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I've seen a few posts and comments relating to XP and Vista and thought it might be an idea to post up a topic.

I run pretty much anything I can run my hands on. Which basically means XP and W2k server as well as ubuntu Linux (gotta give those freebies a run for their money). I do, for my sins, have Vista installed to see what the fuss is about with games for DX10. The other reason Vista is sat on a hard drive is due to a new game being DX10 only.

I have to say Vista is not all bad and certainly (at the moment) shouldn't be instantly dismissed as a rotten egg. I've gamed on it and found it more than adequate. I ran Bioshock in a window with out a dropped frame or stutter.

So how many use Vista? What are you thoughts (whether you have it, have used or wont use it)?

Is there really that much of a difference since SP1 resolved a lot of the performance issues around full screen hardware acceleration?

I'm waiting for Windows 7, first they announced that it will not have all these extra progs on it that I always un-install anyway, then it turns out that the thing can run on a netbook (not that I care for the things, this means lower reqs though), so why not do it that way the first time? XP like stability + Direct X 10 support and all that in 2009/2010, no reason to switch if you ask me but those in for the Aero effects and what not go ahead, whatever floats your boat, eh.

The reason I haven't switch is I have a couple of games that will not play in Vista (Civilation 3 is one of them). Also there are some companies that wont update drivers for old hardware. Also XP still works fine and I have yet to see a game that is just for DirectX 10. Fallout 3 just came out and it only requires directx 9c. Like I said on my other post, unless the OS is no longer supported I'll keep using it.

I run games in a window on xp all the time. On multihead setup too. Until the noborder option for tf2 came about, I had a bordered tf2 window that I'd manually move before playing. No performance deficit, no alt-tab issues.

I've tried Vista. I can't think of all the reasons that I hated it, but it lasted 3 weeks I think as my primary os and that was too much I think.

Some reasons -
Disk corruption with virtual machines
No hardware opengl support (so no q3!!) - specific to my hardware config, but it's my config, so it mattered BIG TIME
Lower performance in games on the same fuppin hardware(I'm at the low end of the power curve, so this matters BIG TIME too, if you drop from 90 to 80fps, no biggie, but if yer going from 35 to 25 oh it matters)
UAC
Not being an admin on my own box
Constant disk thrashing - does disk indexing EVER finish?
DRfuckingM and the whole display management model
Shitty memory usage
Shitty power usage
Fucked up NTFS file permissions accessing vista disks on xp

I know a lot of those problems are fixed w/ sp1, but my old mans box is an sp1 vista mce box, oem install w/ some other bloatware, but you would be straining to see it as a quad core, 4GB machine cos it's brought to it's knees constantly by an ever-accessed hard drive.

I'm sure if you spent a day in the nooks and crannies disabling this and enabling that to get it just so, it would be acceptable, but gimme xpsp2, indexing off, change a few explorer options and I'm good to go, happy out. Vista? Progress? No Sir

Like mountie, I'll be giving Windows Millenium mkII the Van Schkip and sniff at that Windows7 thingie. Till then I'll happily truck along w/ xp or like I'd done w/ 2k3 for so, so long, server 2k8, desktopified - it has waay way less bloat than vista, on the same kernel - if I can find reason to change

on that last point Del you're probably going to get pushed in a corner by MS and most other software companies, once system reqs and stability are no longer an argument and if Win7 sells okay they're just going to cut the support like they did with 98 SE.

I had Vista for about a year and then switched back to XP.
Here are the problems I had:

Vista boot freezes if you insert telephone line while while booting 0_o (think it was fixed)
File corruptions (including chkdsk.exe which Vista demands you use to fix the corruptions) and personal file/work loss
Shitty RAM/CPU usage
UAC
Vista does not remember folder settings (list as icon, listing, ect)
Offbeat file system (no, it's not Documents and Settings > [you] > My Documents anymore)
Vista freezes/wont boot again when left on overnight
other multiple problems and headaches i can't remember anymore...

Interestingly enough, I get x2 the FPS on Vista than XP. 0_o

meh, I dont mind tbh. XP will be supported until 2014
If there isnt a suitable replacement by then, well were fucked, cos we'll be trying to do dx10/11 gaming on loonix, or the world will be poloneck wearing bespectacled macheads

I'm on Vista as it came with my laptop.

xexes wrote:I had Vista for about a year and then switched back to XP.
Here are the problems I had:

Vista boot freezes if you insert telephone line while while booting 0_o (think it was fixed)
File corruptions (including chkdsk.exe which Vista demands you use to fix the corruptions) and personal file/work loss
Shitty RAM/CPU usage
UAC
Vista does not remember folder settings (list as icon, listing, ect)
Offbeat file system (no, it's not Documents and Settings > [you] > My Documents anymore)
Vista freezes/wont boot again when left on overnight
other multiple problems and headaches i can't remember anymore...

Interestingly enough, I get x2 the FPS on Vista than XP. 0_o

Step 1: Turn off UAC and indexing
But yeh crap use of ram. Vista remembrs folder settings 4 me, dnt think it always did tho so i suspect this was included in a fix.
Step 2: turn off sidebar.

I have Vista on my laptop (didn't have a choice) but once I turned off all the craptacular effects and the dongles at the side, I've been doing fine with it.

To be honest, I never really understood what the big deal was with it. The dongles were pretty useless, and the aero thing was completely pointless (although, in fairness, I'm not particularly tech savvy, I just want an OS that makes my computer go)

XP all the way on my main PC though! Now there's an OS you can trust!