Windows Vista: Is it worse than we thought?

I have not made any secret of the fact that I am afraid of Windows Vista. Tomorrow Vista hits shelves and I an dreading the rush of calls from people who don't read our website and newsletter.

Here is a short list of what I know about Windows Vista so far.

Please use the link at the bottom to email this article to anyone you know who may be considering the move to Vista who doesn't read our website and newsletter.

PROS (If you can call them that):

• Vista is prettier
• Better security - but not necessarily more secure than Windows XP running updated security software.
• It's prettier
• Has more fluff, bells and whistles
• And, it's prettier

CONS:

• Don't bother running Vista on a machine with less than 1 gig of RAM and a dedicated 128MB video card. For best results your computer should have 2 gigs of RAM and a 256MB video card.
• No clean installs will be allowed form the upgrade disk. This means that you can only upgrade with an upgrade disk. Previous versions have let you install from scratch with an upgrade disk and you would only have to insert an older version disk at a certain point of the install to prove you owned it.
• Vista won't upgrade from Windows 98. Only Windows XP and 2000.
• There are six general versions of Vista available in the US and even more if you count special custom versions that Microsoft is building for markets outside the US. In case you are wondering those versions are: Starter Edition (not available in US), Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, Small Business, Enterprise, and Ultimate. Which version is right for you?
• If you send faxes from your computer you will need to buy one of the Business editions or Ultimate edition.
• Dial-up users can expect a mess of new problems when trying to connect to the Internet. It will work, but it may not work smoothly.
• Still confused? This handy chart should make it all clear as mud .

Problems I expect to see very soon:

I am only about 13 percent psychic, but here are a few of the problems that I expect to see with Windows Vista very soon.

While attempting to upgrade the process will lock up and the install will get corrupted. In order to finish the job the user will have to reformat, re-install Windows XP them upgrade it to Vista. If the problem was caused by a program that came on the computer and the reformat was done using a restore disk then the process may have to be attempted more than once before the offending program is discovered.

Many people will find it is easier to buy a new copy of Windows XP so that they can use their upgrade disk. Don't bother trying to borrow a neighbor's disk to do the upgrade. The Vista upgrade can only upgrade a validated version of XP.

Scanners and some older hardware will not be compatible.

Some users of AOL or similar Internet services will have problems connecting via dial-up and tech support will not be able to help.

Why do I expect these problems? Because they are the same problems we see every time Microsoft releases a new versions of Windows. Only the list of possible problems with Vista is much longer.

A few tips to help you, should you decide to do it:

The safest way to get Vista up and running it to buy a new computer with it already installed, but make sure it has the Home Premium edition on it as well as the other specs mentioned at the top of this article.

If you want to upgrade, don't buy the upgrade disk, but the full version or the OEM version, erase the hard drive and install everything from scratch.

Put it off as long as possible. No version of Windows has ever run smoothly the first year of its release. Buying into Vista now is like signing up for experimental medical treatment. The side effects are unknown and the benefits are minor.

Don't buy a budget system:

I read the ads this Sunday and there are some new Vista systems for under $500, but they are way underpowered and the need to upgrade will be immediate. I predicted that the price of computers would go up about $300 when Vista comes out. Was I wrong? let's to the math...

For $600 or less you get a system with 512MB RAM, 128MB shared video memory and Windows Vista Home Basic (a version of Vista that shouldn't even be a version since it has about 1/5 of the features in the other versions).

In order to run Vista smoothly, you will need to add at least one gigabyte of RAM. Most systems are now using DDR2 which runs about $150 for 1 gig. Don't add less than 1 gig to a system with 512MB.

That 128MB of shared RAM won't be hefty enough to run the pretty features of Windows Vista so you will need to add a 256MB dedicated video card, Those run $100 or more.

Windows Vista Home Basic is extremely limited in that it does not support many of the features that make Vista even slightly worth the upgrade, it also is lacking many of the features that XP Home has. If you do digital photography, watch movies, use an MP3player, run your computer on a network or play the occasional game, then you will want to upgrade to Vista Home Premium soon. That will run $150 for the upgrade version and $199 for the full version - which we recommend to avoid problems.

Hmmm... What do you know, it looks like a system that would have run XP Home just fine, now costs about $300 more to run Vista smoothly.

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