I loaded Windows Vista Beta 2 on an older DELL with a Pentium 4 @ 1.7 G. 512 ram ,Turtle Beach sound card, Generic Ethernet and USB/Firewire cards. (With this system and XP the DELL run like a dream , no problems.)With Vista, TheOS didn't like my sound card ,it didn,t like my ethernet or USB/Firewire card. It went to BLUE screen numerous times and dumped memory. Most Cases when it dumped memory it referenced a file associated with my sound card. I unloaded Vista Beta and went back to XP. All in all I guess it doesn't like older machines.

by wjarvey (See profile) - June 20, 2006 10:44 PM PDT

Computer Consultant Richard C.Dumas says


For several days I have been testing The new Windows Vista Beta software package on my brand new HP Pavillion dv5020us laptop with 1.99GHz and 1022MG of RAM- AMD Turion 64 Mobile ML-37 3DNow 2.0GHz processor and ATI RADEON Xpress 200 series 128. MB Mem video - I had intended to use this Beta version for evaluation purposes until it is released to the public with a sched date of just after Jan for home versions however,

After only four days of use I have reverted back to Windows XP Pro for the following reasons- the file which is 3.5 GB took 2 hrs and 15 min on the first install as an UPGRADE install which means it saved my programs presently used. I found that there are more bugs in the program than Raid Roach Hotels- I suffered many crashes w/o reason and most of the software carried over corrupted so it wouldnt work properly or at all- therefore after fighting it for two solid days and nights I reinstalled it the second time . This time as a CLEAN install that automatically included a new folder created called WINDOWS OLD in which all my current programs and existing files were put into, inc the entire contents of the C Drive- This install took 1 hr and 25 min. However, virtually none of the internal hardware drivers were installed and therefore inoperative until I found a source for all of them and manually reinstalled them. Then I proceeded to reinstall the very few basic programs I was using before this second install. This whole proceedure took a total of MORE THAN 8 hours and still had some small items to fine tune- A major problem with this install also was that I had no use for anything they saved in that new OLD folder having completely backed up my system. The prob being that there was no way to get it to the trash bin or delete it. I seemed to be able to get rid of most of the files individually until the folder showed empty. However when I tried to get rid of the folder Windows kept showing that it was trying to empty out almost 7GB from an EMPTY folder. After waiting several minutes for this ODOMETER to keep clicking away, I also got an error mesa that I didnt have PERMISSION to do this despite the fact I am and ADMINISTRATOR. If that isnt confusing enough every single move or change you make goes into a new folder called Recent Changes . The result is that somehow all those 7000 files I thought I had deleted were somewhere still in limbo causing my HD to show 40GB of used space with the identical previously installed stuff under XP showing 16GB. I never did figure out how to get rid of that extra almost 40GB on the HD.
The Vista program uses entirely new and unfamiliar ICONS which takes some time to get used to-- The familiar "Run" command found in the "Start" part used by so many advanced users was no longer to be found there and w/o documentation to tell me otherwise took almost two days to find in under TASK MANAGER which also had had some changes made to its pop up window- Task Mg is still accessed by Ctl-Alt-Del- after which a new wavy blue screen takes over the desktop and offers the viewer several choices-
MY DOCUMENTS has now been replaced with simply DOCUMENTS which is also a little confusing due too the fact it contains some new catagories and a new face.

The process of refeshing upon opening each folder to see its contents is extremely slow while U wait for a new green bar to traverse across the whole top of the file folder similiar to the familiar sliding install bar on so many install programs, and if you have multiple files in seperate folders within the original folder you have to wait the whole thing out again each time it opens the more inner folders , something Windows XP did in almost an instant.

Most disappointing is the number of new software and drivers avail to run on Vista- espectally the new technology 64 bit version which are almost non existant, so I used the 32 more normal and universally used at present. After four days of nothing but pure struggle I determined that there are presently only two Internet Security programs that have been written for, and will work with, Vista, products from Trend Micro and Computer Assoc. I used the Trend product and got an error mesa after every boot that said it had an internal problem and had to shut down. I never got around to the Computer Assoc product. Norton NIS and Anti Virus from 2003 to 2006 will not work with Vista. I also found that although Acronis True Image, which is the backup prog I presently use, loads OK, however when you try to do a complete hard drive backup it crashes halfway through the pre setup of the task. My present Internet Accelerator DAP or Download Accel Prog was unable to be loaded, running into an inability to open a certain file in System 32 halfway thru the install. The same problem occurred when I tried to install NERO 7 upon which one of its components INCD is vital if Acronis is to be used in any backup of the... (Read more)

by Cyril100 (See profile) - June 17, 2006 6:11 PM PDT

Stagnent operating systems breed Linux workstations. Software developers get paid to create software. They can easly create software for Vista. Looking forward to its offical release!

by dthomason119 (See profile) - May 31, 2006 7:55 AM PDT

I feel that Microsoft has changed the structure so much on the next gen of apps that it might end up hurting its success. As MS has grown it has always been at least a version backwards compatible, but not now. I haven't beta tested the Vista, but I know there are changes in the IE 7 beta that just don't work with some basic Windows fundamentals.

As a network administrator for many large clients, I can assure you that the tech in place right now is barrel compatible with what they have in place now. Companies are just now upgrading to XP because their third party apps are just now getting on that platform. It won't be for another 5-10 years that they have the budget to upgrade, so Vista is going to miss out. Because by that time the next OS will be released and people will just go with it.

Of course, that's just how I see it.

by Getitbuilt (See profile) - May 30, 2006 5:48 AM PDT