Weird. A bunch of printer manufacturers were slow in updating drivers for Vista, which led to other types of problems that I need not go into here, but that particular symptom is new to me…
Actually my printer was the best thing about Vista. I plugged it in, and watched while it found the driver and did everything else. That’s about the first time I’ve seen plug and play work for something bigger than a thumbdrive.
Assorted sources I read indicate that 2GB is the sweet spot. They also state that all MS’s demo machines have 4 GB.
I figure I should be able to disable all of the visual crap, archiving crap, and pre-loading crap, and get it to run fine. It’s been annoying me more and more as the days go on. Why the hell should I have to pay more for hardware to run a piece of software I don’t want to?
I actually bought a new PC just last week with Vista Home Premium on it, and I don’t hate it (much to my surprise).
The first thing I did was of course completely format the system and put a clean Windows XP on it, just to see how fast it was.
I then installed Vista and I really like some of the improvements.
It will take a long time to get used to using it, but I did get all my software to work without too much problems.
You need to update most software of course, but a lot of XP software runs just fine, and the ones that didn’t clearly indicated that before I installed them.
I then just had to update the software to the latest version to get those to work.
It is rather slow, but it looks beautiful.
(I have an Intel DuoProc 2.13 Gigaherz processor, with 1 gigabyte of memory)
I am going to buy some extra memory in a few minutes.
I think you probably should only use Vista when you buy a new system, just to make sure your hardware has the proper drivers for running Vista.
I am now reading the excellent “Tweaking Companion for Windows Vista” from tweakguides and there is a lot of tweaking to do.
A lot of things you can turn off, but a lot of things are better left running.
The whole point of Vista is making sure that your system is 100% safe and files don’t get deleted or corrupted.
So it automatically makes backups of files you alter and things like that.
I think it is actually quite a good improvement, but it will slow the system down considerably.
The most annoying thing is the UAC (User Account Control) which pops up just about any time you start something.
It is very annoying, but turning it off will greatly decrease the security of Vista.
I am leaving it on for now as I want to get to know Vista inside-out.
Zero. Sorry. But nothing says you can’t buy a full copy of XPSP2 from CompUSA or Staples or something and do a fresh install. You don’t ***have * ** to run Vista on your new machine, but neither Microsoft nor HP will give you a free copy of XP if that’s not what you bought with the machine.
The reason for an upgrade (actually, I’d do a clean install) to Vista now is simple: better security. Across the board. Lots and lots of different ways, the security is better in Vista than in ***any * ** other OS out there just now. Add in a good solid anti-virus client, and don’t get fooled by social engineering attacks, and I’d say you’re pretty close to bullet proof.
As previously noted, however, there are some issues with driver and app compatibility. If you’re a gamer, or use a ton of different applications, I’d wait until SP1 just to the other software / hardware vendors can catch up.
Honestly, I must have gotten a different copy of XP than everyone else. I don’t run an AV and I don’t have an anti-spyware program. I’ve not gotten a virus, spy ware, or any other bad stuff in the 4 years or so I’ve run XP. I really don’t need any more security.
I agree that there is a slim to none chance of me getting XP out of this, but if Vista is really bad I might raise holy hell.
Well, I am getting a laptop so hopefully there won’t be any driver issues.
I just talked to 3 people who were stuck with it on their new computer and were having all kinds of problems. If I were ordering a computer I would try to get it without Vista.
Funnily enough, despite my post earlier in this thread, I ended up deciding not to bother with the upgrade (which wasn’t free but would only have been about £15 so nearly free). If I need Vista, it’ll probably be in about four or five years, when the bugs are ironed out, the next Windows version has just been released, and Vista’s about to be discontinued. 
You must be lucky, or else you don’t go to any dodgy sites or get dodgy emails… most viruses now are social engineering viruses, that is you have to click to install something. But none the less, you’ve been lucky more than good and I’d highly recommend an anti-virus client.
Wishful thinking; you’ll still have the same number of drivers in a laptop as in any other computer. Just because the devices are built in, doesn’t mean you won’t still have drivers for display adapter, sound card, etc…
I would upgrade the BIOS on your laptop when you get your new one as well, because Vista uses a bunch of features that are dependent on the BIOS to fully function (like power management and some security settings).
I’d wait on the upgrade for SP1, just because the apps and drivers would be caught up by then.