# Windows Vista Myth Busting **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 11, 2007, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-vista-myth-busting/411311 "2007-07-11T02:21:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2007, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-vista-myth-busting/411311/81 "2007-07-12T15:38:42Z")
[QUOTE=Unintentionally Blank] Did you upgrade Vista, or was it a new install? [/QUOTE] The machine I’m in front of was an upgrade install; I don’t have a ‘clean’ install at hand. Hmmm. > [@DudleyGarrett](#): > > CMD = XP command shell > COMMAND = DOS command shell; doesn’t recognize long names, no automatic command history, etc. Just like old DOS. . Heh, I’d forgotten that. Both the CMD and COMMAND versions of the shell seem to support the same options for Dir (at least, according to “Dir /?”) on XP and Vista. ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2007, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-vista-myth-busting/411311/82 "2007-07-12T15:53:33Z")
[command.com](http://command.com) actually runs in a virtual DOS machine and is just like the “DOS box” of Windows 9x or indeed the command line of DOS itself. There are a few differences between it and cmd, default or non-existent switches, that kind of thing. Enough to make it a right pain in the arse to write batch files that work on both Win9x and NT/2000/XP. ---
**Author:** ![Unintentionally\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unintentionally_blank/32/5418_2.png) [@Unintentionally\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unintentionally_Blank)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2007, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-vista-myth-busting/411311/83 "2007-07-12T16:30:49Z")
[QUOTE=squeegee] Dunno. Do you act like one in person, or only on faceless message boards? [/QUOTE] Nice of you to casually ignore the cites. Were they sufficient or do you think it’s all still Koolaid drinking? I’ll also add you started it with: > [@squeegee](#): > > That’s not a cite. Lame. Do you honestly expect to say that and NOT get a snippy response back? ---
**Author:** ![Unintentionally\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unintentionally_blank/32/5418_2.png) [@Unintentionally\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unintentionally_Blank)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2007, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-vista-myth-busting/411311/84 "2007-07-12T16:59:40Z")
I will humbly retract my comments on ‘dir /w/s’ I have NO idea what crackpipe I was smoking that day. A fresh Vista ultimate install on real hardware demonstrates that /w/s DOES work. I’ll maintain all my other points though. There is less than zero desire for our enterprise to migrate to Vista earlier than the last possible moment. I will not EVER purchase a machine with a Vista license, nor recommend to any of my family or friends to do so at this time. ---
**Author:** ![mks57](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b9bd4f/32.png) [@mks57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mks57)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2007, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-vista-myth-busting/411311/85 "2007-07-12T18:41:41Z")
Vista doesn’t always work on _new_ hardware. I recently built a new PC and discovered that Vista didn’t like the combination of CPU, motherboard chipset, and video card that I had chosen. The hardware works great with Windows XP and Linux. It has serious issues running Vista. This is hardware that is still being sold today. ---
**Author:** ![BwanaBob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bwanabob/32/2985_2.png) [@BwanaBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BwanaBob)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2007, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-vista-myth-busting/411311/86 "2007-07-12T18:54:05Z")
[QUOTE=Rico] \ This is asking for opinion. Moved to IMHO. \ \ Can’t stand Vista - trouble finding my way around and can’t seem to integrate it into my home XP network. Can’t even get the damn thing to share a printer with the XP machine. Stay far away until at least Service Pack 2 comes out. \ [/QUOTE] Just did this last night. Quite easy. Try the Help feature. ---
**Author:** ![choie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/choie/32/7829_2.png) [@choie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/choie)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2007, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-vista-myth-busting/411311/87 "2007-07-12T18:59:31Z")
I hesitated for a while before buying a new system because the better deals I was finding had Vista. Vista scared me due to all the horror stories. Finally gave in when QVC offered a Dell system with everything I wanted (320GB HD, 2 Gig RAM, AMD 64 Dual Core 4400, 256MB video card, widescreen monitor, etc.) and allowed me to pay in five payments. The RAM was particularly important: I wanted to double the alleged minimum recommended RAM. Compared to my previous XP system, which is only two years old and has consistently frozen at least twice a day, I adore this Vista PC. _Adore_ it. It’s fast as hell, never freezes, is pretty easy to find my way around, and while the excessive prompts were annoying at first, I simply turned them off (which happens to be very easy … why are y’all sticking with it if it?). The one thing that sucks ass is Office 2007’s complete makeover, but that’s discussed elsewhere. So far I’ve been able to use my regular programs (Office, Adobe Dreamweaver/Fireworks, Photoshop) without issue. I haven’t tried to hook up my printer yet, but since it’s literally 15 years old, I suspect it’s not gonna work and it’s time I bought a new one anyway. (And at long last I was finally able to play _Half-Life 2_, which was the reason I bought my old computer two years ago but the freezing issue wouldn’t let me play. Woohoo!) That’s just my personal experience and may not be relevant to many others – especially because my new system is pretty buff, moreso than average. I’m not an IT person or someone who runs a billion different types of programs; I write and design/maintain websites for a living. If I were in control of a company’s systems, I wouldn’t change over unless new systems were being purchased. Even then, considering the risk, it makes sense to wait until the OS has more time and experience behind it. Since I’m a single user, I didn’t mind taking the risk and am glad I did. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2007, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-vista-myth-busting/411311/88 "2007-07-12T19:07:14Z")
[QUOTE=BwanaBob] Just did this last night. Quite easy. Try the Help feature. [/QUOTE] It’s quite easy if you had a TCP/IP based network before, but trying to get Vista working with an IPX/NetBEUI network seems impossible. ---
**Author:** ![Unintentionally\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unintentionally_blank/32/5418_2.png) [@Unintentionally\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unintentionally_Blank)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2007, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-vista-myth-busting/411311/89 "2007-07-12T19:22:57Z")
[QUOTE=control-z] It’s quite easy if you had a TCP/IP based network before, but trying to get Vista working with an IPX/NetBEUI network seems impossible. [/QUOTE] As ready as I am to slam Vista…NetBEUI? That was old skool 10 years ago! ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2007, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-vista-myth-busting/411311/90 "2007-07-12T19:27:51Z")
[QUOTE=Unintentionally Blank] As ready as I am to slam Vista…NetBEUI? That was old skool 10 years ago! [/QUOTE] Perhaps, but if it works what’s the problem? No doubt many people set their LAN up using NetBEUI in Win95 days, then Win98 came along, still worked, XP came along, still worked. We have many XP machines, a couple 98 machines and even one 95 machine, NetBEUI worked for everything until Vista came along. ---
**Author:** ![Nanoda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Nanoda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nanoda)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2007, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-vista-myth-busting/411311/91 "2007-07-12T19:43:56Z")
NetBEUI _barely_ made it in to XP, and [made you work a bit](http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306059) to use it. You can’t have been using any games or voice communication or anything over your current network. The new Vista laptop that arrived yesterday freezes on initial turn on while setting/backing things up (and will therefore be returned in favour of XP Pro), but [finally turfing](http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/Help/877adc1b-76fb-4608-a917-baf201f45f1e1033.mspx) NetBEUI is a plus in my book. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2007, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-vista-myth-busting/411311/92 "2007-07-12T19:49:54Z")
[QUOTE=Nanoda] The new Vista laptop that arrived yesterday freezes on initial turn on while setting/backing things up (and will therefore be returned in favour of XP Pro), but [finally turfing](http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/Help/877adc1b-76fb-4608-a917-baf201f45f1e1033.mspx) NetBEUI is a plus in my book. [/QUOTE] I ran games on my network, what was preventing it? I ran UT2004, Flatout 2, Day of Defeat. I’d rather run IPX/SPX & NetBEUI than TCP/IP & NetBIOS. I always thought that running the file and printer sharing on TCP/IP was an additional security risk. ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2007, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-vista-myth-busting/411311/93 "2007-07-12T21:31:40Z")
**Unintentionally Blank** and **squeegee** , cool it, please. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2007, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-vista-myth-busting/411311/94 "2007-07-12T23:12:29Z")
[QUOTE=choie] I hesitated for a while before buying a new system because the better deals I was finding had Vista. Vista scared me due to all the horror stories. Finally gave in when QVC offered a Dell system with everything I wanted (320GB HD, 2 Gig RAM, AMD 64 Dual Core 4400, 256MB video card, widescreen monitor, etc.) and allowed me to pay in five payments. The RAM was particularly important: I wanted to double the alleged minimum recommended RAM. Compared to my previous XP system, which is only two years old and has consistently frozen at least twice a day, I adore this Vista PC. _Adore_ it. It’s fast as hell, never freezes, is pretty easy to find my way around, and while the excessive prompts were annoying at first, I simply turned them off (which happens to be very easy .. why are y’all sticking with it if it?). [/QUOTE] Two points: Firstly: When buying an XP laptop not so long ago, I went for 2Gb, as well. I don’t think it’s unique to Vista that having a shitload of RAM makes things run a _lot_ smoother (things you would expect would cope with 256Mb). And heavy tasks such as converting audio files will happily sit as a low priority process and still be done quickly. Secondly: The security prompts should not be something that people want to turn off. Running 90% (or whatever) of the world’s PCs, Microsoft should be able to find a method and a level at which to implement such features which is acceptable to the knowledgeable user, i.e. doesn’t infuriate them, while also protecting the novice. With Vista, they’ve failed, because the advice is ‘turn them off’. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2007, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-vista-myth-busting/411311/95 "2007-07-13T00:04:45Z")
[QUOTE=control-z] It’s quite easy if you had a TCP/IP based network before, but trying to get Vista working with an IPX/NetBEUI network seems impossible. [/QUOTE] I like to play my games by sending potato prints via pigeon post. Why doesn’t Microsoft support ME!!! ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2007, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-vista-myth-busting/411311/96 "2007-07-13T00:08:50Z")
[QUOTE=Struan] I like to play my games by sending potato prints via pigeon post. Why doesn’t Microsoft support ME!!! [/QUOTE] Back in our day all we had were simple wood-burning networks. I am intrigued by your ideas and would like to subscribe to your newsletter. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2007, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-vista-myth-busting/411311/97 "2007-07-13T00:12:41Z")
[QUOTE=Struan] I like to play my games by sending potato prints via pigeon post. Why doesn’t Microsoft support ME!!! [/QUOTE] I want this ‘Microsoft loves me’ club. It sounds fun. It sounds like when I do anything, people tell me I’ve done the right thing. Mmmmmmmmmmm. Oooooh yeaaaaah. ---
**Author:** ![Testy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c37758/32.png) [@Testy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Testy)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2007, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-vista-myth-busting/411311/98 "2007-07-13T05:52:39Z")
[QUOTE=control-z] Try running Win95b. It’s amazing how fast it starts up and shuts down (seriously.) [/QUOTE] **control-z** Yep. I ran it when it first came out but am too paranoid to do so now. It does boot very quickly. Booting is not so much an issue with me as I rarely shut the machine down anyway. I just got back from a two week vacation and that was the first time the home system has been shut down for almost a year. Regards Testy ---
**Author:** ![Euthanasiast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Euthanasiast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euthanasiast)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2007, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-vista-myth-busting/411311/99 "2007-07-13T12:09:57Z")
People were freaking out over XP as well when it first came out, and maybe that’s why I didn’t migrate until a good two years after it was introduced. I just built a pretty high end machine running 6 gigs of RAM and a dual core e6700 overclocked to 3.6Ghz stable, but I still won’t migrate to Vista until after service pack 2. If you want a 64-bit system that can see all of your RAM in the meantime, simply move to XP x64 for the time being. It runs great. In about 3 to 5 years, you’ll all be complaining that you hate the next Microsoft OS and are staying with Vista until they get the bugs worked out, because Vista just works. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Unintentionally\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unintentionally_blank/32/5418_2.png) [@Unintentionally\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unintentionally_Blank)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2007, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-vista-myth-busting/411311/100 "2007-07-13T14:48:35Z")
[QUOTE=Euthanasiast] In about 3 to 5 years, you’ll all be complaining that you hate the next Microsoft OS and are staying with Vista until they get the bugs worked out, because Vista just works. 🙂 [/QUOTE] I think I’ve been saying that I (and a few other folks) _won’t_ be complaining about the next Microsoft as we’ll have move away from Microsoft. I’m not, by any means, an average computer user, but our house is like this, and will most likely be that way in the future: 1. 1 XP laptop - wife’s a VB/.NET/SQL programmer 2. 2 Macs (Mine and the kids) 3. 2 Linux boxes (firewall and file servers) 4. XX oddball other networked devices (phones, game consoles, toasters, etc.) I’ll support one Microsoft box - my wifes - because she pays a pretty hefty fee for my support. 😉 My life has gotten SO much better now that I can respond to family and friends and say ‘I’m sorry, I don’t support Microsoft stuff when I’m not at the office. My advice is to move to a Mac. I’ll gladly support you then.’ It’s a win-win situation, I don’t have to spend DAYS backing up a loved-one’s data, finding drivers, reinstalling and troubleshooting a POS machine (because she got it for SUCH A DEAL!), OR I end up converting another person to the Koolaid. **At this point, I cannot make my stance any clearer, so I’ll not respond further.** [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-vista-myth-busting/411311.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-vista-myth-busting/411311.md?page=6)