Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 21-25 of 104
 I Have to Say, I'm Okay with Vista April 5, 2008
Jack Priest (Reno, Nevada)
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
I finally upgraded to Vista and it was a long time coming. I must admit for the longest time I felt envious of people who were operating on a system newer than mine, but I also felt secretly satisfied that XP was more secure and faster. No eye candy though. However, as both a Mac and a PC user, I had all the eye candy one would want with Leopard and it doesn't slow anything down.
What I don't understand is why Vista has to come in so many editions:
Windows Vista Home Basic
Windows Vista Home Premium
Windows Vista Business
Windows Vista Ultimate
Plus all the upgrade versions. Why not just one version that does it all, you know, the way they do it in the Mac world.
Okay, all that aside, I have two PCs, both desktops, one at work (which is actually mine, not my employers) and one at home. At work I installed Home Premium and at home I installed Vista Ultimate. I didn't time the installation in either place as I was doing other stuff during the process, but neither install took more than an hour.
I did not do clean installs in either case, instead opting for the upgrade option, just to see if it worked. Besides, I have lots of back up hard drives so I wasn't worried and it appears I didn't need to, because both installs went swimmingly. I understand others have not been so lucky, but I was.
After choosing my local time, currency, keyboard layout, user name, icon, wallpaper and password Vista decided my computers were good to go and they were.
Right off the bat I have to say, I like the Aero interface. Is it better than Leopard's, not really, but it's not worse either, just different. I've got four gigs of ram in both computers and though maybe Vista might have been a tad slower doing some photoshop work than XP, it wasn't all that noticeable. Some things may have been a bit slower opening, but not enough to make me miss XP. All in all, I have to say I'm okay with Vista.
Jack Priest, author of Ragged Man, Gecko & Night Witch
It works great! April 11, 2008
Patrick Oden (Lake Arrowhead, CA United States)
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/RZR6O8M0OB8TR I almost feel bad for saying this. Like I'm somehow proving myself just a Microsoft shill. But the fact is that, for me, Microsoft Windows Vista SP1 works and it works great. To be sure I have a decent computer. I loaded Vista onto a Dell XPS 710 that has a Intel Cor 2 Quad CPU, 4GB RAM, a 256mb Nvidia 8600 GTS video card, and a Creative X-Fi Xtreme-Audio sound card. The computer was made after Vista came out, but at the time Dell did not support Vista with this system. So I got Windows XP professional, and at the time I was grateful because of what I heard about Vista.
I decided it was time to take a risk and see if I could push the hardware to its potential. I'm glad I did. The upgrade was quick (about 20 minutes) without any problems at all. Everything works and works faster and cleaner than with Windows XP.
I do highly, highly recommend getting a text on Vista if you want to best use it to its fullest and personalize it as you can. Learning more about Vista from a book like Windows Vista Inside Out really helped me to discover a lot more features and a lot more improvements and a lot more options.
Vista is definitely a great step up for me and I'm very glad I went ahead and upgraded. It works and it works great. That's my experience.
Excellent April 11, 2008
B. Gone
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
Having been among the fearless ones to have "upgraded" a perfectly functional XP system to the first generation Vista system, I have had to pay the price in every imaginable way. Even after endless talks to helplines and numerous automatic updates it took forever to get the whole system functional, yet never performing at the XP level.
However, it looks like this upgrade should have been the version that Microsoft should have submitted in the first place. While it may be argued that it offers limited improvement over XP for the standard user and lags behind the latest incarnation of the Mac OS, it is an excellent and so far bug free system.
 Gift Horse in the Mouth April 12, 2008
Tim Brough (Springfield, PA United States)
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
Wow, said I the day Amazon offered Vista through the Amazon Vine program. Microsoft must really want to negate the bad publicity about Vista really, really bad if they're willing to give it to Amazon reviewers. Sign me up, says I, after all, if they want reviews this intently, they must be sending out a new, improved and bug-free version, eh?
Not so fast, says my IT professional room-mate. These have a nasty reputation...and I don't know if I can repair the damage it may cause. But little old me was insistent, figuring (again) that if Microsoft was fishing for positive reviews, they must have this disc polished, shiny and flawless. My IT partner again warns me to think twice, then agrees to back up my system in case his prophecies come to pass.
In short, I should have listened to him. If you want to install Vista on your old computer, be prepared for some serious headaches. While my copy loaded into my system in less than an hour, the problems began mounting almost immediately after. To begin with, as most reviews point out, there is the very time-consuming process of authorizing all the old software on your computer to work with the new OS. Much of my old stuff simply got rejected...including my printer. Too old for these new-fangled improved systems, it seems. Then came the real deal killer. My old Office refused to perform. Yes, if I really wanted to, I could throw a couple hundred dollars on the NEW Microsoft Office (as the pop-up quickly informed me). Hell, no, says I and continue seeing what else would happen.
Then up pops another refusal. My old adobe photoshop, loyal and working perfectly since 1999 is outmoded for this OS. Phooey, says I. So that is two old but useful programs - disappeared. Then it says it won't recognize my DVD player. I manage to find a way around this, but the following day when I attempt to boot up, the same issue. It keeps saying no DVD player. At this point, it was strike three and you're outta here.
I tucked my tail between my legs and approached my IT partner who gave me a big shot of "I told you so" with a "why did you not listen to me in the first place" chaser, and he switched out the hard drive with the back up he so kindly made two days earlier. Everything works again, DVD's play, my manuscripts are all visible and my picture editing is all in place. Buyer, beware. Unless you happen to have a geek on the grounds who can fix your Puck-ufs, get VISTA pre-installed on a new computer, only. But trying to re-fit years of collected works? Better have a full bottle of aspirin at the work desk. You're gonna need it.
On the plus side, it looks terrific. That being the ONLY positive experience I had with this lumpadung, I guess I can't recommend it.
Wait for SP2 or 3 or 4, or Upgrade Now, that is the Question April 13, 2008
Mallory Smith (Tallahassee, Florida)
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
In the Mac world updates to the operating system sometimes seem to come fast and furious, but unless it's a major upgrade, like from Tiger to Leopard (10.4 to 10.5) they are always free. In the windows world you pay for them. For example XP to Vista is similar to the Tiger - Leopard example and you expect to pay. Now tell me the difference between upgrading from 10.5.2 to 10.5.3 in the Mac world, a free upgrade and Vista to Vista with SP1. Is not the whole raison d'etre of SP1 to fix the mistakes of Vista, as are those free upgrades in the Mac world.
What a great cash cow Microsoft has going for it. Deliver a flawed operating system, charge a lot of money for it, then charge a gang of money to fix some, but not all of the flaws. That said, the SP1 upgrade does seem a bit faster and they say it's more secure and I guess I'll believe them.
Would I upgrade to SP1 from Vista if I were you. It depends. I'm not a power user, so I didn't see all that much difference, so if you're like me and everything is ticking along fine, then I suppose I'd leave well enough alone. But if you're someone who is concerned about all those hundreds of little problems they say plague Vista, then you might want to upgrade. Do I sleep better knowing those problems aren't lurking in my computer waiting to strike when I least expect it. Not really, because if I was that kind of person, then I'd probably lie awake nights, hoping, waiting, praying for SP2. Come on Microsoft, these upgrades should be free.
I know, I know, I shouldn't be complaining, because I got a free review copy of SP1 and because I haven't really had a bad Vista experience, so I guess I'll shut up now and just say, in my opinion if you're still running XP, then I'd upgrade, but if you're running Vista, I think I'd wait till SP2, or 3 or 4.
Still, upset as I am about Microsoft's business practice of charging for these upgrades, mine was flawless, everything still works (I did a clean install, after backing up) and the performance does seem better, so five stars from me for the upgrade.
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