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I have been using Vista Premium on a Gateway desktop for over a year. I have never had a problem, and rarely have to reboot, even though I install then uninstall a fairly large number of applications I want to try out (using Revo uninstaller).
Why is it that so many people have problems with Vista? Is it because they installed it on an XP machine, even if a clean install? Not enough memory? Incorrect drivers? For my money the less than truly expert should by a new computer, built and designed for the new operating system.
My sense in the years since Vista was released is that problems and complaints fall into three buckets:
1) upgrade versus clean installs. Installing Vista as an upgrade to XP has been known to leave problems. It's a reason a always recommend clean installs for OS version upgrades.
2) hardware issues. Vista's support of some hardware, especially initially, was lacking - particularly printers. That's gotten somewhat better over time for various reasons.
3) taste. Some people simply didn't like many of the user interface and behaviour changes. These aren't "problems" in the technical sense - Vista's operating as designed - but if you can't figure out how to make it do what you want, that's a problem.
28-Aug-2009
Posted by: Gene Thomas at August 27, 2009 12:16 PM
Gene, you're right that one of the main problems with Vista is that the machines are just not powerful enough to run it well, but the problem is that Vista came installed on hundreds of thousands if not millions of machines incapable of running it properly.
Posted by: Mark at August 28, 2009 2:19 AM
Yes, a clean install is the way to go. But you should not have glossed over one of the major hurdles - Apple's hideous DRM locks on your purchased music. Even non-DRM podcasts can be a nightmare. Apple's cronies have created a horror story that all users should be aware of.
Posted by: jbenson2 at September 1, 2009 8:38 AM
just create a partition and install windows 7 on it [ dual boot ] so you wil have 2 operating system on one machine .
Fine, except that it makes sharing things between the two operating systems cumbersome at best.
02-Sep-2009
Posted by: joel21 at September 1, 2009 8:51 AM
I use 2 scenarios:
1. On one machine I run W7 in a vBox virtual partition. That works great. I gave it 1GB of RAM and plenty of incremantal disk space. Thus I have 2.325GB left for Vista and hopping back and forth between the systems is really a piece of cake. I reboot Vista (the host) as few times as possible because each time superfetch needs some time to rearrange the real estate in the page file. I use sleep mode instead.
2. On another system I installed an SSD as a second disk. I disconnected the HDD (with Vista on it) and installed W7 on the SSD (an OCZ Vertex). Thus I could avoid the double boot scenario - with all it's problems. I switch between the 2 systems with the boot sequence in the BIOS. Not quite as convenient as the vBox scenario, but super fast. W7 boots in 10 seconds flat and launching a program or a folder is faster than I can lift the finger from the mouse.
Posted by: whs at September 1, 2009 10:30 AM
I built a new PC a year ago and put Vista Ultimate on it - 32 bit. I wanted to go to 64 bit with Win 7. Doing a 'clean install' will cost $100 more rather than getting 'upgrade' version and staying with 32 bit. I hate these kind of decisions.
Clean install, like others have said. And the dual-boot idea with XP/7 is an even better idea - something I'll definitely be doing.
Posted by: snickers at September 1, 2009 10:56 PM
Installed Windows 7 RC (64bit). Clean Install on a new self build computer. I like the program. I never used Vista before, because I stuck with WinXP. What amazed me most is the speed that win7 load up and also closes. Have not found out what caused that increase in speed. CPU used is AMD Phenom II X3 and 4GB DDR3 memory. I did not start to overclock the unit yet.
Posted by: Paul M at September 3, 2009 11:44 AM
Hey, I did what you said - a clean install - and now it won't let me use the upgrade activation key. It is telling me that the previous version has to be on the computer, which it is not because I did a clean install and wiped it out. Now I can't activate my system!
I have the disks for XP, ME, and others, but at no point does the activation ask for these.
Help!
Posted by: brent at February 13, 2010 9:19 AM
Read the article that everyone's commenting on.
Subscribe to the RSS Feed for comments on this article.
Comments
Read the article that everyone's commenting on.
Subscribe to the RSS Feed for comments on this article.
I have been using Vista Premium on a Gateway desktop for over a year. I have never had a problem, and rarely have to reboot, even though I install then uninstall a fairly large number of applications I want to try out (using Revo uninstaller).
Why is it that so many people have problems with Vista? Is it because they installed it on an XP machine, even if a clean install? Not enough memory? Incorrect drivers? For my money the less than truly expert should by a new computer, built and designed for the new operating system.
1) upgrade versus clean installs. Installing Vista as an upgrade to XP has been known to leave problems. It's a reason a always recommend clean installs for OS version upgrades.
2) hardware issues. Vista's support of some hardware, especially initially, was lacking - particularly printers. That's gotten somewhat better over time for various reasons.
3) taste. Some people simply didn't like many of the user interface and behaviour changes. These aren't "problems" in the technical sense - Vista's operating as designed - but if you can't figure out how to make it do what you want, that's a problem.
28-Aug-2009
Posted by: Gene Thomas at August 27, 2009 12:16 PM
Gene, you're right that one of the main problems with Vista is that the machines are just not powerful enough to run it well, but the problem is that Vista came installed on hundreds of thousands if not millions of machines incapable of running it properly.
Posted by: Mark at August 28, 2009 2:19 AMYes, a clean install is the way to go. But you should not have glossed over one of the major hurdles - Apple's hideous DRM locks on your purchased music. Even non-DRM podcasts can be a nightmare. Apple's cronies have created a horror story that all users should be aware of.
Posted by: jbenson2 at September 1, 2009 8:38 AMjust create a partition and install windows 7 on it [ dual boot ] so you wil have 2 operating system on one machine .
02-Sep-2009
Posted by: joel21 at September 1, 2009 8:51 AM
I use 2 scenarios:
Posted by: whs at September 1, 2009 10:30 AM1. On one machine I run W7 in a vBox virtual partition. That works great. I gave it 1GB of RAM and plenty of incremantal disk space. Thus I have 2.325GB left for Vista and hopping back and forth between the systems is really a piece of cake. I reboot Vista (the host) as few times as possible because each time superfetch needs some time to rearrange the real estate in the page file. I use sleep mode instead.
2. On another system I installed an SSD as a second disk. I disconnected the HDD (with Vista on it) and installed W7 on the SSD (an OCZ Vertex). Thus I could avoid the double boot scenario - with all it's problems. I switch between the 2 systems with the boot sequence in the BIOS. Not quite as convenient as the vBox scenario, but super fast. W7 boots in 10 seconds flat and launching a program or a folder is faster than I can lift the finger from the mouse.
I built a new PC a year ago and put Vista Ultimate on it - 32 bit. I wanted to go to 64 bit with Win 7. Doing a 'clean install' will cost $100 more rather than getting 'upgrade' version and staying with 32 bit. I hate these kind of decisions.
02-Sep-2009
Posted by: mp3guy at September 1, 2009 11:25 AM
Clean install, like others have said. And the dual-boot idea with XP/7 is an even better idea - something I'll definitely be doing.
Posted by: snickers at September 1, 2009 10:56 PMInstalled Windows 7 RC (64bit). Clean Install on a new self build computer. I like the program. I never used Vista before, because I stuck with WinXP. What amazed me most is the speed that win7 load up and also closes. Have not found out what caused that increase in speed. CPU used is AMD Phenom II X3 and 4GB DDR3 memory. I did not start to overclock the unit yet.
Posted by: Paul M at September 3, 2009 11:44 AMHey, I did what you said - a clean install - and now it won't let me use the upgrade activation key. It is telling me that the previous version has to be on the computer, which it is not because I did a clean install and wiped it out. Now I can't activate my system!
I have the disks for XP, ME, and others, but at no point does the activation ask for these.
Help!
Posted by: brent at February 13, 2010 9:19 AMTo post a comment on "How do I upgrade from XP or Vista to Windows 7?", please return to that article's main page.