So, how is Vista treating you now a'days?
For those of you using Vista, I am very curious as to how things are now.
I installed Vista when it came out last November and it sucked (no drivers). I then tried again in March with the same issues.
I have:
eVGA 680i
4GB Corsair RAM
2 GTS 8800s (bad driver support)
X-Fi music (this had no drivers that worked what-so-ever)
WinXP 32 does not support 4GB... I just upgraded from 2 to 4 (I use VMs a lot for work) so I figured doubling my RAM would be good.
But now I'm faced with upgrading the OS to take advantage of my purchase. So, do I install WinXP 64 or go back and try Vista 64.
Any input would be GREATLY appreciated 
Thanks!
PAR
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For all who live in such times, it is not for them to decide. All we get to decide is what to do with the time given to us
I just got a new PC today and while Vista looks awesome, I'm having a ton of problems. I can't connect to my XBOX360 (which seems to be a recurring theme for me in these forums) and software my wife uses to do work will not read MP3 files (it worked fine on XP).
Tech calls get silent when you tell the person you are talking to you are using Vista. You can feel the panic through the phone.
I'd still suggest waiting for the first service pack but it has improved somewhat since launch and by that I mean that many hardware manufacturers have finally got off their arses and written drivers that work. There are still problems where it "circles" for several seconds during routine operations randomly and for no apparent reason. It has the potential to be a good OS on what is high-end hardware today but I'd still wait a bit personally.
"We're taught from a young age how to dodge rock hard objects moving at incredible rates of speed while simultaneously beating folks half to death with sticks. We do this for fun." -kung fu grip
http://blog.digital-lifeline.ca
Vista is working fine for me. The problems i've had have been pretty rare. My initial install succumbed to bluescreens every 20 or so minutes after booting, I had no idea why and couldn't find an answer anywhere on Microsoft's Knowledge Base. After a re-install i've had no problems with it. It does take FOREVER to boot when I have my USB HDD connected, but I think that may be a BIOS problem. If you need a new OS with your new PC, great. If not, as I've been saying, theres really no hot reason to upgrade yet.
I'm more of a sausage smoker myself. - Yoyoson
XBox Live - PSN: SneakinAround - Last.fm - Flickr
I had it installed for 45 days before I gave up on it last week. NVidia drivers limited my refresh rate on my monitor and Creative drivers wouldn't recognize my microphone. When I installed it, ZoneAlarm did not support Vista yet so I tried the Microsoft's OneCare 90 day trial. The firewall stopped working out of the blue - the service would not start no matter what I would do (MS had me go through about 6-8 different procedures to get it to work with no luck). What pushed me over the edge was my Event Viewer stopped working and the Event Log service would never start. I really can't see any need to go to Vista, the only reason I did was that I had a copy lying around and I needed a fresh OS install on my box. I would not touch it until the service pack comes out (I read a rumor today saying it might not come out until 2009). If any game comes out that requires it, I'll either get it for the 360 or pass.
My Vista install was the easiest OS install I've ever done. I put the disk in, it formatted my SATA HDD, and installed itself. Not much more complex than installing any other program. I immediately went online to download drivers and then began downloading Windows updates. This where things got a little wierd. I went to the Windows Update site but it didn't show anything available. However, after about ten minutes it started downloading updates automatically. Whatever.
Overall, it's been okay for me. My sound occasionally cuts out in WoW and I've locked up twice. In fairness, I don't know if it's because my box may be running hot. I had to use an older case because my P180 was severely damaged in shipping back from Iraq.
Would I say it's a necessary upgrade? No. Once the, 'new,shiny' wears off it's just the same old Windows. It's not terrible and if you're like me and didn't have a clean copy of XP but DO have a copy of Vista, install it. However, if you have to buy a new copy, get XP.
I've heard the same rumors about the service pack and it makes me think that with the announcement that the next version of Windows will be coming out in three years that I may have picked up the new Millennium Edition.
"If Blizzard announces a subscription fee for Diablo III we will have to build a second Internet to make room for all the complaining." - muttonchop
I'm most definitely not getting the warm fuzzies for Vista with these type of responses
I need to install an OS that can take advantage of the RAM I purchased. I use this machine for work as much as play so although gaming is highly important to me so is performance with VMs, large compiles etc etc.
Anybody have experience with WinXP 64?
PAR
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For all who live in such times, it is not for them to decide. All we get to decide is what to do with the time given to us
http://www.ubuntu.com - use the ram you purchased without the bloat.
I generated a virtual world in the toilet bowl this morning.
-- Podunk on the PS3's mystical, magical abilities
I'm assuming you've already done the 3GB switch in XP 32bit? You're still missing that 1GB, but 3 is better than 2!
Unfortunately I dont feel like dual booting and right now my dev environment is Visual Studio. I would choose Linux as a dev platform if I had the choice but alas right now I do not.
And yea I tried the Win32 fix... and no 3GB is not 4 lol. I use 2-3 VMs at a time for development (cheaper testing client/server apps that way) and would love to utilize the entire 4GB if possible.
PAR
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For all who live in such times, it is not for them to decide. All we get to decide is what to do with the time given to us
Vista is doing exactly what I want it to do for me. It's sitting quietly on a DVD on another desk collecting dust
I've eVGA680i as well as an 8800GTX and I'm not remotely confident the drivers will work worth a damn. Heck, the XP drivers for the 8800GTX are still iffy.
If I was the type to buy off the shelf boxes from Dell/etc it'd probably be a different story as I've no particular aversion to Vista...
Anandtech has posted a couple interesting articles about >2gb memory lately, might be worth reading, Par.
XBL: MikeMac75
I know, I was just giving you a hard time.
I generated a virtual world in the toilet bowl this morning.
-- Podunk on the PS3's mystical, magical abilities
I'm still using XP with Vista UI Transformation Pack, which is still awesome.
Vista gaming performance is the main reason I'm building a new home rig. While I've had no driver issues or BSODs, gaming performance have been horrible compared to the same machine on XP Pro. My 4yo box is a P4 2.4Ghz, 1.5GB RAM with 850xt. Playing Company of Heroes would pegged the CPU at 100%. SupCom and Halo PC is also barely playable. I'm hoping the new box (Q6600, 2GB RAM, 8800GTS) will perform better with Vista.
Despite the performance issues with gaming on the current box, I prefer Vista Ultimate over XP Pro for everyday usage. I've been using it for awhile now at work as my development OS and it's fine for Visual Studio, Expression, and such.
XBox Live: a7an
I have been debating on building a second gaming box for a while and possibly sticking Vista on it just to compare some of the DX10 games coming out this year (of course every time I start throwing stuff in my newegg shopping cart just budgeting it out I hear this weird sobbing sound coming from my wallet). After reading some of the posts though it sounds like it still may be too early to even bother with that.
Vista runs fine for me
680i Mobo
8800 GTX Vid
2 GB Ram
E6600 CPU
X-Fi Fatality
USB Wirless N network Card
Running 64 bit version of Vista and do not have any real issues at this point.
The Driver for my Network card which Vista found and installed is not from Linksys which is interesting. It works but I think it is the cause of my sound stutter every now and then from what I can find.
For most part though it all works and I have no complaints.
lol, this is by far the only positive response I have received in this thread. So Mal, what exactly do you run on this Vista box? I'm going to assume games but which ones have worked for you? Also, I hear a lot of incompatibility with some typical software apps like Photoshop and most DVD manipulation software.
Been getting closer and closer on just throwing Vista32 on and seeing what happens.
PAR
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For all who live in such times, it is not for them to decide. All we get to decide is what to do with the time given to us
Games is right but I am a big MMO player as you know so my current MMO is Lord of the Rings Online. I also played WoW on it for several months which in general worked for me also. Battfield 2142 ran fine for me bu Punkbuster keep kicking me from games and I never bothered to figure out why or if it has improved since then.
Supreme Commander has always run like a champ for me on this PC and while I had troubles at first getting Dark Crusades to run it now works although I have to admit I not played it much so who knows if there are any real problems.
Team Speak must run as Adminsitrator to work and because of that makes User Access warning appear when you first run it.
Adobe reader would not install for the longest time (It keep trying to access areas of the file system that Vista would not allow) but the latest version does install and work properly.
When Vista first came out I tried to install Visual Studio 2005 express to do some work at home and it was giving me fits. I downloaded the Enterprise edition of Visual Studio 2005 and installed it recently so not sure if there was a change in one of my patches that Vista got or what that allowed it to install.
I not tried Photshop nor much DvD manipulation software but I use Active ISO burner a freeware app to burn ISOs fine and build Vista Ultimate stuff for dealing most other media needs.
I really like the media player, I know shoot me, but there seems to be a bit of strange behavior with Media player in Vista ability to burn to a Network Area Storage device. I can listen to music store on network fine and even manipulate it in the file system just can not burn to it. It has to do with the fact that the NAS uses NTLM I think and although I messed with some security policies to make it work with my vista PC, Media Player still is not 100%.
I tried to install a version of Cisco VPN client that work has on our intranet but it is a rather old version and did not install on my PC. I am told there are versions out there that will work and some of our network engineer guys at work who have Cisco accounts are going to try and get me a version. Will know more on that later if it works.
I went out and purchased a Canon MP600 all in one printer that was Vista ready installed it and it worked like champ including the software.
I just recently installed Office 2007 and that of course works fine.
Guess that covers it for the most part let me know if you want any other information.
Excellent, great info Mal. Now you are positive youre using Vista 64 right? I might just have to try it since you and I are pretty close in hardware specs.
PAR
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For all who live in such times, it is not for them to decide. All we get to decide is what to do with the time given to us
Yes positive on what I am using.
I have a MSN subscription so been using Vista Ultimate 64 bit for a while now (before it was even released).
Just a note about Visual Studio forgot to mention there where a few patches for vista that I had to install after I installed visual studio but other then the time it took was no big deal.
Of course after my stearling report you are going to try it out and have a nightmare expereince and hate me I know it.
Probably
Ill give it a shot and try not to hold a grudge
Thanks Mal!
PAR
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For all who live in such times, it is not for them to decide. All we get to decide is what to do with the time given to us
Well... got Vista 64 installed, got all my drivers installed and working and updated everything.
I'm absolutely stunned, everything is working... even Synergy is working and that is a GPL app.
Now on to trying my games!
Thanks Mal
PAR
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For all who live in such times, it is not for them to decide. All we get to decide is what to do with the time given to us
Definitely update with how gaming goes. It's been a while since I've read any first hand impressions of how the Vista gaming situation has changed, if it's changed at all.
XBLive: Thin J
PSN: Thin_J
I don't imagine master craftsmen leaping away from completed projects and shouting "Done, motherf*ckers! - 1Dgaf
Whelp, so far I got the following running w/out any problems (been nice outside so havent really installed much):
Apps:
McAfee VirusScan Enterprise 8.5.0i
Office 2003
Firefox 2.0.0.5
Steam
Synergy
WinRAR
SSH Secure Shell
Games:
Supreme Commander
Half Life 2
Civilization IV (and BTS)
Titan Quest (and IT)
Medieval II Total War
Dwarf Fortress (just to see if it works and it does lol -- made a world in about 2 minutes)
PAR
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For all who live in such times, it is not for them to decide. All we get to decide is what to do with the time given to us
Ok, after using this for 2 days some problems are definitely creeping up.
For some reason, I have gotten 4 blue screens. And each time I get a blue screen, when the machine boots back up into Vista the sound is all screwed up.
So, I looked in my bios and (it figures) I forgot to turn off the on-board audio since I have an XFi XtremeMusic card. So, I turn this off and now I can't get my sound card to work again no matter what I do.
I have installed and uninstalled the 64 bit drivers from Creative at least 4 times now. Sometimes when the box boots I get an extremely horrible screeching sound from my speakers. Other times I get nothing.
I turned the on-board audio back on and off several times just to get back to where I was before with no change.
As of right now I have no idea what to do. Should I reinstall the OS? Because no matter what I do I cannot get sound to work anymore.
Bah!
PAR
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For all who live in such times, it is not for them to decide. All we get to decide is what to do with the time given to us
From what I understand, Microsoft deliberately cripples the X-Fi's sound output in Vista anyway, so I'm not sure it will do you that much good... maybe just drop back to onboard sound?
(it has something to do with them either trying fo force everyone to use D3D or else the copyright protection stuff... I'm very blurry on the details. I just know that Creative is having to develop a special driver to try to override Vista's attempt to make it into just another soundcard.)
There are two drivers from Creative to install..
The regular Vista 64 and the OpenAL 64 driver (this is for older Direct Sound games to work under Vista fully with EAX etc..)
I would try removing all Creative Drivers.. and then removing the card.. going in clean that way.. then powering off.. placing the card in a different PCI slot if possible and installing again from scratch.
I just took the re-plunge into Vista 64 today.. so far so good.
Aint nothing new about the world order..it's been playing since the day they put George Washington on a quarter
85's face the truth you're too dumb.
http://www.myspace.com/armyofthepharaohs
Unfortunately, it seems very likely that Vista will be referred to as "Vista ME". After all of the hype and delays surrounding Vista, and now they are already alluding to their next OS? Doesn't sound too good.
"History is'a made at night! Character is what you are in the dark!" - Lord John Whorfin
Par all I can say is that my X-Fi Fatality works with my 680i Mobo and Visat using the drivers from creative (in fact it has worked well from basically day 1).
I would certainly do what GG was suggesting before I went to installing Vista again.
edit
My mobo is eVGA too so wonder what is causing you your issues.
There were the exact same rumors after XP came out.. about how the next version of windows would be 3-4 years away.. given Microsoft's "speed" in getting OS'es out.. I find it hard to believe that people actually think they can get out a new OS in 3 years.
Unlike ME there isnt anything fundamentally "broken" in Vista.
Aint nothing new about the world order..it's been playing since the day they put George Washington on a quarter
85's face the truth you're too dumb.
http://www.myspace.com/armyofthepharaohs
It has DRM. You can't get more broken than an OS that deliberately prevents you from having full control of your own machine.