I just bought a New Laptop on Saturday. Its a 17' HP laptop with Windows Vista Premium Home addition and it gives me error already on the second day. It frozes when it cannot read a file format. Has two starting problems already. Have to push and hold the power bottom to shutdown due to Program errors. urrg...I'm not familar with Vista at all. still with Windows 98. Anybody got the new Windows VISTA too? How does it run? I can't even find stuff like Disk Cleanup, Scandisk, disk defragmenting, Internet History files, etc... tell me where they are if you guys know.
Vista It does SUCK no doubt about it. I would take your computer in and have XP loaded imeadiatly, even if you need to pay a fee it will be worth it. I use my friends at Computer Renaisaince in Eden Prairie for support. The issue you might have is that with many laptops the hardware drivers may not exist for XP (Rare).
There's a better chance of finding XP drivers than Vista ones, and the XP ones will probably work OK. [subliminal message]http://en.opensuse.org/Welcome_to_openSUSE.org[/subliminal message] Stuart.
I'm waiting until maybe Xmas this year before switching to Vista. I keep seeing horror stories like this or drivers not working properly or no drivers at all for some hardware. That's also the reason I didn't with to XP64. Well that and I'd have to switch to Vista in a year or so again.
Oh the joys of Vista, lol. Microsoft didn't do anyone any favors when they released this work of art, you think it urrrgs you? try having to work on them, omg!! And of course no one is ever in a good mood when they bring in there computer...fun fun!!:eek3:
A 17 foot laptop? Damn. Never before has a Microsoft OS been so widely shunned. In time Vista may be a great step forward. For now it has way too many issues and should be avoided. Do as others have mentioned, install XP.
Get a mac??? I have both a winblows machine and a mac sitting next to each other at work, and they BOTH SUCK. I'm not computer illiterate, but each one has issues that manage to piss me off daily. (I really don't have rage issues.) Maybe neither works as well as they should, due to their close proximity to one another.
I've got Vista Business running on my pc at home. I'd rather have a Mac, but that not the point. Vista has a bunch of updates that need to be done. Make sure you verify that ALL the software running on it is the correct version for Vista. I had to update to newer versions of all my software including Nero, Adobe, AVG, and some other misc software. If you are running the build that came with the computer, you may want to start over. I'd stay with Vista, it'll only get better. When (and if) you reinstall, do a little checking on all the stuff you run.
Come on Vista is easy... Wouldn't deploy it to most of our clients yet (too many dang calls heh), but you get used to it. Yea Taras move to a Mac, that way you can run off an OS stolen from BeOS and FreeBSD. Not a bad OS, but nothing innovative as Mac freaks like to think. FYI Me was the most shunned MS OS, and for good reason. Run Vista on a Core2Duo and a 8800 GT, then you will be happy. IStoptoFly you work for the Geek Squad?? If you do, I feel sorry for you heh...
Don't let a geek do a tech's job Those people you see at best buy "geek squad" are pretty much cashiers. The real techs, if thats what you want to call them, actually work else where and remote into the machines, or have the machines shipped to them. The people at bb geek squad do some work, but not much. this is coming from a new guy we just hired that came from the geek squad. We give him a hard time everyday
I use a mac daily now which boot camps into XP (corporate edition...) I will never pay MS a dime of my money again. I have 2 linux boxes as well, my only personal computer that runs windows is my wife's and thats because she doesn't want a new one. It will probably be replaced by a mac.
Well I take personal offense to that, not only do I work full time for the Geek Squad, I am A+ certified, iNet+ certified and have 3 certifications in web design. Our Precinct does a ton of work on computers every day ranging from cleaning up virus/spyware infections from all the pron to hardware repairs and operating system repairs on just about every version of windows. So make sure you have the facts before you call me a "cashier".
I was just repeating what I was told from a former employee of the mighty Geek Squad. If your going to take offense to that, thats your problem.
well you did essentially belittle him as an untrained cashier, and that was coming second hand from a probably disgruntled ex-employee... no wonder he took some degree of offense to it.
ZOMG! NERD FIGHT11! On my desktop, I use windows xp pro. Aside from my motherboard failing, it has had no issues. Blah blah blah, spyware, blah....just don't go searching for porn on Google and you'll be fine. You seem to like pissing money to the wind, so this doesn't surprise me that you'd suggest going out and buying an overpriced box to load XP on it. And on the Linux debate...well, when I see one that does everything I do day to day and runs all the programs I run without me having to learn some bull**** command line babble to do it, and without having to emulate windows to do it (seeing a trend here?) then I'll consider it. It boggles my mind how everyone bags on Windows for being crap, but then creates a shell or a bootable partition for it on their Macs and Linux boxes so they can run windows xp. Yeah, first releases are buggy. When Microsoft says 'Vista SP1', that's when it's safe to look. You should all know that by now.
True, sorry. BUT, am I right about the geek squad and they have off site "3rd level" support? Not all of the repairs are done at best buy, there is no way.
whats so mind boggling? MS is a sales juggernaut that ensures that its products get resold to the idiotic mouth breathing sissies that purchase software for companies, assuring that developers can't afford to write for other operating systems. Fact is i hardly ever boot into window and its usually to run one small little application and then be done with it, usually from a developer who cannot afford to develop for another OS because MS sells so much crap to idiots who run companies. If typing into a command line once in a while intimidates you, back away from the computer and go find a copy of Microsoft BOB to install. vista is crap. Why do i want an operating system that wastes so many system resources just to run itself? Its like a human body that needs to burn 8547924513 calories an hour just to stay alive. That crap is unneccesary, poorly written, not subject to review and agonizingly slowly updated and then usually when the problem is ten months past annoying. I'm certainly no mac fan, steve job's smarmy smiling face makes me want to use it as a punching bag and most of their users guzzle the kool aid, but I'd still rather give them my money. At least I know the OS is based on a solid foundation and isn't completely retardedly designed and doesn't have hardware requirements that make using a relatively normal computer an exercise in sitting and waiting constantly. Don't even get me started on built in DRM... I like actually owning things I buy, not renting them from a company until it decides it doesn't want me to have ti anymore, or forcing me to enjoy it through some crap interface with a zillion poorly constructed layers of "security" saving me from myself.
Fixed. Yeah, DRM. Yeah. I get the feeling we could both bore the pants off everybody on this forum with that topic. But I'm going to resist the temptation. For now. Stuart.
Only for units that need hardware repairs under warranty that we don't have parts for in the store, then they get sent out to Geek Squad City or to the vendor for those repairs. 75% of the work is done in the Precinct.
I think you might be surprised how far Linux has come. There are some distros out there that do most everything. The only problem is with a few software packages that may not have alternatives in Linux. As a student (ok ex-student) and everyday computer user I have not run into anything that I need that is not in Linux. I am sure you probably have one or two maybe that may not have an Linux version but give it a little time and they will be there. Tuning software comes to mind but I know some of the open stuff is now being ported to Linux. I personally do no use windows at all. I do not have a windows partition at all. I do keep a virtual machine on a disk just in case a friend or family memeber needs trouble shooting help. I can then boot windows in a window on the Linux desktop. I am not an IT person but manage to do just fine with Linux. I think people are starting to see that light with Microsoft. I heard somewhere that they want to move their OS to a yearly renewal fee system. Just like everything else these days you don't own the software you lease it. That means to be able to use your computer you would be paying them every year for winblows. Not sure how serious they were about this but knowing the company's history I would not put it past them. Jason if you are ever looking for an alternative let me or someone else know and maybe we can demo something for you. I think Ubuntu is a good bet. I don't have any experience with that one but all I hear is great things about it. Much easier to use than what I am on. Matt
Well said. You can't look at just the Windows OS, but all of the "supporting" apps that go along with it. They are all buggy, for those of you that use any ms office suite apps on a daily basis, know that they are bound to freeze up your machine, crash in the middle of a project your working on, or just simply not even open. You then can go ahead and lookup that error message that the particular MS app gave you, xxxxxxx and find that "Microsoft has no additional information about this error" What great support from a user friendly os.
Easy there killer. I didn't say I was intimidated by it. I just don't want to do it. That's why I'm not running MS-DOS 6.1. You can call it the dumbing down if you want, but it is less dumbing down and more about consolidation of tedius typing tasks. I like to do what I need to do with a click of my mouse. I've sat and watched Aegis try to get her linux laptop connected to my network for over a month, and still no luck. Yet any windows PC in my house I can have latched onto the network almost instantly. My computer has and always will do what I want when I want it to. Mlgez, if you can find a Linux distro that does everything I want it to do without me having to: -learn a new underlying language for a command line -boot to windows xp everytime I need to run a particular program Then I'll give it a shot. But as far as I've seen thus far, win xp works just fine for what I do.
The one treully scarything about ths whole MS OS battle is that in 2 yrs there will be a new MS OS out. which will most lkely be just as unstable an crappy as vista is now. 2yrs after that there will be another one. with only 2yrs between updates do you think microsoft is going to be spending time squashing bugs and errors in the new OSs? people have finally come to accept XP as a semi decent OS, but how long has it been out? and how long has microsoft been working on fixing it up? frankly i wont be happy till microsoft changes and tightens up there programming. IMO they are slackin w/ the code and letting the new found proceessor power pick up the slack.
Remember the days of the Mac OS errors... Trying to troubleshoot Error 5 which could mean one of about 1000 things from their description, heh. Or Novell Errors, damn my head hurts just thinking about it. Speaking of the Geek Squad, I just fixed an Exchange Server that they totally messed up on Tuesday. Idiots wiped out the routing connectors and couldn't figure out why it wasn't working.
+1 for Vista sucking nuts. I got it for my HTPC/DVD server, and ended up going back out and getting XP for it. Hardware doesn't matter either. It's a Core2Duo @ 2.96GHz, 2GB RAM, with a 8800 GTS Superclocked. Still didn't work for crap.
Let's see, right now I have: 1 Vista Home Premium 1 XP Home 2 Vista Business 1 Redhat Fedora Core 7 (beta) Linux 1 Debian Linux 4.0 1 FreeBSD 6.0 2 FreeBSD 6.2 1 Windows Server 2003 R2 SBS 1 Windows 2000 Pro 1 XP Pro All of them have their plusses and minuses. I've done a lot of Mac support under OS X. It ain't pretty when it breaks. I like the fact that I can drop into a shell and fix the crap without having to walk through some idiotic "wizard" that didn't take into account the thing that happened that broke stuff in the first place. Vista is less stable than XP in general. Is that a shock? Xp was a lot less stable than 2000 was when it came out. Vista is neither as bad as some people feel it to be, nor as good as other make it out to be. It's just new and different, and people don't like it when they can't find stuff where it used to be. The most stable OS I've ever used was Novell NetWare 2.15. I had a server that had literally years of uptime, and we finally shut it down when we migrated to NW4 and NDS. Thing was the primary file server for the corporate executives at the company I worked for, and we never upgraded to NW3 because it was too critical to mess with. Thing was an old Zeos (how many people remember that company?) 386/33 with like 256M of memory, and 5.25" Hitachi SCSI drives. Simple is stable. People like to brag about how "stable" Linux/UNIX is. And it was, back when it was simple. Now that many of the distros seem to think they should have everything but the kitchen sink included, they're getting to be every bit as unstable as Windows. That's why I like Debian and FreeBSD. You can do some very minimal installs, just what I need to get the job done, and nothing else.
AmigaOS 3.1 on an Amiga 4000. Best computer I've ever used. Did things we still can't do today (real time video editing with no render times on analog captured video), and was super-stable.
YES! I agree 110% I liked Gentoo until the most recent build, then they did some stupid things. Like remove a -U flag in the emerge command, which causes it to update - well what if I didn't want to update the WHOLE THING (which it does now) - and just one part of the program? I have to learn more about USE flags than I ever wanted to. And that is just the beginning. To add to the frustration, my networking was setup by someone who has an extensive FreeBSD background, and I know jack about fbsd. Time to either 1 - reinstall linux (maybe go back to Debian myself) or 2 - install windows, to make things easier. Windows can run a lot of the programs that I used in Linux, so it doesn't seem like I'd be losing much of anything. I'm tired of the MS vs Linux debate, I've been a part of it for at least 10 years. Bottom line: I dont' care what OS is on my pc as long as it works like it's supposed to without any finagling from the end user. That is what it should be all about. No need for a pissing contest over which OS is better
Yup, I am. I owned an Amiga 4000 until not to long ago, the proc. daughter board went belly up, and I wasn't willing to dump the $$ needed into it.
