Friday, February 9th, 2007
at 1:14am
Just under a week ago I upgraded my laptop (running Windows XP MCE 2005) to Windows Vista Ultimate. You can read more about this in my previous post: (here).
As I indicated in my previous post, I was outright impressed with the quality job that Windows Vista did when it upgraded my system. In the past, Windows upgrades were almost a taboo in the computing world. Windows 98 to XP? Forget it. Not happening. However, with Vista, this is completely changed around. It’s now a pleasure to upgrade.
Of course, it hasn’t come without its downfalls. For one, my printer drivers aren’t working properly since HP has yet to release Vista compatible drivers for their printer line (at least my models). My antivirus software (CA Antivirus 2007) supposedly works on Vista with a minor patch. This isn’t the case. I discovered that whenever my computer was idling and CA attempted to update, the system would entirely lock up, requiring a hard reboot. From CA’s website, another patch won’t be around until the end of March. I can’t wait that long. I’ve since switched to Windows Live OneCare. On a side note, I must say that when I was BETA testing OneCare, I wasn’t impressed. Since the release, I’m very impressed with its quality, and most of all, how it works in the background without so much as making a peep.
I also was enlightened to the fact that Intel’s 945GM chipset drivers for Vista weren’t as compatible as Intel claimed they were. However, that was readily fixed with another patch. And at this point, I’ve not seen any glitches pop up.
All in all, the only issues I’ve experienced have been with third-party applications causing problems (like VLC media player switching the interface back to Vista Basic every time a video is played). Vista in itself is ridiculously stable. And in the rare event of an error, it’s readily able to recover completely.
I’m thoroughly enjoying my experience on Vista. I hope you make the decision to upgrade soon. It really does, as the ad campaign says, make you “wow!”
Saturday, February 3rd, 2007
at 12:03am
I had downloaded the BETA of Windows Vista when it became available publicly and used it on both my desktop and laptop through a dual-boot scenario. This really got me used to the new changes in Vista so I feel very comfortable with it.
However, on my laptop, I have Intel’s 945GM onboard graphics card, which in the beta, and serious problems with Vista’s Aero Glass style (transparency, flip 3D, etc). Any of the new graphical things in Vista also were quite sluggish. This is why I originally didn’t plan on buying Vista until I replaced my desktop.
Just last night, I did a bit of research and discovered that Intel released a new driver for their 945 series graphics chipsets which support Vista to the smallest iota, including the Vista premium features (Aero Glass). So today, I took the plunge and purchased Vista Ultimate and upgraded my laptop’s XP MCE 2005 to Vista Ultimate.
In the past, you dared not upgrade a Windows installation if you didn’t want to have to deal with a ton of compatibility issues afterwards. I had reports of how smoothly Vista’s upgrade is compared to previous Windows versions, though when I was using the BETA, I did a clean installation and not an upgrade. I hadn’t experienced it firsthand until earlier today.
I must say with great enthusiasm that Vista’s upgrade procedure was absolutely flawless. Every file, ever folder, every setting, everything was perfectly preserved. My email, my music, my photos, my recently viewed/opened files, my playlists, heck, even my browser’s cache was preserved in the upgrade from IE6 on my XP installation to IE7 on Vista. Not one thing has gone missing. Not one application has given errors. Not one incompatible driver. I am thoroughly impressed with Vista’s upgrade procedure.
I also must point out that significant improvements have been made since the BETA in terms of speed, reliability, aesthetics, and ease of use. Vista is truly almost twice as fast as my XP installation on the same hardware. Vista can actually take advantage of my dual-core processor with 2GB of RAM, unlike XP. File searching is incredible and fast. Application launches are even faster. Boot time was almost cut in half, and I’m not exaggerating.
Vista’s new style is gorgeous. It has wonderful Aesthetics. 3d animations and hardware acceleration features execute with absolutely zero lag. Media Center is vastly improved over MCE 2005, and it runs flawlessly.
Vista is absolutely wonderful. Period. Kudos to Microsoft for getting away from their stereotypical bug-filled, unstable, and unusable operating system. Vista is amazing. I’ll leave it at that.
