windows vista and xp

[TonyM16]

Hi. I was going to get vista when it first came out, and as a result was keeping up to date on all the info. I however started playing wow around the same time, at some point and was no longer interested in any other game and didnt keep up to date on vista anymore.

I remeber back then vista was not very good for games, and nivida didnt even have a driver to use for it in dx9 let alone dx10 and that slj in vista was nothing but a pipe dream. How have things improved now? Is vista at the point now that it can replace xp for gaming? I have an intel core 2 duo pc adn two 8800gtx in sli , if tha helps with awnser to this.

I am thinking if creating a bual boot pc, so i can toggle between vista and xp as i am sure even if vista becomes a great gaiming platform that some older pieces of warez will not work right, I assume wow will have troubles as its a little old. Any one have any luck with tdual boot xp/vista yet, as i also remeber that being a bit hard back when i was reading up. people were saying it wasnt possible to do without serious errors and headaches.

I read a small guid just before posting here, it said you have install vista first and then create a partition through vista where you can install xp. It also said you have to do all these commands to make it work right. If you have done the dual boot is this how you done it?

Lastly, as the above method sounds a little complicated and prone to erros, i was thinking of using two hard drives instead so each hd has its own os. Will this work perfectley you think?i assume all i have to do is arrange the boot order through my bios to toggle between xp or vista, and that neither os will ever effect the other.

Thank you for your time and patience.

 

[Rebelius]

you're right about the dual-booting with 2 hard drives, it's really simple and works no problems. As an extra precaution, I unplugged the XP drive while installing vista and vice-versa.

I don't know about SLI, but I'm doing alright with DX8 & DX10 games on my 8800GT and WoW works fine

 

[badbob]

I'd keep using XP for now, faster for games, faster generally in use. I'd use a spare HD try out vista. You'll probably go back to XP within a couple of days.

 

[swinnie]

Unless you have a real need to go to Vista stick with XP. I will probably be Dual booting when SP1 comes out next year....but not entirely sure yet!

 

[Burnsy2023]

I'd keep using XP for now, faster for games, faster generally in use. I'd use a spare HD try out vista. You'll probably go back to XP within a couple of days.

I'd dispute all three of those assertations.

Burnsy

 

[Fire Wizard]

Hello TonyM16, when Windows Vista was first released their were a few problems with software, gamming etc however now that the support has got much better and Microsoft have released a few Reliability and Performance updates and the majority of the hardware and software out their now work absolutely find under Windows Vista. Their are still a few problems for example, slow transfer rates across networks, from one folder to another but this seems to be only affecting a few people and not the whole user base that is using Windows Vista. Though I believe this is set to be fixed in Service Pack 1 (Fiji) which is due out in the first quarter of next year.

Since there are a number of different versions of Windows Vista, you may not be completely sure on which one to purchase. Here is a great graph that compares all of the editions of Windows Vista with one another. The two you are most likely looking at are Windows Vista Home Premium and Ultimate. I have used both Windows Vista Home Premium and Ultimate and in my opinion, Ultimate is not worth the extra £50 over Home Premium.

Now you may be debating over either buying the 32-bit or the 64-bit edition of Windows Vista. If you have a processor that is capable of handling 64-bit instructions then their is no reason to go for the 32-bit edition. You won't see a massive performance increase going from a 32-bit to a 64-bit operating system as of yet since many programs have been written for 32-bit architectures. However this will be changing in the future because with 64bit being more recognized, more and more programs will be written under 64-bit architectures. When programs are released that are written specifically for 64-bit, you will then start to see a performance increase from 32-bit programs.

Many people think that the only advantage to a 64-bit Operating System at the moment is so that you can access more than 4GB of memory, this isn't entirely true and if you are interested in this then this article is fantastic and well worth reading.

Regarding the support for games within Windows Vista. In my opinion, it is now exactly the same as Windows XP, I notice no slowdowns what so ever. Now I understand that some people are still having a few problems but I believe these are very far and few between these days and I feel that some people tend to over exaggerate things a tad.

As for SLI support in Windows Vista, I believe it still isn’t quite up to scratch in Windows Vista compared to Windows XP however, I think its fair to say that Nvidia are currently working on improving this. The latest official driver that has been released by Nvida is version 163.75, which can be found here. Now please note this is the 64-bit version of the driver but im sure you will be purchasing the 64-bit version of Windows Vista anyway.

Referring to your Dual Booting question. Dual booting Windows XP along with Windows Vista does seem to be a pain in the backside , their doesn’t seem to be a definite guide out their that works 100 percent on all systems, which makes it that tad more complicated.

However, the rule of thumb is normally, if you are wanting to setup a dual booting system then install Windows XP first on either a separate partition and then followed by Windows Vista on a second partition or installing XP on one hard drive and then Vista on a second hard drive, either way, make sure you install Windows Vista after having installed Windows XP, this way Windows Vista automatically configures the boot menu for you. Once you have done this, once you boot the system up, you will then have a choice on either booting into Windows XP or Windows Vista.

I would agree with you that their have been many headaches with dual booting but I think the majority of the time this has been down to installing Windows Vista followed by Windows XP. When people have done this (For various reasons), they would have to either manually edit the boot menu by a series of commands or download an application tool such as VistaBootPro, EasyBCD etc and this is where the problems start arising sadly. Though if problems do start arising, all is not lost and you can normally, eventually get that special boot menu to appear.

So really, if you try to stick to installing Windows XP followed by Windows Vista, you shouldn't encounter any problems.

I'd keep using XP for now, faster for games, faster generally in use. I'd use a spare HD try out vista. You'll probably go back to XP within a couple of days.

Hey badbob, the assumptions that you have made there are very discouraging and are far from the truth in my opinion and doesn't really help TonyM16 out. Windows Vista when very first released had a few problems, no one can really deny that but now that Vista has been out for over 10 months now, the support is now much better and with the updates that Microsoft have also released, Windows Vista is a superb Operating System and most of the problems have now been resolved.

 

[swinnie]

Hey badbob, the assumptions that you have made there are very discouraging and are far from the truth in my opinion and doesn’t really help TonyM16 out. Windows Vista when very first released had a few problems, no one can really deny that but now that Vista has been out for over 10 months now and with the updates that Microsoft have been releasing, Windows Vista is a superb Operating System to use.

I tried it about 3 months after release and about 2/3 months ago...not on my system but a friends, he lent it to me.

I found it better but still not ready for me but am holding on for SP1 and then will try it again.

Personally I would stick with XP. But if it meets your usage needs etc....

 

[badbob]

Hey badbob, the assumptions that you have made there are very discouraging and are far from the truth in my opinion and doesn't really help TonyM16 out. Windows Vista when very first released had a few problems, no one can really deny that but now that Vista has been out for over 10 months now and with the updates that Microsoft have been releasing, Windows Vista is a superb Operating System to use and most people really like using it.

lol Vista fanboi alert! I installed Vista about 1 week ago. Copying over my LAN, and playing back music files caused stuttering - it was that slow. All firewalls on both PC's disabled, username/passwords the same, user rights etc. LAN copying was about 400 k/sec. 100mbps wired LAN. Works fine with both under XP, and fast.

Then copying from HD to HD (both internal) was much slower, felt like putting fist through the monitor.

 

[Fire Wizard]

lol Vista fanboi alert! I installed Vista about 1 week ago. Copying over my LAN, and playing back music files caused stuttering - it was that slow. All firewalls on both PC's disabled, username/passwords the same, user rights etc. LAN copying was about 400 k/sec. 100mbps wired LAN. Works fine with both under XP, and fast.

Then copying from HD to HD (both internal) was much slower, felt like putting fist through the monitor.

Hey badbob, unfortunately as you are experiencing, their are still a few problems within Windows Vista namely the slow transfer rates which only seems to be affecting part of the Vista user base, however I believe this issue will be fully fixed in Service Pack 1 (Fiji) which is due out early next year.

 

[Deleted member 64478]

I'd dispute all three of those assertations.

Burnsy

me too, now a happy vista x32 user 2gb ram.

 

[Skyboat]

I'd dispute all three of those assertations.

Burnsy

I wouldn't

Especially as if he's still playing WoW, it's not officially supported on Vista (yet) and in general XP will be better suited. And I also went back to XP after trying it out, Vista feels too shiny I don't see any real benefit from using it over XP atm

 

[Deleted member 64478]

I wouldn't

Especially as if he's still playing WoW, it's not officially supported on Vista (yet) and in general XP will be better suited. And I also went back to XP after trying it out, Vista feels too shiny I don't see any real benefit from using it over XP atm

Not on that spec in your sig you won't lol

 

[Skyboat]

Not on that spec in your sig you won't lol

I didn't even test games performance before you pounce again; besides, it didn't even feel sluggish at all as I thought it would. Basic usage-wise I felt it was too bloated and cluttered compared to my XP, but maybe that's just me.

 

[Burnsy2023]

I didn't even test games performance before you pounce again; besides, it didn't even feel sluggish at all as I thought it would. Basic usage-wise I felt it was too bloated and cluttered compared to my XP, but maybe that's just me.

How is it bloated and cluttered? Unfortuently, it's not just you, the misconception is widespread.

Vista feels too shiny I don't see any real benefit from using it over XP atm

Apart from WoW, is there any reason to stay on XP specifically for you?

Burnsy

 

[Columbo]

I've got a dual boot setup and for some reason I just keep booting to XP, and I dunno why..

 

[badbob]

Slow HD-HD transfers and abysmal LAN throughput.

 

[Skyboat]

How is it bloated and cluttered? Unfortuently, it's not just you, the misconception is widespread.



Apart from WoW, is there any reason to stay on XP specifically for you?

Burnsy

Ease-of-use, cleaner interface, more comfortable using it, the fact it's still tonnes more compatible if you aren't running the latest and greatest games or hardware, and I found the stricter administration confirmations a ROYAL PITA and the wireless support was poor (makes WZC seem good), not even Ubuntu was that nagging or annoying.

If we turn it on its head, is there any real reason to use Vista when XP runs, and still is, perfectly fine, and will be for a long while to come.

 

[Burnsy2023]

I've got a dual boot setup and for some reason I just keep booting to XP, and I dunno why..

I did that with Linux, because I couldn't be arsed at the time to learn how to things slightly differently or just get used to a different look and feel with all the querks that a different OS brings.

I was being lazy and it was no reflection on the OS. I think you might be similar

Burnsy

 

[Burnsy2023]

If we turn it on its head, is there any real reason to use Vista when XP runs, and still is, perfectly fine, and will be for a long while to come.

If we had all that mentality, the IT industry would be as innovative and successful as it is today. It's also who MS can't do the revolutionary things in terms of GUI design that they want to. Because people like you are adverse to change, in whatever form it takes. Whilst that is human nature to a point, it's also counter productive

Burnsy