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 enlarge | From: Microsoft
Category: Software
Buy New: £178.25 (On sale from £240.64)
You Save: £62.39 (26%)
Rating:  7 reviews
Sales Rank: 2308
Format: Dvd-rom
Platform: Windows Vista
Media: CD-ROM
Operating System: Windows Vista
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 5.2 x 1.5
MPN: 1296316
UPC: 882224181235
EAN: 0882224181235
ASIN: B000KCIA32
Release Date: January 30, 2007
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
| Showing reviews 6-7 of 7 | | « PREV | | |
 My experience with Vista January 31, 2007
15 out of 16 found this review helpful
From the outset, I'd like to make it clear that my experience with Vista has come from running two of the beta (pre-release) versions since June of last year, so any comments I make may not necessarily apply to the final version you can purchase here on Amazon, though it should be very similar. I should be getting a full version of Vista Business shortly, and if there are any major changes I'll post another review to point them out (or update this one, if Amazon allows editing - not sure, since I've never done this before).
I'll start with a word about system requirements. According to Microsoft, you need a bare minimum of an 800MHz CPU, 512MB of RAM, and at least 15 gigabytes of free disc space. This is certainly true - if your system doesn't meet these specifications, you really shouldn't even think about upgrading to Vista, since you won't see the benefit of it at all and will end up with a far worse computer system than you started with. The recommended specification for getting the best out of Vista is at least a 1 GHz CPU, 1 GB of RAM, and a recent graphics card with at least 128MB of on-board video memory. Again, this is true - if your system meets these specifications, you will be able to make fuller and easier use of all of Vista's new features, and will see the greatest benefit from upgrading.
To put all this in a real-world context, the system I have been running a beta version of Vista Ultimate on since June 2006 is a Dell Latitude D610 laptop purchased in April 2005, which has a 1.8GHz CPU, 1.25GB of RAM and a Radeon X300 Mobility graphics chipset with 64MB of video RAM. And I have to say that Vista has been faster and more reliable than Windows XP SP2 was on my system.
I was concerned that only having 64MB of video memory on my graphics chipset would seriously degrade Vista's performance, but the new Aero interface you'll have heard (and seen) so much of runs just fine on it. I can make full use of the new transparent 'glass' window manager effects, the Flip and Flip 3D task switching methods, the real-time previews of running applications from the task bar, and everything else, and it all runs fine. There is the occasional stutter if I have a great many applications open at once, and I think the detail in the Flip 3D view would be higher if I had more video memory, but everything works and performs very acceptably.
One other issue that will be of key importance to would-be upgraders is compatibility with existing applications. Again, I would remind anyone reading this that my experience has been with the preview test versions of Vista, and so any problems I experienced during my beta testing may well be resolved in the final retail version of Vista. But, I will talk a little about the most common problems I encountered.
The biggest stumbling block to the smooth running and installation of old applications is the new security model in Vista. User Account Control (or UAC, as it's usually called) and the other security improvements in Vista mean that most of the time, you as a user of the system are not running with Administrator privileges, even if your account is configured as having administrative rights on your system. This creates problems for programs which were written to run under XP and which assume you will be running with Administrator-level access, as most users of Windows XP were (and still are). This is fairly easily worked around by specifying that any problematic programs should always be explicitly run as Administrator, but this arguably negates many of the benefits you get from Vista's new security features. But still, it is a necessary evil sometimes to get some of the current crop of applications and games to install, or even work at all.
During my time as a beta tester I also found a few applications that simply didn't work at all. Either they would appear to start and then exit with no apparent explanation, or would start but fail to actually perform whatever function they were intended to carry out. However, in the past few months this situation has improved greatly - new versions of some of these problem programs have come out that do work, and work fairly well. Don't be too put off by this - the number of programs I found that couldn't be made to work at all was far smaller than the number that could.
However, if you are seriously thinking about upgrading, you should be aware that there is no guarantee that all of your favourite programs and games will work out of the box under Vista - you might have to do a bit of fiddling to get them to run or re-install, and you might be unlucky enough to find that some of them don't work at all no matter what you try. But these should hopefully be in the minority, given how much progress has been made during the beta test. And developers may well release updated versions of their software that are Vista-compatible, if their programs are still under active development and are known to have problems with Vista.
In closing, I'll discuss performance and stability. As I briefly mentioned earlier, on my Latitude D610 I found the beta versions of Vista Ultimate to perform better on my system than XP SP2 did, both in terms of speed and reliability. I generally found that the system felt more responsive at all times, even when under heavy CPU or memory load. I have never had a single blue screen crash on any of the preview versions of Vista on my system. And for laptop users I have to report that Vista's hibernation features are greatly improved. My system goes to sleep within a few seconds of closing the lid, and wakes up and is fully usable at the login screen again within a few seconds of opening it. This is one area of Windows' functionality that has been vastly improved in Vista. And for gamers, I found that most of the games I tried (or those I could coax in to running) gave performance at least equal to that I had experienced under XP, and sometimes a little better. Some older games, though (particularly those from the Windows 2000 era or earlier) would not run at all, or would run so badly as to be unusable.
So, to summarise: if your system comfortably meets the recommended specification for running Vista, or is at least very close to it, it's my opinion that you should definitely go for it, as the benefits are real and impressive. If your system does not meet these requirements, though, then you should probably think about either upgrading your computer's components (or purchasing a whole new system with Vista pre-loaded) if you want to step up to Vista.
 Excellent - But not worth paying extra for January 29, 2007
14 out of 14 found this review helpful
I recieved this OS a week before it came out from my Microsoft Subscription. It's a very impressive OS. Not only is it easier on the eye but also noticibly faster. I haven't had one crash or problem with it for one week. It's definately more reliable than XP.
Features such as the Sidebar on the Desktop (where you can add different gadgets: A clock, post-it notes, lots of different tools can be downloaded off the internet) are very convinient. The 'Start' menu is also improved, allowing you to search for the program you want to find instead of searching through countless folders.
However, a lot of the new features are really not needed, and I would never pay 180 of my own cash to buy this OS. True, it's nicer to use and a bit more reliable, but XP still has all the essentials. As computers get so easily outdated in this day and age, I think it would be a lot more sensible to save your 180 and spend it on your new PC when the time comes (Which will come with Vista anyway). MIcrosoft have promised to continue XP support until 2011, so you don't need to worry about any lack of help from Microsoft.
Overall, a brilliant OS which is only let down by the price. If you have just bought a new high-spec computer, Vista will help you get the most out of it and you should buy it if you have the money. Otherwise, I reccommend you sit tight for now and wait until it's time to buy a new machine.
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