Windows Vista Ultimate with SP1

I had Vista before the service pack.. and unfortunately, the operating system seemed to lack in one area, operating. My hardware drivers stopped working over time, and I ultimately uninstalled the OS and reinstalled XP.

I built a new computer and wanted to have DirectX 10, and since installing Vista with SP1, I haven't had any issues with compatability with drivers. I'm pleased with the perfomance of it so far.

With Service Pack 1, Microsoft has attempted to fix up their new OS. Off to very bad start, the world was sceptical about Vista, and for good reason. With dozens of fixes, does Service Pack 1 make their new OS worth using? I say no.

All new features considered I cannot think of anyone who would benefit from Microsoft's new operating system. While they have added some visual sizzle its clear that the artists over at Apple have a much better sense of designing a user interface. Vista is just plain ugly, even with the transparency features. The buttons are now harder to push, and they are smaller.

At the end of the day, isn't it all about how much you got done? Vista will waste so much of your time with its constant crashing, memory, and driver issues that you will absolutely go nuts. Even to advanced PC technicians: you've been warned. Let me save you some time. Maybe one more year and Microsoft will get it right.

Windows Vista is unrefined, overpriced, ugly, and constantly crashes in regular computing circumstances. You would be wise to stick with Windows XP no matter who you are.

I was afraid of purchasing these windows due to high price (since they did not come with any kind of frame separators) but it was a good decision.

Where I live it rains a lot and sometimes water is very abusive and my previous windows have been "watered down". These, however, appear to be strong and trustworthy.

I only wish they offered the white version. My house is gray and I would like to have my windows to be white but oh well. Black will do too.

Recommended.

Usually, I live on the bleeding edge of technology, but after reading reviews that advised holding off on this one until you performed a hardware update, I held back. In retrospect that was very good advice. Those with older single core processors will not gain very much through an upgrade from Windows XP. That said, I have upgraded my system and brought its operating system up to date with Vista. There is a lot to the OS, and I cannot say that I have tested everything, but here are my observations, along with a couple of cautions to be aware of.

My copy is on DVD, so there was no disk swapping, thank you Microsoft. Installation on a fresh hard drive was smooth; I opted for a 64-bit installation that caused certain problems, but nothing that a little money couldn't solve. Caution: it is possible that not all of your old plug and play devices or add-on cards will have 64-bit drivers available (I lost my Airlink wireless network card and my Haupage WinTV PVR card).

Microsoft boasts of the upgraded security, but then I run a virus/intrusion suite anyway so I don't see much from this other than home network issues. Caution: sharing files between home network systems, while not impossible, will require that you jump through some new hoops. The graphics for the desktop have been upgraded and are indeed nice. Caution: one reason older systems should avoid the upgrade, better graphics comes with a cost in processor cycles.

I have been working with Windows since its initial release and had gotten used to accessing many of its more advanced features. Caution: on Vista I am finding the need to relearn where everything is, from access to familiar items like the control panel to digging into the registry, almost to the point of buying a secrets of Vista book just to come back up to speed.

Overall, my opinion of Vista is good, even if I do need to struggle with the above issues of replacing older hardware, reestablishing my home network and cresting the learning curve.
P-)

Once you get the box the disks come in open -- which might prove to be a challenge in itself -- Vista can be a challenge for inexperienced users to install over an exiting operating system. I got it to work eventually, but it took some doing. Once it was up and running, the software worked okay, although it has its shares of annoying quirks. (But all OS do.)

Vista has been a controversial OS ever since its release. The long and short of it is: is this an improvement over Windows XP? And in my opinion, it is not. It consumes more resources than XP -- and so will likely slow most users' systems down -- but offers no substantial improvements.

As of right now, I don't see any reason to recommend that users upgrade if they're already running XP. The advantage to Vista Ultimate over the Home version of the software is that it has some additional features. But it's still not enough to make me advocate making the change.