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My Vista experience

G

gplracer

Golden Member
I have been holding off getting Vista because I have little issues with XP. The one main issue with XP is that it just gets worse over time. I thought Vista might do a better job at staying the same and things not breaking. Ony time will tell on that issue.

Things I like:
The interface, larger icons by default ona 24" monitor, setup, media center functions (did not have media center before), I found that Vista optimizes programs. They are faster a few days after install. Video encoding seems noticeably faster.

Things I do not like:
Slower- Things take longer to open (quicktime, MS Office 2003 and others), problems with the preview pane in MS Office 2003. I have to shut down Office and restart sometimes.

I would like to continue with Vista. It is the direction things are going and a good operating system. I would like to improve some of the things such as ms office and the slow starting of some programs. My system specs are below.
 
Glad to hear it's been a mostly positive experience. It's interesting how a lot of people who think Vista is garbage don't actually use it or give it enough time to really settle in. I agree with many of your points -- the larger icons, etc. I also got a chance to play with Media Center with Vista and it instantly compelled me to start building a MCE PC.

In terms of your office 2003 issues -- I've heard from several people that 2003 doesn't really play nice with Vista, especially Outlook and especially an Outlook install with multiple IMAP accounts. This might just be a random observation. But Office 2007, which I'm using, has been fabulous and virtually issue free. I'm not going to tell you to go out and buy Office 2007, but if it is in your spending pipeline, you might see more stability and less problems once you're up and running.

Quick question -- did you do a clean install or did you upgrade?
 
I did a clean install of Vista on a new hard drive. This is a 500gb WD drive. I still have my old install of Windows XP on the 80gig raptor which is in the case but not hooked up. What about the programs taking longer to open. With XP lots of programs were instantaneous when opening. Now there is a little bit of a lag.
 
Just an FYI...you will probably notice faster load times in a few weeks. Vista's prefetch program needs time to learn your habits in order to pre-load stuff into memory. Takes a few weeks. 🙂

Glad to hear you like it.
 
Originally posted by: blackangst1
Just an FYI...you will probably notice faster load times in a few weeks. Vista's prefetch program needs time to learn your habits in order to pre-load stuff into memory. Takes a few weeks. 🙂

Glad to hear you like it.
Click to expand...

I concur. Give Superfetch time to do it's thing. Take a look at the search indexer and worm your way into the advanced properties. Make sure that only folders you want searched are checked. Generally you shouldn't have to do anything here but some people might be throwing large files they don't want indexed into /documents or something. Also give time for the indexer to process your outlook contacts, emails, etc. Once you've installed everything and have the machine configured, the machine should pep up over time. After a few weeks the initial crunching will be over, the drives will have been defragged (shouldn't make much of a difference, though) and I suspect you'll start to see smoother load times.

 
Heh. Sometimes I hold down control and rock my mouse wheel up and down and pretend my desktop is BREATHING. WooooOooOOooOOooo.

😀
 
Originally posted by: gplracer
I have been holding off getting Vista because I have little issues with XP. The one main issue with XP is that it just gets worse over time. I thought Vista might do a better job at staying the same and things not breaking. Ony time will tell on that issue.
Click to expand...
Vista seems to get better the longer it has been installed.

Things I like:
The interface, larger icons by default ona 24" monitor, setup, media center functions (did not have media center before), I found that Vista optimizes programs. They are faster a few days after install. Video encoding seems noticeably faster.
Click to expand...

If you like the Icon thing, try this. Left click an empty spot on the desktop, hold the CTL key and (slowly) scroll the mousewheel. It's the easy way to adjust Icon size to your taste. For me, it was one of those small features that I liked.

Things I do not like:
Slower- Things take longer to open (quicktime, MS Office 2003 and others), problems with the preview pane in MS Office 2003. I have to shut down Office and restart sometimes.
Click to expand...
The good news is, the more you use office the quicker it should be over time. Your preview problem definately sounds like a PITA though. You may want to try uninstalling Office and reinstalling, then run all the patches. It sounds like something is wrong. It shouldn't be behaving any differently under Vista.

I would like to continue with Vista. It is the direction things are going and a good operating system. I would like to improve some of the things such as ms office and the slow starting of some programs. My system specs are below.
Click to expand...

Just do what you've been doing. Continue to use it. The more you use certain apps, the faster they will start to load as superfetch starts learning your usage patterns. Definately make sure office 2003 is fully patched.
My media center is speced lower than your PC. AMD 3800+ X2 processor, 2GB of RAM, 6600GT videoboard, standard SATA 150(not 300) hard drives. Word and Excel open in less than two seconds. Outlook in about 4 seconds. (It also an anti-virus plug in which slows it down) You should eventually see similar performance on those type of apps.


 
Originally posted by: Griffinhart
If you like the Icon thing, try this. Left click an empty spot on the desktop, hold the CTL key and (slowly) scroll the mousewheel. It's the easy way to adjust Icon size to your taste.
Click to expand...

Heh!

Actually, the zoom feature works everywhere! 😉

Try it on this post... 😀
 
Great suggestions guys. I really appreciate your comments. The icon thingy is cool Griffinhart. Thanks for the suggestion. How do i find the search indexer and worm to check the settings?

I checked and i have 48,126 items indexed
 
Just type index and press enter in the start menu. Indexing options. Then click Modify and then "show all locations" and you can check specific folders on and off.
 
I just check /Documents, my music folder and other places that contain data I want to be searchable.
 
I didnt like the large icons. Looked out of place. In fact I removed all icons from my desktop except the recycle bin.
 
Originally posted by: zorrt
I didnt like the large icons. Looked out of place. In fact I removed all icons from my desktop except the recycle bin.
Click to expand...

Hold down ctrl and use your mouse wheel to resize the desktop icons to whatever size you want.
 
Originally posted by: nerp
Heh. Sometimes I hold down control and rock my mouse wheel up and down and pretend my desktop is BREATHING. WooooOooOOooOOooo.

😀
Click to expand...

Hahhahaha 😀


 
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