Has anybody here had much experience with Vista?

[MountainMan]

I was forced into Vista when my last computer died. Loved XP but it was no longer available.

Vista is a memory hog which supposedly contains some fancy tricks but I've never found them. The biggest single fault of XP is that it won't run any XP software, which is the vast majority of software currently available, so everything I had was lost and there is pretty much nothing to replace it.,,

Not that I'm defending Vista, but you should be able to run all your XP software. If it won't run straight up, try going to "properties" when you right click on the application and select the compatibility tab. There you can opt to run it in an earlier windows mode. I'm running some very early apps that way.

The so-called "emulation mode". Did that - didn't work. Worked in XP, but never works in Vista. Vista won't always even run software that says Vista right on it.

[TCWORLD]

Yeah. There are some (alot of) programs that require outdated MS components that have been removed from the new operating systems (Vista & 7). Most are either DirectX (Direct Draw, Direct3D) related, and there are some which require DLL's that have been removed.
Its why Win 7 should be a heck of alot better - If you go for the Profesional or Ultimate versions. Basically the Prof an Ult versions have the ability to run something called WinXP Mode, wherby a free download of part of Windows XP availiable from MS here is run virtually. This allows "All" XP programs to run as if they were installed on XP. Non of this Emmulation stuff that never seemed to work.

[MountainMan]

Yeah. There are some (alot of) programs that require outdated MS components that have been removed from the new operating systems (Vista & 7). Most are either DirectX (Direct Draw, Direct3D) related, and there are some which require DLL's that have been removed.
Its why Win 7 should be a heck of alot better - If you go for the Profesional or Ultimate versions. Basically the Prof an Ult versions have the ability to run something called WinXP Mode, wherby a free download of part of Windows XP availiable from MS here is run virtually. This allows "All" XP programs to run as if they were installed on XP. Non of this Emmulation stuff that never seemed to work.

Unfortunaterly, MS has lost all credibility with me, as they make many claims that never pan out. VISTA is a prime example of their latest one before Win7. Every OS is supposed to be "the greatest ever", and never is.

[TCWORLD]

I am speaking to you from the wonder that is Windows 7. I have to say, that so far - although it has only been installed for about 4 hours, I am very vewry impressed with it. It definately beats Vista (not hard) and XP hands down.

[sgtcarl1]

My wife and I are both still running XP Pro. Not too many problems, but my computer has fits every now and then. Oh, well, that's why I named it HAL!!!