Discussion on:

Installing Windows Vista: The good, the bad, and the ugly

Have you attempted to install Windows Vista on any of your machines? If so, how did your experience compare to the process described here? Did you hit any additional snags?

After having to deal with XP anything and then to upgrade to some other thing Microsoft puts out there
has to have a few rock missing or their elevator does not go to the top . . I have heard from people whom did the beta thing and erased it and went back to Windows 2000 Pro or went to Linux and said the heck with Windows ! ! Vista is the best thing that happened to Linux ( don't mind if I laugh do you )
hehehehe ( evil type laugh )

Vista is a beta and there is bound to be a few gotcha's, but I still haven't found a Linux distro that can do half of what Vista or even XP can do. To install Linux on my system I have to be satisfied with a lobotomy of half my hardware because Linux doesn't support them yet. MS is writing an OS to be used by the general public, they don't want to learn arcane commands to install software, they want to slip in the CD and answer a few questions. Linux may be fine in the office because it has OpenOffice and a browser and that is all that is necessary for most workers. The home user wants their system to be a part of their entertainment systems, watch movies, listen to music and play games. Are there any top tier games ported to run on Linux yet. Web designers want graphics power to develop their sites and there are only two platforms for that and Linux ain't one of them.

So if you are so devoted to your Linux, then don't slag something you obviously haven't tried and are probably to obtuse to understand.

RedHat 7 & 8, FC 3 - 5, Mandrake 9 - 10.x and Ubuntu have all been very easy Linux distros to install. Even for a Mac & Windows user like me. Win95 to Win98 to Win98 SE to XP were all pretty easy upgrades as well. However, upgrading to Vista on my laptop (Turion ML-30, WD 120 GB HDD, 1 GB RAM, 64 MB ATi x200) was anything but easy.

Granted, the screens posted in the article were all on my installation as well. It looked to be going OK, then it hit a lag wall. 4 hours later and I could click the new "start" button.

A couple of my colleagues had no problems upgrading their test boxes to Vista. So, it may just have been my installation. I'm not trying to slam Vista or MS by any means.

Once I get my tower up & running again, I'm going to try to install Vista on a partition (XP, Ubuntu & Vista; more than likely). Hopefully, I'll have better luck with that installation than I did on the laptop. *fingers crossed*

Thanks for the article Deb .

Don't install Windows Vista Beta on a partition of a machine you are using for any production activity. Vista (like Linux) grabs possession of things that don't belong to it and can make files on other partitions inaccessible.

I have already Installed Vista on a Partition as a Dual Boot setup, While a lot of my drivers wont load as predicted, I can still access all my files/folders on my computer, both in Vista and the original XP.

Thank you for the heads-up guys. Much appreciated.

Stay on the subject of the article, and, by the way, the term you were attempting to write/convey is "too" obtuse, not "to". Your typing skills or your semantics needs work. Reminds me of the Windows users that I support.
Oh, I rarely use *nix systems. I do support Macs and Windows (but don't use a Mac) but don't care for all the bells and whistles that Windows provides.

I have a dual-boot WinXP Pro SP2 / Mandriva 2006 LE System. I don't usually like to upgrade an OS unless I absolutley must, and that is when I can't find applications for the OS anymore after MS EOL's it (End of Life) and people start writing for nothing but the new OS. I am not set up or interested in beta testing OSs right now so I'll wait.

But it's nice to see articles on them as they go through testing, etc. and interesting to see what I might be using in the future. Thank you for the article.

A comment on Rndmacts post where it is quoted:

"Web designers want graphics power to develop their sites and there are only two platforms for that and Linux ain't one of them."

Actually, I can develop a web site in Linux well. Linux comes with Apache web server, perl, php, MySQL. All the necessities. And content management systems like Joomla, forums like phpBB, Simple Machines and vbForum (I forgot what it's called), coppermine, etc. all will work in Linux. Theoretically (though I haven't done this in linux yet), you can also easily develop Java Applications. The only thing that is difficult (but can be done, I'm told) is use ASP with the Apache server. There are ASP mods that you can compile into it, meaning you have to recompile the apache server I think. This is one reason I haven't done this, and use Windows XP's web server setup for development. It has ASP built-in.

However, I *DO* agree that developing graphics, and streaming video is not easy in Linux. I don't mind using GIMP, but it's rather hard to use compared to Corel Paint Shop Pro X. And I don't know of any movie editing/creating software in Linux that saves to .wmv format. There may be stuff to do this, I just haven't found time to look for it all and try it.

I just got Windows XP a couple years ago, I think it was. I was using Windows 98 SE. So it probably will be a long time before I get Vista. I have Stardock's Object Desktop and ObjectDock so I have bells and whistles if I want them already.

When installing the OSs, I haven't had too much trouble. I have two hard drives, one is on one drive (with a FAT-32 partition for storing files to be accessed by both OSs), and the Windows XP is on the main hard drive.

I do know that so far, with the versions of Windows I've installed, I learned you have to pretty much partition your hard drives the way you intend to use them first, and then install Windows. (or install Windows and use Norton's Partition Magic). Then after all that install Linux.

I'm assuming this is true for Vista as well?

Yes, I am also a dual booter, but use XP mainly for games, although I am hanging for a 64bit OS. Here in Aus I have found it impossible to get XP64, does not seem to have been released here ... Had my x64 for a bit now. But I like to wait as well before upgrades, been bitten to many times from rushed OS's.

As for movies on Linux, I use Kino. I dont like using WMV on web development, as Linux based browers cannot use it (unless you use Crossover). It may be a small audience still, but I dont like excluding them, and I find if it works in the Linux/Mozilla environment, it will work in Windows/IE no probs. I do miss on some of the reall pretty stuff, but I dont exclude any one, and that is the marketing aim of moving to a larger audience.

Rndmacts. I don't know your experiences with Linux. But I got myself a brand new System76 Gazelle Performance laptop which came with the latest version of the Ubuntu linux distro preloaded and with all due respect, this thing "just works" (even better than a Mac, which I did have), and everything (even the piece of junk router) works OOTB with my machine (no driver disk needed, linux had 'em all already), and I never needed to put in a linux command or even open the terminal emulator app once to get everything up and running. I can't say the same about my sister's "gaming rig" HP $PC, which I needed a load of diferent drivers to get everything up (including a FLOPPY DISK for the mobo drivers, in this days), and count 'em, +20 (yes, tuenty) boots into the recovery console (now if we talk about arcane command lines, this surelly beats any linux distro by far, at least you can surf the web off the linux CLI and find solutions and even download/upload stuff, not the same on the windows recovery console) which proved painfull and almost useless.

With all due respect, ANYONE who thinks Linux has reached a level where it can even SLIGHTLY be compared to Vista need to get outta their coffee stained star trek T-Shirts and realise that the anti microsoft campaign REALLY isn't going anywhere. What people dont seem to understand is that microsoft create new boundaries where other OS's simply try to keep up. Ubuntu is a great little OS for the nerd that wants to feel like he is 733t working on a Linux rig. It may be more stable YES i completely agree, but can it do 10% of what Vista can? Are as many types of hardware/software supported? Answer = NO.

In a nutshell ladies and gentlemen, WAKE UP!

Danny - UK - A+,NETWORK+,CCNA,MCSE,CCA

With all due respect, ANYONE who thinks Linux has reached a level where it can even SLIGHTLY be compared to Vista need to get outta their coffee stained star trek T-Shirts and realise that the anti microsoft campaign REALLY isn't going anywhere. What people dont seem to understand is that microsoft create new boundaries where other OS's simply try to keep up. Ubuntu is a great little OS for the nerd that wants to feel like he is 733t working on a Linux rig. It may be more stable YES i completely agree, but can it do 10% of what Vista can? Are as many types of hardware/software supported? Answer = NO.

In a nutshell ladies and gentlemen, WAKE UP!

Danny - UK - A+,NETWORK+,CCNA,MCSE,CCA

Not brave enough to upgrade and so did the next best thing to install Vista in VPC. Succeeded only on third try. Gave it 700MB and the lag is more tolerable. Found that there was no audio output but when I checked the settings, the sound had been enabled. Anyone can offer some advice to resolve this sound issue? Thanks!

From one of the links in the article:

Enabling Sound in a Windows Vista Guest
VMware GSX Server: The sound device is disabled by default and must be enabled with the virtual machine settings editor (VM > Settings) after the operating system has been installed. To set up the virtual machine to play sound, see Configuring Sound in the GSX Server documentation.

Host machine: WinXP Pro, 2.4GHz, 1.5GB RAM, 64MB Intel video card (std. one off the motherboard).

Virtual machine: Received 768MB of RAM, and 16GB harddisk space.

Install took 9 hours just for the first step of Copying Files...I don't know how much longer it took after that because I had to go home. The next morning I logged into Vista. I -loved- that the install had -very- minimal questions (not like every other installation of Windows that stops installation every 2 minutes to ask you a new question).

Upon logging in (which took 15 minutes on its own), I discovered that the machine's CPU was pegged at 100%. It stayed this way pretty much the entire day, even though I was trying my best to disable just about every service on the machine. Some have said it's related to Windows Update, Windows Defender, etc, etc. I disabled them all. Near the end of the day I got the CPU down to 20-50%...somewhat reasonable. For some reason Task Manager -always- takes 20-50% of the CPU in Vista (on a Virtual Machine)...Task Manager on my host machine usually takes between 3-9%...so I don't know what's going on there.

Other than some cosmetic changes, and the world's most annoying feature (User Access Settings dialog box that, after -every- click on anything that has to do with the way Windows operates (Control Panel, Windows Update, etc.) greys out the entire screen, and says, "hey, you just clicked on this, but are you really sure you want to do that?!?") I don't see much to write home about...yet.

I'm thinking, that just like I did with Windows 95, and 98, and XP...that I'll probably hold off until after the first or second major service pack until I even come close to considering an upgrade.

The preview was nice, though...I know I'll have to support it even before I start using it myself. *sigh*

--Andrew

I used to think this way and invariably, you will be going to the new OS so why not just hop on-board now? Everyone wants to wait, and I'm not saying be on the bleeding edge, but everyone should be aware of the general layout of the OS. Personally, I don't like it, yet...but what can I do about it? I could very easily use XP for the next 5 years and then be behind the learning curve with Vista and any new technologies out at the time.
Also, everyone wants to wait for the first service pack, this is becoming a real joke too. Heck, they are releasing fixes now for Vista while it is still in beta. Microsoft knows a lot of people wait for the first SP, they'll just push it out very quickly so that people don't feel like the early adopters any longer and have a false sense of security in a "patched" system. That's when sales can take another bump up for MS. I think it might be time to buy some M$ stock and hold on for the next 12-18 months.
Jake

Why WAIT? Simple. I'm happy with my new Linux laptop, and I won't waste it by installing Windoze Waste on it, and no, I'm not going to use it on my computer. NEVER. And I got a shotgun here in my house, b/c if one of those mindless creeps from M$ shows up in my door I'm going to waste it/them.

I've tried 3 times, but still no Vista! Installation on a new (spare) drive was quick after I replaced my MS Keyboard and Mouse (USB) with older PS2 types. I got to do a little exploring following installation, but ran into a lot of problems when I tried to enable features. Aero turned on blew up all three installs. Media Center - Did not recognize my AIW 2006 tuner. Even with new ATI drivers, I could not get beyond basic graphics. 32 and 64 bit installs had the same issues following installation.
Has anyone had success loading Vista using a USB keyboard/mouse setup? or AIW video card?

I had similar problems after installing Beta2. My SFF PC would go to a BSOD after a few minutes. It would reboot so quickly I could only read the screen for a few second which was apparently related to ATI drivers. After the last release candidate (#?) from last week my ATI graphics cards and Logitech USB/wireless keyboard/mouse work fine. Much better results overall. As far as interface goes, not much reason to upgrade. I will keep playing and see how it goes.

I installed Windows Vista on a slightly outdated machine. There was no driver support for my reasonably new NIC nor for my one-year old video card. Also, no support for my four year old mainboard PCI bus (highly escusable). With some new hardware, Vista installation was pretty standard (nothing to rave about good or bad).

THE BETA: A lot of people on the Beta discussion board were having network problems and sound problems. The search dialogue was like a safety pin with 50 moving parts. The file encryption feature was handy, but not very useful to the average home user. The Unix-like file permissions was aggravating and will (I predict) spell the demise of Vista for home users.

MS HARDLINERS: The discussion board was dominated by Microsoft MVP's (translate that "Redmond Groupies"). You could not offer any constructive criticism about Vista without the whole pack of wolves jumping down your back (there is obviously an MVP on the main thread here). These Gates-ites become vicious, venomous and vitriolic if anyone dares say an unfavorable word about Vista. Congratulations to them for making more Microsoft enemies than ever before.

Hi john. I understand your pain about the M$ Zombies.. errr MVP's. I know this b/c in my college there are lots of those creeps. In fact there are so much of them around the campus that I took CR and a BFG10k and stored 'em in my dorm. And whenever I need to leave the dorm I take both of 'em with me (the policy here is never leave your turf without those two things or you're dead).

P.D: CR and BFG10k are local gaming terms and means:
CR = Christina Ricci (yes, the actress)
BFG10k = BIG and F*KING GUN 10k (the GUAKE II MASSIVE GUN).
The former keeps the creeps from making you one of them (like resident evil zombies do when they bite ya). And the latter wastes the suckers.

The upgrade from Windows XP to Vista took forever. I've upgraded NT servers to Windows 2003 that took less time (even with the interim move to server 2000). The interface isn't difficult to learn, though you may have to search for a few things that aren't where your used to finding them in any flavor of Windows thus far. We set up a fresh install of Vista beta at the office, and it set up alot easier. I understand that this is a beta version, but I did run into a few snags after the install. First and foremost, Symantec 10.0 craps out. You'll need to get an upgraded version from Symantec, they won't let you download it without your serial number, so have it handy. There are a few drivers that may need to be tweaked, my ATI card needed a little work. If you have users under XP, expect one or two bumps related to permissions. My list of users at home had BMP's next to their name, they were all lost. Other than the upgrade being slow, and those few snags, the install was successful. I'd rate the process a step above most Linux installs, but below many of the new Linux flavors, especially Mandrake (Mandriva). The only snag I've encountered with Mandriva this year was the wireless card on my laptop. Mandriva on a seperate partition from the Vista upgrade described above found everything, and runs better. Needless to say, at home, we're back to XP. At work, the Vista test box is still running.

Seems I'm the only one who has had great luck with the install. (Dell 620 laptop) Didn't have a long install, about normal for most OS's. Didn't make a quad boot machine. Didn't use a VM setup. The video, Wifi (dell) and high definition sound card drivers were included in the last release, so I didn't have the driver problems people mention. (I did in Beta1 and loaded the XP drivers) Added Trendmicro 14, which is my favorite AV anyway, without problem. Did the bit encrytpion with USB key, (something you have, something you know) works without problem.

People, this is a BETA, it won't have all your drivers, it won't have a finished help or user interface. Anybody notice 1/2 the help files are missing? Beta's never are complete, that's why there called BETA not final release. I am not an OS bigot, and find problems with EVERY OS, that's my job. SO if you can't stand problems, don't do Betas!

I replaced the hard drive in my laptop (HP) and installed a new installation. I am running Office 2007 beta 2 and all of the standard software that ran previously. So far almost everything works properly, even programs that are not supposed to such as Acrobat 3D. I did have problems with Photo Shop Elements 4.0 and uninstalled it and put in Digital Image Suite 10. I was told that your drive (entire drive) should be formatted NTFS or you can have problems accessing files on the other partitions.

every thing went as the article until an error occured while installing upgrade.Error occured while upgrading windows after about 21%upgrade.The setup tp the next stage was aborted.