Going from Vista to XP

BritBrat

erm why? BIOS deals with the hardware and not the OS

Well in our case the BIOS is set to use SATA drives but if you try and install XP there are no SATA drivers and it will fail.


You have to change the BIOS, install XP and install SATA drivers then I think you can change the BIOS back to SATA.

I have not installed it at the moment but did do some research on it, I have also intergrated the SATA drivers into a XP image, but not 100% sure it will work when I use it.

wolfman

NovaBlack wrote: »

Vista has so much crap installed (Aero desktop theme, and windows defender im looking at you). Even when you turn all that off , there is still around 500 mb of background processes running, that are hidden from the task manager (running covert) so cant be switched off.

Not entirely accurate. I use Vista via a virtual machine for developing applications. I have it running at 350mb usage, nearly as light as XP and didn't have to make too many changes.

The reason Vista uses up a lot of memory is because you have memory to spare (rather than it being sat there redundant). It's quite aggressive regarding caching, and pre-fetching data it thinks you'll use next. This can be good and bad.

If you're memory usage is at around 60-70% then that's ok. If you're getting nearer 90% then it can be a problem.

Defender is needed or similar anti-spyware software. And I personally like Aero. When I run Linux I use Compiz. My computer is capable of doing so, so why waste it's power and run the XP grey theme, when I can have something that looks nicer.

[quote=NovaBlack;7252891Essentially_that_means_around_half_a_gig_of_ram_gets_wasted_in_vista!._i_had_3gb_of_ram_on_xp,_went_to_Vista_and_effectively_only_gain_about_100_mb_in_extra_memory_after_i_deduct_all_the_automatically_used_stuff![/quote]

With 3gb RAM, you'll have no problems. I run Vista via 2gb typically without a single problem. I also run it on a laptop with 1.5gb RAM via a virtual machine (with only 900mb allocated) and it runs fine doing memory intensive development work and debugging.

NovaBlack wrote: »

Until the firsrt official service pack comes out then avoid Vista as long as you can.

Vista is fine now. If you have a Vista built pc, then you shouldn't have any problems. If you want to use older hardware such as a printer, so some older software, then maybe think before changing.

Apart from that it's very good. If you want to strip out all of the crap, google for vLite. It's just like nLite for XP, in that you can pre-select what you want included/configured when installing Vista.

Robin_T_Cox

If you're thinking of upgrading from Vista to XP, here's a review you may find interesting.

Microsoft has really outdone themselves in delivering a brand new operating system that really excels in all the areas where Vista was sub-optimal. From my testing, discussions with friends and colleagues, and a review of the material out there on the web there seems to be no doubt whatsoever that that upgrade to XP is well worth the money.

http://dotnet.org.za/codingsanity/archive/2007/12/14/review-windows-xp.aspx

digp

Very interesting indeed.

Noticed that consumer PCs are foisted with Vista but business PCs mainly come with XP Pro. Hmmmmmmmmmm.

GunJack

read that article with a constant smile on my face - well done to the writer for intelligently and comically catching the spirit of the thing. My experience of vista has been modest, but from the first few minutes I said to mrs GunJack how "flipping awful"* it was....if this is progress then I'm starting the "new luddite" club forthwith....

* please feel free to substitute any similarly-meaning phrase here, the worse your experience, the more offensive it can be, and believe me my original expression was not for the under-18's

nearlyrich

d123 wrote: »

At the moment, if you try and buy and buy a PC without Vista, there is a surcharge for XP.

That's not actually true, many vendors are supplying XP as an option and most have a downgrade path with drivers and utilities available online.

The problem is people going to incompetent suppliers who can't be bothered to find out what the user actually wants and offer suitable advice.:mad: