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Win Vista or 7?

15K views 58 replies 30 participants last post by  Kriggio824 
#1 ·
I have 2 PCs, 1 uses Vista, another uses XP, and the former with vista has a better configurations than the latter. But after only a short time, the PC with Win Vista is now almost full of its hard driver because of updating, while the one with Win 7 is not. So now I wanna change it back to win xp or up to win 7.
But I'm confused that which choice is better? Does anyone have experience?
 
#2 ·
Do you like Vista? If you do, and the only problem is lack of disk space, I would either install a larger hard drive or add an external drive...both cheap options over buying a new OS.
 
#3 ·
Windows Vista has been a dog for quite some time, Microsoft couldn't get Windows 7 finished fast enough to pull Vista from the shelves. I like XP, lots of drivers, compatible with virtually all Win software, but it does bog down after awhile. Windows 7 is also nice, however, there are some software incompatibilities which can usually be resolved fairly quickly and easily. Of the two, I prefer Windows 7. Also, note that Windows XP is rapidly approaching end of life support from Microsoft.

Another option which I've found quite handy. Install Windows 7. Install Sun Virtual Box and create a WinXP PC. Once you have your software installed and configured, take a snapshot. Setup a shared folder between 7 and XP so when working in XP you have somehwere to save files. Once a month, revert back to the original snapshot, run Windows update, take a new snapshot. If you ever get a virus/malware, revert back to the clean snapshot
 
#4 ·
Do you like Vista? If you do, and the only problem is lack of disk space, I would either install a larger hard drive or add an external drive...both cheap options over buying a new OS.
In fact, I dun like Vista, and I prefer to Win 7 more than Vista :D and obtaining a new OS isn't a problem with me, I have a free key for Win 7 Pro when I was a Computer Science student, and there's MSDNAA program of Microsoft that provides us a free key :D

Windows Vista has been a dog for quite some time, Microsoft couldn't get Windows 7 finished fast enough to pull Vista from the shelves. I like XP, lots of drivers, compatible with virtually all Win software, but it does bog down after awhile. Windows 7 is also nice, however, there are some software incompatibilities which can usually be resolved fairly quickly and easily. Of the two, I prefer Windows 7. Also, note that Windows XP is rapidly approaching end of life support from Microsoft.

Another option which I've found quite handy. Install Windows 7. Install Sun Virtual Box and create a WinXP PC. Once you have your software installed and configured, take a snapshot. Setup a shared folder between 7 and XP so when working in XP you have somehwere to save files. Once a month, revert back to the original snapshot, run Windows update, take a new snapshot. If you ever get a virus/malware, revert back to the clean snapshot
Yah, you're rite. There are lots of problem with compatibility when running a software on Win 7. Your suggestion sounds great. Hehe, I'll try using virtual PC :D Thanks!
 
#9 ·
Vista made Windows ME look good. I'm running Windows 7 Pro. Built a new (mostly) machine at the time so I got a builder's deal. My two years with a Vista powered laptop were enough to put me off. Also really dislike anything configured by the factory.

The old saying, "If you want it done right, you got to do it yourself." has never been any truer.
 
#11 ·
Updates shouldn't eat up all of your hard drive space so you might want to analyze your hd first by looking at your installed programs and removing what you do not use. 7 is much better than vista unless you need drivers to old hardware or use older software. xp is awesome but it is not going to have much support in a short while so quickly switch. if the computer is a tower/pc you should be able to install another hd. don't buy a hd greater than 1 tb, they tend to fail. 1 tb hitachis are like $80 usd or so so it's won't break the bank either.
 
#13 · (Edited)
I think it's generally accepted that Win7 is a superior product over Vista, but hotly debated over whether Vista is a superior product over XP.

A few years ago, my big draw to upgrading to Vista was DirectX10, better x64 exposure (I ran XP Pro x64, and... bleh,) and the massive improvements to memory management.

Some will say "oooh, Vista uses a ton of memory even when it's idling," but the important thing to understand is that's what an OS should be doing, so jobs are rapidly cleared out of CPU time. Ideally, an OS should always be using memory.

99% of the flak pointed in Vista's direction is poor driver support at launch time. Hardware vendors have caught up over the years in driver support, and that has basically become a non-issue. The rest of the issues are just garden-variety user complaints, which you'll run into with any Windows operating system. "Boo, Windows updates broke my Vista box." Yeah, welcome to Microsoft land. If you haven't seen a Windows operating system killed by vendor updates, you haven't been using computers long enough.

Finally, any comparison between Vista and ME is stupid. When you're running ME, you're living a life where you reboot your PC with no real confidence that you'll ever see your desktop again. Even seasoned IT guys - who can rebuild their OS from the recovery console - are afraid to run ME. There is no comparison.

Anyways.

Win7 is basically everything I like about Vista and more, and the performance on equivalent hardware is better, supposedly. (I haven't tried this firsthand and have only used 7 for building VDI at work.) If you can afford it, buy it. If not, no big deal. Vista is pretty swell too.
 
#14 ·
Here's my 2 cents worth!

On my desktop, I was running XP-SP3 with an ATI Radian 9200 video card.
I decided to clean install Win7 and when I did, I found that the Win7 driver wasn't compatible to the ATI video card. All circles were egg shaped.
ATI never offered a Win7 driver as the the card was a couple of years old.
I down-loaded the Vista driver for this card and forced Win7 to accepy it.
I was lucky that this solution worked for me.
I retrospect, I wouldn't advise a Win7 up-grade for a computer designed for XP.
 
#15 ·
I like Vista. Once you turn off the annoying stuff, it's fine. I have thought of upgrading to 7 simply because it's newer, but I don't know that it's worth it.
 
#16 · (Edited)
I upgraded from XP to Win7 as I was curious as to what Win7 was like.
I have a Vista laptop and after my experience with Win7 I have no immediate plans to up-grade it.
Vista has the same foundation as Win7, so its just the whisles and bells that are different.
One thing that I have just discovered with Win7 that has p**sed me off, is it refuses to burn DVDs because my VIDEO card is OLD.
Why its important for this to occur, escapes me.
I was attempting to make a Win7 repair disk on a DVD disk, when this happened. When I used a CD disk, all was good!
 
#17 ·
Check for firmware updates for your DVDRW drive, that sometimes helps.

After using 7 since beta stages, I'm almost physically sickened when I have to use an XP machine. If you have software that won't run on anything other than XP, just install an XP Virtual Machine on Windows 7:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/download.aspx

In the dropdown, make sure to tell it you have Pro. or better. If you say you have "home" it says it's not made for you, but it still works just fine on home machines.
 
#19 ·
Yah! Thats what blew me away!

I see that Win7 SP1 is now available. (out of BETA). I'm thinking maybe I should dowb-load this and see if it resolves the issue.

I do like WIn7, but its really annoying that hardware manufacturers won't bother issuing drivers for 'older' hardware, cause there's no money to be made.
ATI is a Canadian company and now, this Canadian will be buying Chinese!
 
#24 ·
I think that the key is to have MS scan your machine, to see if it is capable of supporting Win7.
If its not adequate, don't do it.

I wanted to try Win7, but my computer was a couple of years old and its video hardware wasn't up to requirement.
I went ahead and did it anyway and ran into a problem.
If I bought a new video card, perhaps I would be OK, but I'm not too excited about doing this.

If I were to advise someone, I would suggest that they would buy a new machine that comes with Win7.
 
#27 ·
I have windows 7 ultimate. I must say for a windows OS this is by far my favorite. However, with that being said, I am really beginning to dislike microsoft products all together. I have a 200 GB hard drive that I literally just formatted and reinstalled Windows 7 Ultimate onto and I've already used nearly 50 GB of space in just updates and a few programs I've installed.

My motherboard is dying slowly so I've been backing everything up to an external drive. When this baby dies altogether I'm going to a Mac.
 
#30 · (Edited)
Safari had major lockups right out of the box due to Flash issues. Firefox and Chrome worked fine though. Just wait until you get the little spinning beachball a few times and talk about how stable it is. They just crash different than a Windows PC. MAC just tends to lock up forever instead of flat out crashing. If you are actually going to pay for a real MAC then yes you'll have a bit more stability since you are severely limited to over priced under performing hardware.
 
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