Windows Vista

[Deleted User]

Anyone still using Vista? I've just recently installed Vista Enterprise on and old Fujitsu Esprimo ex-corporate machine I acquired for just a few pounds. It has a Pentium 4 651 3.4Ghz and it runs quite speedy!

Just need to upgrade the RAM from 1GB to 3GB by adding a couple of cheap sticks off eBay and jobs a good'un! :cool:

Firefox ESR and all Vista updates installed. Sweet.

SouthUKMan

Yes, very good but Microsoft finally ended support for Vista in April this year. This means that there will never be any further security patches or updates released by Microsoft for your operating system, which in turn means that you are opening yourself up to a whole new world of vulnerabilities.

On the one hand you could argue that after more than 10 years in existence, all possible security flaws would have been discovered in Vista (however this would be a foolish assumption). On the other hand though, if ever your computer falls victim to a virus and your bank account is emptied - the bank will not be very sympathetic to you as you will not have taken "all reasonable precautions" to protect yourself from such a malicious attack, and I doubt they will be held liable. It really isn't worth the risk in my opinion.

debitcardmayhem

You could possibly upgrade it to a more popular operating system e.g. Windows 8:eek:

[Deleted User]

I'll probably put Windows 7 on eventually but it still had the Vista product key sticker on the side of the machine.

forgotmyname

I used a win 7 serial off an old laptop to install and activate a new desktop system. MS have got a bit soft trying to get everyone onto windows 10.

Frozen_up_north

Deleted_User wrote: »

I'll probably put Windows 7 on eventually but it still had the Vista product key sticker on the side of the machine.

Windows 7 is already past mainstream support, see:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/13853/windows-lifecycle-fact-sheet

Basically consumer desktop installations of Windows 7 now only have security updates, not fixes for bugs, etc.

[Deleted User]

Windows 10 is just one big spyware.

esuhl

I'm running Windows 7 just fine. I even got rid of my antivirus (bloated monstrosities!) and paid for (*shudder*) MalwareBytes Premium.

I also dual-boot Arch Linux, which (despite needing the occasional bit of maintenance TLC) has rock-solid stability and super-fast performance. It's so much nicer to use than Windows.

On an old machine running Vista, where you're just using it as a basic workstation, I'd really suggest looking at some kind of GNU/Linux distro. It would perform better and be more secure.

Frozen_up_north

Deleted_User wrote: »

Windows 10 is just one big spyware.

And so is Win 7 and 8.

Spybot Antibeacon helps stop Windows phoning home:
https://www.safer-networking.org/spybot-anti-beacon/

[Deleted User]

Frozen_up_north wrote: »

And so is Win 7 and 8.

Spybot Antibeacon helps stop Windows phoning home:
https://www.safer-networking.org/spybot-anti-beacon/

Not nearly as bad as Windows 10 though. Plus Windows 10 is always trying to sell you something with all those tiles on the start menu.

RumRat

Deleted_User wrote: »

Not nearly as bad as Windows 10 though. Plus Windows 10 is always trying to sell you something with all those tiles on the start menu.

You don't need any tiles on the start menu. Even if you use some you don't have to have any 'trying to sell you something'.
If you have those problems, you aren't using it correctly.