account, then re-creating my account, then deleting this new profile's files and renaming the old User folder to my name again. Upon rebooting, I had it all back. Whew!...

i also found that in my main Vista installtion it finally stopped working properly.

I had to recover by proceding to a full re-install with User/programs data loss. Maybe this could be avoided, but I stopped trusting that installation.

But a whole lot bett er than XP, I tell you!!!

So, my experience with Windows Vista is all around positive.


And now we come to 7.

OK. Got several PC with 7, mainly portables, they came with it, or I did swap it later.

It is a lot nicer visually but nothing to write home about.

On the compatibility side, it loses to Vista. I still struggle with programs that I run great in Vista.

Stability. It just seems a lot more stable than Vista, after about the same usage time it still runs without worries.

Speed. Bulls..t.

All this hype about 7 being faster than Vista is just bull. I have them installed, same PC, same model/year of disk, same programs and hardware drivers and... You simply cannot tell the difference!... It's SLOW to start, period. Both of them. Just like OSX Lion became slower to start than Leopard. It's all hype. Simply put, the number of programs, drivers and services at startup is every day bigger and bigger - how come that would not have a cost?...


All in all, my take is:

Postpone your upgrade from Vista to 7. You might be able to skip right into 8 and save some money.

I would very much know about other people's experiences with Vista and 7 in co-existence (different machines may invalidate comparisons).


Thanks for reading.

 

I went from Win. XP Sp3 to Win 7. I will not use anything but Windows 7 Ultimate on my machines. Love it.

 

Yup, for people who have Vista there is no point going upto Win 7 now. Better wait for Win 8 [or whatever MS calls it].

 

I would say the same... Except for the word "much ".
Yes, 7 is much more stable, that I concede. IMO, that is the real benefit of 7: I had not yet to rebuild any W7 PC, and that may or may not stand true given more time. So far, so good. Again, I use 32 and 64-bit versions, with no obvious difference except in backward compatibility (32-bit being obviously more backward compatible)

 

Nice write-up WiseMax, thanks for sharing your experiences.

It's nice to find someone with (willing to pen their) positive experiences.

I held off and jumped from Win 98 to Vista for my main computer. All the time watching reviews of Windows XP, using it on (my) other computers and being expected to fix it. Vista is working fine for me.

My Vista has been super-stable, yet I minimise installing any programs I don't need. I investigate any programs I am thinking of installing and now, compared to the past, a lot of third-party programs are now "well-tuned" to Vista, so anyone reading this might want to check if there are upgrades available for their applications.

I found Vista quite buggy with networking before SP1. After SP1 networking was no problem. Aside: I expect people will find networking problems with cross-platform operating systems, I had it with 98 vs 2000.

One thing I think to watch out for is that Vista "defaults" to Sleep rather than Shut-down. Windows 7 Start -> Power Button now shuts down the computer, Vista's sends it Sleep. Sleep relies on saving the system to RAM. MS might appear to veering away from saving to Sleep. [You can only save so much of the system to RAM, otherwise it can crash going into or coming out of Sleep.]

Matt

 

Control Panel> Power options> Left Pane: "Chose what the power buttons do "
Might Work for U.

 

For what?

 

Mr Bill, AirHead is probably referring to my last post about the difference between the default action of Windows from going to Start (Orb) -> "power button ". I don't understand the change from sending the system to sleep in Vista, to a straight shut-down in Windows 7.

The default Windows "power button" settings can be changed (as AirHead is suggesting).

Matt