XP or Vista on New PC?

[Talal Itani]

Hello,

I am putting together a PC. I will use the PC for business and engineering,
and I install on it a lot of software from different makers. The hardware I
will use will be new, Vista compatible. I like the features of Vista, but I
am worried about compatibility issues with software. Should I install XP
and upgrade to Vista later on? Should I install Vista right away? All new
computers seem to have Vista pre-installed, so Vista must be good and stable
and compatible with software. I do not know. Please tell me what you
think. Thank you.

T.I.

 

[SANDY]

Hello,

I am putting together a PC. I will use the PC for business and engineering,
and I install on it a lot of software from different makers. The hardware I
will use will be new, Vista compatible. I like the features of Vista, but I
am worried about compatibility issues with software. Should I install XP
and upgrade to Vista later on? Should I install Vista right away? All new
computers seem to have Vista pre-installed, so Vista must be good and stable
and compatible with software. I do not know. Please tell me what you
think. Thank you.

T.I.

Well its a good question
XP has been there in market for long time there are many tools and SW
available commercial and Free.

Vista is still far from stable and that is y dell and other companies
started giving XP as a option for business users
as u r assembling a PC ur self may be u can do is make dual boot XP
and Vista both that way if some sw is only XP compatible then ucan use
it in XP else vista

this link can help http://mblog.lib.umich.edu/vista_ac/
http://www.iexbeta.com/wiki/index.php/Windows_Vista_Software_Compatibility_List

u can go ahead with VISTA if want to just make sure the SW u have and
plan to use(buy) is vista compatible.
and vista has many versions the feature like aero and others are not
there in home basic version so may be u will like to buy business
edition but again its all abt how much money u want to invest as the
vista it self and new SW be more expensive.
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/editions/choose.mspx

Enjoy
sandy

 

[Mellowed]

Hello,

I am putting together a PC. I will use the PC for business and
engineering, and I install on it a lot of software from different makers.
The hardware I will use will be new, Vista compatible. I like the
features of Vista, but I am worried about compatibility issues with
software. Should I install XP and upgrade to Vista later on? Should I
install Vista right away? All new computers seem to have Vista
pre-installed, so Vista must be good and stable and compatible with
software. I do not know. Please tell me what you think. Thank you.

T.I.

Most problems with Vista are due to an upgrade over an earlier OS. If you
start with XP and then upgrade to Vista, then you should plan on a 'clean'
install. It would be worth your while to determine if your software is
compatible with Vista. If most of your software is compatible, then go with
Vista. I built my own system and only about 2 software packages needed
upgrade. The only problems I have with Vista and software is when the UAC
is enabled. It affected my old (2002) Canon camera download and maybe one
other package. Quicken 2002 works, Office 2000 works. Outlook 2000 works
after re-copying a couple files to another location. Nero needed upgrading
to Ver 7.

 

[Yes Baby]

Hello,

I am putting together a PC. I will use the PC for business and
engineering, and I install on it a lot of software from different makers.
The hardware I will use will be new, Vista compatible. I like the
features of Vista, but I am worried about compatibility issues with
software. Should I install XP and upgrade to Vista later on? Should I
install Vista right away? All new computers seem to have Vista
pre-installed, so Vista must be good and stable and compatible with
software. I do not know. Please tell me what you think. Thank you.

T.I.

XP Pro is the way to go for a year or so don't you know.

 

[ray]

Hello,

I am putting together a PC. I will use the PC for business and engineering,
and I install on it a lot of software from different makers. The hardware I
will use will be new, Vista compatible. I like the features of Vista, but I
am worried about compatibility issues with software. Should I install XP
and upgrade to Vista later on? Should I install Vista right away? All new
computers seem to have Vista pre-installed, so Vista must be good and stable
and compatible with software. I do not know. Please tell me what you
think. Thank you.

T.I.

First, not all new computers come with vista pre-installed. DELL is now
selling computers with xp and Ubuntu Linux installed (one or the other,
that is). They backed away from vista only because of consumer demand.

Many competent computer consultants are advising clients not to install
vista until at least SP1. Two local computer store I know of are not
selling vista systems.

 

[cpliu]

My new notebook has vista pre-installed and there is no way to go back
to XP. After trying it, I have to say I like XP better. I'm not into
these aethetic things and Vista appears slow (i've already set it to
optimize for performance) and uses tons of memory. What I care more is
the speed especially speed in the applications I use. I don't have
numbers to back it up. I just don't feel any speed improvement on
desktop (accessing files, copying, etc). Does anyone know if it
improves the speed in applications? Also all these security features
are rather annoying to me. I can't access a lot of folders even with
an admin account. Maybe it just takes time to figure out all the
workarounds to get the efficiency as in XP.

I will stick with XP (on my desktop PC) for a while until Vista proves
to increase my productivity.

 

[The poster formerly known as Nina DiBoy]

Hello,

I am putting together a PC. I will use the PC for business and engineering,
and I install on it a lot of software from different makers. The hardware I
will use will be new, Vista compatible. I like the features of Vista, but I
am worried about compatibility issues with software. Should I install XP
and upgrade to Vista later on? Should I install Vista right away? All new
computers seem to have Vista pre-installed, so Vista must be good and stable
and compatible with software. I do not know. Please tell me what you
think. Thank you.

T.I.

XP for sure, If you choose to exclude a non-MS OS.

Vista's growing pains leave room for XP
http://news.com.com/Vistas+growing+pains+leave+room+for+XP/2100-1016_3-6197757.html?tag=newsmap

--
Priceless quotes in m.p.w.vista.general group:
http://protectfreedom.tripod.com/kick.html

Most recent idiotic quote added to KICK (Klassic Idiotic Caption Kooks):
"They hacked the Microsoft website to make it think a linux box was a
windows box. Thats called hacking. People who do hacking are called
hackers."

"Only religious fanatics and totalitarian states equate morality with
legality."
- Linus Torvalds

 

[kony]

Hello,

I am putting together a PC. I will use the PC for business and engineering,
and I install on it a lot of software from different makers. The hardware I
will use will be new, Vista compatible. I like the features of Vista, but I
am worried about compatibility issues with software. Should I install XP
and upgrade to Vista later on? Should I install Vista right away? All new
computers seem to have Vista pre-installed, so Vista must be good and stable
and compatible with software. I do not know. Please tell me what you
think. Thank you.

No, new computers are sold with Vista because that is what
MS is pushing, because it's the "latest thing". For a
professional use, you should wait until it is a more mature
OS, just as it would have been a bad idea to start using XP
right after it was first released. The initial waves of
patches and service packs tend to resolve the most severe
and common problems first, the serious use of the system
makes that more important than "liking the features".

 

[kony]

Most problems with Vista are due to an upgrade over an earlier OS.
False.



If you
start with XP and then upgrade to Vista, then you should plan on a 'clean'
install.

What about the majority of people who did a clean install?
What about the majority of OEM systems that never had
anything else installed?

 

[philo]

Hello,

I am putting together a PC. I will use the PC for business and engineering,
and I install on it a lot of software from different makers. The hardware I
will use will be new, Vista compatible. I like the features of Vista, but I
am worried about compatibility issues with software. Should I install XP
and upgrade to Vista later on? Should I install Vista right away? All new
computers seem to have Vista pre-installed, so Vista must be good and stable
and compatible with software. I do not know. Please tell me what you
think. Thank you.

T.I.

Stay away from Vista...
XP works very well but Vista still has a few bugs in it

 

[kony]

My new notebook has vista pre-installed and there is no way to go back
to XP. After trying it, I have to say I like XP better.

<snip>

It would be quite rare to find a new notebook that can't run
XP. If you only mean that the manufacturer isn't offering
XP drivers, you should be able to dig those up given a bit
of hunting for drivers for the respective chipsets used.

If you haven't yet checked with the manufacturer (incl.
their website), you might do so as they might have drivers
up for that product or a preceeding product that is
compatible but only a part # change to designate it's a
Vista system. The one manufacturer specific app you might
want to have for XP more than many since a substitute is
less likely to have full support, is the power state
management software. Even then, they aren't always
model-specific (in a limiting fashion) but rather supporting
more than one model.

 

[Richard]

Hello,

I am putting together a PC. I will use the PC for business and
engineering, and I install on it a lot of software from different makers.
The hardware I will use will be new, Vista compatible. I like the
features of Vista, but I am worried about compatibility issues with
software. Should I install XP and upgrade to Vista later on? Should I
install Vista right away? All new computers seem to have Vista
pre-installed, so Vista must be good and stable and compatible with
software. I do not know. Please tell me what you think. Thank you.

T.I.

If all the software you wish to run runs ok on Vista you're ok.
If not, install xp.
I have no problems on Vista, only one app I would like doesn't have a stable
Vista version, that being Virtualdub.
...but everything else I need runs perfectly with no errors.

 

[Guest]

Vista!!!

 

[Mike]

Hello,

I am putting together a PC. I will use the PC for business and
engineering,
and I install on it a lot of software from different makers. The
hardware I
will use will be new, Vista compatible. I like the features of Vista,
but I
am worried about compatibility issues with software. Should I install
XP
and upgrade to Vista later on? Should I install Vista right away? All
new
computers seem to have Vista pre-installed, so Vista must be good and
stable
and compatible with software. I do not know. Please tell me what you
think. Thank you.

If this is to be your *only* computer, then I would say go with XP.
You have guaranteed software compatibility that way.

Alternatively, you can partition the drive and install both. That way
you can *use* the XP partition for your real work, but still have Vista
to play around with and check out the compatibility with your software.

It may turn out that Vista runs your stuff fine, or it may be a
nightmare. But you won't know until you try. Installing them both
lets you test it out, while still having XP to get stuff done if Vista
has problems with the software you need.

Mike

 

[Pecos]

Hello,

I am putting together a PC. I will use the PC for business and
engineering, and I install on it a lot of software from different
makers. The hardware I will use will be new, Vista compatible. I
like the features of Vista, but I am worried about compatibility
issues with software. Should I install XP and upgrade to Vista later
on? Should I install Vista right away? All new computers seem to
have Vista pre-installed, so Vista must be good and stable and
compatible with software. I do not know. Please tell me what you
think. Thank you.

T.I.

Hello Talal,

I would recommend you proceed with caution.

The key information you provided is that you plan to use the new OS for
business and engineering. Software for business and engineering is
generally expensive and may not work completely or at all in Vista. It
doesn't make sense to buy Vista and have to replace thousands of dollars
of software to get something that works.

Vista has a compatibility mode that allows you to run the software in a
previous version of Windows mode, but that isn't guaranteed to work 100%
of the time.

If you do decide to go with Vista, you can look at the different features
of the different versions here:

http://www.powerdonkey.net/signup3.php

Business, Ultimate or Enterprise are likely your best choices.
Enterprise is available in volume licensing only, five-license minimum.

If you still want to do further research on the compatibility of your
software, take a look at:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/933305

Or non-Microsoft:

http://www.iexbeta.com/wiki/index.php/Windows_Vista_Software_Compatibilit
y_List

Vista is stable if you have 100% compatible software, a minimum of 1 GB
of memory (2 GB is preferable), meet the minimum CPU requirement (800 MHz
or higher) and compatible software.

The video card should support DX9 with a minimum of 128 MB of graphics
memory and Pixel Shader 2.0.

A hard drive and motherboard that supports NCQ (Native Command Queuing)
is also recommended but not required. Have lots of hard drive space
available for the Vista partition - 20 GB minimum and 40 GB is
preferable.

 

[cpliu]

<snip>

It would be quite rare to find a new notebook that can't run
XP. If you only mean that the manufacturer isn't offering
XP drivers, you should be able to dig those up given a bit
of hunting for drivers for the respective chipsets used.

SONY (the notebook I have) does not provide XP drivers on their site.
I read a forums on notebooks. Someone did clean-installed XP and
running, but he couldn't find all the drivers. Without drivers, it
becomes useless. I think if I look hard enough, I may find drivers
from the original manufacturers.

 

[Yes Baby]

Most problems with Vista are due to an upgrade over an earlier OS. If
you start with XP and then upgrade to Vista, then you should plan on a
'clean' install. It would be worth your while to determine if your
software is compatible with Vista. If most of your software is
compatible, then go with Vista. I built my own system and only about 2
software packages needed upgrade. The only problems I have with Vista and
software is when the UAC is enabled. It affected my old (2002) Canon
camera download and maybe one other package. Quicken 2002 works, Office
2000 works. Outlook 2000 works after re-copying a couple files to another
location. Nero needed upgrading to Ver 7.

my bro has a pure clean install and it still crashes............

 

[Guest]

That is a loaded question ... my theory was that it's better to get it
factory installed than to upgrade, so with that in mind I got a brand new
tricked out HP laptop and brand new tricked out HP desktop, custom built,
with Vista Ultimate.

There are serious known issues if you want to try and connect via a network
with a computer not running Vista (even XP). I had to buy NetworkMagic.com
to be able to connect everything properly.

Also be aware that there are several software conflicts with Vista, so you
may need to purchase an upgrade for software to work on your Vista computer
.... for sure Quickbooks, Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, et al), and lots of
those little $5-10 utility programs you pick up along the way that were good
for a purpose, but now they won't work.

Evaluate the software you are currently running and be certain that it is
truly Vista compatible ... if it doesn't say it is, then it probably isn't.
Don't just settle for that "oh, yea, buddy, it'll work with anything ..."
line from someone who doesn't know. FYI, it cost me just short of $1,500 to
upgrade all my software to Vista compatible (and that's upgrade rate, not new
license rate!!)

Beyond those

 

[Bob Knowlden]

"... so Vista must be good and stable and compatible with software."

That's rather optimistic. Vista is ubiquitous on new PCs because of
Microsoft's licensing arrangements, I believe, rather than universal belief
in Vista's greatness.

The most obvious shortcoming of Vista has been availability of device
drivers, but things seem to be improving for that. That's not high praise,
as Vista has been available at retail for nearly 6 months.

I don't expect to see it anytime soon at my job, due to compatibility
issues. For example: my employer has blocked use of Internet Explorer 7 for
several months, because some browser-based applications don't work with IE7.
I'd expect Vista to break many more applications.

One thing I haven't seen mentioned here: if you need a 64 bit version of the
OS (to fully utilize 4 GB of RAM or more), driver support for Vista 64
appears to be better than that for the 64 bit version of XP. It appears that
Vista may be taking 64 bit into the desktop Windows mainstream, which didn't
happen with XP64.

Unless you need 64 bit support, and are sure that your important
applications are Vista compatible, I recommend that you stay with XP.


Return address scrambled. Replace nkbob with bobkn.

 

[Guest]

Dual boot!