Windows Vista

**Wolffe** · 02-01-2007 09:28 AM

Originally Posted by Kaniaz

I've just ordered Vista Ultimate on premium dispatch. I'll have it by Friday. We'll see what it's like then.
[/b]

Version of Ultimate - GO!

**TweaK** · 02-01-2007 03:30 PM

I must say, besides some icon and notification sound changes, I don't really notice any differences between RC2 and RTM beside some in speed.

**Ne-yo** · 02-02-2007 06:44 AM

I must say I have to pinch myself to make sure I am not dreaming but Vista has been by far the most stable Microsoft OS I have ever used. Keep it up Billy Gates.

**Tsen** · 02-02-2007 08:19 AM

Sounds good. I'm excited to give it a try, but it looks like it's going to be after an upgrade to my PC. Need more hard drive space, but my power supply's not up to the task (cruddy 250 W that's having a hard enough time with a stock computer with only a wireless card added). And if I upgrade that, I might as well switch the motherboard so I can upgrade the graphics card, and if I'm going through all that I might as well be building a new PC.

**Wolffe** · 02-02-2007 09:46 AM

Originally Posted by Tsen

Sounds good. I'm excited to give it a try, but it looks like it's going to be after an upgrade to my PC. Need more hard drive space, but my power supply's not up to the task (cruddy 250 W that's having a hard enough time with a stock computer with only a wireless card added). And if I upgrade that, I might as well switch the motherboard so I can upgrade the graphics card, and if I'm going through all that I might as well be building a new PC.
[/b]

Ohh I know the feeling all too well.

**Kaniaz** · 02-02-2007 12:59 PM

That feeling is progress!

Vista Ultimate arrived today by the postman (who is called Bob, if anyone's interested). I think the hardest thing so far was opening the case, which is really small and fiddly. I found the iPod case to be diabolical - it sort of opens from the top so the iPod nearly shot out when I did figure it out. It wasn't clever, it was more like a damn puzzle box. But anyway.

It's upgrading now. It has "copied windows files" and is "gathering files", whatever that means. And it's being pretty slow about this stage, but it did say it could take up to several hours [ugh] to complete. I think this is probably because I'm upgrading and not doing a clean install, but hey. The box actually came with both 32-bit and 64-bit DVDs, so that was nice.

I haven't heard satanic voices screaming "you are entering DRM hell" just yet, but I've got my penguin cross dipped in open source kool-aid juice and GCC compiler at the ready like any sensible person would have.

**Kaniaz** · 02-02-2007 03:47 PM

And now it's installed. It did wind up taking a few hours, probably because I was upgrading from a RC. The new sounds are a little strange but nowhere near as irritating as XP's were.

I haven't had a single driver needed installing, I wasn't asked a single setup question (apart from if I wanted to check for updates or not right at the start), and I went for a shower halfway through. Your mileage is likely to vary, because I bet if you come from XP or a full installation from a clear partition it would have to ask questions. But if that's not simple, I don't know what is. I wish it could've been a bit faster though.

I'm now also downloading a bunch of updates and two Ultimate Extras already released - Texas Hold'em and some EFS/Bitlocker enhancements that don't really matter to me. There is pretty little in the way of differences from RC2 to RTM. I haven't had any pains with Vista, so that's good.

**Ne-yo** · 02-04-2007 01:36 AM

This is the one, This particular installation will go donw in Dreamviews history for all the world to see.

I don't know about you guys but when Kaniaz made this particular statement..
Yup this is the one..

Originally Posted by Kaniaz

Vista Ultimate arrived today by the postman (who is called Bob, if anyone's interested).[/b]

I heard, in the background the pitter pat of a silent drum roll. The clouds parted way and Champange rained from the Heavens. It just gave me that warm and Fuzzy Feeling inside. Kaniaz did you sniff the inside of the box? Because there is nothing like the Smell of A Fresh New O.S. on an early afternoon Day.

So GO GO GO!!! and Pimp that new O.S. Show it who's the boss around these parts

With all that being said. It's been a while, I believe you have a good feel for it. SO tell us what's your favorite new features? The 3D Page Flipping or the way windows "drop" away when you close them or could it be the new Aero look, maybe it's the SPEED!! Maybe none of the above for ya. Yeah I know what you like best. It's written all over your face, you love the incredible amount of built in drivers and support for old hardware don't ya? Haha.. It's a wonderful Life.

Have fun and enjoy!!!

**MSG** · 02-04-2007 04:05 AM

Originally Posted by Ne

This is the one, This particular installation will go donw in Dreamviews history for all the world to see.

I don't know about you guys but when Kaniaz made this particular statement..
Yup this is the one..
I heard, in the background the pitter pat of a silent drum roll. The clouds parted way and Champange rained from the Heavens. It just gave me that warm and Fuzzy Feeling inside. Kaniaz did you sniff the inside of the box? Because there is nothing like the Smell of A Fresh New O.S. on an early afternoon Day.

So GO GO GO!!! and Pimp that new O.S. Show it who's the boss around these parts

With all that being said. It's been a while, I believe you have a good feel for it. SO tell us what's your favorite new features? The 3D Page Flipping or the way windows "drop" away when you close them or could it be the new Aero look, maybe it's the SPEED!! Maybe none of the above for ya. Yeah I know what you like best. It's written all over your face, you love the incredible amount of built in drivers and support for old hardware don't ya? Haha.. It's a wonderful Life.

Have fun and enjoy!!!

[/b]

I have no clue if that's sucking up, sarcasm, jealousy, overenthusiasm, or what - so I'm just going to try and ignore this.

**Kaniaz** · 02-04-2007 01:48 PM

Kaniaz did you sniff the inside of the box?[/b]

Only twenty times.

**TweaK** · 02-04-2007 07:16 PM

Originally Posted by MSG

I have no clue if that's sucking up, sarcasm, jealousy, overenthusiasm, or what - so I'm just going to try and ignore this.
[/b]

Me neither, I found that post really, and I mean really, awkward.

**BohmaN** · 02-04-2007 09:55 PM

Don't have time to read but....
Is VISTA considerably better than XP?

**Tsen** · 02-04-2007 10:38 PM

...read the thread.
You don't have time to read, I don't have time to summarize.

**MSG** · 02-05-2007 12:18 AM

Originally Posted by BohmaN

Don't have time to read but....
Is VISTA considerably better than XP?
[/b]

Depends on what you mean by considerably.

To be honest, grandma wouldn't exactly notice any difference between the two besides the look. Even then she wouldn't care. For the average user, Vista isn't worth the money to upgrade. When buying a new computer, should they get Vista instead of XP? Definately. But for now, it's not important. Not until programs start switching over.

For the more advanced user, then definately. Vista, in my opinion, has more teeny tiny improvements scattered about, and not much more huge features. For instance, the networking has been improved tremendously. The new start menu / explorer interface is amazing. The control panel has been completely redone, the fact that it's searchable being even better. Could I ever go back to XP? Hardly, I've got two computers, one fast one with XP and one not so fast one with Vista, I find myself using the Vista one despite the obvious performance benefits of the faster computer. That computer has since turned into a remote storage machine, basically.

There's no "WOW" when you first get Vista (unless you're upgrading from 98 or something), however, over time, it starts to set in. For instance, you don't find yourself looking for files the day you get it, and SuperFetch has no program usage data to use in speeding up your system. I've hardly been inconvenienced when using Vista, the only thing I don't like is the annoyance of UAC, and that's it really.

Vista is more of a move to restandardize computers (getting rid of compiled html help, for example) than an upgrade for the customers, but it's a big enough upgrade for me, and that's why I use it.

**Kaniaz** · 02-05-2007 12:05 PM

...read the thread.
You don't have time to read, I don't have time to summarize.[/b]

**Ynot** · 02-05-2007 08:21 PM

Originally Posted by BohmaN

Don't have time to read but....
Is VISTA considerably better than XP?
[/b]

In a word, no.

The only real reason to switch to Vista, as far as I can see, is gaming

future DX10 games will only work with Vista
(unless some kind sole back-ports it onto XP)

Any other reasons?
not really

**Kaniaz** · 02-05-2007 08:33 PM

And that's an unbiased opinion!

**Ne-yo** · 02-05-2007 08:43 PM

Originally Posted by Ynot

(unless some kind sole back-ports it onto XP)
[/b]

I've thought about that and I may have to run it over to my homies and tell them to hook that up on G.P.

**MSG** · 02-05-2007 11:36 PM

Of course future games will be back-compatible

They're gonna have some sort of setup where the game can run on DX9 without the nice shiny DX10 features. It'll work, but it won't be amazing.

**TweaK** · 02-07-2007 12:03 PM

I don't know if it has changed in RTM because, hell, I haven't gamed on it yet, but when I gamed with RC2 it didn't really.. perform like it should.

I have a pretty new and good graphics card (GeForce 7800GT), I have 2Gigs of RAM and my lowest Windows Experience score is 4.2 followed by 5.3 (only to go upwards to 5.9), and I still experienced framerate loss and stuff which I did not experience under XP.

I hope this has changed in RTM. Or maybe it's just the fact the games aren't optimised for Vista yet, and when they do it'll be able to run high-performance games at, well, high performance, without framerate losses.

One can only hope.

**Kaniaz** · 02-07-2007 05:22 PM

Or maybe it's something else. MSG reported that he was able to run games fine on Vista.

**MSG** · 02-07-2007 11:56 PM

Originally Posted by TweaK

...I still experienced framerate loss and stuff which I did not experience under XP.[/b]

I didn't experience any performance loss, like, at all, it was more just stuff breaking... for instance Battlefield 2142 needed admin rights in order for online play (so every time I play it, I have to right click and "run as administrator"), and the valve logo in any of the source games never showed up. Aero killed itself when running fullscreen, which is good, since games tend to be really really chunky and rape your computer.