Vista advantages

thebaz

Thinking of upgrading my laptop , which runs Windows XP -- can anyone outline the main and unbiased advantages of Vista over XP ?


Thanks.

mathias

Have a look at this ,

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1931913,00.asp

Its not a bad description of the cool features that Vista has ,

Advantages that you'll notice straight off ,

Aero
Media Centre
Start menu

Most of the rest are for the next few months ,

Just spent a week setting it up , not easy , but should be OK for you and a new machine.
There are a lot of programs that have issues with it , and it'll be 6 months or so before its up to its full potential , honestly , at the moment there are no killer apps that would put it ahead of XP , just some eye candy and Media Center.

Heres a list of programs that work with Vista and any issues they might have , read this before deciding , and check that the programs you use most often work !!

http://www.iexbeta.com/wiki/index.php/Windows_Vista_Software_Compatibility_List#AntiSpyware

Capt'n Midnight

main disadvantage is that your laptop almost certainly has an OEM license copy of XP. if you buy the upgrade version of vista then you will not be able to reuse vista on any other computer ever. So you'd have to buy the non-upgrade version which is a good bit more expensive, it might even be cheaper to sell your laptop and buy a new one with VISTA pre installed !

if everything works on your laptop , then no real advantage
what do you want your laptop to do that it won't do now ?
what software do you intend to install in future
what external hardware do you have or intend to buy -vista driver support is sparse for now

do you use any OLD programs - if so they may no longer run

thebaz

Thanks -- i mainly use laptop for photo editing , using phototoshop cs ,and picasa -- use other program a bit -- itunes , and primarily accessing internet with IE 7.

What is Media Centre ?

Ginger

iTunes 7.0.2 has an issue with Vista so you will need 7.10

There are some issues with Vista and some apps, but then again with any new OS there will be these things. Driver issues are still causing a problem so download the Hardware Advisor to see will/should/might not work with Vista

mathias

Reading this again Im not sure if your just upgrading the OS or getting a new laptop ,

If your upgrading the OS here are some things to keep in mind ,

The install is 15 + GB , so a large hard drive is important , it wouldnt leave much room on a 40GB drive for instance ,

Vista needs at least 1GB of ram for the new eye candy to work ,

Vista home basic is not much different to XP , you need at least Home premium and up for all the new stuff.

If your upgrading a current laptop , stick with Vista 32 bit , unless you know for a fact that there are 64 bit drivers for your laptop.

aidan_walsh

iTunes 7.0.2 has an issue with Vista so you will need 7.10

7.1 still has issues with Vista, including one that may end up screwing over your iPod.

Ginger

Aidan cheers for that...

thebaz

mathias wrote:

Reading this again Im not sure if your just upgrading the OS or getting a new laptop ,

.

Sorry to clarify, i was thinking of getting a new Dell laptop, which comes pre installed with vista , not critical, but my current laptop ihas only 250 RAM and 30 gb hard disk , its ok for what i do but a bit slow , and space is becoming an issue.
Just really wanted to know what extra stuff Vista would do over XP , can anyone summarise what is the Media Centre ?

Thanks again.

BTW i'm using latest version of itune 7.1.0.59 -- it ok on xp.

mathias

Media Centre is a program for playing Video , music , photos etc on a big screen , or on any screen really but intended for big screens , if your pc has a dual TV tuner card it can also work as a personal video recorder , some screenshots here ,

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/features/details/mediacenter.mspx

Before Vista , media centre only came in its own version of XP , call Windows media centre edition.

jpfahy

TheBaz you need a Mac

thebaz

jpfahy wrote:

TheBaz you need a Mac

possibly , but i kind of am used to windows , in particular picasa and have photoshop and other software for windows .

Still not convinced about this media centre, use itunes for music , picasa for photos , Quicktime or Media player for video clips, and do not plan watching tv on a laptop -- oh the choices of modern technology --- oh and i have to say after a few teething problems with a faulty delivered Dell laptop, i have found it quite good overall for my needs.