Should I make the Switch to Vista?
I have around me various computers with varying degree of Power and hardware and of course many different Operating systems, each machine has probably been to a few different versions in the course of it’s Life as well – so with this, I think it’s safe to say what is better and how it can get worse.
Windows XP Pro with Service Pack 2 and all the many Updates is pretty rock solid but the interface is lacking that snazzy feel, once you start bolting on extra programs to make it look better, the whole thing starts to slow down. The more programs you start putting on there also serves to increase the boot time – so in a nutshell, it starts fast and gets much slower.
Vista requires some beefy hardware to work properly, were as Windows XP can run quite happily from 512MB Ram, Vista really needs 1 GIG to run the same speed and 2Gig Onwards to get the most out of it. SO what do you get with Vista that wants to make you Install it over XP – this is the question.
1. Glass Interface – All the bars on programs are semi-transparent.
2. Dock like bar on the right hand side – run programs to monitor various things, read news and so forth.
3. More Security – UAC is annoying and needs to be switched off, Windows Defender is pointless waste of resources.
4. ReadyBoost – Use a USb memory Stick as more Virtual RAM to speed up the programs opening.
Will there be problems?
Various Hardware might not work as well as expected – such as my Linksys Phone (connected via USB for base station) dies once I start using it, no Vista Program coming forth from Linksys as of yet. On the flip side, more drivers are included by default so less going off to the net to get them. Graphic drivers even now are not 100% ready, you will still experience problems in some games.
The Biggest thing though is Copying Speed of files, either to another Drive or across the Network. The first thing it must do is work out how long it is going to take, with a lot of small files, this can take a LONG time. Now it must copy them and it takes some time to work out that the files exist – it then asks what you want to do – many times I may add. The speed of the copy is then sub 10mbit speed, even if you are running s 1Gbit network.
The Bottom Line
if you have XP pro and it works nice for you – stick with it, you will gain nothing with Vista, your missing nothing. If you are forced Vista then I would suggest looking up ways to make it faster, strip out some crap etc.
