XP or Vista for new PC?

[lawrywild]

Vista every time. x64 is the way to go

[dangel]

For a new PC - Vista for sure.

If you find explorer slow and clunky then check out Directory Opus (see my sig) as it's an absolute godsend (and you can trial it for 60days for nowt) on Windows.

As others have said, keep UAC on - you won't really see it for day to day stuff anyway and it does offer significant security benefits. For all the fuss over Vista by some (the press included) a heck of a lot of us have been quietly enjoying it for a long long time now.

You'll most likely install it and then wonder what all the fuss was about

[Bugbait]

leave UAC on its not that annoying dispite what everyone says.
file handling is very slow in vista. when you have quite a few programs open sometimes it becomes so slow you cant even move the mouse. then suddenly it works fine.

Have you tried disabling the indexing? Unless you frequently preform a lot of searches this can significantly speed up the "everyday" usage of Vista. I get the feeling Vista indexes whenever it feels it needs to, instead of only during idle periods.

[dangel]

You can configure what vista indexes in the control panel - indexing everything will of course result in a bit of disk churn. I just use it for a few things (like the start menu) and it doesn't seem to affect any of my systems.

[2Cold Scorpio]

For a new PC - Vista for sure.

If you find explorer slow and clunky then check out Directory Opus (see my sig) as it's an absolute godsend (and you can trial it for 60days for nowt) on Windows.

As others have said, keep UAC on - you won't really see it for day to day stuff anyway and it does offer significant security benefits. For all the fuss over Vista by some (the press included) a heck of a lot of us have been quietly enjoying it for a long long time now.

You'll most likely install it and then wonder what all the fuss was about

If the UAC prompts do annoy you, though (as they did me) you can use TweakUAC to put UAC into Silent Mode, which keeps UAC on (meaning you get all the other benefits), but suppresses the Admin elevation prompts (of course, this only works if you're using an Admin account). This is what I did, and its a godsend. And I get to keep the rest of UAC's security benefits.

[fred1979]

I tried vista for a month or so a while back and it irritated the life of me.. everything from the way it searches files to the fact some of my programs didn't work.. in the end i went back to xp


however after having to use it for a a few weaks again i actually wont go back to xp.. apart from a couple of programs which are not being supported anymore and dont work on vista (like a perfect free program called switch off 2.3 or my 5 button mouse software which means i cant program the buttons) and another annoying thing which i will mention, vista looks very nice and ive personalised it make it more familiar with xp. it runs very effieciently too

one thing that bugs the hell out of me is the way vista explorer windows operate.. everytime i go into folders it displays files differently. It never remembers the way i prefer to view my files (eg medium icons) and doesnt set the same view for all the folders in th computer. i also cant get the icons to be the same size as in xp! Also if you have many subfolders in one folder under medium icons, its difficult to drag your mouse to select many folders, what happens is that it drags a single folder as if you want to move around that one folder. Wish there was a solution for that

apart from that i am very much getting used to vista and starting to like it

so give it a chance and u may like it

[CrazyMonkey]

As much as i hate the bugger... I'd have to say Vista these days...

If you can install, turn off ALL the worthless irritating crap you should be fine

Im still gunning with XP, and will continue to do so PROUDLY.

[dangel]

one thing that bugs the hell out of me is the way vista explorer windows operate.. everytime i go into folders it displays files differently. It never remembers the way i prefer to view my files (eg medium icons) and doesnt set the same view for all the folders in th computer. i also cant get the icons to be the same size as in xp! Also if you have many subfolders in one folder under medium icons, its difficult to drag your mouse to select many folders, what happens is that it drags a single folder as if you want to move around that one folder. Wish there was a solution for that

At the risk of being a broken record - give Directory Opus a go

As much as i hate the bugger... I'd have to say Vista these days...

If you can install, turn off ALL the worthless irritating crap you should be fine

Im still gunning with XP, and will continue to do so PROUDLY.

Proudly? Interesting choice of words!

[AtomicTech]

There is a learning curve with Vista, a bit like moving from Win2k to XP, vista looks a lot nicer and fresher than XP, but to start with you will hate it constantly asking you if you are sure you wish to change even the smallest of settings, my advice is if you know what you are doing for the love of God turn off UAC. But we have to learn at some point as Windows 7 is coming out sometime end of next year, meaning that xp will stop being supported, so better move now while you have the option rather than being forced.

If you are really not sure then you could always duel boot your system so if you really need XP for anything it is there.

Dave

[TheAnimus]

if you know what you are doing for the love of God turn off UAC.

Don't turn it off, whatever you do, for the love of you PC.

Stop it prompting u endlessly, yes. Turn it off, no.

The problem is few people understand UAC, most tech journo's are better at communication skills than they are at understanding anything about software, and don't grasp everything UAC does.
http://www.informationweek.com/blog/...hut_off_v.html

[e36Adz]

Vista Ultimate 64 all the way

[dangel]

Don't turn it off, whatever you do, for the love of you PC.

Stop it prompting u endlessly, yes. Turn it off, no.

The problem is few people understand UAC, most tech journo's are better at communication skills than they are at understanding anything about software, and don't grasp everything UAC does.
http://www.informationweek.com/blog/...hut_off_v.html

QFT. The reality (that people ignore) is that UAC only prompts you when you're doing things that may cause problems on your PC - if you're seeing prompts 'for every little thing you do' then you need to question why you're doing them in the first place. In fact, the list of sensitive locations is a small one.

As I sit here, de-clogging a spyware ridden XP pc I honestly wish UAC was available - at least then all this bloody malware wouldn't be running rampant on the system.