Windows Vista (retail) - anyone using yet?

Joshua Stubbles

For about 2 weeks now, many places have been selling the OEM versions (32 & 64bit) of Windows Vista Ultimate. I was wondering if anyone here is using it, and how driver/application compatibility is. I ran RC1 for a while, but that was some time ago.
I'm specifically interested in compatibility with some standard artist apps and drivers right now:

- Photoshop CS2/CS3
- 3ds Max 8/9
- Mudbox
- Modo201
- Wacom drivers
- Graphics card drivers (nvidia)

I want to switch relatively soon, but I wanted to get any feedback I can, before moving forward. I know that Creative still hasn't released Vista drivers for their sound cards yet.

Anyways, any info you guys had would be great. Thanks.

Hollowmind

http://us.creative.com/support/downloads...p;x=11&y=14

There's the Vista beta driver for Audigy cards right there.

I ran the beta of Vista for a while also, but didn't mess with it too much. The games I did play on it ran slower than under XP. Hopefully that'll change soon. I didn't have any trouble really finding at least beta drivers for any of my hardware then.

Joshua Stubbles

Ah damn, 2 weeks ago. No wonder I missed it!

From what I've heard, the final version of Vista's DX9 is supposed to run existing games faster than XP's DX9. So lets hope you only experienced beta issues.

Thanks, Hollowmind.

Asthane

If you haven't seen this yet, give it a good read. I'm not gonna touch it until I absolutely have to (and considering the fact that I don't care for most of the PC game market, that could be a while)

Motz

I've been testing it as an MSDN developer since te first Longhorn beta was released. I think Vista is the biggest mistake Microsoft could have ever made. They are making things more expensive and more restrictive for everyone. And as the above article states, the cost goes to us.

What they should have done in my opinion is created a shell system for xp. A dumbed down user interface system engineers could create/edit to reduce user error and restrict privs, because frankly thats all Vista is. It's pretty, but nothing you can't do with Stardock's line of eye candy toys for windows, and stardocks performance is much faster than any ridiculous non-productivity enhancing gadget I've used in Vista. Given the horrid restrictions this is going to create for software and hardware developers, I would be surprised if this is'nt investigated as some kind of monopoly ploy.

My prediction is that google will create the next OS masterpiece. Until then. Windows XP.

RazorBladder

So far everyone I know who uses it advise me not to, an alpha OS at best apparently

ebagg

I approach my new operating systems the same way I approach new consoles; wait a good long while after launch until the bugs are out.

Joshua Stubbles

I adopted XP when it launched, I loved it. I love the Vista beta as well.

My rig is fully HDCP compliant though, so I'm not worried about that (actually, I'll need a HDCP compliant monitor). I don't plan on running HD-DVD or BluRay on my PC anyways. I remember there being a lot of crap about XP. That MS was constantly monitoring your PC through XP's "backdoors" and all sorts of 'media restriction' crap. What happened to that? It never existed, that's what.

A lot of that article is white wash crap. They made these same grandiose accusations about XP, and it turned out just fine. Vista RC2 runs perfectly fine on my machine. It doesn't hog memory, it doesn't "eat up extra CPU cycles". It runs great. Unless they completely rewrote Vista in past the 4 months to add this insurmountable pile of apparent crap code, I think it will be just fine.

Tulkamir

Thank you Vassago, couldn't have put it any better. I remember when XP came out and I heard so much bad shit about it, about how MS was doing all these horrible things, etc...

Basically everything I heard was wrong. XP works great, and I have faith that when I get my hands of Vista it will be just as good.

sonic

Actually, I have a feeling most people who talk bad about it have only used the first builds. The latest build is awesome. It runs the same speed as XP and better in some places, has much better integrated apps, looks a hell of a lot better, and is stable as hell. I would definitely recommend the final OEM build.

Motz: have you even used Vista's new tools or features? Netmeeting? Office 2008 integration features?

flaagan

I plan on doing pretty much a whole 'home network upgrade' sometime around late summer (supposedly around the time my parents want to do a whole 'house design upgrade' ). At that point I'll probably be switching everything up to cat6 capabilities, and setting up a couple-terrabyte server so we can make the couple-hundred dvd's we own accessible to everyone in the house on any tv / computer. I'm going to keep an eye on MS' talkings about a media server for home, cause if it's any good I'll jump at that, and then just make all the pc's Vista. Hopefully I'll have less headache networking different versions of Vista than I'm having with XP... all the comps here (4 or 5 depending on when relatives visit) including the current file server are XP Home, and communicate fine; my laptop (which is my main workstation) is XP Pro, and doesn't seem to want to play along with the rest of the comps half the time, which makes using it to manage the network a royal pain at times. (In fact, any suggestions as to why this is would be greatly appreciated.)

Entity

Opengl performance using the ati beta drivers sucks pretty bad, so that rules out using silo or mudbox on vista

hawken

I got Vista up and running for a few days. We decided that XP was better for our windows machine and uninstalled it.

Not sure why, just felt wrong.

Hollowmind

I did like what I messed with in the Vista beta. I just didn't spend enough time with it to get a full feel for it. I still have it set-up in a dual-boot config on my old comp and plan on doing the same on my new comp. It does do searches much faster than xp. That'll be nice at my job if we switch to it since I'm constantly having to find artwork that's 5-14 years old. Not sure how I feel about the simplification of explorer but should be easier to teach using Vista to the Mac old-timers I work with. Vista asking your permission to install anything, even files you double-clicked on to install, got pretty annoying.

Anyways, that's all I can remember to comment on. I haven't messed with it for over a month now. I'd suggest if you have an extra partition on your hd or are planning on formatting and reinstalling XP anytime soon and want to try Vista to set it up as a dual-boot system.

Entity

control panel > user accounts > turn user account control off

almighty_gir

well... i guess this is admitting to theft, but i kinda purchased my xp ultimate disc from where i work yesterday, i won't regester until the 30th just to be safe haha, but it works fine

SO much faster than XP x64

on top of that, after my pc monitor suffered an unfortunate accident moving to my new place a few months ago (hence why i haven't been online). i have been using a 37" HDTV for my monitor, and source of all things computer entertaining. and vista has instant support for the right resolutions, even using the same driver as i was using on xp, which is weird o_O

this is how it looks.

MoP

That's a vile colour scheme

almighty_gir

you cah customise it to anything you like, i just haven't got round to it yet.

Hollowmind

Yeah that's the default scheme.

Here are a couple screenshots I took that don't show a whole lot about Vista actually. :P This was still the RC1 build though from a couple months ago.

This one shows the nice little preview window that pops up when you hover the mouse over things that are minimized to the status bar:
http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/7100/vistass1su4.jpg

This just shows the useless "3d" cascade view or whatever of all programs and windows you have open. It's one of the buttons in the quick launch area:
http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/3900/vistass2va0.jpg