You might go to the web page of the device manufacturers to check for Vista
compatible device drivers, and there may be new Vista compatible versions
(or updates) for the apps you are having trouble with.
I was able to get Vista working just fine. Here is a run down of my
experience.
My copy of Vista is Vista Home Premium. My hardware is a home-built desktop
with 512 MB of memory, a 40 GB hard drive, a floppy drive, a CD drive, a DVD
drive, and a CPU running at 950 MHZ. I use an Ethernet cable connected to my
router in order to gain access to the internet through my cable modem. This
computer does not use wireless, which has been problematic for some users.
I know this hardware sounds very minimal, especially the CPU speed, but with
the applications I am using it runs efficiently and quickly.
Here is what I did:
A clean install of Vista (deleted all hard drive partitions, reformatted the
hard drive, and installed Vista). Earlier I had tried a system upgrade from
XP to Vista, and ran into all sorts of problems. A clean install will force
you to re-install all applications and all needed data files, after Vista is
up and running, but it is far less troublesome.
Turned off UAC to avoid a constant barrage of "helpful" messages while
setting up my Vista system..
Removed Defender from the startup list for the same reason. It's still
there, but will not begin running at startup. I'm not sure if Defender is
that intrusive, but I didn't want to deal with it at the moment.
Changed the workgroup name from WORKGROUP to MSHOME so that this computer
would be able to communicate with other XP running PCs on my home network.
The default workgroup name for Vista is WORKGROUP, while the default name
under XP is MSHOME. In a home network, all computers should have the same
workgroup name. You could rename the workgroup name for all PCs in your home
network to something more secure, rather than use a default name - as long
as ALL PCs have the same workgroup name.
Downloaded and installed an anti-virus program called AVG free from Grisoft.
Downloaded and installed an anti-spyware program called Ad-Aware (free) from
Lavasoft.
Installed Microsoft Office 2003.
Downloaded and installed all updates from Microsoft for Vista and Office.
Downloaded and installed all updates for AVG Free and Ad-Aware.
Performed a full system scan with AVG Free and Ad-Aware.
Chose the "classic" option for the Control Panel and also for the Start
button. This makes Vista seem more familiar to me.
Selected the single click option for my mouse (just my preference).
The only glitch I experienced was that my (quite old) CD-ROM drive was not
recognized. This, however, may have nothing to do with Vista. Could be a
loose power cable to that device, or whatever. I haven't used it for over a
year.
All device drivers were recognized, and no errors show up under the Device
Manager. I was halfway expecting my Nvidia driver to give me problems
because there have been reports that some Nvidia drivers are not compatible
with Vista. However, mine was accepted without a problem. The graphics card
is an NVIDIA GeForce4 MX440 with 64 MB of onboard memory.
Prior to reaching this successful goal Vista's User Account Control (UAC)
was causing way to many delays with its "helpful" messages. So I turned it
off and was then able to do all of the above without interferences.
I plan to keep UAC turned off for a while, until I at least have become more
familiar with Vista. In the meantime, AVG Free and AD-Aware are providing
all of the protection I need.
Is my system performance adequate? For what I do, it certainly is. I surf
the internet, download files from the internet (even large ones several
hundred MBs in size because I use cable, which allows for fast downloads),
use E-mail - including photographs as attachments, and use the Office
software.
Gaming is something I occasionally do, and my system is not adequate for
some of the more advanced games - but does just fine with Microsoft Flight
Simulator and similar packages - that is, it did OK with Flight Simulator
under Windows XP. I haven't tried it out with Vista yet, but probably there
will be a performance hit when I do.
Hope this is of some help to you.
