28 replies to this topic

[FruitRocks]

Because I'm a MSDN subscriber, I can get all versions of Vista and ultimate for free. Should I stick with Vista Ultimate because it has never given me any problems, or go to Windows 7 Ultimate RTM (the one that is supposed to come out in October, not the RC version).

[SpiderVV]

I'd say Windows 7. A friend of mine is a MSDN subscriber and he burned Windows 7 RTM for me and it's awesome and 1000x better than Vista. If your computer can't handle Vista well, I'm sure 7 will be better. Just my 2 cents but I'd say Windows 7.

[onscreen]

Why stick with Vista when you have the option to get a better one? Like everyone else would say, get Windows 7. Since you can get any Windows version for free, there is no harm trying new ones

[k_nitin_r]

Hi!

I would strongly recommend moving from Microsoft Windows Vista to Microsoft Windows 7 especially since you have the MSDN subscription. Microsoft Windows 7 is wayyy more responsive than Microsoft Windows Vista, especially if you use Internet Explorer. I'm pretty sure they pre-load the browser to get the almost-immediate startup time that they do. This really ought to get people off Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome. Since Internet Explorer 7, I've always had the browser responsiveness issue. Although Microsoft Windows 7 runs the same version of Internet Explorer that I run on Microsoft Windows XP, it is so much quicker!

I've been using Windows 7 RC for almost a month till I got a copy of Microsoft Windows 7 Professional that I installed today. The user interface changes take a while to get used to - I still like my classic-Windows style ungrouped taskbar buttons.

[livepcportal]

FruitRocks, on Aug 16 2009, 09:42 PM, said:

Because I'm a MSDN subscriber, I can get all versions of Vista and ultimate for free. Should I stick with Vista Ultimate because it has never given me any problems, or go to Windows 7 Ultimate RTM (the one that is supposed to come out in October, not the RC version).

In my opinion you should upgrade your system and get Windows 7 Ultimate RTM rather than using Vista. I think even the comparison between the Windows Vista and Windows 7 is the insult of the best OS ever built i.e Windows 7. I am saying this because I have used Windows 7 beta version for more than one month and found it very reliable, fast and features rich. It has everything that must be present in an ideal OS. So don't think anymore, if you can buy it then just buy it. If you still wants to use Vista then you can keep Vista installed in one partition and install Windows 7 in other partition, making your system dual booting.

[The Simpleton]

I'm not really a fan of Windows but out of the two, 7 is much more better than Vista and I would strongly recommend switching to it. Vista has very few fans and even people like you who say that they haven't had any problem with it till now, have some feeling deep within that it's not so good. The very fact that you started this topic tells that you are somehow not satisfied with Vista! So take the advise of all the above members and switch to 7 as soon as possible, as it is the best one available for now.

[Echo_of_thunder]

Honestly? 2 words come to mind. Down Grade. We all know the bad stories of Vista, and window's 7 in from what I understand a build off XP. Being a windows xp user I have to say that I think that if you can, it would be best to downgrade to XP. win 7 is still new and I feel sure will have some bugs. It's Microsoft right? If you have the money to spend on 7 go for it but until it is all proven and working at 100% I would go with windows XP

[alexthemans]

One word, Upgrade. I have tried both Vista SP1 and Windows 7 RC, and I just find the latter is just faster and more stable, and able to run almost Vista things.

[Saint_Michael]

First give me the login details to your MSDN account that way I get free windows .

Second, last I heard Windows 7 has a major setback in the form of a memory leak that causes a BSOD after running chkdsk.exe utility. Now I haven't heard if this was fix or Microsoft was working on it, but odds are MSDN Subscribers would have more info on that then us normal people. I know that derailed me of picking up a copy of Windows any time soon until that bug is fixed.

As for what Echo's post mention, let me correct a few things, first Windows 7 is built on Vista but even better and faster. The only thing XP related is XP Mode and even then you only see that service on Windows 7 Professional and above.

As for your question if you have Ultimate running then your good enough as it is, but since you can get Windows 7 for free you might as well upgrade to it as well on a separate partition and then let the bug fixes and junk build up before making it your primary OS.

[rayzoredge]

It's funny that this question is even asked considering the stigma behind Windows Vista.

Windows 7 has the unusual advantage of attracting new customers to the Windows OS platform and especially current Vista customers because it's what Vista was supposed to be but with a fresh new name. Initially with a change/upgrade to a new operating system, I would advise to let the guinea pigs have at it first to check out any potential bugs and/or instability issues, but then again, Windows 7 has been under constant scrutiny and testing thanks to a world-wide participation with the beta variants and "leaked" versions of the RC, creating enough of a buzz to focus attention on a Microsoft product that, surprisingly, isn't too bad. Driver-wise, migrating customers and early adopters will be all set thanks to the utilization of the Vista driver concept that thankfully is more mature than when Vista first came out, giving developers and consumers much of a headache with hardware support. Feature-wise, the operating system seems to be rich and rife with eye candy and an actual user-friendly interface. As people have already mentioned, the RTM still has problems to date, but we can always count on the Microsoft development timeline of RC = alpha, RTM = beta, SP1 = RC/RTM, and SP2 = final release.

It's ultimately your call, but personally, as cool and as good as Windows 7 is and the fact that many users are already praising a Microsoft product, and even with the fact that Windows 7 has been available for consumers and testers to explore for over a year now, I would still wait. Then again, I'm viewing it from the perspective of being an XP SP2 user. You, on the other hand, may have quite the gain jumping ship from Vista SP2 to 7 RTM.

[mahesh2k]

Seriously, i think you should go for windows 7. you can think of windows 7 as patched and irritation free(atleast much better than vista). I think of vista release like windows ME, which failed in same way like windows vista. after that only windows 98 and windows 2000 were considered as better options till they launched XP. and now that XP support is stopped and it's obvious they're supposed to improve their old OS's. though like windows 98, even Windows XP will be there in market support and services as well as on our desktops for quite sometime. but one day we've to upgrade to new OS. like it or not.

In Windows 7, XP mode is answer to support for old games and drivers. So switching to windows 7 won't be issue anymore. there will be still some issues and ofcourse some one will come up with answer, that's life in windows. (On side note, consider switching to linux JK ) If you can't afford ultimate edition then professional is much better option cause if you stick with starter,basic editions then you'll find yourself in land of feature limitations. So either professional edition or ultimate.

[jamjamnorman]

i think you should get window 7 becouse it has a lot more feature and becouse it is a lot better.

[minimcmonkey]

If you've tried windows 7 RC youll see its quite an improvemtn both visually and in terms of performance. it still uses a lot more memory than XP, but its better than vista!
It has some faults - bugs etc.
I think it might be worth waiting for a while, once its been on general release for long enough microsoft will know about a lot of the faults and release a service pack. SP1 has improved vista, and I see no reason why windows 7 shouldnt be a reasonably okay operating system...

[eastofsorrow]

I really suggest everyone to leave vista and stick to the great windows 7. In my opinion windows seven is really a state of the art OS. Smooth work ground, beautiful UI and .... Somehow Microsoft has managed to combine XP efficiency with Vista beautiful UI so as to make a ground-breaking OS.

[shangshaptak]

Forget Vista, unless you're a die hard big time fan of dreamscene (Dunno why someone would want a fluttering butterfly in their face 24/7...), windows 7 is the way to go!!!!!!

[rpgsearcherz]

My personal recommendation is go to Windows 7.

I've been against Vista since it was still in Alpha/Beta stages. It has always given issues and has always been a resource hog to me.

Even with only 2 gb's of 800 mhz ram I am able to run Windows 7 *faster* than I was XP. When gaming, I'm finding Win 7 to be much better/faster as well. There are actually high-end games I can play on higher settings with 7 than I can with XP.

I was scrolling through options and whatnot and it seems Win 7 just has better memory management, plus better caching and other things.

Until I see something to force me back away from 7, I'm sticking with it. With Vista I couldn't last more than 12 hours without getting aggravated and doing rollbacks to XP again.

[TheDisturbedOne]

I find it funny that Windows is already coming out with a new OS and yet a ton of people and companies are still on Windows XP, since they don't care for Vista.

I'd say for your case, go with Vista since you get all the versions for free. I haven't seen much of 7 to give you a good idea of what it's like. For me I'll stay with XP though.

[rpgsearcherz]

TheDisturbedOne, on Sep 16 2009, 08:51 PM, said:

I find it funny that Windows is already coming out with a new OS and yet a ton of people and companies are still on Windows XP, since they don't care for Vista.

I'd say for your case, go with Vista since you get all the versions for free. I haven't seen much of 7 to give you a good idea of what it's like. For me I'll stay with XP though.

As weird as it is, like I said in my last post, Win 7 is actually faster than XP.

Try it out if you get the chance, you'll probably be amazed like I was.

I actually spent weeks researching it because it didn't make sense to me how it was "faster" but after trying it, it really is (on crappy PC's even).

[mahesh2k]

Quote

As weird as it is, like I said in my last post, Win 7 is actually faster than XP.

I just want to confirm this. You find windows 7 faster on old machines ?. i mean pentium 4 one's. with RAM 256-1GB ?. I find it vista having hard time on those machines. But XP performs nicely on those machine. My one machine is running on 512 RAM, Pentium 4 2.0 ghz processor. So i wanted to confirm if i upgrade to RAM say 1 GB, is windows 7 will give good performance on that old pc ? What are your observations about old pc configurations for windows 7 ?

[TheDisturbedOne]

I guess I'm not the only one here with an ancient computer. I'm running a Pentium 3 on 512MB RAM, which is the maximum that the motherboard can handle. I'm going to stick with XP until I get a new computer, since Vista or 7 probably won't run on it (without overclocking the RAM). Surprisingly I have been able to run a few programs that require 1GB RAM on this computer, while it only has half of that. The only problem is that operating systems might not work unless I have the necessary amount of RAM.

[rpgsearcherz]

mahesh2k, on Sep 17 2009, 07:51 AM, said:

I just want to confirm this. You find windows 7 faster on old machines ?. i mean pentium 4 one's. with RAM 256-1GB ?. I find it vista having hard time on those machines. But XP performs nicely on those machine. My one machine is running on 512 RAM, Pentium 4 2.0 ghz processor. So i wanted to confirm if i upgrade to RAM say 1 GB, is windows 7 will give good performance on that old pc ? What are your observations about old pc configurations for windows 7 ?

That's actually a very good question. Based on my preliminary research (before I tried Win 7) it supposedly runs better on older systems as well. But I'm not sure "how old."

For my personal usage, I have every setting on the highest, including 3d backgrounds that change every 10 seconds, transparent taskbar, transparent screens, and everything else.

Even with all of that running, I'm at around 600 MB's of ram used up. (This also includes Java, IE, and everything else I have running right now).

So really I'm not sure about it being good with 512 MB's but with 1 GB you should be more than fine. Even running some MMORPG's I've been at 1 gb and below.

I think you can still download the beta for free if you would like to test it that way. That's what I did because I was ready to reformat again anyways (to clean out my system) so I decided if it sucked I would just reinstall XP again.

It's really hard to judge other people's PC's because there are just so many factors:

HDD speed/free space
CPU speed/clock speed
MB speed
RAM amount/speed
Video Card ram/speed/type

And some other factors.

The best thing I can really say is to give it a try if you can for free and then make your decision based on that.

I think XP is really still okay for most things, especially as I was still using it up until recently. I'm just loving the new look of 7 and how everything is organized.

[mahesh2k]

@repgsearcherz, thanks for the information. I'll have to check out Windows 7 RC for that now. It's good to hear that it will work with low ram like 1GB. I mean with vista even 1GB is not enough. It takes lot of RAM, even if we disable aero theme and revert to classic. I don't know where it takes up so much resource. That is why i unable to upgrade last time.

I read winsupersite blog, so most of my views are formed cause of that blog. Also i'm yet to try their XP mode virtualization. I heard that it is limited to some versions and not for all version, is that true or is it rumor ? also i heard ultimate and professional edition of windows 7 have very few differences. is it ?.

[rpgsearcherz]

mahesh2k, on Sep 18 2009, 01:35 AM, said:

@repgsearcherz, thanks for the information. I'll have to check out Windows 7 RC for that now. It's good to hear that it will work with low ram like 1GB. I mean with vista even 1GB is not enough. It takes lot of RAM, even if we disable aero theme and revert to classic. I don't know where it takes up so much resource. That is why i unable to upgrade last time.

I read winsupersite blog, so most of my views are formed cause of that blog. Also i'm yet to try their XP mode virtualization. I heard that it is limited to some versions and not for all version, is that true or is it rumor ? also i heard ultimate and professional edition of windows 7 have very few differences. is it ?.

I haven't used XP virtualization yet as I haven't had a need to. Only one program had issues and it was just because I accidentally unplugged my external drive while running the program. When that happened it failed to run and Win 7 automatically decided in the future it will try XP virtualization on it to help make it work better.

As for it being limited to different versions, I'm unsure. Also, about Ultimate and Professional, I think the big changes are in the "safety" of it. You should be able to pull that information up pretty easily on Microsoft's website though. Just search for "Windows 7 version comparisons" or something like that.

[rayzoredge]

Just an FYI, Windows XP Professional SP3 actually performs better (for the most part) over both Vista and 7, but the margins are something that you might want to look at.

For example, XP takes forever to shut down compared to Vista or 7. But everything else inclusive of normal use, to include gaming, warrant no real excitement as far as PC performance goes.

XP and 7 actually operate somewhat on the same performance level, but 7 "feels" zippier. A lot of people report this and don't know why, considering that benchmarks prove that they are rather comparable, with XP in the lead (but by a few negligible seconds on certain tasks).

This information is based on what I've read a while back, so some current numbers are in order... [January 2009]

Apparently, Windows 7 wins in the networking department, but all other differences as far as performance goes is rather menial at single-digit percentage gains and even losses to Windows XP. (Vista users, however, have plenty to gain switching to 7.) But you have to remember that Windows 7 brings a lot to the table, like DirectX 10 support, Aero, and other fancy features as well as security-related interests and other good-to-have things like ease of networking.

Kind of funny to actually think about Windows 7 as an upgrade and next step up from Windows XP... which is good, considering that we couldn't stick with the 8-year-old operating system forever. (No, I never actually considered Vista an upgrade path.)

Edited by rayzoredge, 18 September 2009 - 08:53 PM.

[rpgsearcherz]

rayzoredge, on Sep 18 2009, 03:52 PM, said:

Just an FYI, Windows XP Professional SP3 actually performs better (for the most part) over both Vista and 7, but the margins are something that you might want to look at.

For example, XP takes forever to shut down compared to Vista or 7. But everything else inclusive of normal use, to include gaming, warrant no real excitement as far as PC performance goes.

XP and 7 actually operate somewhat on the same performance level, but 7 "feels" zippier. A lot of people report this and don't know why, considering that benchmarks prove that they are rather comparable, with XP in the lead (but by a few negligible seconds on certain tasks).

This information is based on what I've read a while back, so some current numbers are in order... [January 2009]

Apparently, Windows 7 wins in the networking department, but all other differences as far as performance goes is rather menial at single-digit percentage gains and even losses to Windows XP. (Vista users, however, have plenty to gain switching to 7.) But you have to remember that Windows 7 brings a lot to the table, like DirectX 10 support, Aero, and other fancy features as well as security-related interests and other good-to-have things like ease of networking.

Kind of funny to actually think about Windows 7 as an upgrade and next step up from Windows XP... which is good, considering that we couldn't stick with the 8-year-old operating system forever. (No, I never actually considered Vista an upgrade path.)

In terms of the networking, I haven't messed with it yet. I only upgraded one of our PC's to Windows 7 because I won't fully "trust" it until I've used it extensively without issues. But this network thing it has internal is quite interesting... It's supposed to automate the entire networking process, including networking printers and other devices.

Along with this, the internal CD burning wizard is a lot better than the one in XP. You can burn "Flash-like" dvd's or CD's (where you can copy/paste/edit/etc. files on the CD/DVD itself if it's rewritable, instead of having to burn/erase/burn/erase). To test that out I made files, edited them, made new folders, transferred files from one folder to another, etc. and then took the disc straight out and tried it out in an XP system - 0 flaws at all with it.

As for your lack of considering Vista an upgrade, I still to this day consider it a downgrade. In fact, when I bought my last PC from HP and I was talking to customer support I had to get XP drivers and they asked why I don't put the original Vista back on it. My reply: "I am *upgrading* to Windows XP."

To me, Vista was worse than XP in almost every possible way.


Windows 7 may prove to be failsauce in the future (near or far), but as of right now I've had no issues.