[silvershield]

Ummmm, from my understanding your serial key from Windows XP will be invalidated if you did an upgrade...

[DoubleHelix]

Your Windows XP is not "invalidated" once used as an upgrade for Vista. You can still wipe out Vista and reinstall XP if you wish.

[sunking101]

Hi,

My laptop came with Vista installed on a partition, you don't get the discs these days. If I install XP I am going to lose my copy of Vista. Is there any way around this? I want to buy a copy of XP and put it onto my pc but I don't want to lose the Vista o/s that my laptop came with - I want to be able to go back to this in the future. Any solutions guys?

[wizzwoo]

You might be able to make a disc image of your drive including the OS itself with a utility like Acronis true image (version 10 is compatible with vista). However you are highly likely to have a OEM version of vista which will NOT allow you to install it on any other computer other than the one it came with (I think it recognises the motherboard) so you won't be able to install it onto a different system.

[ostlandr]

We just bought a new desktop and a new laptop, both of which came pre-loaded with Vista.
The idea was to give everybody in the family their own computer, so we could game together on our brand-new LAN (Netgear wireless G, works great and relatively easy to set up even for a "DOS dinosaur" like myself.)

This was the worst decision I have made lately. So far, I would have been far better off buying the cheapest new computers I could find, sticking in some extra memory and installing XP.

So far, Diablo 2, SimCity 4, and Railroad Tycoon 3 have all either refused to run, crashed frequently, or run worse than on our aging, memory-shy XP box. I have been going nuts un-installing, re-installing and changing the so-called "compatibility settings" - nothing works. I run the install program as an administrator with all security settings disabled AND in compatibility mode for WinXP, then run the program in that mode- still nothing.
I keep working my way down through the compatibility settings back to Win95- still can't get these programs to run properly.

I will try the hints on this thread, and keep searching, but it looks like I am in deep kimchee.

Best Buy, Compaq and Acer are going to get an earful from me for caving to Bill Gates and putting a piece of crap like Vista on my new equipment. If enough of us complain- frequently and loudly- and back it up by not buying anything with Vista on it- they may listen.

[Krisper]

What is a patch?? Do you ever think Windows Vista will be fixed?? I can't download
some of my pogo games...with this new Windows Vista.

Krisper38@aol.com

[nosferatu81486]

patches are basically to fix bugs in a program. (i.e. you have a game and it has a few errors in it, well, eventually the company will find out about it, and have a patch made for download to "patch" or fix the bug.)


oh, and to my knowledge, Vista isn't really so bad...then again, i dont play computer games....do you have the latest version of Vista, or is it the free one?

[aliciagreen369]

Hi guys!

Firstly, I have read in some other forums that users running Windows Vista on their PCs have significant speed problems. Their machines seem to be running much slower than the previous XP and I kinda suspect that it is so, although I don't really have a problem running the usual programs but when I run software like Photoshop - the speed in mind-numbingly slow sometimes. I just feel like kicking the CPU sometimes (it is conveniently located to the right of my right foot! Hahahaha!!).

I also have a huge problem with some other design and video editing software. At first, some of them weren't successfully installed but imagine my surprise when they can't even be uninstalled! The uninstallation process always gets interrupted and aborted and so, some of the software just sit inside the stoopid PC. I have even tried using third-party software to clean up the files but to no avail!

I really cannot stand the User Account Settings and some security issue reminders can't seem to be turned off no matter what I do. At first it does seem that these are small problems but when they add up - it really, really, REALLY gets to me! Gosh!

I am seriously thinking of uninstalling this crappy Vista (mine is the genuine Home edition) and I don't think I will miss it at all if I install an XP. I know I should have bought an iMac (got a MacBook for presentations) but I wanted to play some games and use software like 3DS Max and AutoCAD too, so had to buy a PC.

Any advice you can kindly share?

Thanks!!

[Krisper]

Originally Posted by aliciagreen369

Hi guys!

Firstly, I have read in some other forums that users running Windows Vista on their PCs have significant speed problems. Their machines seem to be running much slower than the previous XP and I kinda suspect that it is so, although I don't really have a problem running the usual programs but when I run software like Photoshop - the speed in mind-numbingly slow sometimes. I just feel like kicking the CPU sometimes (it is conveniently located to the right of my right foot! Hahahaha!!).

I also have a huge problem with some other design and video editing software. At first, some of them weren't successfully installed but imagine my surprise when they can't even be uninstalled! The uninstallation process always gets interrupted and aborted and so, some of the software just sit inside the stoopid PC. I have even tried using third-party software to clean up the files but to no avail!

I really cannot stand the User Account Settings and some security issue reminders can't seem to be turned off no matter what I do. At first it does seem that these are small problems but when they add up - it really, really, REALLY gets to me! Gosh!

I am seriously thinking of uninstalling this crappy Vista (mine is the genuine Home edition) and I don't think I will miss it at all if I install an XP. I know I should have bought an iMac (got a MacBook for presentations) but I wanted to play some games and use software like 3DS Max and AutoCAD too, so had to buy a PC.

Any advice you can kindly share?

Thanks!!

Hi Alicia...You're not alone. As if that helps. I took my Windows Vista to Staples Techs
for them to remove Vista and install XP. They couldn't do it. Something with the driver.
My Vista runs very very slow. Where is Bill Gates when you need him?? LOL If you find a way to uninstall and install...let me know.

Krisper38@aol.com

[wizzy2k5]

first off one of the reasons why Vista runs slow on some machines is because it uses readyboost technology. From what I have heard it monitors which programs you use and in which order and takes the RAM and when you boot up again the ram is already there for that application so then it launches alot quicker. More can be found here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ReadyBoost

as for a format you have 2 options

1) download and run active killdisk

http://www.killdisk.com/downloadfree.htm

or

2) boot off the cd

enter recovery console

enter the windows installation number (normally 1)
enter your password (if you cannot remember this try and press enter)

and at the command prompt type this

format c:

and press enter, then this will format you pc

[DaveA]

What you are stating has nothing to do with readyboost. Readyboost uses external USB "Flash" drives as extra memory, see below. It is from http://www.microsoft.com/windows/pro...rformance.mspx near the bottom of the page.

Impromptu memory expansion.

Windows ReadyBoost introduces a new concept in add-on system memory. You can use nonvolatile flash memory devices, such as universal serial bus (USB) flash drives, to improve performance without having to add memory "under the hood." The flash memory device serves as an additional memory cache—that is, memory that the computer can access much more quickly than it can access data on the hard disk drive.

[wizzy2k5]

cheers for that, seems like someone was talking alot of rubbish when trying to explain it to me, thanks again

[texasred88]

RE: Zeeshan's problem

You need to upgrade your RAM! Vista needs 1 gig RAM alone, just to run smoothly and to do anything else (eg play games) will be SUPER slow unless you have another gig to run your applications and games at a decent speed.

I recently bought an HP notebook with great specs and 2gig RAM and it runs really fast. A few shop assistants tried to tell me i only needed 1, but the knowledgeable ones said don't touch vista with less that 2. I spoke to my dad who is a network engineer and he, plus his coleagues agreed i needed 2. I'm no expert, but i'm learning

If anyone is clued up on problems with mouse settings please contact me, I'm having a major issue with applications closing when i go to click on options, tools, or help etc. So far i have only noticed it in things like windows games, paint etc. Trying to be smart about it and ask around before asking my dad and his work...Figure i'd try and work it out :P

[jewelsbylynn]

Can someone explain what this Killdisk does and why we would do that versus booting from the XP disk.

I am going back to XP. It isn't compatible with my Dell 4700.

I wanted to format my whole darn drive and start fresh!