Why is Vista so slow?

[Guest]

Hi all, please forgive me if this is basic (my knowledge of computers is
basic!). Bought a laptop with 2 gig centurion 64 processor, 1 gig of ram, and
Windows Vista Home Basic. It should be zipping along relatively easily in my
opinion, but its very slow and crashes (just freezes, with the odd "not
responding" message) when I'm doing the most basic of things. It will freeze
when I'm on the net, when I'm trying to install games from cd/dvd-rom. I'm
convinced (although I have no evidence) that Vista has something to do with
it, these games/programmes installed fine on XP (it won't even install MSN
Messenger). I took it back to the shop and the guy did a system restore from
me back to factory settings, but is happening again. Its happened about 7
times this afternoon and I'm getting seriously frustrated. Any pointers from
anyone would be greatly appreciated!

 

[f/fgeorge]

Hi all, please forgive me if this is basic (my knowledge of computers is
basic!). Bought a laptop with 2 gig centurion 64 processor, 1 gig of ram, and
Windows Vista Home Basic. It should be zipping along relatively easily in my
opinion, but its very slow and crashes (just freezes, with the odd "not
responding" message) when I'm doing the most basic of things. It will freeze
when I'm on the net, when I'm trying to install games from cd/dvd-rom. I'm
convinced (although I have no evidence) that Vista has something to do with
it, these games/programmes installed fine on XP (it won't even install MSN
Messenger). I took it back to the shop and the guy did a system restore from
me back to factory settings, but is happening again. Its happened about 7
times this afternoon and I'm getting seriously frustrated. Any pointers from
anyone would be greatly appreciated!

Add another gig of memoey and you should see a huge increase in speed.
MS is saying Vista 'will run' in 1 gig of ram, true but not very well!

 

[Guest]

It takes up that much RAM?!!! Thats a disgrace! Think I'll go back to XP!
Thanks for the reply, hopefully this is what's behind it because I'm buggered
if I can find anything else.

 

[Mike Hall - MVP]

Vista does have issues, but there are workarounds for many..

Re the browser, uninstall any 3rd party toolbars, and visit these websites
for tips on IE7

http://www.enhanceie.com/ie/tweaks.asp

http://www.ie-vista.com/known_issues.html#tsie

The games you are installing were not written specifically for Vista, most
being written well before Vista appeared, so expect some problems..
compatibility mode can be used successfully with some.. try it out.. if that
doesn't work, go to the game websites for fixes, patches, tips..

Vista is NOT XP with a new user interface.. so, what worked with XP may not
necessarily work with Vista.. in some cases, software contains an OS
identifier specifically so it will NOT work with any new OS, thus forcing
the user to buy the latest compatible version..

Hardware relies on drivers provided by the hardware manufacturer, and in
certain cases, the manufacturer has NO intention of providing Vista drivers,
again forcing the user to buy new..

MSN Messenger has been replaced by Windows Live Messenger..

Some of your problems may be caused by the manufacturer using beta drivers
for some of the hardware.. OEM manufacturers are not always what they should
be..

Hi all, please forgive me if this is basic (my knowledge of computers is
basic!). Bought a laptop with 2 gig centurion 64 processor, 1 gig of ram,
and
Windows Vista Home Basic. It should be zipping along relatively easily in
my
opinion, but its very slow and crashes (just freezes, with the odd "not
responding" message) when I'm doing the most basic of things. It will
freeze
when I'm on the net, when I'm trying to install games from cd/dvd-rom. I'm
convinced (although I have no evidence) that Vista has something to do
with
it, these games/programmes installed fine on XP (it won't even install MSN
Messenger). I took it back to the shop and the guy did a system restore
from
me back to factory settings, but is happening again. Its happened about 7
times this afternoon and I'm getting seriously frustrated. Any pointers
from
anyone would be greatly appreciated!

--


Mike Hall
MS MVP Windows Shell/User
http://msmvps.com/blogs/mikehall/

 

[Lano DeMentar]

no.. MS says it will run with 512mb ram!

Find the site and see....

Vista is slow because is a FREAK OS!

 

[Lano DeMentar]

Yes go back to XP...

it is the best os...

Vista stinks big time

 

[Guest]

Thanks for your reply Mike.
I will try your suggestions, but to be perfectly honest I've never had any
problems with XP and I'd sooner go back to that than have to go through all
the teething problems of Vista.

In any case, thankyou so much for a decent reply. It is very much appreciated!

 

[Mike Hall - MVP]

It was the same for XP, but many have forgotten or were not around at the
time.. just like XP, Vista will mature and everything will improve..

Thanks for your reply Mike.
I will try your suggestions, but to be perfectly honest I've never had any
problems with XP and I'd sooner go back to that than have to go through
all
the teething problems of Vista.

In any case, thankyou so much for a decent reply. It is very much
appreciated!

--


Mike Hall
MS MVP Windows Shell/User
http://msmvps.com/blogs/mikehall/

 

[Bob Eyster]

I have 1gig on RAM and Vista runs normally when UAC is disabled. When it's
active I cannot browse the internet due to slowness. It takes over a minute
to load MSN.com when UAC is active, disabled msn.com loads in 10 sec..

 

[Alias]

It was the same for XP, but many have forgotten or were not around at
the time.. just like XP, Vista will mature and everything will improve..

Compared to Ubuntu, XP sucks, even in its "mature" state.

 

[Frank]

Compared to Ubuntu, XP sucks, even in its "mature" state.

Compared to Vista, even in it's "immature state", Ubuntu sucks...big time!
Frank

 

[Guest]

How quickly we have forgotten all the problems when W93,95,98 ---XP, had when
they were released!!!!!

--
Regards
Bob J
If advise given from anyone, solves problem or not, or if solved from
another source,post back & let us know.
Then we all benefit.

 

[Guest]

What is UAC?!!! Please be basic, I don't know much!

 

[Richard Urban]

Diarrhea of the mouth again.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!

 

[Guest]

No Mike I wasn't around at the time, and I also didn't fork out on a brand
new laptop in order for it to be slower than a Commodore 64!!

Just tried the compatibility program with one of my games and it froze, just
like everything else freezes. I think I'm going back to XP at this rate. If I
had a choice about which OS my laptop came with I would have chosen XP anyway.

 

[Bill Yanaire]

Compared to Frank and Adam, Alias sucks, even in its "mature" state !

Run, don't walk from Ubuntu, the TOY Operating System for geeks

 

[Mike Hall - MVP]

XP is probably best for your purposes.. anybody with older programs should
stick with XP if it all works..

The biggest problem now though is ensuring that XP drivers are available for
your new laptop.. as with any hardware drivers, it is not a Microsoft
responsibility because hardware drivers are supplied by the hardware
manufacturers.. check the situation out with the laptop manufacturer AND the
manufacturers of the individual hardware components, ie video, network
interface, modem, sound etc.

No Mike I wasn't around at the time, and I also didn't fork out on a brand
new laptop in order for it to be slower than a Commodore 64!!

Just tried the compatibility program with one of my games and it froze,
just
like everything else freezes. I think I'm going back to XP at this rate.
If I
had a choice about which OS my laptop came with I would have chosen XP
anyway.

Mike Hall
MS MVP Windows Shell/User
http://msmvps.com/blogs/mikehall/

 

[Mike Hall - MVP]

Have you noticed that any reference he makes to an Ubuntu help group is
always to alt.os, the help group equivalent of the Coyote Ugly Bars? One has
to wonder why he never mentions the official Ubuntu forum.. of course, he
will start to do that now just to prove me wrong..

Diarrhea of the mouth again.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!

Compared to Ubuntu, XP sucks, even in its "mature" state.

--


Mike Hall
MS MVP Windows Shell/User
http://msmvps.com/blogs/mikehall/

 

[Mike Hall - MVP]

Some of these people were never there is why.. they claim that they were,
but their spoutings are so far off of the mark as to prove that they were
not.. life goes on..

How quickly we have forgotten all the problems when W93,95,98 ---XP, had
when
they were released!!!!!

--
Regards
Bob J
If advise given from anyone, solves problem or not, or if solved from
another source,post back & let us know.
Then we all benefit.

--


Mike Hall
MS MVP Windows Shell/User
http://msmvps.com/blogs/mikehall/

 

[Adam Albright]

What is UAC?!!! Please be basic, I don't know much!

UAC stands for User Account Control. It is a much hated new "feature"
of Vista that is suppose to provide another layer of security and in
effect protect you from yourself by nagging about things you may do
Vista doesn't like that it feels may put your system at risk. How much
a nag Vista will be depends on how you use your computer. In a
nutshell what happens if you do something Vista don't like it will dim
the screen, pop up one of several different nag windows and ask are
you sure you want to do what you just told it to do. That of course
can get old fast because UAC is too dumb to learn. It don't just ask
you once and remember what you told it, it will nag every time you do
something it thinks you shouldn't if you already told it a 100 times
it is fine with you to do what you told it. You can see why it quickly
gets hated. ;-)

Vista's help as several articles on it. You can if you like turn it
off. Go to Control Panel, User Accounts. You'll see an option to
disable UAC, it then will ask you to reboot. You can switch it off and
on as many times as you like.

You can also control UAC. This involves learning about file
permissions. Forget what you knew about Administrator in XP. Things
are very different in Vista with everything being based on ownership.

You can get an idea how it works by right clicking on files in Windows
Explorer and looking under the Security tab. Do NOT mess with until
you understand what you're changing.