Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 106-110 of 117
 Worthless as a HTPC OS August 28, 2008
S. Kim (Hoffman Estates, IL United States)
Installed about a year ago without any problem on Vista certified hardware. It was running ok with one annoying problem - it was constantly loosing the video settings every time I reboot. Then these wave of security patch start to roll in. I only use the PC for watching blu-ray movies and after installing 100+ security patches, the system is so slow that I cannot finish 90 minutes movies without rebooting the operating system. Microsoft eventually did fix the video resetting problem (one of those 100+ patch fixed it), but OS is pretty much useless for doing what it is design to do.
Now I have to make a decision to add additional memory to satisfy this memory starving OS (I am currently running with 2 GB) or wipe it clean and install Windows XP.
 I see no compelling reason to upgrade September 2, 2008
M. J Lane (USA)
As I noted in the title for this review I am unable to think of a reason why someone would "upgrade" from WinXP to Vista Home Premium. I'm not sure I'd even call it an upgrade in the sense that there is no truly new and useful functionality in this edition. This is in stark contrast to Vista Ultimate which DOES have many new features that make it a worthwhile upgrade.
However, this review isn't about Vista Ultimate--it is about Home Premium. I would like to warn people that trying to do an upgrade install from XP to any version of Vista is, in my experience, almost guaranteed to fail. I have even tried doing a brand new clean install of XP and then run the Vista advisor and finally install Vista as an upgrade. I have not been able to get it to work. So if you buy this I think it is wise to plan to do a "clean" install (this means you lose all your programs and settings so you'd need a thorough backup of your data).
In summary, I'm hard pressed to come up with a reason why someone running a stable WinXP system would want Vista Home Premium. Having said that I do think it is a competent operating system and IF it is on a Vista Certified system then I think it is fine. Nothing in my experience with Vista would cause me to want to "downgrade" from a stable Vista install to XP.
PLEASE NOTE: The most important thing I may be able to say here is that Remote Desktop is crippled in this version of Vista. You can remote OUT to other computers but you cannot remote IN to a PC running Vista Home Premium. To get Remote Desktop that is fully functional you have to get the Business or Ultimate edition.
 better now, but maybe not "all better" September 10, 2008
Lawrence A. Schenbeck (Atlanta, GA USA)
I obtained a review copy of this much-maligned OS from Microsoft and then was afraid to install it. Too many nasty stories about glitches, bugs, slow running speeds on old favorite programs, and the like. Gave it to my son, who is a fanatical gamer. He installed it on one of his PCs and as far as I know, it has run without a hitch.
Word in the media these days (OK, David Pogue in NY Times) is that a lot of the problems have been fixed. The biggest issue right after the rollout was that Microsoft had not informed peripherals manufacturers (people who make printers, scanners, cameras, whatever) about the need for extensive upgrades of their drivers. So a lot of stuff just wouldn't run on Vista. And Microsoft did not respond nearly fast enough to suit customers, especially heavy-duty institutional and corporate clients.
My laptop died last week, so I'm in the market for a new one. Asked my stepdaughter -- who is a network administrator at a major research university -- about a replacement. She recommended a Mac, primarily so that I wouldn't have to accept Vista as an OS on my new machine. Bad times there are not forgotten, look away, look away. Et cetera. It will take some time for corporate users to trust Microsoft again. (And, as she pointed out, why not just wait for the next major OS upgrade, instead of putting up with a Windows ME for our time?)
After SP1 you should not be afraid of Vista...as much. September 26, 2008
Peter Shermeta (Rochester, MI)
Microsoft continues to shield attacks about Vista, though many are based on heresay and preconceived notions of the MSFT culture. If you sit down and give Vista a try, and if you get a new PC anywhere anymore you probably don't have a choice, you might not have any complaints.
First of all, a lot of the early reports of bugs in the program have been addressed and fixed in SP1, so users should not rely on what their friends have told them about Vista...as the ONLY source of information.
Secondly, my thoughts are based on my experience in Windows. I will admit that I am an avid PC user and tend to be a little more friendly to MSFT than some other people because I am very comfortable in the Windows environment. But with that said, Vista showcases Microsoft's worst innovative technique. With each release of Windows or Office, Microsoft has been trying to make the user experience easier. They say, "We know what you are doing so we will go ahead and do it for you." And often times they are wrong. They are taking some of the organization away and making things hard to find and displaying what some algorithm assumes you were looking for. And I wish Microsoft would stop doing this.
I prefer Windows to MacOS. I like that things follow a simple organizational pattern and everything can be neatly put away in Windows. But don't worry, it's still there, you just have to wade through some new Vista flare to get there.
And that is my biggest gripe with Vista. Rather than keeping the ease of use that Windows XP has and just beefing up other areas, the company seems to have opted instead for making Vista a mutated product. I wish they would eliminate some of the confusion and just call it Microsoft Vista and remove Windows from the product name.
I'll adjust to it like anything else and before long Vista will be the new standard.
Reinstallation and formatting disaster October 7, 2008
J. Cheatham (L.A., CA)
I've been refomatting and installing OS for over 26 years and this is by far the worst, messed up version I've ever worked with. For example, CHDSK (Check disk) told me that there isn't enough disk space to rewrite a file when I have over 200g of free space. I have been working on this for over 30 hours and have had to reboot and/or reformat and resintall over a dozen times and I'm still sitting here waiting, and have been waiting for over three hours, and it still hasn't shown me the "choose a language" screen.
As far as Media Center, which didn't work the first time it was intalled and I never could get it to work right, it's OK. I just haven't seen anything worth dealing with the instability of this.
Next time I buy a computer I will either go with an Apple or try to get one with XP.
Now I'm going to go investigate using Linux.
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