Is it really worth installing Vista RC1 at this point?

[BroadbandGamer]

I was going to dual boot Vista and XP but it looks like this isn't as simple as I thought it would be. Should I just wait until Vista comes out in January?

Thanks

 

[blurredvision]

I've been having issues myself with dual-booting Vista and XP Pro. Twice now with different builds has Vista eventually gotten fvcked up, then upon subsequent reinstall will completely destroy both partitions on my hard drive. This just happened as recently as a couple of days ago with RC1. This time, I've got two hard drives in my system, with Vista installed on one, and XP possibly going on the other drive sometime soon.

I just love Vista so much, it's hard to go back to XP.

 

[Jman13]

If it goes easily for you, sure. If not, don't worry about it. Beta 2 wouldn't install on my main machine, but did fine on my wife's box. RC1 installed fine on my main machine, though. I've got a dual boot setup, and while I am using Vista as my daily OS, it is sometimes just easier to boot into XP to do certain things, since Nero doesn't work for me, and some things are slow. The interface is really nice, though.

 

[jlbenedict]

Originally posted by: BroadbandGamer
I was going to dual boot Vista and XP but it looks like this isn't as simple as I thought it would be. Should I just wait until Vista comes out in January?

Thanks

Doesn't matter whether you install RC1 now.. or the RTM version.. Vista is going to dual boot the same with Windows XP. Its no harder than with any previous version of Windows. The major difference is Vista has a different boot environment.

Dual booting is simple; Install Vista last, and on a seperate partition, and everything will work right out of the box.

 

[postmortemIA]

it is worth trying, but it is not as stable as xp/2000 yet. I get lots of problems on laptop, for example sleep mode, video drivers, sound drivers, some netwroking issues, etc.

 

[ProviaFan]

You could always try dual booting, but for safety (due to the horror stories others have told), I keep XP x64 and Vista x64 on separate hard drives, and swap a SATA cable between them to change which OS is booted. This only works acceptably if you don't want to switch between them too frequently, of course.

 

[SynthDude2001]

I have RC1 x64 in a dual boot with my XP x64 installation, but I haven't even booted into my XP install in like a week and a half. I find it to be quite usable, and the problems are mostly minor...the main thing being that ATI's current RC1 drivers don't support OpenGL so you'll have to play those games in XP still (not the fault of Windows obviously, but it's still part of the experience). In the limited testing I've done (UT/UT2004/Tomb Raider Legend/3DMark06) it appears that Direct3D speed is virtually the same as XP (or even a bit faster), which was the main thing I was worried about before I installed RC1.

 

[QurazyQuisp]

I installed it two days ago, and just started really using RC1 today... I have a dual boot and it seems to work fine... I've only had one problem, and that was that when the computer goes to sleep it doesn't want to come out of it. So, I just disabled sleep and it seems to be working fine. All programs I've installed so far work.... Office 2007 is pretty sweet.

 

[bigdaddy51]

Lots of driver problems still with Vista. I'm thinking that Vista is ALOT like MCE2005 Where MS picked what hardware would be compatible and what wouldn't. I have a K8MSI and so far, I can't get RC1 to install, because Vista doesn't like the Nic controller (it's Nvidia) It did install on my K7 Delta and even hooked right to the net. I'm upgrading the NF2 with a real good Video card and a gig of ram for now. Sadly, Vista gave both Systemworks2006 and System Mech6 the big raspberry. Note that Trend Micro is giving a 90 dau free trial of thier "Vista Ready" software. Anyone else starting to feel like a cow at suppertime?I've read a TON of Vista posts ,and also checked out the systems that seem to have no problem installing Vista.I also noted that Newegg lists SOME video cards as "Vista Ready" on one name brand, while another card of identical specs, don't carry that sign. It also seems that the PC industry itself, is in a BIG hurry to make last years hardware obsolete.3200 ddr memory is a prime example, as the price for this has really jumped in the last month or so, the newer ddr2 is as cheap or cheaper in some cases. Thank god I kept the MSI Delta stashed for a back up box.

 

[dukdukgoos]

I'm usually a super early adopter, but my take is that Vista's not really worth it yet, if ever. Windows has always been great in terms of out of the box driver support, but Vista just isn't there. My sound card and most of my USB peripherals don't work with Vista yet. I think we may have to wait a year or so for Vista to be supported fully, and some older peripherals may never be.

Plus, Vista's features just aren't that compelling. It has a lot of annoyances for experienced Windows users... definitely seems to be geared for newbies, at the expense of seasoned users. Take a look at this article.

Until DX10 becomes essential for high-end gaming, Vista's not really that exciting.

 

[bigdaddy51]

Kind of makes you wonder how long they will support XP, once Vista hits the shelves. I'm sure there will be a BIG hurry to get DX10 out there.

 

[bwatson283]

i want to play around with it and see all the stuff. I downloaded one and ordered 2 dvds

 

[clickynext]

If you want to see all the flashy new stuff (mainly the GUI) and play with it like a toy then it might be worth it because it works reasonably well in most ways.

If you actually want the OS for productivity, stick with XP or whatever you're using.

 

[halfadder]

I'm starting to use RC1 more and more. It's just as stable as XP for my use. And it's pretty close to finished anyway... RC1 = Release Candidate 1.

 

[Alex]

Originally posted by: BroadbandGamer
I was going to dual boot Vista and XP but it looks like this isn't as simple as I thought it would be. Should I just wait until Vista comes out in January?

Thanks

Hey, not sure what other people have been doing wrong or if they've just been unlucky or what but I installed Vista for the second time yesterday and I'm using it with no problems so for.

The first time I had WXP and WXP64-bit on dual boot and installed Vista for a triple boot with no problems.

Now I have WXP and Ubuntu linux in dual boot and again installed Vista for a triple boot setup with no problems*** well actually when i rebooted again i realized Vista had destroyed my boot sector and recreated it with only Vista and XP...

the solution??? I reinstalled Ubuntu again and it's bootloader fixed everything!

The first time around I used beta2 and now i'm testing out RC1 and its MUCH more polished and actually quite enjoyable to use. I'm still trying to figure out how to do stuff in it etc but its definitely worth it... it's gonna take some time for people to get used to it when it comes out and playing around with pre-release builds is an excellent way to get familiar with it and have a head-start when it actually matters!

Good luck!

 

[bigdaddy51]

I installed it on an old 900Duron rig with 512mbs of memory, a Gforce 440/64 video card and it went right on. Runs prettygood too, but the lack of ram is evident. Good way to make sure you don't screw up a good box. Building a 754 NF3 box, as a lot of people had no problem with that mb using Vista. Gonna buy a real good agp card, as I will get at least a year out of it, and by then Vista should install on anything you try to put it opn. I KNOW it's the network controller thats causing my install problems, but even just about totally shutting everything down in bios , the no boot problem remains. on my K8 Being less than 3 months away from Release, I'm wondering if Vista will be like XP when that was released. At that time ,XP wouldn't install on NF2 motherboards. I even tried to "trick" Vista by inbstalling it on one machine and seeing if it would boot when transferred, but even that was a no go. just the reboot loop.