Thoughts on Vista/What is Your Problem With Vista

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PowerDVD won't run in Vista... There is a Vista version that you can download, for a cost. That is unfortunately the only solution.

Also, to all the Vista haters: Keep in mind that current software just needs to catch up with the newest platform. Vista is a great platform for software to run on. You have to understand just how much planning and coding goes into crossplatforming software. Just because it looks like just a prettier windows doesn't mean that it is just a version of windows. It's a completely new OS from the ground up.

edit: also concerning RAM. The 32bit Vista will utilize 4gigs but like it was mentioned some of that is reserved for video. XP, despite popular belief, will not utilize but only recognize 4 gigs. XP's max RAM usage is 2gigs

kyleb05
TechSpot Member Location: Sydney,Nova scotia,Canada
Member since: Oct 2007, 54 posts
System specs

i had 2 gigs and it ran fine i didnt need it but it bumped it up to 3 gigs and it runs super fast its insane lol but normally after a processor upgrade you do not need a OS reinstall but thats my opinion and i work for SUN

but i like vista and i will never go back to server 2003
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I'm not a Tech anything... so i am sure you are right. But when I installed my AMD6400+ My computer seemed to act funny. Now that I have a clean install it runs much smoother.
 
I'll assume you're talking About Me and Work From There

hynesy said:
I find it funny how people think they have to hate Microsoft and Windows to be hip, its almost like a fashion in the tech world. I don't understand why people hate the operating system that the majority of the people, who ***** about windows, actually use. They won't admit it but its the best operating system for the majority of the computer populace. Another thing, people hate Windows and Microsoft, but they love the xbox360, and hate the PS3, its like people have to hate the things that work the best and love the things that don't quite work. The bottom line is, people hate anything that is successful, and why? Because they are jealous, its human nature...for the most part anyway.
Thats my 2 cents.
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Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. Now there's a concept that even Microsoft's staunchest synchophants might possibly get their head around, at least with enough practice.

I love Windows XP, I have 4 LEGAL copies. the UPS man brought the 4th last Thursday, could'a kissed him. (I didn't though). But you have to admit activation is pretty invasive, and WGA feels like you're being violated. It's especially intrusive when they don't tell you what it is and pass it off as a "security update". <That's a DIRECT quote! I call it a drive by download. Microsoft is a monopoly and it seems that it's their manifest company policy to bilk the computer world out of every last dollar they possibly can.

But, I think they need more money, so why don't you be a gallant little customer and go buy yourself a $400.00 retail copy of Vista Ultimate to help them finish their beta testing, it's the least you can do.

I usually judge products based on their functionality, price, and appearance, not by the manufacturer, but I have sworn off Sony after their "whoops, was that a root kit virus" nonsense. And no, I'm not jealous or a ******, I'm old and most of the music that was involved with that debacle, IMHO sucks anyway. Which pretty much explains why I didn't get rootkitted. Geez, it's the principle of the thing.

How about this for a advertising tag line; "Vista, the new Millennium Edition". Just kidding.

I've heard all the stories about how bad XP was, and how much everybody hated it, it does work great now, you just can't cruise Russian porn sites without picking up a bug or three. Personally I don't consider this a problem. Anybody?

I'm not much of a bandwagon person, but I expect I might see some people out in the town square screaming "hail big brother" in front of a portrait of Bill Gates, to each his own I suppose.
 
Vista has it's own DVD decoder, if only in the Home Premium or other Media Center inclusions. I chose to install Nero 8, and I like it's functions. I almost swore off Nero completely after Nero 7 was released... Nero 8 $99.95 at Fry's
 
iraedei said:
PowerDVD won't run in Vista... There is a Vista version that you can download, for a cost. That is unfortunately the only solution.
Click to expand...
Gosh, there are so many solutions for XP! Need I list them?

iraedei said:
Also, to all the Vista haters: Keep in mind that current software just needs to catch up with the newest platform.
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I'll just keep using XP in the mean time. By your leave of course.

iraedei said:
edit: also concerning RAM. The 32bit Vista will utilize 4gigs but like it was mentioned some of that is reserved for video. XP, despite popular belief, will not utilize but only recognize 4 gigs.
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Actually some older motherboards have 32 bit BIOSes and they won't even present 4GB to the operating system. Intel 915 comes to mind. Why doesn't anybody mention XP 64 bit home or pro when they decide to compare. As I understand it, they'll handle a bunch of RAM. Point being, you could, (to be fair), compare XP to XP.


iraedei said:
XP's max RAM usage is 2gigs
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Again, as I understand it, that's not exactly true. XP allows any one program up to 2GB of RAM, true. But it can be modified to allow all the RAM not being used for the hardware and OS to be applied to the running programs by implementing the "3 Gigabyte Switch". Almost everything designed for XP will run very well on 2GB of RAM, and the necessity of installing more than that in a 32bit XP box is more of an emotional affliction rather than a matter of need. Oooo, RAM's cheap now, I want more.
 
Did That Actually Work....?

Tmagic650 said:
Vista has it's own DVD decoder, if only in the Home Premium or other Media Center inclusions. I chose to install Nero 8, and I like it's functions. I almost swore off Nero completely after Nero 7 was released... Nero 8 $99.95 at Fry's
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Wasn't Nero 7 Ahead Software's "Millenium Edition"?
 
Nero went downhill after version 5 IMO. On top of that when XP came out, Nero 5 didn't work. So its not just Vista having older programs that won't run, XP broke Nero 5. Just like PowerDVD there was no update to make it work, you just had to buy Nero 6. Which went from a less than 20 meg install to 150+.
 
captaincranky said:
Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. Now there's a concept that even Microsoft's staunchest synchophants might possibly get their head around, at least with enough practice.

I love Windows XP, I have 4 LEGAL copies. the UPS man brought the 4th last Thursday, could'a kissed him. (I didn't though). But you have to admit activation is pretty invasive, and WGA feels like you're being violated. It's especially intrusive when they don't tell you what it is and pass it off as a "security update". <That's a DIRECT quote! I call it a drive by download. Microsoft is a monopoly and it seems that it's their manifest company policy to bilk the computer world out of every last dollar they possibly can.

But, I think they need more money, so why don't you be a gallant little customer and go buy yourself a $400.00 retail copy of Vista Ultimate to help them finish their beta testing, it's the least you can do.

I usually judge products based on their functionality, price, and appearance, not by the manufacturer, but I have sworn off Sony after their "whoops, was that a root kit virus" nonsense. And no, I'm not jealous or a ******, I'm old and most of the music that was involved with that debacle, IMHO sucks anyway. Which pretty much explains why I didn't get rootkitted. Geez, it's the principle of the thing.

How about this for a advertising tag line; "Vista, the new Millennium Edition". Just kidding.

I've heard all the stories about how bad XP was, and how much everybody hated it, it does work great now, you just can't cruise Russian porn sites without picking up a bug or three. Personally I don't consider this a problem. Anybody?

I'm not much of a bandwagon person, but I expect I might see some people out in the town square screaming "hail big brother" in front of a portrait of Bill Gates, to each his own I suppose.
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Certainly not everyone falls into the catagory that I mentioned earlier, but alot do, most people don't think for themselves and just go with the flow so to speak. Its those people who know little about computers and other operating systems that try to pass judgement that is based on no knowledge. The operating system you use is simply a matter of choice. Also, I agree with you view on WGA, but in all fairness Microsoft needs a way to stop piracy, but a less invasive way would have been much more appreciated.

Alot of people are yet to realise, your computer is only as secure as the person between the keyboard and the seat. While security upgrades in the OS itself helps, its certainly not fail safe. With Vista I don't use and AV or firewalls, I just use Bitdefender for a once month scan, never had any viruses, but to borrow a quote I don't "cruise Russian porn sites".
 
I just use Bitdefender for a once month scan, never had any viruses, but to borrow a quote I don't "cruise Russian porn sites".

Just as in safe sex, safe computing takes a little practice and knowledge to be effective. I use the Glarysoft free utilities and I subscribe to Windows Live OneCare on my XP and Vista computers
 
I use Asquared Free and AVG Free with Vista but defender and the Vista firewall do a great job overall.

Vista has few issues and with its phishing feature youre pretty safe overall....

Many good apps like Adaware free,Spybot Search and Destroy to name a few as well as ZoneAlarm Free if youre running XP.
 
So CC,
what do you think of Vista? What version(s) do you run? I've been with Vista Home Premium for 2 weeks now. I have a dual boot XP Pro, Vista system up and running till tomorrow. I am upgrading the CPU to a an Intel quad core Q6600, and replacing a PCI NIC that is compatible with XP but not Vista
 
Ive enjoyed Vista and Im running Vista basic even though Ive worked with most of the versions.

I prefer it over XP but initially I wanst happy with the gaming performance in Vista but recent drivers have really improved the situation so Ive stuck with Vista.

32bit Vista in particular is much better and the drivers have improved substancially.

Im running win2k,winXP and Vista right now but prefer Vista for overall use.

Im using a Pentium D 3ghz @ 3.6 with a 7600gs,120gb SATA drive and onboard pci NIC and Realtek sound.

Ive had no issues with Vista and drivers using a 945g board. The install is much quicker than XP and all devices are installed without any additional drivers except for the video card.
 
I'm not on-line with Vista yet. My PCI NIC works in Xp but no Vista drivers are available for the old Linksys PCI NiC. My on-board NIC was destroyed by a series of power failures last November. Vista seems to load and shutdown much faster than XP, but as I said, Vista is not on-line, XP is. Halo-Combat Evolved runs good under Vista, but I have some sound issues with the Vista Creative sound drivers
 
Also, contrary to what people think, Vista 32 bit only supports 3 gb of ram.

And very well said Tmagic ;) I think everyone knows whats on your mind :p
 
XP or Vista is limited to 3gb as thats a matter of course due to it being 32bit.
Thats a limitation that 64bit solves..... and in fact XP Pro SP2 sees 3.24g of ram.
 
Finally.....

hynesy said:
Also, contrary to what people think, Vista 32 bit only supports 3 gb of ram..
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At last, somebody climbed above the hype. I was staring to get sucked in by the idea that somehow under Vista, 2 to the 32 power was more than 4GB. Or that the hardware no longer needed to have space reserved in memory for it. Repetition is one of the most prominent forms of propaganda;

Vista 32 bit handles 4GB of RAM, but 32 bit XP only handles 3GB,
Vista 32 bit handles 4GB of RAM, but 32 bit XP only handles 3GB,
Vista 32 bit handles 4GB of RAM, but 32 bit XP only handles 3GB,

See, it's like waterboarding.
 
Yes,
I had some trouble posting on the site today too. I thought that a 32-bit operating system could only mathematically access 3GB total memory. How does 32-bit Vista access 4GB?

Ok CC,
you answered my access question. If I installed 4-1GB sticks in a dual-channel motherboard, would the memory still be in dual-channel mode?
 
64bit Vista has some issues like Video drivers among others but its gotten better.

Right now there are so few programs where the 4gb addressing is an issue theres no real advantage to 64bit let alone widespread support for multicore cpus in most apps and games.

Even Windows7 the next version of windows coming will still support 32bit.
 
Vista....suspending the laws of binary mathematics....Now that's really...WOW...!

If it were true.
Crosscourt said:
32bit Vista cannot access 4gb of ram and heres why,

www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000811.html

Alot of the issue is rhe memory mapped IO but its not the only issue.

This issue is also present with 64bit os.....
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I have an Intel 915GAG board, it has a 32 bit hardware and BIOS. It will not allow the OS the even see more than about 3.2GB of RAM. The 915 carries 4 DDR(1) RAM slots and has Dual channel capability. In the manual Intel playfully suggests that it would be possible to install 8GBs of RAM in the board, (4 2GB DIMMs), but that you still will only be able to access 3.2 GBs!

Now at that time 2GB DDR DIMMs were running about $400.00 a pop. So, if somebody who didn't read the manual fully, decided to jamb in $1600.00 worth of RAM, fired up the machine and found 3.2 GBs showing, I suspect you wouldn't need an internet connection to hear the wailing and moaning, just walk over and open a window. LOL "I was in NYC, he was in New Zealand and I heard it plain as day". < fictitious quote regarding a hyperbole. Still you get the idea.

If I were pressured to explain the concept of dual channel RAM to someone with my own technical understanding, I might say this; Picture a bartender, he has a 2oz bottle in each hand, and 2, 2 0z. glasses on the bar in front of him. someone played a trick on him, and drilled a hole in the glasses so that now, each one only holds 1 & 1/2 Oz! (3 0zs. total). He begins to pour both bottles into the glasses simultaneously, but because of the holes the excess spills on the table. Both glasses still fill at the same time, and obviously from the bottom to the top, but the extra oz. falls on the table (HDD) same as always.

Yes you can, get more than 4GB of memory access with a 32 bit OS. But it's harder than pulling teeth.

And Crosscourt, the link you posted is a good one. It does go on to discuss EAP. (Extended Address Protocol). The thing here is that to implement this you need another HAL, with an IRQ and redirect. Point being is that this would be/ is suitable for a server application, but would probably kill the speed of memory access to the point where it would be useless in say, a gaming application.

Actually, in a 64 bit OS the "theoretical" maximum memory capacity would be 1 terrabyte (2 to the 64th). That's nice, but I'd much rather you run Memtest on it rather than me. (No offense intended).

Anyway, with today's DDR2 memory prices, if you buy 4GB and only get 3, you piss away about $20.00. Perhaps not worthy of all the fuss. Especially with the price of a new Vista operating system! < (I had to put that there to keep the thread on topic).
 
As a person who has used both 32 bit and 64 bit Vista, I can say that on my rig I have noticed a a fairly large performance increase, especially when it comes to multi-tasking. With that said, all the programs I've installed work fine, and before I went and payed Microsoft I cross checked my hardware with drivers, to ensure that all my hardware had full 64 bit support. Other peoples experiences with 64 bit may vary depending on their systems and the drivers they need and the programs they use.
 
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