Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 6-10 of 104
 Vista lost data April 17, 2008
Jennifer Ray (Nashville, TN United States)
8 out of 11 found this review helpful
I installed this via the Upgrade option, over Windows XP. I had planned to install it via Upgrade and then later run a Clean Install so I could review both methods.
The upgrade ran for 6.5 hours once I worked through the pre-install issues (uninstalling incompatible programs, etc.)
The first boot of the operating system went fine, but it crashed when I attempted to change the display adapter, and after the reboot, entire directories were missing from My Documents folder.
At that point, I restored the clone I had made of my hard drive pre-upgrade, reverting my operating system back to Windows XP sp2 and restoring the lost files.
I've thought long and hard about performing a clean install, reformatting the drive entirely, but at this point I don't believe I can trust the file system in Vista regarding data integrity.
As a fan of Microsoft's products, it is with great reluctance I have to rate this product with only 1 star. But with lost data, I really can't give it anything more.
BY the way, I am no novice at IT. I have been in IT for the last 12 years, and am currently the Senior Systems Engineer for a Systems Integration company. I am responsible for designing solutions for our customers that will serve their business need, integrating software packages from multiple vendors together. I perform the server and client installs and support the systems after the install. I have never before had an issue with a Windows install until Windows Vista.
I like the features I hear are present in Vista. I wanted to use this operating system. But if I can't trust it to keep my data intact from one boot to the next, I cannot use it on my main PC. I may try this again on my secondary PC at home, but at this point, I just don't see it happening anytime soon.
 Vista Ultimate vs. Retestrak XP March 27, 2008
! Steffan Piper ! (Burbank, CA)
7 out of 9 found this review helpful
First, you need to know a few things about me before reading this review:
1. I'm a novelist and a screenwriter living and working in Los Angeles. Most of my education is in Computer Sciences and English.
2. I do not now and have never worked for Microsoft or any sub-contractor thereof.
3. I did not purchase my copy of Windows Vista Ultimate. I was offered it free of charge due to membership in Amazon Vine. Every month I'm offered numerous items to review and this month, I selected this product.
4. My first computer was a Sinclair "Zed" X-81. Nuff said.
I'm not going to write the usual benefit bloated review of this product. There are large quantities of MS Shills and MS Stooges on Amazon leaving phony reviews in praise of this product and other products by Microsoft, and they are all annoying and as bloated as the programs they praise. There are also enough MS Haters reviewing as well, just to be fair.
Most people are here for two reasons:
1. They are on the verge of buying this product and are probably ready to let go of XP.
2. They already own this product and are looking for some insight.
This is a key point. I'm not going to tell you how great this product is, you can go anywhere for that, or just read the package. I'm going to do my best in telling you how to optimize this product for best results so that it's effective for the rest of us, including our not-so-windows savvy parents, that way you can feel better about purchasing or not purchasing - which is the point of Amazon reviews anyhow.
My Machine ...
For the last handful of years, and I wont give a length of time on this, due to a probable lawsuit; but I've been running what's commonly known as Retestrak XP on one of my machines. Google it. It's a pretty sophisticated piece of OS for users wishing to remain "off the grid". The serial code is one of those FCKGW codes that was probably intended to be a political statement, but turned out to be the most populated serial code of all time, and probably the biggest nightmare for Microsoft as well.
Supposedly, Retestrak is a pirate version of Windows XP that does not dial home to Redmond, it's been modified to run faster and it installs with everything you need to operate including antivirus and firewalls. It's been pretty interesting and problem free using it, and it's a shame MS can't seem to take a que from the European Programmer that Frankenstein'd the thing together because it's pretty awesome and has a lot of underground support, much like Linux. If I start getting hate mail from Sniper's Redemption Network, the author, then I may go into hiding. Someone's going to say I'm insane for admitting my use of Retestrak, but whatever. To quote Humphrey Bogart: "I left a note in my apartment, they'll know where to find me."
In the first comment, I've left my Machine stats below to see for benchmark and comparison.
I tell you this history, so you can understand the machine I'm putting Vista on and my reluctance to run a MS OS unchecked. Like most people, I don't trust Microsoft ... and rightly so. I have several other machines at the house, my laptop runs Vista Home ( a Dell), one's a Mac and another still has Windows 2000 on it (a very nice OS) , and all are registered.
The Install ...
First - unplug all your external hard-drives, flash card readers, what have you. If you want to chance leaving your printer connected, go for it, but you may be playing with fire by doing so. I would say unplug everything but your keyboard, monitor and mouse. I say this because your equipment might be old and Vista may not have the driver, thus causing problems during the install * even if it already said you're fine.
Second - Nobody but a fool would recommend doing an upgrade. If you're going to install this thing, do it right and do a full install.
Third - if you're worried about losing information from your old OS, then let me say a few things here:
Go buy an External Hard Drive and keep everything personal on it.
Buy two if you believe in redundancy as I do.
Never put anything but the Operating System on the C drive.
Never put anything but the Operating System on the C drive.
Never put anything but the Operating System on the C drive.
Do not partition your C drive.
Do not let other people tell you to partition your C drive.
Do not run multiple Operating Systems one drive.
Back up all your files elsewhere. Don't EVER use a backup program. It's tedious and a waste of resources.
Now, back to the program ...
The Installation process was relatively painless. After checking my computer with the Vista Upgrade tool, which has to be downloaded, everything but my wireless Belkin transmitter would apparently survive the installation. Above, in the pictures section I've left a few screenshots for anyone curious to see what this Vista Checker looks like and what it found.
Surprisingly, the installation was only 46 minutes in total from having control of my machine - to having control of my machine again. It rebooted a total of four times at 25 minutes, 33, 37 and 40 minutes, respectively. I wasn't too put out about the time I spent, as all I missed was another late-night Cold Case re-run. Vista does want to fine tune itself after it's all said and done - which was annoying and then it "must prepare the desktop". What is that, like a turndown service at a hotel? I could've done with out all the delay. But overall, it wasn't bad. No crashes, no blue screens and no lock-ups. Microsoft must have also taken a hint about all the annoying nag prompt boxes, as I didn't encounter a single one, not even once I got on the internet.
Boot time ...
Here are some records I kept to benchmark the basics of the two Operating Systems. I'm comparing Vista against Restestrak XP as I believe this is really, the only true test worth running ...
Retestrak Boot Time: 1:08 secs (fully operational - HDD quiet)
Retestrak Shut Down Time: 0:21 secs (completely off)
Vista Ultimate Boot Time: 2:10 secs (fully operational - HDD quiet)
Vista Ultimate Shut Down Time: 0:08 secs (completely off)
After adjusting services.msc, I got the boot time down to 1:48 seconds. Please keep in mind that the boot time for Vista reflects a fresh install, while my Restestrak XP had about 40 programs installed. Over time, you may experience a longer boot-time with the more programs you add. Please see msconfig below for improvement.
Retestrak XP Program Benchmarks:
MS Word / Ms Office 2003 - 1 Second
Adobe Photoshop 7.0 - 4 Seconds
Adobe Photoshop CS3 - 7 Seconds
Vista Ultimate Benchmarks:
MS Word / Ms Office 2003 - 15 Seconds
Adobe Photoshop 7.0 - 12 Seconds
Adobe Photoshop CS3 - 16 Seconds
Services.msc ...
This is the first stop of places to visit once you're up and running. To activate the panel, click start and then type SERVICES.MSC in the start search box at the bottom, which is the equivalent of the Run Prompt and Search from XP and beyond. They've finally combined it.
When the box pops open you can then make the needed adjustments which will improve the ability of your system dramatically. I have listed the basic settings/ adjustments that I have chosen for each instance in the comments section below in the second comment. I have listed only some of what you will see within services. Some people recommend disabling everything and turning your computer back to the stone ages. These options cover a few glaring security issues, memory and CPU drains and processes that are just outright unnecessary for just about everyone. I've left Vista's functionality, firewall and visual effects alone as those can be manipulated elsewhere.
A quick search of the internet will put you in touch with a lot of advice about managing your services. I say to err on the side of caution and if want to turn a lot more of these things off, then turn them to the manual setting instead of disabled; that way they'll come on when needed. But be careful and read up, as you're trudging in murky waters adjusting any more of these things than I suggest in the post.
Msconfig ...
Going back to the Start menu and the search box, you will then type msconfig and hit enter. Once the System configuration box pops up, click on the start-up tab. If you look down the list of items, you'll see every program that automatically starts up when you power on. Note, these programs come on whether you need them or not and most of the time - you don't need any of them. The best thing to do is to uncheck anything that says:
iTunes, Apple, Adobe, Dell support, Ecenter, Google Desktop, Java, Nero, Quicktime, ... whatever. These programs will all come on when you decide you want them, instead of hanging around in the background hogging up memory for no apparent reason. Just Google anything that you're unsure of, and you'll get a quick answer.
Please be advised, that the advice I give in this review is information from tweaking Microsoft's Operating Systems for about the last decade. This review and information below is intended for the general user and not the die-hard gamer or C++ Programmer. Those folks will probably have an even tighter and faster running machine than my own. This review may take a lot of negative votes and may receive a lot of negative comments, but I would suggest that you take all of it with a grain of salt as the whole world typically wants to express themselves, and everyone's opinion differs, especially when it comes to Microsoft and computers in general.
And please, understand that you are using these suggestions at your own risk.
Conclusion ...
I would suggest anyone thinking of switching to Vista to make sure that you have at least two Gigabytes of Memory and a relatively new processor. Anything below 2 Gigabytes will give you sluggish performance no matter what. And don't be too hard on Microsoft about this OS being a memory hog, as most OS's from now on will probably be bigger, more bloated and require more memory to run. It's the wave of the future, accept it.
I've given Vista Ultimate 4 stars instead of 5 for the following reasons:
1. It's still slow doing tasks, opening certain programs and multitasking, even with 2 GB of RAM Memory.
2. The OS is bloated and should install with all the cool junk turned off. Microsoft should've already come up with an easy to use instrument panel which turns features on and off.
3. MS Live OneCare should've been built into the OS, instead of trying to nickel and dime the customer to death. At the amount of money they want, the absence of real protection, Virus and spyware control is incredibly questionable.
Other than that, it seems like a vast improvement over it's predecessor. If I could replace my Vista Home edition with Vista Ultimate, I would.
EDIT: One Week Later ...
After using the OS for about a week, I wanted to report on a few developments.
1. I did begin to experience the prompt screens that everyone talks about once I configured my internet.
2. After I did configure the internet, Microsoft Vista actually scanned my computer, knew which drivers I needed from my ATI Video Card, to the Motherboard and my Belkin Wireless adapter ... and then retireved them and installed them, with no effort on my part at all. very cool. About time you guys.
3. The Vista Dreamscape download is an extra but animates the desktop and is pretty cool.
4. I was able to fully customize my boot sequence and other operations to streamline the OS for booting and memory optimization with no problems.
5. Having never used Windows Media Center before, I gave it a chance and I'm really impressed by it and the Photo Gallery. I typically use iTunes and Picasa ... but who knows, in time I may migrate.
6. Vista put my old OS into a folder called windows.old, and from it I was able to extract or retrieve anything I needed after the installation which was a benefit. After I deleted it, I recovered about 10 gigs.
It seems that MS may have worked out the majority of the early OS kinks that accompanied the previous version. Not bad.
This OS is just as good as XP if not better.
 SP1 is an evolutionary, but not revolutionary, upgrade March 25, 2008
S. Chi (Princeton, NJ)
6 out of 8 found this review helpful
The Windows Vista Ultimate with System Pack 1 arrived in a sleek looking black box, and I crossed my fingers, with the hope that it would sport some major improvements over the original Vista.
So you're probably wondering what's new in the SP1 update for Vista? You can read the official bulletin over at Microsoft,
[..]
but here's a shorter, condensed summary of what you can expect.
- Power Efficiency Fixes; a few % more efficient for you laptop users (that's a couple minutes extra), VSync no longer runs continuously for you gamers, improvements in the HD Audio codecs.
- Reliability Fixes; supposedly less likely to crash, more compatibility with new hardware.
- Security Fixes; nothing that the average guy will notice, but basically, easing the method with which 3rd party products can interface with the Windows Security Center.
- Performance Fixes; Faster copying of files, less time to become active from Hibernate & Resume, slightly less CPU and memory utilization.
- Misc; A fix for users with Nvidia Mobos, ejecting ipods, AMD Barcelon reboot issues, hybrid SLI/Crossfire problems.
In short, SP1 doesn't offer anything substantial that the average consumer is going to notice. It's mostly hundreds of small code updates.
Installation: Home consumers can get Vista with SP1 with one of two ways. Buy it from Amazon with it integrated into the DVD with one license. Download it automatically from Windows Update (I think it's ~ 7 GB). I heard from a friend that updating from Vista to SP1 takes about an hour; installing the complete package on my machine was about 1.5 hours.
Thoughts: Even with SP1, Vista Ultimate still takes forever to boot up. XP could boot up in 30 seconds. I still get more infamous "Blue Screens of Death" more than I did with XP. Various programs that I ran fine in XP are still unstable in Vista. Lockups, crashes, it's annoying. SP1 offers some cosmetic changes, but I still question the overall stability of Vista Ultimate.
Conclusion: If you purchased an OEM machine from a company like Dell, HP, etc.., then you're most likely stuck with Vista for the time being, unless you want to go purchase a separate key for XP. SP1 improves some minor issues, so I guess you'll have to wait until SP2 for more substantial changes.
For everybody else, stick with Windows XP. If it ain't broke, then don't fix it. I do like the Aero graphical interface that Vista offers, which are aesthetically pleasing, but other than that, XP has it beat hands down. XP with System Pack 2 is still rock solid, and runs all of my apps, games, and hardware without issues. So stick with Windows XP if you can, and wait until the upcoming Windows 7 comes out (2010).
 Works like a Charm for My Varied App Suite March 31, 2008
Lisa Shea
6 out of 8 found this review helpful
I've been using Windows back since the earliest version that installed on DOS. With every new release there's been people complaining about the changes and the interface. Then they get used to it and complain when a new version comes out to change things again. It's the way life goes. I have to say I have both my laptop and main PC on Vista Ultimate for several months now and am really pleased with it.
I am a computer game reviewer so we have tried ALL sorts of games on Vista. We haven't had any problems at all. I do video and photo editing. No problems with any of my editing tools (except an old Dazzle input device which is really Dazzle's fault, not Window's). I've got QuickBooks and a variety of other office style applications. Honestly, there hasn't been a problem with anything. They all run smoothly.
Remote terminal? Fine. Fax software? Fine. I like the new visual interface. I haven't had any slowdown issues with the software running. I like the update interface, to keep everything in sync with the latest versions.
I don't want to discount people who have issues with software upgrades. I've certainly had my share of problems when trying to upgrade Adobe or Office in the past. I know these types of issues exist. All I can offer is in my household, with the wide variety of software we're running it has been smooth as silk. We even got a new machine for my son for college, with Vista, and he hasn't hit any problems with it at all - even with all the software he downloads, music he plays, and apps he runs.
I know people who try to "cling" to old versions of an OS - like Windows 95 - and the problems it causes is just immense. I know it's a pain sometimes to upgrade, but I do recommend it highly. Vista has been a great platform for us, and it means going forward that we know the software we buy will click in smoothly to our OS.
The Next Generation OS -- If You Have the Hardware to Support It March 25, 2008
Robert L. Stinnett (Boonville, MO)
5 out of 7 found this review helpful
I've been using Windows since the days of Windows 3.0 and have always been impressed, for the most part, with the advances each new version brings. Windows 95 and Windows XP remain the two "major" advances of Windows that redefined the user experience. Windows Vista Ultimate doesn't quite qualify as a major advance, but it is definitely the next generation OS from Microsoft.
The biggest thing that sets Vista apart from XP is the hardware. If you are running on hardware that is "fine for XP" chances are it won't be fine for Vista. All too many of the problems people are running into are because they are trying to run Vista on hardware that just isn't supported -- or supported poorly. You need a modern PC (dual-core, at least 1GB of RAM and a decent graphics card) to fully take advantage of what Vista Ultimate offers.
So why would you consider upgrading to Vista? If you are heavy into the Media Center functions of Windows, or want to experience the WIndows Aero interface then Vista is right for you. If you are happy with XP and it provides everything you need -- then there really is no reason to run out and upgrade.
There are some features I do like in Vista that aren't "killer" but nonetheless make the experience better. The Windows Sidebar is a great addition, letting you add gadgets to track everything from recent documents to the weather. The enhanced performance and reliablity center is great for geeks like me who like to see what is going on under the hood -- but to be honest, I think they overdid it with the new Event Viewer; way too much information and choices. I also like the fact that they have brought Windows Media Center into the Ultimate version -- before this was a seperate purchase.
Some things I could do without. The new Explorer interface can be annoying at times; Windows Ultimate Extras have not really lived up to the hype; and the new photo tools -- well, let's just say I wish they'd go back to how XP handled photos. I found myself having to go out and get a third-party tool to resize my photos; a feature I took for granted in XP!
Vista Ultimate is a good upgrade choice if you have a newer PC and want to experience the next generation of Windows. If you are happy with XP and you don't have a need for Vista, then stick with XP. Consider Vista Ultimate one of those purchases you make when you need to upgrade your PC, or when you want to finally get your digital media loaded onto your PC to share it throughout the house.
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