Quirks and Tips For Upgrading To Vista

jcatcw writes "Computerworld's Scot Finnie has some advice for those considering an upgrade to Vista. He praises the work Microsoft has done on the installation program, but thinks it still presents problems for those who wish to upgrade. He recommends the free Windows Vista Upgrade Adviser. Then, be sure to pick the best edition for your use." From the article: "Don't bother wiping your hard disk. Just run the in-place upgrade from your previous installation. You'll be given the option to perform either an Upgrade or Custom (advanced) installation. Opt for the Custom install to clean-install Vista, and Windows Vista Setup does something smart: It creates a folder called Windows.old in your root directory that contains your old Documents and Settings, Program Files and Windows folders. (Note that on my test machine, this added step used an additional 7GB of disk storage.)"

Comments

Why install Vista?

[Anonymous Coward]

why would anyone disable a perfectly good computer?

Upgrade advisor

[mastershake_phd]

The upgrade adviser requires .NET to download both .NET and the upgrade adviser is about 28 MB. Twice the size of a Windows 3.1 install just to scan your hardware and tell you if its up to spec.

my EUR 0.02:

[nietsch]

download.ubuntu.org
Maybe you could get some spare change for that piece of paper with a holy number on it if you sell it on ebay.

In one word

[Anonymous Coward]

Advice for those considering upgrading to Vista: DON'T!

You'll get it soon enough with a new machine. Why put yourself through hell now?

Re:Excuse me

[TheMeuge]

Don't bother wiping your hard disk. You'll have to do it a few days after installing Vista anyway.

Print version

[PIPBoy3000]

Here's the relatively ad-free all-in-one-page print version.

Quick Tip: Wait?

[digitaldc]

Some Vista Vs. XP info:
http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/01/29/xp-vs-vista /page11.html#conclusion_ko_for_windows_vista

"Overall, applications performed as expected, or executed slightly slower than under Windows XP."

Not this time

[dnoyeb]

I have a strong feeling I will never upgrade to windows Vista. Only thing I need windows for is playing Eve-online. If they force me, i will let them know their game is costing me $200+ which will piss me off.

I can't believe 'home' editions can not fax or scan. must be a misprint. Surely since MS is trying to be all 'lifestyles' like everyone else these days. and scan is no different from camera.

Re:Not this time

[gEvil (beta)]

I can't believe 'home' editions can not fax or scan. must be a misprint. Surely since MS is trying to be all 'lifestyles' like everyone else these days. and scan is no different from camera.

I'm assuming they're referring to using the built-in Windows Image Acquisition service for scanning and whatever the appropriate fax service is. In which case, I won't miss it. Chances are your scanner or fax/modem has drivers and/or software which handles all of this without using the less-functional built-in Windows abilities...

abridged version

[nuzak]

"Don't bother

Works for me

I recommend...

[Steve--Balllmer]

buying the most expensive, costliest version there is. In fact, buy 2 or 3. Vista is just that good. Regards, Steve Bal... uh I mean, Eve Kalmer (damn... forgot to log in as AC.)

Quick!

[jeevesbond]

Tag this 'slownewsday'

What is this pro-Microsoft peice doing on Slashdot?! There's nothing slamming Vista, nothing on DRM, there isn't even a flying chair or mention of upgrading to Ubuntu instead. I'm disgusted!

From the artice:

I tested Microsoft's way of handling that exact situation, and it works fine.

What?! 'Works fine', isn't this sort of language explicitly disallowed by the Slashdot terms of service? I also did a search of the article and there's not a single instance of the string: 'Linux'.

Downgrade Advisor

[Anonymous Coward]

I need a downgrade advisor. Like most of America, I do not need 80% of the functionality of Vista, but I do need its enhanced reliability.

How can I uninstall 80% of Vista after I have installed it on my 128-megabyte Pentium-II system?

I am 63 years young, and I use my computer only for e-mail and Yahoo! chat.

Re:Downgrade Advisor

[Yoooder]

If you are serious that you only use your computer for chat and email, then you _really_ should consider Ubuntu Linux. At least give it a try from the CD (you don't need to even touch your harddrive contents until you decide that you really want to install it). Booting from the CD gives you the entire OS, you can add/remove applications and use it like a normal OS. The only downside is running from a CD is inheritly slow--but seriously, save yourself several hundreds of dollars (or even into the thousand+ range considering hardware upgrades/office 2007) and give it a whirl.

Re:Downgrade Advisor

[COMON$]

must be a hundred posts exactly like yours a day. Let me simplify the argument so you don't start one again.

I don't know why people use (insert distro here) I use (insert distro here) and it works great for anyone because (insert distro here) is so easy to use why would anyone use anything else?

To which you will get flaming littleman replies and people will hurl insults left and right as if you insulted their mom.

This argument is carried on with Chevy vs Ford, Catholics vs Protestant, Athiest vs Gnostic, Crunchy vs smooth peanut butter and on and on.

People have opinions, they like to stick to them like a religion, get used to it.

Re:Downgrade Advisor

[VertigoAce]

It's funny that you should mention this, since Vista includes a new Reliability Monitor that helps you visualize the reliability of your system. It keeps track of the success/failure of installs, application crashes, hardware problems, and Windows crashes.

For example, my computer has not had any serious reliability issues since Vista RTM was installed in mid-January. Furthermore, the application crashes includes programs you write yourself, so developers will have to pay more attention to the details than the chart.

This combined with a few other diagnostic improvements should make it easier to help family and friends that complain of computer problems but can't describe what is happening.

Re:Downgrade Advisor

[cheater512]

How do you know the Reliability Monitor is reliable?

Re:Downgrade Advisor

[seaturnip]

You use the Reliability Monitor Monitor, of course.

On the other hand

[Z00L00K]

By doing a clean install of an operating system you will get rid of all junk files and junk data that tends to accumulate over time and degrade the performance of the system.

Personally I allocate a partition that's purely dedicated to operating system and software. So in case the OS does a real *uck-up* I won't lose all data and I only have to re-install. The only thing that I'm annoyed with is the "Documents and Settings" directory that is allocated on the OS partition, and I really would like to have the option of reallocating that beast to a different partition.

But of course - you can do it the M$ way and allocate everything in a huge partition and when shit happens you aren't up shit creek, you are up the mother of all shit rivers instead...

A yearly re-installation of Windows seems to be the frequency for me to keep things stable and performing.

Be careful with in-place upgrade

[duffbeer703]

While alot of things get moved to Windows.old, other things don't. Make sure you backup your stuff!

For example, Firefox bookmarks in are stored an application data folder, which doesn't get moved.

Re:Be careful with in-place upgrade

[hawaiian717]

So it's like Mac OS X's Archive and Install, which we've had since 2002, except it doesn't work as well?

Re:Be careful with in-place upgrade

[crabpeople]

FUD or ignorance. It moves everything from my documents, program files and %systemroot% into windows.old. This includes "C:\Windows.old\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\default.v4c" which is where your bookmarks are stored. I didnt even have to reinstall any plugins. You do have to copy the folder manually, but your post makes it sound like windows just deletes it which it assuredly does not.

some people have to bother

[crabpeople]

This seems to be the popular sentiment, but you will have to eventually. The CIO of my company decides to install vista on his machine. I am responsible for backing up, virus scanning, etc. I took a look at vista and was completely lost. At that moment I knew that if I didnt want to play the fool, I'd better learn this shit. Its an alien feeling to me to sit infront of a machine at work and not instantly know how to do everything. I didn't like that feeling.

I didnt do anything crazy like install it at home (2k 4ever), but I did install it on my main work pc. To tell you the truth, aside from the fact that there are no drivers and many programs no longer work, its not that different from xp. You have to turn all the crap off, change the folders back to classic, etc. After that it pretty much operates like winxp and win2k. Is it worth upgrading a working XP copy? Hell no! Is it worth learning about so that your comfortable? Hell yes.

If you had asked me a month ago if I planned to move to vista I would have laughed circles around you. Well m$ wins again i suppose. Its not all bad though. I rather enjoy "windows mail" the OE replacement. They have moved away from database based (pst/dbx) mail stores and now just dump raw EML files in directories (THANK YOU!!). Its also quite a bit faster than oe and sending and recieving mail. Infact if there was a standalone version, I would probably consider running it on my home machine. It even has a calander so I could finaly move people away from outlook. There is no way we would deploy it across the organization, but its nice to know in 5 years we wont have to have outlook on the machines.

If you fix computers, you will have to learn it eventually. Theres no use delaying the inevitable.

Can we tag as "appledidit"?

[Kadin2048]

I figured this was just here, because it's been a feature of Mac OS in virtually every version since 10.2, released 2002 IIRC.

It's called "Archive and Install," and it did exactly what's being described. It moved the old system into a folder and then installed a fresh copy on the root level of the HD.

To be honest, I'm rather surprised if this is the first time Windows has offered such a feature. Given the seeming regularity with which Windows seems to like being reinstalled it seems like a no-brainer. How many focus groups did it take them to come up with this?

Is Windows ready for the desktop?

[the_womble]

Do you really expect grannys(or Joe sixpack/whatever we are calling typical users this week) to be able to cope with this. How can they cope with picking from mutiple versions (the comparison grid in the article has 27 rows!), downloading software to check that there hardware is compatible and then the install itself.

After all this (again according to the article), they may find that the Windows XP software they buy (or already have) will not work on it. They just want to be able to go to a shop, buy software, and know it will work.

Windows is find for geeks who know it, but the average users is better off with something that works out of the box like MacOS or Ubuntu.

My Xperience

[Avatar8]

I just bought a new gaming system a few weeks ago and it arrived last week. I thought I'd give Vista a try.

Specs: Core 2 Duo E6300, 2GB RAM, dual nVidia 8800 GTS 320Mb in SLI config, Seagate 320GB perpendicular storage SATA HD, ASUS P5N32 SLI mobo.

Installation was the best part. It asked a few questions and took off. I came back 30 minutes later to the sign-on screen. It went downhill from there.

I downloaded Vista updates (don't think there were many) which required a reboot. No big deal; reboot is rather quick ( Since I couldn't right click on the desktop to get my display settings, I dug into Control Panel. Looked for Display. Looked for Graphics. Aha, nVidia control panel. Interesting that it installed that. I wanted to extend my desktop to my second monitor. Only the single monitor choice was given. Checked device manager. Both graphics cards detected, but only one monitor. Checked 3D settings. It recognized my PC was SLI capable and recommended enabling it. Sure. "Accept or deny?" Accept. Reboot.

Back into control panel, nVidia panel. Still only one monitor choice even though I see both monitors now listed. I downloaded the 53Mb nVidia driver file. "Accept or deny?" Accept. (Crap, that Mac commercial is 100% true.) I'm on 15Mb fiber. Throughput was only 400KB/s and took this about five minutes. Installed, reboot.

Back into the panels. Still only sees one monitor. THAT'S IT!!! I'm done.

Out comes the XP Pro CD. Wipe the disk. Install.

I downloaded all 67 updates in less than 2 mins. Installed in about 7 mins.

Downloaded nVidia 53Mb driver at 1.7MB/s in less than 30secs. Installed. Reboot.

Right click, properties, settings, extend. Viola! Two 19" LCD monitors working together.

Downloaded Serive Pack 2 in one minute and installed in about 10 minutes.

No mas Vista. Estupido!

Re:My Xperience

[GISGEOLOGYGEEK]

That's hilarious. Troll much? what a crock o shit.

I had troubles installing vista (i posted above if you care) I know it can be a hastle, but you are so full of shit. ... I had absolutely no problem getting my dual monitors to work.

If the UAC system annoys you too much, especially when you've got lots of setup to do ... then TURN IT OFF! ... and turn it back on later when you're just running programs. It's no big deal. You know damn well that the accept / deny's don't happen nearly as often as in the misleading mac commercials.

With Vista, My download speeds are close to theoretical maximum for my connection. I'm getting 1000 to 1100 KB/s out of a possible 1200 KB/s on Shaw Extreme (Vancouver Canada). On the same hardware and connection with Windows XP I never saw over 300 KB/s. I have no clue why.

You're really just a troll aren't you? there's no way you could get XP upto SP2 with all patches in 20 minutes. I dont care what your download speed is ... You'd spend longer than that just on reboots.

So either you're a damn bullshitting troll ... or you really got sucked in to all the anti-vista crap and gave up on the first sign of having to think.

Way to go!