Windows XP Users Speak Out

Our survey of 5,000 XP users reveals that Vistaphobia still runs high--but the early response to Windows 7 is far more enthusiastic.

By  |  Monday, August 17, 2009 at 12:43 am

The positive response by respondents who have used Windows 7 doesn’t translate into a desire by most of them to queue up in front of Best Buy at midnight on the day of Windows 7’s release–only 18 percent plan to upgrade to Win 7 right away. But another 35 percent do plan to get it eventually. Those who have no plans to abandon XP represent a minority, but a sizable one at 34 percent.

We also asked folks who hadn’t used Windows 7 but said they had some knowledge what they thought based on what they knew. They weren’t as enthusiastic as those who’d tried it, but were far more upbeat than in the corresponding response to Windows Vista–55 percent are somewhat or very positive about Windows 7.

Forty-four percent of these respondents who know something about Windows 7 but haven’t used it say they plan to stay with XP indefinitely–but another 44 percent say that plan to upgrade to Windows 7 (either immediately or eventually). Bottom line: If our survey is any evidence, first-hand exposure to Windows 7 leaves you liking it more and more likely to upgrade to it. Good news for Microsoft.

Does the generally receptive attitude towards Windows 7 mean that the survey takers are ready to see Microsoft do away with XP–finally, entirely, and irrevocably? Nope: seventy-nine percent of them say that the OS’s disappearance will make them unhappy. (I don’t think we really know when Windows XP will simply become unavailable–at the moment, it’s still remarkably plentiful for a product that’s supposedly been discontinued–but Microsoft plans to discontinue all support on April 8th, 2014.)

We ended the survey by giving respondents the option of sharing additional thoughts. About half of ’em did–here are a few typical responses.

I fully intend to upgrade to windows 7 but I’m certainly NOT going to let go of XP until I’m satisfied that Microsoft has a “finished” product in Windows 7.

I don’t think that the hardware I ‘m currently using will support Vista or 7. I have no interest in changing my OS before my hardware is defunct. So, it’s XP for me until I have to replace my hardware.

In running a business it doesn’t make sense to discontinue something that works perfectly 99.9% of the time for an unknown piece of eye-candy with no track record. Vista and Win 7 look beautiful, but I need something that uses few resources, does the job and something that doesn’t have to have new drivers. I know for a fact that an expensive embroidery machine I own will only run on XP. The company has no intention of offering new drivers. I will have to continue owning at least one computer with XP, even if I have to buy an older used one. Otherwise, I would have to replace my old machine with one that runs over $12000.

When Vista was released, I upgraded to Vista. After my experience with Vista, when I purchased a new computer I had it loaded with Windows XP. At this point, Windows XP is stable, fast, consistent. I’ve tried Windows 7. While it worked, I didn’t feel it was worth wiping my working XP system to re-install everything under Windows 7. When I order a new computer, I’ll order it with Windows 7 or Mac OS X. But, that’s probably not until well after Windows 7 is released.

Windows XP works very well and is a very stable OS, however I find it clunky when I use it at work and on my personal desktop compared to when I use Vista on a notebook I own. Vista seems to be smoother and more robust than XP. I pre-ordered WIN7 to get the $50 price break but I am going to wait a while before installing it. I want to hear the reports from real life users before falling into a nightmare like Vista 1.0 created.

I like that Windows XP is just easy to use and stable out of the box. Going from ME to XP was a breeze, when I went to Vista it was annoying. I look forward to windows 7 because from what I have read, Microsoft has gotten rid of all the annoyances such as run as administrator. Going from ME to XP there was a great improvement in reliability and speed. Windows Vista felt like Windows XP2, Windows 7 seems like the next leap in technology. This could be worth the money to upgrade.

I’ve used Windows 7 RC and am finding it to be a pleasure to use. I am moving many of my business apps over to my 7RC machine and all have worked without a hitch. Everything about the new system is far superior to XP in my opinion.

I believe that Microsoft should continue supporting XP until Windows 7 has been out for at least 2 years. Vista is an unmitigated disaster and shouldn’t be supported for more than the same 2 year period.

When it comes to upgrading, I always wait until at least the first service pack is released before I even consider moving to the new OS. In the case of XP, I waited until service pack 2, since the security features included in it gave XP a clear advantage over Windows 2000. Although I participated in the Vista beta program and ran all the RCs extensively, I never upgraded to Vista because I always deemed the disadvantages to outweigh the advantages. Windows 7 may actually be a bona fide upgrade over XP instead of window dressing (pun intended) which I considered Vista. If that turns out to be the case, I will migrate to Win7 and skip Vista altogether similarly to the way I bypassed WinME and went straight from 98SE to Win2K.

After using XP for so many years (and loving it) I dread the steep learning curve associated with transitioning to a new operating system. I have owned Vista since its release but never worked up the courage to undertake the switch. I have used the free trial verson of Win 7 (and like it pretty well) and have pre-ordered two different versions of Windows 7 but am still unsure what I’ll do when it arrives.

At the moment, most Windows 7 upgrade strategies remain theoretical; on October 22nd, when the OS shows up on new PCs and in shrinkwrapped form, we’ll begin to see how all those millions of Windows XP loyalists react. Based on having used various flavors of Windows 7 since last October, I agree with our survey respondents who rate it far higher than they do Windows Vista, and I think there’s a good chance that Windows 7 will be a hit. But I’ll still be fascinated to see just how smooth the rollout is, and just how quickly Windows XP starts to fade away. Any guesses?

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80 Comments For This Post

  1. ediedi Says:
    August 17th, 2009 at 2:12 am

    Very weird. 7 is not that different from Vista (except the hype).

  2. Bob Says:
    August 17th, 2009 at 4:54 am

    @ediedi
    Yeah, the only difference is the GUI, faster performance, improved indexing, improved virtual memory handling, lower specs than Vista, improved UAC, additions of libraries, replacement of taskbar, improved network setup, change to the side gadgets, new themes handling, XP virtual machine…

    Appart from that, it’s the same thing…

  3. ediedi Says:
    August 17th, 2009 at 5:34 am

    @Bob: the technical aspects are different (under the hood optimizations), I admit. But most users do not care about those. In Vista you could customize the UAC so that it wouldn’t bother you, now they do it out of the box – fine.
    The only notable difference must be then the new taskbar/dock thingy.
    I just don’t see the massive improvement. By the way, I think Vista was OK once you spent a bit of time tinkering with it.

  4. REINER B. Says:
    August 17th, 2009 at 6:28 am

    BOB IS MY MAN HE IS CORRECT I DID NOT HAVE TO PUT IN MY MOBO. DISK AT M7 INSTALL EVERY THINK WAS RUNNING A1

  5. PhoenixM Says:
    August 17th, 2009 at 6:29 am

    Most of those users they’ve interviewed who are impressed with Windows 7 probably haven’t even tried it. I don’t see how you can *hate* Vista (most people’s reaction to it), and then suddenly love Win 7 when it’s just Vista with a few small improvements – unless you haven’t used it at all and are ashamed to admit it.

  6. Tom Says:
    August 17th, 2009 at 6:40 am

    I will stay with what I have now..using windows XP Professional on my 2 desk top computers..The two laptops I have using windows vista ultimate one 32bit and the other 64 bit was a real pain at first. I just don’t see a reason to upgrade 4 computers to Windows 7 cost wise. Beside Microsoft isn’t offering a low cost upgrade to windows 7 Ultimate..From what I understand you will have to reformat your computer to downgrade to windows 7 premium..So no, thank you to that..Microsoft seems to want to charge way to much to entice users to change to a new operating system, I don’t see why Microsoft can’t follow in Apples footstep on a upgrade price..I think windows 7 will be okay if you just go out and buy a new computer.

  7. tom b Says:
    August 17th, 2009 at 7:09 am

    “Yeah, the only difference is the GUI, faster performance, improved indexing, improved virtual memory handling, lower specs than Vista, improved UAC, additions of libraries,”

    Win 7 is still not UNIX; the improvements, thus, are still a band-aid with respect to MSFT’s longer-term problem of being unable to execute.

  8. Dave Barnes Says:
    August 17th, 2009 at 7:58 am

    Harry,

    Some of us lied when we took that survey.

    ,dave

  9. Hank Says:
    August 17th, 2009 at 10:27 am

    The success of Apple’s marketing campaign is incredible. My own relatives were having a conversation about this recently. All of them thought Vista was awful, so I asked – how many of you have used it personally? Answer: 1 out of 6, and on someone else’s computer. (eyes rolling)

    Been using Vista on my primary desktop for 9 months now – both work and home – and it’s a great OS. UAC got turned off when I installed it, I changed my prefs to match what I liked from XP, and it’s rock solid and reliable. No complaints except Media Center not living up to my expectations – but that has nothing to do with XP vs. Vista. That’s iTunes vs. Media Center.

  10. Kirk M Says:
    August 17th, 2009 at 10:48 am

    I have Windows 7 RC running happily on a (very) minimum requirements, 6 year old HP computer (AMD 3200+ single core CPU with 1GB RAM). I can even run Areo if I wish with my old anemic XFX GeForce 6200 video card w/256 dedicated memory although even with XP I turn off most of the UI eye candy except for visual styles and a few shadows here and there.

    And the install was as absolutely painless as you can get.

    My point is that Windows 7, even the (somewhat) unpolished and (somewhat) unfinished RC, runs as good as if not better than XP Pro SP3 on this old beater. The resource management is excellent and a breath of badly needed fresh air compared to previous 32/64 bit versions of Windows. I couldn’t even begin to think of putting any version of Vista on this machine without it going belly up(I’ve seen what happened when just Vista Basic came installed on a single core Pentium 4-64 bit CPU w/1 GB RAM so-called “Vista Capable” PC–wasn’t pretty). Just about everything that was bad with the Vista UI has been either improved upon or removed entirely.

    And there’s only so many ways you present a OS’s GUI. How different do we want then to get?

    Sure, some users simply don’t see, care or understand performance improvements but they’ll certainly notice (or not notice as the case may be) well enough when a 2 or 3 year old computer is upgraded to Windows 7, especially a clean install with their data BU’d as compared to what kind of performance Vista would have given them or has given them. In this case of XP users it may very well be that the less the average user notices about performance in general when confronted with Windows 7 the better? 😉

  11. Ed Houle Says:
    August 17th, 2009 at 11:40 am

    Since service pack 1, Vista hasn’t been bad. It’s just normally slow. Windows 7 is an improvement over Vista but is it an improvement over Windows XP? Published reports indicate that Windows XP is faster than Win 7 and we all know that XP is stable and reliable, is Win 7. That’s to been in in the next 5 years.
    Unfortunately the technology world wants us to go in the direction that they want and it seems that in this every changing world that we have to be flexible and go with the flow. But the question is, “What is the problem with Windows XP? Answer – Economics. But not only Microsoft, Apple, Google, Skype, etc., want us to spend money on new PC’s. That’s life!!! Or is it? XP users, keep writing, Microsoft does tend to listen when the numbers are high enough, and there are 100’s of millions of XP users around the world. I just bought a Netbook today, because of cost, size, and Windows XP… Where are you going today?

  12. Genosyne Says:
    August 17th, 2009 at 11:51 am

    I am curious though, will all 32 of my XP/vista games work with Windows 7? I could not justify upgrading to Vista just for DX10. I currently use XP Pro SP3, and though I don’t get the graphic quality DX10 is supposed to offer, at least I have a stable OS.

    If my games will work on Win 7, then maybe I would consider an upgrade, as I hear DX11 is just around the corner.

  13. Marc Says:
    August 17th, 2009 at 12:45 pm

    @ediedi GDI+ that uses more than one processor is enough to make me upgrade!

  14. Eric Says:
    August 17th, 2009 at 1:14 pm

    There are reasons for the generally negative reactions to vista and the generally positive reactions to win7. I think I’m a perfect example. I bought an inspiron 1525 just over a year ago which came with vista home premium on it. It performed pretty terribly even after I did my usual process of removing all the crapware/using msconfig to keep stuff from starting, and still it used nearly all of my 2gb of ram, and was really unresponsive when I needed it to be fast. (My sister just bought a new laptop with 3gb of ram and a slightly faster processor. Vista performs better on it, but I’d still perfer xp or win7 on that as well.) Because Vista seemed to perform badly on it, I decided to wipe the hard drive and dual boot xp and ubuntu (I love ubuntu, it’s perfect for web programmers…). Recently I tried the win7 beta, rc, and more recently the rtm build (I wanted to make sure the latest build didn’t cause any problems before I buy it). I found that the win7 builds I’ve tested run as good as windows xp and ubuntu, with win7 every offering an experience better than xp, and actually rivals my experience in ubuntu (except in raw power of customization, of which I don’t think any windows OS will ever be able to touch). Windows 7 runs quickly and smoothly for me compared to vista, and UAC works better in it as well since there are more levels of security to choose from. The bottom line: when running vista on my laptop, it is as slow as running a virtualized windows xp on top of itself(speedwise), except that it’s pretty and a bit more annoying, but windows7 feels like a version of xp with new features that is pretty. The performance difference on this admittedly modest laptop is VERY noticeable. After all my experience with these operating systems, this is my final decision: I will not run Vista unless I have to do so cause it’s just not that great of an experience to use over xp, especially if you are on a laptop with 2-3gb of ram, I will run windows xp in stead of Vista, but if I had the choice to run 7 on it, I would do so. That said, I still prefer ubuntu to all of them (but 7 is really really tempting sometimes), but that’s mostly because of how easy it is to streamline my work in ubuntu vs. windows.

  15. Mark Rethoret Says:
    August 17th, 2009 at 2:36 pm

    I have two computers with Vista and generally it has worked well. BUT, I also use AutoCAD 2000 and 2006 and neither will run with it.
    They have no problems on XP and so my personal PC used that instead.
    Does anyone know if the compatibility issues have been fixed with Windows 7??

    Mark

  16. Mike Says:
    August 17th, 2009 at 3:00 pm

    One of the major reasons people do not like Vista, in my opinion, is that it started off poorly. Really, the major reason 7 is better off the starting block is that because the DOS version hasn’t changed, allowing all the software and hardware that is compatible with Vista to be compatible with 7. The product manufacturors do not have to struggle to redesign all their products to be compatible with a new system. So 7 is going to sell better than Vista because even the people who have used Vista expect it to be worse, so they focus on the faults of the OS whereas in 7 they aren’t focused on the faults. In my opinion, this is the major advantage of Windows 7 over Vista.

  17. Greg Says:
    August 17th, 2009 at 7:00 pm

    I agree with Ed Houle, as a pc gamer windows xp perform better than windows 7. Eq2 ftw, down with WoW. I like the auto driver updates of windows 7,, and yes 7 performs better than Vista, but that bar was very low. Its time MS stop selling us eyecandy and get serious with providing a quality stable OS that exceeds the performance of XP, atleast thats what I demand for my money.

  18. God (No Really I am God) Says:
    August 17th, 2009 at 10:01 pm

    I your Lord give Windows 7 two thumbs down. It is crippled with DRM that binds and bleeds your souls. It is the Blasphemy of Satan the Deceiver. Beware my children your freedom ebbs and flows with your decisions in life, this one is an ebbing away from the light.

  19. dust11 Says:
    August 17th, 2009 at 10:10 pm

    @Mark Rethoret:

    Windows 7 comes with the option of downloading “XP Mode” functionality, which will essentially replicate a Windows XP environment for your applications to run in. I expect you should have no problems running your software, if it runs well in XP. Granted, this mode is somewhat graphically slow (from what I’ve heard), but in running CAD apps this shouldn’t be an issue for you.

  20. Bill C. Says:
    August 18th, 2009 at 1:08 am

    I find the differences in users experience or beliefs extremely interesting. Especially those who have heard about Vista and even those who have used it. Our experiences all seem to be different.

    I have used all of Microsoft’s OSes including all DOS versions for the past 27 years. My XP Pro experience is very positive and I run it on my desktop and think it is great.

    I purchased a new Dell laptop with Vista home installed over 2 years ago and my experience is that for me Vista is even better. Vista never crashes and has been rock stable. I use it for Photoshop and for video editing almost daily. After an initial learning experience for me it has been superior to XP Pro. I have pre-purchased Windows 7, but do not plan to install it for some time since it is built on the Vista code and I want to hear other users experiences first.

  21. Hamranhansenhansen Says:
    August 18th, 2009 at 1:43 am

    I feel sorry for XP users. When you bought XP the first time, Microsoft told you there would be an upgrade path. Then Microsoft failed to ship your upgrade in 2004 and just gave up on you. Years later they release Vista and now an update to Vista but no upgrade for XP, only upgrade pricing. So you have to switch away no matter what you do. Apple is making it easier to go from XP to Mac than Microsoft makes it to go XP to Windows 7. An Apple Genius will move your files over for you. What are they thinking over there at Microsoft? They act like you all bought XP in 2001 but you’ve all bought it many times since then again, so there should be an in-place upgrade. Also to get rid of the botnets that XP created. By now you should all be on a Unix core and HTML 5 browser, which you find even on Palm these days. The idea that your PC’s are running all that 20th century software is just bizarre. If I was an XP user I’d import my current XP into a virtualizer on Mac OS or Linux. Then you get an upgrade but you keep your XP also, so you can gradually move to the modern system. Just getting your browsing out of XP is a step up in security.

  22. Ed H Says:
    August 18th, 2009 at 3:13 am

    It’s really simple guys. Choose what you like and works for you. XP, Vista, Windows 7, Apple, Linux, or wait for Google.
    Personally I prefer Windows XP for many reasons and I want to ask Microsoft to continue it’s availabilty.
    I recommend that if your current PC is working fine don’t do anything. If you are having problems seek a new solution but not necessarily a new OS. It could be operator head space, or technical support.
    Oh Apple – great for Desktop publishing, that’s why it’s still around. But, for normal people, what are the cost of maintenace. Similiar to Linux, assistance is much more costly than Windows.
    I’m happy to see Apple grow and virus programmers having reason to create virus’ for the spoiled Apple world.

  23. u64 Says:
    August 18th, 2009 at 3:45 am

    Here’s an idea: Why dont Microsoft just repair the flaws in XP. And add all modern drivers and support all new CPUs and all new hardware.

    Until they make something _actually_ better then XP i’ll stay XP.
    (XP boots my 1700MHz 256MB RAM in 16 seconds )
    And try some Xubuntu someday. I hear WINE is improving every day.

  24. David C Says:
    August 18th, 2009 at 4:54 am

    After doing a “clean” reinstallation of XP on a 6 year old laptop I was giving to my (young)kids to use because it had been sluggish, it remained sluggish. Since it was still slow after that, I decided “Why not try Windows 7 RC?”. So I downloaded 7RC and installed it. The old machine ripped! It was one of those absolutely amazing things I never exepcted of a step up in an MS OS. The machine has continued to perform much faster than it did with XP and I will surely be upgrading other machines I own soon.

  25. dave Says:
    August 18th, 2009 at 5:41 am

    I just do not get this – after buying a notebook with a not usable vista, spent hours downgrading to windows XP, why would I care to ‘upgrade’ to Windows 7 ? Those changes listed are technically significant, I hope, but what value to end-users ?

    The worst part will be dealing with all the other software and utilities that may / may not work with Windows 7, given the experiences with Vista, there must be really compelling reasons to give Windows 7 a run to worth the time.

    When I bought the Thinkpad X61, I was told 2GB was fine to run Vista, but it hardly ‘ran’, but crawl. After downgrading to XP, 2GB was okay. Now, if Windows 7 is going to be ‘like’ Vista, this is a no-go for me.

    BTW, after buying Thinkpad X61 with Windows Vista, that was my last Windows Laptop, we bought two Macbook with Leopard OS X and those were damn happy with 2GB. Yes, I am still stuck with Thinkpad X61 at XP, probably for the museum soon.

  26. Michael.V.H. Says:
    August 18th, 2009 at 6:40 am

    Ok, I am a XP Pro user, and I have tried both Vista and W7. I must admit a small part of why I did not want to change to Vista was for money reasons, but I did manage to get my hands on a legal copy of Vista. When I decided to stop hating Vista just ’cause and got it loaded up the UI did surprise me, it is a fair amount different, but I got over that. Then I had to hunt down of off the fiddly little UI options like the 3D interface and many annoying nanny functions.

    Once all the settings were where i wanted them, I started updating and loading programs. I found several things that irked me
    1) the platform does a poor job at multi tasking, ‘specialy when it comes to switching between tasks.
    2) It asked me 4 friggin times if i wanted to install software from a disk. Sure, i can see that from a file pulled off the internet, but from a disk i put in the bloody drive?
    3) Compatibility was terrible, both for my hardware (xfx motherboard, AMD dual-core cpu, Nvidea gpu, Samsung HDD, Logitech perifs., and software compatibility (and back – compatibility ) all were poor.

    When I tried the W7 beta, these problems had been addressed as far as I could tell. Most importantly to me compatibility had been ramped up, and they had also made it easier to hunt down the UI settings that had so annoyed me. Multi tasking also seemed to be improved.

    If I am going to shell out for an OS (like I did from 98SE to XP Pro), I want it to improve my experience. Vista felt like it was hampering me, while W7 didn’t. Even if most of the changes from Vista to W7 are cosmetic they HAVE changed how the thing feels and that is as important as the tech specs.

  27. Steven Leach Says:
    August 18th, 2009 at 7:11 am

    I have tried the Windows 7 on an intel Quad Core, and the programs that I have running on WINE, on my Dual Xeon that is 4 years old, run slower, if at all in XP Mode. These programs are used by my customers to control machine tools, and or receive data from car diagnostic equipment. UNTIL Micro$oft CAN GET THESE PROGRAMS WORKING AS WELL AS IN WINE OR REAL XP PRO. My customer will never accept paying for newer faster equipment, and have a reduction in performance. Windows XP MODE IS A JOKE. Micro$oft should just License WINE AND USE IT !!

  28. Marco Says:
    August 18th, 2009 at 7:26 am

    Problem is that this article compares opinion over Vista NOW with the opinion over W7 NOW.

    It should compare the opionion about Vista just before release with the opinion over W7 now.

  29. pmedes Says:
    August 18th, 2009 at 9:16 am

    There is no upgrade from XP to Windows 7. I think this would
    be incentive enough to keep people on XP.

  30. Gaston Much Says:
    August 18th, 2009 at 12:03 pm

    I can tell you only this: Brand new laptop computer. Preinstalled Vista Home Premium. Sucked for three days. Switched to Vista Ultimate. Sucked for two days. Rolled back to Windows XP Professional 32 and 64 bit. Good for a couple of weeks. If not because the computer had to use windows-only apps I could’ve tried OSX or Linux. Which would be my choice if the computer would be mine. Tried the first public beta of Windows 7 and it now the computer works like a charm. Zero device conflicts, missing drivers, installation took a couple of minutes. That’s good in my book.

  31. Gary Says:
    August 18th, 2009 at 12:38 pm

    Windows 7 is fine, actually a little better than XP in my opinion. But MS decided not to provide an upgrade path, so I’ll stay with XP. There’s no way Win 7 is worth reinstalling all my applications.

  32. stockmarcus Says:
    August 18th, 2009 at 3:52 pm

    Yes, i also find it strange that windows 7 is considered to so differently.

    A couple of issues may have upset people (they certainly did me with vista):

    – Why exactly do i need to upgrade windows? Sure you could list a bunch, but 95% of what i do is launch and run applications that work fine on xp also. The reason i purchased vista was dx10..

    – Why exactly did i need to upgrade my hardware to run this windows, which to me as a consumer did exactly the same thing? (it turns on, has a start menu, and runs programs). If it was doing my laundry or something id understand. And because of this, it ran slower on the pc i was using. That was a really bad impression.

    Eventually i upgraded my hardware, a nice core i7 system, and am quite happy with vista. (it needed tweaking after initial setup like xp does also). Those above reservations are still true.

    From looking at windows 7 from (finally) being a happy vista user.. at the very least i’m feeling like a chump thinking about paying money for a well polished vista. a vista user wouldn’t look at 7 and think, wow this is a new OS. its the one we’re currently using improved.

    I think surveys like this cloud that point a bit.

  33. William Says:
    August 18th, 2009 at 6:01 pm

    I took the survey. My thoughts about 7, since I’ve not used it, can only come from information I’ve found from those who have and evaluations from test centers. My understanding of 7 is that it’s supposed to have a smaller footprint and better coding than Vista. Both items are supposed to translate into faster performance and a better interface. “If” that’s true I’ll consider upgrading from XP. If it’s Vista by another name, I’ll hang onto XP until it rots and falls of the vine.

    As far a Vista is concerned; I’ve been using it since it was introduced. It sucked then and it still sucks now. I acquired and installed the 64 bit version just a few days ago. I’ll admit it’s faster than 32 bit Vista, but still slower than XP. I’m not here to try and convince people who like Vista that they could do better. If they’re happy with it, I’m happy for them. But for my purposes, and running on a dual-boot (XP & Vista), multi-core machine, with 4 GB of RAM, I have nothing but disdain for Vista.

    That’s my two cents.

  34. Edwin Says:
    August 19th, 2009 at 5:44 am

    I tried vista ultimate on a laptop I bought, after 3 months I hated vista, so I downgraded to XP.
    Now I am testing Windows 7 and I am very enthousiastic about it.

  35. Chris Grasse Says:
    August 21st, 2009 at 7:01 am

    A Novice Speaks:

    I am 66 and don’t know beans about computers. I began learning about them for the first time in my life back in February of 2006. What a journey this has been! (and “Still Crazy After All These Years,” too!) I have been using Windows XP exclusively all this time with no incidents. And yes, I have occasionally, royally messed it up, but I now understand why it is referred to as one of the most stable operating systems available. It is still purring. I have no incentive to upgrade. My old behemoth IBM computer runs on a Pentium III 448 MHz with (sigh) 320 MB of RAM. It runs this Windows XP Professional perfectly, and when I successfully downloaded Service Pack 3 ages ago, it went “in” okay but took over five hours to download. The big blessing was it virtually rebuilt my computer which then worked twice as fast as previously. I have helped someone put a computer with Vista already installed on it at the factory – online. It was moderately easy for a novice like myself and we were successful. I find no compelling need to even examine Windows 7. I was born in 1943, and come from a generation that knows the meaning of the word “enough.” I am happy with what I have. What is it one of the old Chinese sages once said? “Leave me alone here to drag my tail in the mud.” (when asked if he would become emperor)

    Thank You, Microsoft, for one of the most dependable operating systems in the world: Windows XP Professional. Call me old fashioned, but I am contented and centered with this OPS, equipment and gear. There is something to be said for knowing when you are okay with what you already have. Thank you for reading this rather long post of mine. (Submitted by: Christopher Grasse, South Portland, Maine USA ~ 21 August 2009 ~ 10 A.M.)

  36. Mike Says:
    August 21st, 2009 at 2:54 pm

    I seen that some people were a bit concerned about thier hardware and whether or not it would be able to run Windows 7. So I did some searching and came across this Microsoft website that you can go to and download a system hardware and software checker that you can run on your system to verify if you can even run Windows 7 or need to upgrade your hardware or replace your whole system. I have a Dell Dimension 3000 that was manufactured in 2006 and running Windows XP Home Edition, it has a 2.8 GHZ Pentium 4 that is not the HT, and 1.25 GIG of memory installed. I was pretty pleasantly shocked to find that basically hardware wise all I have to upgrade is the Graphics adapter which is an onboard Intel(R) 82865G Graphics Controller with 96 meg of video memory. Of course, because of me only having XP I have to do a custom install (basically meaning You can only do a clean install from XP to Windows 7. The differences is if you have a valid copy of XP then the upgrade costs you less money…if you dont have a legal copy of XP then you have to buy the full version which costs more.) which means I have to back up my system and then replace it when I get Windows 7 up and running. The link to download the Windows 7 compatibility program is: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=1b544e90-7659-4bd9-9e51-2497c146af15 . Once you download it and install it and accept the license aggreement (the usual mumbo jumbo LOL) then it only takes a couple of minutes to get your results. Hope this helps all of you in the decission as to whether you want to give Windows 7 a go or not. I think once I get my graphics card installed I will probably give it a go.

  37. Hamranhansenhansen Says:
    August 24th, 2009 at 4:59 pm

    > Our survey of 5,000 XP users reveals that Vistaphobia still
    > runs high–but the early response to Windows 7 is far more
    > enthusiastic.

    Until they find out it is Vista 1.1.

    You will have to wipe out all of your apps and documents to get to 7. It’s not an upgrade for XP, it’s a switch from XP to 7. It’s way more work.

    The best upgrade for XP continues to be to import it into a virtualizer like Parallels on top of a modern Mac or Ubuntu system. That gets you onto Unix and into an HTML 5 browser and yet you continue to have access to your 20th century software in the virtualizer.

  38. Hamranhansenhansen Says:
    August 24th, 2009 at 5:08 pm

    > I have been using Windows XP exclusively all this time with no
    > incidents. And yes, I have occasionally, royally messed it up,

    Royally messing it up is an incident. You should not be able to royally mess up the computer by using it.

    > [Service Pack 3]
    > The big blessing was it virtually rebuilt my computer
    > which then worked twice as fast as previously.

    Your computer running half speed before a patch fixes the issue is an incident.

    > Call me old fashioned, but I am contented and centered with
    > this OPS, equipment and gear.

    As long as you can get the whole Internet to stay in 2001 with you then you should be OK.

    > There is something to be said for knowing when you are okay
    > with what you already have.

    You may be OK, but if your XP system is part of a botnet (and it is likely that it is if you don’t know specifically that it is not) then you are harming other users on the network. You are helping criminals to use 25%+ of the Internet’s bandwidth to steal credit card information and do other scams on innocent people.

    In network computing, you’re expected to be a good citizen of the network. Operating systems that aren’t from Microsoft all have a Unix level of security, they expect to be part of a global network. Microsoft’s systems do not have this security, so they spawned huge malware clusters called botnets. Windows XP botnets almost crippled the Internet a few times and cost everyone billions of dollars per year. All because you want to use an operating system that was designed for office LAN’s, not the open Internet. It’s good enough for you, so it must be OK to leak arsenic into the ground water. No problem.

  39. Kirk M Says:
    August 24th, 2009 at 6:21 pm

    @Hamranhansenhansen – Give it a rest, son. As an Ubuntu user dual booting with Windows 7 RC (and previously XP Pro SP3), an OS is only secure as the user makes it and that includes their browsing habits. And all OS’s inclusive are only as inherently secure as their market share allows them to be which is the only reason that OSX and Linux based distros are currently more secure than XP, Vista, Windows 7 and MS’s server versions.

    Most of the world’s personal data is located on Windows based machines since one version or another of the Windows OS installed on the majority of the world’s personal computers. Hackers and their various nefarious bots do not go after a specific OS more than they follow the market share of any particular brand of OS ie: where most of the personal data is located. Windows has held that market share up to now so it’s Windows based machines that are targets of the majority of these attacks. Even out the market hypothetically between Ubuntu (to pick one popular distro) OSX and Windows XP for example and they’ll all be attacked equally…guaranteed.

    Now, hypothetically, let’s switch all these current Windows users to OSX let’s say, with their beloved Windows running in a VirtualBox virtual machine. Now, suddenly, OSX has an even larger majority of the market share than Windows did before all the users made the switch.

    Just how long do you think it would take before the hackers of the world infect say 70% of all OSX users with their bots? A maximum of 3 weeks I’d say from past experience.

  40. Mike Says:
    August 25th, 2009 at 12:55 pm

    Hamranhansenhansen that is some of the most UNINFORMED comments that I have read in quite awhile. The ONLY OS that is PRACTICALLY imune to viruses is a mac and they have even started making viruses that work on them now too. It does NOT matter which OS you have you are still vulnerable to being attacked by all kinds of things such as viruses, trojans, BOTS, and whatever else the hackers and viruses makers can dream up in thier pea sized brains. Now grant you that Windows is the most vulnerable to these types of attacks but lets face facts, Windows has the largest place in today’s OS market so of course they are the most attacked OS’s to date. XP with all the security updates and fixes installed and up to date is just as secure as any other windows OS or other OS out there. I have been running XP for years and yes I have been attacked pretty severely in the past but it ultimately depends on THE USER NOT THE OS to make sure they take all the necessary steps to make sure that their computers are safe for not only the computers themselves but for the world of computers in general. I work on computers and to explain to a customer that it is not only important to THEM as a user to keep their computers clean but for everyone else out there as well, is sometimes not something that they totally comprehend until you compare that to someone that has a cold. When a person has a cold then that person is exposing every person they come in contact with to that same cold and it can get that other person infected with it too, it is the same way with computers. A quote that I have found on a website about Unix’s viruses attacks says it all. This is what it says and I quote “You do not need to exploit bugs in an operating system to have viruses. Essentially all operating systems provide prerequisites for supporting a computer virus.” So for you to attack just XP just because a person says it is good enough for them is just ludicrist.

  41. Larry F Says:
    August 27th, 2009 at 5:33 am

    I’m a computer pro. I work on XP and Vista, and have installed 7 on a desktop and a notebook.

    Vista is garbage, pure and simple. So much so that MS isn’t even trying to fix it, just moving on to 7. While it’s possible to tweak it so that it’s less annoying, you have to be a wiz to figure out how. UAC can be turned off or switched to quiet mode… if you either go through the needlessly complex (hidden!) steps to do so or find a third-party tool. And then you have to turn off notification of problems or it endlessly bitches at you to turn back on UAC, meaning that when your PC has a real problem, you don’t get notified.

    Just in the small town where I work, we’ve downgraded dozens of Vista computers to XP just in the last year alone, with our customers willingly paying $99 for Windows XP Home as well as our labor charge, since Vista Home and Home Premium do not have downgrade rights. That’s how I know that a substantial percentage of Vista users hate it. They vote with their wallets, the only truly meaningful vote there is.

    No, 7 is not just a dress-up of Vista with a new name. Both of the PCs I installed it on are older systems that are well below the current recommendations for system requirements, having 1Gb of RAM each and older processors, and on both it runs quite well, thank you. Installation was reasonably painless, and the only real problem I had was finding compatible audio drivers for the notebook. Vista won’t run very well at all on anything less than 2Gb of RAM and the latest processors, a far cry from the early promises that it would use RAM more efficiently than XP we got from MS. By current plans, our shop will sell 7 when it comes out. We will NEVER sell Vista.

    I have to laugh a little when I read comments from people about how they love their Vista computers. Bless you, and keep right on doing what you please for an OS. But don’t assume that your luck with and passion for Vista is shared by others; it isn’t, and our shop has the proof right in our sales records.

  42. bazza Says:
    August 27th, 2009 at 3:14 pm

    I think the problem facing the guys at Redmond is that their customers have more technical savvy than before at all levels, home user to corporate. There is a cost involved in terms of time and money over and above the cost of the software to change your operating system, especially with retraining your users and the new OS has to add enough value to justify the change. The end users are now more capable of gauging this for themselves so the pre release bull shit doesn’t work as well as it used to. I’ve tried Win7 RC and its good but so is XP. All the apps I need Windows for work just fine in XP, the same is not true for Win7. So I’ll carry on using Linux as my OS of choice, run XP vitualised on Linux for the day to day tasks that we need it for and keep a dual boot machine for when I feel the need for a bit of shoot’em up or world domination.

  43. stalker1 ( SLIZone Forums ) Says:
    August 27th, 2009 at 5:19 pm

    Hello all ,
    Being an Extreme Gaming enthusiast , XP just doesn’t compete with Vista 64 bit . XP Pro 64 bit , had too many driver and compatibility issues , and is a bit of a pain .I will agree that if you are running an older single core machine with 2 GB of ram , stick with XP 32 bit . Vista requires a lot more power to run well , demanding a more powerful computer , such as a 2 core or 4 core processor , 4 GB of Ram , and dual graphics cards . But after upgrading from XP , I will admit that there is a learning curve , A good rule to go by , is to right click and drag and drop , there are so many short cuts in Vista ( That speeds things up ) once you learn them , that arent in XP . All of my fellow enthusiasts in the forums would choose Vista 64 bit hands down and with good reasons , utilizing more than 3 GB of ram ( I am currently using 8 GB dual channel DDR2 and am going to 12 GB tri channel DDR3 in my next build ) The graphics , the graphics , the graphics , the use of multiple monitors in SLI ( Scalable Link Interface ) better SLI scaling , and a better gaming experience , better sound quality , animated wall paper ( Ultimate ) system monitotring , auto play ,it becomes automated , better search feature ( Not getting lost , trying to negotiate through folders ) running 35 programs at once , with no slow down , etc… Now I am using Windows 7 and like it even better than Vista , it is more streamlined and is quicker on top of already being quick . Just my two cents .

  44. stalker1 ( SLIZone Forums ) Says:
    August 27th, 2009 at 8:01 pm

    The Biggie here to remember , is that Harware Technology is not going to stand still for Windows XP , and Windows 7 uses the same kernel as Vista and almost identical with a few changes , The reason that I believe that Microsoft is selling it as Windows 7 now is because when Vista was first released , it was installed on under powered computers and was a dog …
    Not true anymore …

  45. stalker1 ( SLIZone Forums ) Says:
    August 27th, 2009 at 8:11 pm

    In fact Microsoft dubbed XP and kept it available for what they called ” An Ultra Low Performance PC “

  46. Celerian Says:
    August 27th, 2009 at 8:27 pm

    So, for years I prided myself with knowing the INs and OUTs of WindowsXP. I loved that operating system, despite some rough times. Everything I had heard about Vista pre and post launch was horrible. I heard it was slow, non-compatible, confusing.

    For the first time, as a well versed computer user (and shouldn’t I be, as a Software Engineer?), I was SCARED, yes scared, to use Vista. However, I fell into a position where getting a new laptop stuck me with the OS. Three days in, I was almost ready to throw in the hat and be finished with Vista.

    However, I continued working with it. I found within 2 weeks, I had Vista pretty much figured out. I do notice that it handles memory and threading much better than XP ever could. I also notice the negative effects that Aero has, as this is a major proponent that slows down the system. Still, even as a practical user, can’t I be enticed by the eye-candy?

    It seems to me that Vista finally launched Microsoft into having an OS that not only worked well, but was pretty, as OSX had been. I have been using Vista for almost a year now, and I find that it is just as, if not more, stable than XP. I wish I had the resources to put Vista on a desktop with better hardware to really see how it handles. My Vista machine is a laptop, and that limits me greatly.

    I rarely have a problem with Vista. When I do, there’s plenty of help to be found. And be honest, XP had just as many problems that we had to look up solutions for.

    As many have said, Win7 is going to be better accepted, simply because Microsoft has the chance to combine XP and Vista a bit more solidly. Win7 benefits from the testing of Vista, and the longevity of XP.

  47. stalker1 ( SLIZone Forums ) Says:
    August 27th, 2009 at 9:06 pm

    I hate to say this and no pun intended , but people can argue from their caves in the stone age and defend XP , It was a great OS in it’s time , but the future is Windows 7 , upgrading to Vista from XP Pro was like upgrading to XP Pro from Windows 2000 . I realize that some people are comfortabe and don’t like change , but eventually they have to accept it , Microsoft will continue to support Windows XP until 2014 , but after that it is a gonner . I also realize that large businesses use an XP infrastructure in their networks and it would cost them a bundle for the upgrades ,and isn’t justified , when XP works perfectly fine in the work place . So Keep XP , I agree . Hardware advances : Intel Core I7 4 cores 8 threads @ up to the power of 4 processors @ 3.33 Ghz , ( 6 core I9’s coming ) Tri Channel DDR3 memory , Tri Graphics cards @ up to 3 Gb of on board memory ( separate from system memory ) 10,000 rpm SATA II hard drives , and now SSD is up and coming . Available to the Enthusiast today and to the main stream market tomorrow , for a lot less money .( in fact , around the same amount of money that you paid for your current model ) Thanks Vista !!!

  48. Alfred Parks Says:
    August 28th, 2009 at 2:13 pm

    I have a dual-boot computer with both operating systems installed on separate hard drives. I’ve had Windows Vista installed on my second hard drive after its full version was released. I was impressed by some of the advertising claims Microsoft made, and that is what sold me on it. I did not like the idea of upgrading my Windows XP operating system to Vista because I felt that Windows Vista was new and probably would have similar problems to Windows XP when it first came out. My hands-on experience with Windows Vista when it was new; to service pack one; and now, to service pack two proved to me that it was so poorly designed that it didn’t justify it as a replacement for Windows XP. Windows Vista could not handle the demands of my Creative Sound Blaster Drivers or my Dual SLI BFG NVIDIA 7950GT graphics cards. In addition to that some of the most important Autoplay options for processing photographs was not carried over to Vista in an enhanced version (the one that microsoft substituted for it was grossly inadequate). I continue to use Windows XP for 90% of my workload, gaming, and internet activity because Windows Vista has never been reliable or user friendly. Windows Vista is a total failure and all of us who purchased it should be given the option of trading its software for Windows 7 with no additional charge. Windows XP has been almost perfected and is extremely reliable in many ways. If Windows 7 proves itself to be just as reliable and user friendly as XP, even with all of its more advanced features, then I would gladly remove Windows XP from my Computer. I’m waiting for its full version to come out so that I can give Vista the boot and install this one in its place.

  49. Edditel Says:
    August 28th, 2009 at 4:21 pm

    I inherited a Compaq desktop that came with Vista, they gave up on it because it was slow – slow to boot, slow open apps, slow to connect to peripherals, just plain slow. I formatted the HD – installed XP and voila a nice little machine. Vista is a cpu and memory pig, and folks who had perfectly working printers, etc were forced to go out and buy replacements. I Win7 is similar, I will be an XP user until I’m forced to retire my existing equipment, and then Linux is my next OS..

  50. Mr. Unknown Says:
    August 28th, 2009 at 4:21 pm

    I’m currently running Windows Vista Ultimate x64 and Windows XP Professional x64. And I have to admit while Vista is not the best OS it runs very well for me. To be honest I’m might catch flak for this but my Vista actually runs better than XP. I’ve tried Win 7 and maybe I didn’t test it enough but it seems like it was only slightly faster than my Vista x64. But I’m still going to get Win 7 after a while cause it’s lighter on the resources.

  51. Bill - Chicago Says:
    August 28th, 2009 at 8:15 pm

    I hope Googles OS comes out soon & it is at least equal or better then XP. MS really needs good competition, not just another pay raise.

  52. stalker1 ( SLIZone Forums ) Says:
    August 28th, 2009 at 8:32 pm

    My Specs :

    Intel Core 2 Extreme Qx6850 Quad Core @ 3.67 Ghz
    Zalman 9700 CPNS LED Cooler
    XFX 780i ESA Enabled
    8 GB Corsair DHX PC2 6400 4-3-3-8 2T
    XFX GTX 260 896 mb x 2 SLI
    Nvidia Stripe 284 GB WD Raptor 10K RPM x 4 Raid0
    Creative X-Fi Fatality Titanium Pro
    Logitech 505 Watt / 1010 Watt Peak Speakers , Toslink Optical ,DTS Digital Surround Sound ( It Rocks !!! )
    Thermaltake Toughpower 750 Watt P/S
    Coolermaster HAF 932 Case
    Windows Vista Ultimate 64 Bit SP2

    OverDrive Score 12,138
    3D Mark Vantage Score P20400

    it may not be the fastest machine out there , but I rest my case …

  53. midnightwolf76 Says:
    August 29th, 2009 at 3:45 am

    I have used many operating systems starting way back with the Apple IIe in grade school; spent a lot of time on DOS, Win95, 98, 98SE, 2000, never touched Me, XP Home, Pro, Vista Home Premium/Business, and now Windows 7 RC; plus Slackware, OpenSUSE, Fedora, Ubuntu and OS8.1, 9, X.

    To me XP was 98SE and 2000 combined; Me was crap out of the box and having XP come out and fix all the mistakes that Me had caused was a relief. Having used Vista it’s not a bad operating system, it just wasn’t well thought out for the “average home user”. The average user knows nothing about “tweaking”, so having Windows 7 come and make it easier to use a personal computer I think was a great idea.

    There are several things that I haven’t been able to test because of the lack of equipment, like touch technology works seamlessly with Win7. Windows 7 so far has been the best OS I’ve ever used, even though Linux is fun to play with, it’s not common for everyday tasks or gaming, great for servers though.

    I wish I had the chance to partake in this survey, oh well, I’m commenting now, that’s what matters.

    I think the only thing I’m worried about with Win7 will be the price, since I’ve been using the RC and beta tested, I’m quite used to the Ultimate package, so I’m figuring on around $300-400 per PC, but it will be worth it.

  54. Dr. J Steed Says:
    August 29th, 2009 at 7:09 am

    The company I work for employs 150,000 people world wide. We have been using Win2000 until now and are converting to Vista. It took 1,500 IT professionals 3 years to configure Vista to work within our system. Most software had to repurchased bbecause of compatibility issues. Total cost: $150 million+. What a waste of money. I use WinXP Pro at home, but have Vista on a laptop that I have had for 3 years. I just cannot stand Vista. I am tired of getting the BSOD when I install software or having other compatibility issues. I have never experienced this in WinXP. I personally have about $70,000 worth of software installed on my WinXP PCs which either do not work at all in Vista (causes BSOD or just will not run properly). Why would I spend that kind of money again to get the Vista compatible software? Where is the return on that kind of investment when the software I have now works perfectly?

  55. George Says:
    August 31st, 2009 at 8:11 am

    I use to have Windows XP. I thought that for me, it was great. It worked, had no problems (blue screen, etc.), and all my programs and
    games worked. Since i needed a new pc (larger hard drive) i had no choice but get Windows Vista. HATE IT! Most, if not all, my games
    do not run on this crap. It is constantly giving me a blue screen or
    freezing. IT’S F’N SLOW! I’ve invested in the future Windows 7 based
    on all the info i could get about it and even talked to people. Will
    see. Microsoft or any other company for that matter when something is
    good they get rid of it or claim to improve on something. FORGET IT!

  56. stalker1 ( SLIZone Forums ) Says:
    August 31st, 2009 at 8:19 am

    Well a good test for any computer is the game ” Crysis ” If your machine can play this game , you can play anything , and if your computer can run ” Photoshop ” you could host … Vista played all my games beautifully . Cryss @ 55 fps , no problems here …

  57. stalker1 ( SLIZone Forums ) Says:
    August 31st, 2009 at 9:12 am

    Just to put this matter to rest and I will remain forever silent , go to http://www.futuremark.com and check out the benchmark scores and tou will not find XP anywhere near the top scores . In fact you will notice that Vista sets at the top of all scores period , in fact the fastest score reported is using Vista 64 bit …

  58. Dave Says:
    September 2nd, 2009 at 12:04 pm

    Just don’t need it do we? Too much new stuff, wastes ok older stuff, shortens man’s time on this planet. Must we really continue to support microsoft just because they’ve made something new? Does Bill need any more cash? Or am I being told that XP doesn’t work? Can’t say I’d noticed.

  59. stalker1 ( SLIZone Forums ) Says:
    September 2nd, 2009 at 1:47 pm

    Dave : Continue your denial fest and get left behind , to each his / her own . Don’t even run the new 3D Mark Vantage benchmark software with XP because XP is not supported and be be prepared to get smoked any way …
    I can understand if one doesn’t have the funds to upgrade to a ” Killer ” Vista computer . But to say that Vista sucks is just plain Ignorant … C’YA

  60. Dave Says:
    September 2nd, 2009 at 2:08 pm

    Stalker 1,

    whoa, it’s no big denial fest! Do you like re-inventing the wheel everytime MS does? Do you really enjoy reinstals and the rest that much. Others have said here that they have $70,000 worth of software, working well on XP. Why bin that, and then make MS richer again?

    Just wanted to say that I’m in no hurry to get vista. In my home, the last Win98 machine ceased service this very year, and I drive a 18 year old Mercedes estate. (No direct connection.)

    Would run Linux next time I have to migrate OS, not to latest MS.

    CU

  61. stalker1 ( SLIZone Forums ) Says:
    September 3rd, 2009 at 5:39 pm

    Dave : It is not reinventing the wheel , but more like improving upon it . I am a serious gaming enthusiast who likes the latest and greatest hardware and software … I am currently using Windows 7 , for a year for free . As part of the beta testing group who likes being on the cutting edge of software and hardware ( Games , OS’s , etc … )I was a beta tester for Crysis , Hellgate and other games and it was a rewarding experience . ( I couldn’t even begin to do it on a 5 year old PC ) Linux would scare 99% of users away because it is such a hassle and is not ” User Friendly ” . I like my 2007 Chevy Malibu also . The point is : As long as your PC does what you need it to do , and it suits your needs , that is fine … It just bothers me to see people criticize Vista based on hear say , without even using it . I would invite anyone to a enthusiast type forum and see for themselves , just how many users are still using XP ???

  62. Shirley Pipitone Says:
    September 3rd, 2009 at 9:42 pm

    Have you or anyone else done a survey of what Microsoft Office veterans think of Office 2007? I would love to know what proportion of Windows XP users are still using Office 2000 or 2003, or even earlier versions.

    I have just completed a 240 page research report containing a lot of graphs and images. Neither Word nor Excel could cope with it. I had to split it into 35 documents so that Word didn’t crash all the time, often without recovering anything. Several times I had to use Open Office to recover a word document because Word crashed before I could do anything at all. So I used Open Office to split the document into two or three and then saved them as Word documents.

    The most irritating aspect of Excel was not being able to import Excel charts and achieve consistent chart formats in any pre-configured way. Any consistency I managed to get was by adjusting formats in a trial and error fashion.

    And the last straw with Word was not being able to get the Master document setup to work properly so I had to do the table of contents, page numbering, Figure numbering (85 altogether), and picture numbering (60) manually, including all cross-references. What a nightmare.

    Fortunately I decided not to use automatic paragraph numbering because that nevers works properly any more, as it did with really old versions of Office such as Office 95 or 96.

    I used Office 2000 for this report. For the last really complex report I worked on I used an earlier version of Office and had no trouble with the Master document setup, automatic table of contents, automatic figure numbering etc. And my trial with Office 2007 was truly a taxing trial which I was extremely happy to end.

    What do serious academics use for complex research reports? Or maybe they have teams of bald underlings who busily slog away with Microsoft’s patently toy software until they have torn out all their hair in frustration.

    Signed
    NotBaldYet

  63. stalker1 ( SLIZone Forums ) Says:
    September 3rd, 2009 at 11:32 pm

    Shirly Pipitone :
    I have Office 2007 and like it personaly , I was wondering if you tried the online training through Office Access ?

  64. Dave Says:
    September 4th, 2009 at 2:13 am

    Yo Stalker et al,

    as you’re a gamer, top end performance is going to be your thing, accepted. however, I stopped these things some years ago and look for PC performance that is reliable and unchanging. I don’t like upgrading as such, and don’t need to generally as the demands I place on the system are not great. And as we know, it takes MS a few years to nearly finish their products! And btw, I didn’t criticize Vista at any point, I just know that I don’t need it at the moment, and reckon there are many like me with sound XP systems: we don’t need rock the boat (or give Big Bill any more cash!)

    As for Word, yep, I still choose to use the 2000 version. Even the 2003 issue seems ridiculously full of carp, can only quake at the thought of the hugeness the 2007 version must be!

    CU peeps…

  65. 123 Says:
    September 20th, 2009 at 10:37 pm

    Haven’t tried win7. Have 3 pcs running vista.
    Vista is partially broken on 2. (one runs xp partition usually. the other is just “funny” sometimes.) the 2 messed vistas were hp oem vista sp1 (now sp2). the ok vista from 2007 is plain vista (toshiba). All vistas are 32bit on core2dous.
    PROBLEMS.
    Some persistent examples, which apparently lack cures:
    1) Imaginary nested duplicate files in appdata.
    2) Frequently, file drags cause hangs for 3+ seconds. Slow (10+ seconds) rendering of explorer filepane when no rational excuse (eg, 20 files in filepane, “details” view, and ram is 3gb. Nothing special running. Using avira and comodo3, which are not “heavy” apps as is norton.).
    Filefind
    i think i have “find” working (insert asterisk “wildcard” character preceding searchstring in order to do a plain basic name search, else vista finds nothing). Remaining annoyance is that the treepane shoots down to the bottom, making the found files more difficult to drag (sort) into subfolders. also cannot conveniently create a new subfolder within the filepane because it has become a findresult pane. Find requires extra clicking to use the “advanced” find fields. however adjacent regions of explorer remain uselessly empty (IOW, the “dumb” ui preserves no display acreage)
    Phantom sharing violation, recalcitrance
    Idiotic refusal to delete, rename, etc basic file handling in “innocent” locations, such as mydocs. Requires 3 uac-like fiddlings to end the refusal sequence. (There are no obvious “access” “sharing”|”violation” apps during this refusal. Workaround: wait for another day on which you happen to use those files and recall the chores you had attempted.) These seem statistically more common than occurred in win95 era. (also, the “sharing” culprit was obvious in win95)
    Vista advances:
    “safely remove” usb sems to work more readily than in xp (very flaky).
    Some “background” processes are much faster than on xp on SSE era (sub 1 ghz, ~512 pc100) pcs. Some apps won’t run on old hardware. (This is ~unrelated to the OS.)
    i think image renders are faster than on those older pcs (16mb or 64mb agp graphics cards) I’m not sure because the toshiba is a laptop, therefore understandably hobbled (though 4gb), and I’m usually using the newer hp that runs a xp partition (1gb ram), therefore it runs fast…
    Conclusions:
    1) ms devs don’t use vista features.
    2) vista is still “beta”. (though past “alpha”.)

  66. 123 Says:
    September 20th, 2009 at 10:42 pm

    Another ui goof: Must remove “details” columns to allow mouse to “swipe” more than one file. Alternative: jiggle column and/or filepane widths back and forth during file handling work.
    Workaround: xplorer2lite

  67. 123 Says:
    September 20th, 2009 at 10:50 pm

    since i use mostly word, i agree that office 2000 is likely the best. however, it’s likely that later versions of excel are better than 2000.
    the “ribbon” is worse in one app I use, but it had previously used a unique and effective ui. I haven’t yet used ribbon in more “normal” apps (eg, ms word 2007) enough to judge the ribbon. (except that the buttons are far over-sized for clicking versus space efficiency. the ribbon appears to be another boobytrap perpetrated by apple (the dock). widgets are another deadend. fortunately the one-button mouse never caught on.)

  68. 123 Says:
    September 20th, 2009 at 11:10 pm

    have been trying ubuntu and some other distros. some repository ware looks tasty. but the interop between apps doesn’t seem “there” yet. and the frequent logons just to tweak or update are more obnoxious than uac. chromeos (google) is linux-based, so i’m hoping google will make it user friendly (aka, more usable & interop for gui apps).
    otherwise, i suspect i’ll be using win7 (go 64bit) when ram reaches optimum pricing. I expect to use win7 “home” or “basic”, because whatever their feature-cripples are, and whichever features i may want, will likely be accomplished better by opensource apps.

    futurermark. appears may take some time to find same-hardware stats for xp vs vista (or vs win7) on the site.

  69. Cornan Says:
    October 19th, 2009 at 11:29 am

    It seems really odd that the survey didn’t cover WHAT people don’t like about Vista. In the comments at the PC World article referencing this survey, nobody mentioned “Aero”, which is my big “hate it” thing. I’m using it now, with both the Windows taskbar and display properties (whatever they’re called in Vista, the constantly changing names are another annoyance) BOTH set to “classic”. Best I could do.

    The reason I turn off Aero is that there are entirely too many animations, some of which can’t be disabled. I sort of liked the look of Aero, but I just couldn’t make it work for me; it needed more “off” switches for all the extraneous junk (which I’m sure somebody likes and some are indifferent, but anything that slows down the UI is something I want to turn off.

    If there is a “classic” mode in Windows 7, I’m guessin’ I’ll be using it there, too.

    Get a few “time and motion” experts, Microsoft! Put some on the operating system and some on MS Office (don’t get me started on that).

  70. hikki_man Says:
    October 19th, 2009 at 6:01 pm

    I’m an XP user and I’m poor and can’t afford to upgrade my P4 3GHz, 1GB-RAM computer at this point. But here is what I will be doing. I’ll create an empty partition on my HD for Windows 7, and come October 22nd, I’ll download a copy of it from thepiratebay (shock!!!) and dual-boot it with XP to take it for a spin… see if all my devices have proper drivers and the programs I use and games I play will continue to work and if the performance is at least close enough to that of XP. If all that checks off, I’ll buy. Otherwise, I’ll delete the partition and 7 with it. mwahahahaaa

    It’s practical, and morally acceptable to me since it’s basically the same thing as downloading and installing the RC which I missed out on (admittedly purposefully though).

  71. An ordinary user Says:
    November 15th, 2009 at 9:08 pm

    I am happy with XP. I tried Windows 7 but I don’t see much difference.

  72. Frank Says:
    February 24th, 2010 at 1:15 am

    I prefer windows XP Profesional because it runs well theres no bugs and with windows update it runs just find. Not to menthion my laptop isnt Capadable with Windows Vista which is GARBAGE, or Windows 7

  73. Frank Campagna Says:
    February 24th, 2010 at 1:21 am

    Windows XP is one of the best O.S. I ever had. It dosnt freeze up or get the Blue screen of death all the time. I dont why anyone would waste there money to upgrade to Vista. Havent had a chance to use Windows 7. But Microsoft is known for hyping up there new O.S. they rush it to market loaded with bugs that makes you want to pull your hair out. I havent checked if Windows 7 is capadable with my laptop. Ill probely wait to I get a new laptop.

  74. Frank Says:
    February 28th, 2010 at 12:32 am

    By all means XP users , continue to stick with your ” Dollar Store ” computers , get your butt kicked , it don’t bother me none …

  75. Frank Says:
    February 28th, 2010 at 12:43 am

    I evolved out of the ” Stone Age ” and am not a ” Cheapskate ” I am glad that you are happy with your ” Low Performance ” PC or Netboook , LMAO

  76. Frank Says:
    February 28th, 2010 at 2:31 am

    A final note here ? Don’t even step into this arena with your ” Dollar Store Computer “

  77. Frank Says:
    March 13th, 2010 at 9:26 pm

    XP ? LOL !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  78. Frank Says:
    March 13th, 2010 at 9:35 pm

    Stick with your netbook ? Ok ! XP just don’t utilize graphics and memory and the CPU of a powerhouse ?

    Intel Core i7 960 @ 4 GHz D0 Stepping
    Coolermaster V8 CPU Cooler – RR-UV8-XBU1-GP
    EVGA X58 3 Way Classified Motherboard – 141-BL-E760-A1
    6 GB Tri Channel Corsair Dominator PC3 12800 Memory : 8-8-8-24 1T @ 1600 MHz
    EVGA GTX 295 CO-OP FTW 1792 MB , Core @ 684, Memory @ 2160 MHz , Shader @ 1476 MHz
    4 x WD 80 GB Velociraptor 10 K HDD’s Raid 0
    WD Extreme Lighted External 250 GB HDD ( Back up and storage )
    Creative X-Fi Fatal1ty Titanium Pro – Toslink Optical
    Logitech Z5500 505 Watt Speakers – DTS Digital Surround Sound
    Coolermaster Cosmos CSX Wraith # 41 / 300 : HDD Cooling Mod , Case Fan Upgrade
    NZXT Sentry LX High Fan Controller – ACC-NT-SENTRY-LX
    Coolermaster UCP 1100 Watt Power Supply ; 88% Efficiency , 1320 Watt Peak
    Windows 7 Ultimate Signature Edition 64 Bit ( Steve Ballmer )
    ASUS 26 ” Monitor ( Lovin’ It )

  79. ttx Says:
    April 7th, 2010 at 6:06 am

    windows vista and windows 7 (vista 7) sucks it is slow and hackers love it and it has been hacked again and again and again microsoft said it was safe what a lie and yes i have all it take to run it but it is slow slow slow
    and it tale a lo0t of memory to run it and you will lose alot of your software won’t install or won’t run so i am taking xp pro it works. vista and windows 7 that is vista 7 don’t the hole for hacekers can not be patched
    and if you do not want updates microsoft makes you take them they can log in your computer at will and if microsoft owe them they can pay for them been fixed when they messup so send to the bill to microsoft . XP IS KING

  80. Chaplain Winston Says:
    May 13th, 2010 at 3:25 am

    Hello. Do you mind if I cry sour grapes for a few moments of your time. Windows has been an organizational flop. I assumed that folders would be the solution but I ended up having so many I should have created a spreadsheet to keep track of where they are and what they contain. Under DOS I did so automatically for I knew the short comings. I finally found a PDF by Microsoft today that describes the new features of Windows 7, but does not describe the old features taken away, as I have seen with Office 2003 (which I will keep) when Office 2007 was made available. Hockey Puck! It is just and advanced media center Internet driven machine with its head in the cloud. Unfortunately my XP is pretty much the same way now. At least I don’t have to pay a cable company for entertainment.

    I began my Geek trek in High School programming with a Basic Complier from a Teletype Machine to a remote IBM 360 Main Frame for two semesters in 1970. That is when I found my niche. I then worked for BofA and Chevron doing research and developement, Telecommunications, DataBase systems like IMS and DB2, trouble shooting and applying fixes to operating system code, etc. Organizing my processes was difficult at best on Main Frames as well. I thought PC’s would be the solution, NOT.

    Niche-less to say today as a Self-Published-Author I have a haystack of books and other written materials on my HD and external HD’s. What has Microsoft done to help me sit on my haystack to find the needle or needle’s I’m looking for? Practically nothing for the search program is looking for a needle in a haystack you can’t sit on and feel the prick. For some reason both Microsoft and Apple refuse to develop any .doc, doc1, .txt, etc. word document organizational tools.

    Unlike music and videos I can not find a vendor that will search my drives, locate all my docs, and provide a directory in alphabetical order, with file locations, I can click to load or merge into folders of like types, or the same name (I like to edit a lot). At least RealPlayer and Windows Media Player will do a partial job for music and videos.

    Just because I am paranoid and haven’t been able upload/download my books for 16 years, and make money, does not mean someone is not out to get me…

10 Trackbacks For This Post

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