I just bought a copy of Vista Business and a new HDD off of newegg so that I can dual boot Vista and XP. I need to start learning Vista, as my clients will eventually be using it. What do you guys think? What do I need to do once I get it installed?
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I am taking the Vista plunge...
- Thread starter Lyquist
- Start date
First:
Read this and heed it - well, at least the first post.
Second:
Read this and heed it just as much - and again, at least the first post.
After that, browse over this forum, ask questions, etc. Note the following before you begin:
1) Vista isn't XP. Don't go into Vista with preconceptions of how you think it should work or why; just know it's a new OS, it works differently under the hood. This leads to..
2) Vista doesn't work like XP. It's not an idle OS like any other OS ever made. See #3 below.
3) Vista uses about half the RAM you have in your machine for day-to-day activity because of SuperFetch duties, meaning it will precache a ton of the stuff you normally use in your "routine". This self-tuning takes anywhere from 1 to 2 weeks. During that period of time, Vista simply won't sit still for the most part because it is not an idle OS (note #2 above) and it will watch what you do for as long as you have it installed. It's not "hidin' in your machine, watching ur actions" as I've heard people say, it's monitoring your patterns of usage so it can best optimize itself for your behaviors and quirks when it comes to how you use Vista. See #1 and #2 above for clarification.
VISTA IS NOT A RAM HOG so don't head down that path, please. Imagine if you paid for a Ferrari that could do 200 MPH and you never drove it past 55 MPH. That would suck, wouldn't it? Ok, same principle: If you happen to have 2GB of RAM and you barely crack 512MB of usage under XP under the heaviest of circumstances (gaming, DVD encoding, whatever) then get ready for a surprise because... Vista sees all that RAM and thinks of it as pure horsepower, which in many respects it is. So when and if you see Vista showing 512, 750, 1GB of RAM in use according to Task Manager, calm down, take a deep breath, and read #1, #2, and #3 above, again. Print 'em out if you have to, keep 'em handy so you "get it" and don't go down the lamer path and just whine cry bitch moan complain compare it to <insert other OS here> etc etc ad nauseum infinitum.
It's big, it's mean, and it's not taking any shit... It's Vista, and it's the new Sheriff in town, at least on the Windows platform.
If you have questions, I/we have answers, but... but... and this is a BIG but (and keep Sir Mix-A-Lot away from me)... I/we seriously hope you'll at least spend time reading back through postings here at the forum, use the Search feature, do your own research instead of asking the same questions that have been answered countless times and exist now as "archived" material that you can easily scan through with a few clicks and a few minutes.
Hope this helps... have fun, always.
Read this and heed it - well, at least the first post.
Second:
Read this and heed it just as much - and again, at least the first post.
After that, browse over this forum, ask questions, etc. Note the following before you begin:
1) Vista isn't XP. Don't go into Vista with preconceptions of how you think it should work or why; just know it's a new OS, it works differently under the hood. This leads to..
2) Vista doesn't work like XP. It's not an idle OS like any other OS ever made. See #3 below.
3) Vista uses about half the RAM you have in your machine for day-to-day activity because of SuperFetch duties, meaning it will precache a ton of the stuff you normally use in your "routine". This self-tuning takes anywhere from 1 to 2 weeks. During that period of time, Vista simply won't sit still for the most part because it is not an idle OS (note #2 above) and it will watch what you do for as long as you have it installed. It's not "hidin' in your machine, watching ur actions" as I've heard people say, it's monitoring your patterns of usage so it can best optimize itself for your behaviors and quirks when it comes to how you use Vista. See #1 and #2 above for clarification.
VISTA IS NOT A RAM HOG so don't head down that path, please. Imagine if you paid for a Ferrari that could do 200 MPH and you never drove it past 55 MPH. That would suck, wouldn't it? Ok, same principle: If you happen to have 2GB of RAM and you barely crack 512MB of usage under XP under the heaviest of circumstances (gaming, DVD encoding, whatever) then get ready for a surprise because... Vista sees all that RAM and thinks of it as pure horsepower, which in many respects it is. So when and if you see Vista showing 512, 750, 1GB of RAM in use according to Task Manager, calm down, take a deep breath, and read #1, #2, and #3 above, again. Print 'em out if you have to, keep 'em handy so you "get it" and don't go down the lamer path and just whine cry bitch moan complain compare it to <insert other OS here> etc etc ad nauseum infinitum.
It's big, it's mean, and it's not taking any shit... It's Vista, and it's the new Sheriff in town, at least on the Windows platform.
If you have questions, I/we have answers, but... but... and this is a BIG but (and keep Sir Mix-A-Lot away from me)... I/we seriously hope you'll at least spend time reading back through postings here at the forum, use the Search feature, do your own research instead of asking the same questions that have been answered countless times and exist now as "archived" material that you can easily scan through with a few clicks and a few minutes.
Hope this helps... have fun, always.
digital_exhaust
[H]ard|DCer of the Month - May 2008
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All of the advice bbz offered in that post is good advice, but I personally think that the part I quoted there is very important... Many of us here have been actually using Vista for quite a while now, and can and will help. Just ask and I'm sure that you'll get the answers you seek... Just don't loose your patience because it's different than XP, and the learning curve is completely different than it was in the past. I think alot of the bitching and bashing is the result of people assuming that it would be like moving from Win2k to XP, and it's not...it's different, and different can be a good thing.......in my opinion.
Another reason for the bitching is that it's easier and apparently more fun (and cool) to just whine and blame Microsoft, instead of taking a few minutes to search, read, or just try and figure out the answer. As you mentioned, many of the common issues have already been asked, discussed, and answered. If they haven't been answered, post it, and someone will figure it out.
Zardoz
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bbz_Ghost sums it up good, like he advises you will find your system very busy for the next day or 2 drive running alot some memory usage etc. it's all normal and doing what it needs to do...
officermartinez
[H]ard|Gawd
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I am installing my updates right now.. I "just" finished installing Vista Ultimate x64.. I am loving it.. I took the liberty of changing a few things now that I am on Vista..
Upgraded my Corsair Dominator 1066 ram from 2gb to 4gb..
Changed my motherboard from Abit IN9 32X-MAX 680i to a XFX 680i LT..
Everything seems to run extremely well.. The ONLY issue I have encountered so far is my mouse.. My pointer "jumps" occassionally. It's an A4TECH 750BF lazer mouse 2600 DPI).
Upgraded my Corsair Dominator 1066 ram from 2gb to 4gb..
Changed my motherboard from Abit IN9 32X-MAX 680i to a XFX 680i LT..
Everything seems to run extremely well.. The ONLY issue I have encountered so far is my mouse.. My pointer "jumps" occassionally. It's an A4TECH 750BF lazer mouse 2600 DPI).
TheRapture
Supreme [H]ardness
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I will have to agree on this. I have been running betas since a year and a half ago, and the RTM was nice. When I use an XP machine now, it feels.....old.
Once I had a retail upgrade copy in my hand (bought it legally), XP was dual booted for a bit less than 2 weeks and it was bye bye xp pro.
officermartinez
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Not bad, not bad.. I guess the only way I can get a 5.9 on my hard drive is to run a SCSI setup or run a 10,000 Raptor.. Either way, it's it ain't happening.. I am plenty satisfied with my 500gb Seagate Barracuda!
Mansize_tissue
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officermartinez, why did you opt for a motherboard change when you upgraded to Vista; were there problems with your Abit board? Also, did you run into many difficulties when having 4x 1GB of RAM?
officermartinez
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ZERO issues with 4gb's of ram. None what-so-ever! With my Abit board, yes, I had several issues.
Issue #1 - overclocking the quadcore. It has since been fixed on a BIOS release I am told, but there was an issue with the multiplier. Only 2 of the 4 cores would overclock.
Issue #2 - quadcore compatibility. There wasn't any.
Issue #3 - random reboots. Often, I would get a NV4_DISP.DLL error for NO reason.
Issue #4 - FSB limitations. My FSB max limit was about 340. The XFX appears to run with ZERO issues at my current setting of 400 FSB.
All of those issues were not existant when I was running my E6600 dual core processor. The issues occurred only after I installed a QX6700 quadcore.
Mansize_tissue
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OK, thank you. Is there any reason you chose the LT board over something like eVGA's 680i? It just seems like a downgrade going from one of the most expensive 680i boards to an LT version. How are the LT boards compared to a normal 680i, are there many drawbacks. Because i thought there were loads of memory compatibility problems with 680i boards, especially when running 4GB, and if the LT doesn't have these issues i may well consider it as opposed to the eVGA 680i because i want to have 4x 1GB of RAM at some point.
Must say I'm fairly impressed with Vista Ultimate so far. I've had a few issues with my DVD-RW disappearing but I've resolved that. Flash was a bugger to install also, but a quick Google search provided the solution. There is no Logitech driver for my MX510 mouse, so I can't map buttons. No crashes, very stable so far (touchwood). HDD does grind quite a bit more, but I've turned System Restore off as I never used it anyway and the caching is still in its infancy. On the gaming side of things, C&C TS seems to work fine. Thumbs up
Not true, I got a 5.9 with an onboard RAID0 and two perpendicular-tech Seagate SATA's.
But, I see now what I'd need to do to crank those last .2 points for my Index score...
Oh, well, my Quad core upgrade will have to wait for next year sometime...
Also,
It will accept 4 gigs and register them, however, you won't have the full 4 gigs for available system RAM. I believe, I could be wrong. I just went ahead and installed x64 in anticipation of upgrading very Soon™.
digital_exhaust
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It may be more than you need with XP, but 2g is sort of the "sweet spot" for Vista... it runs OK on 1g, but 2g really makes a big difference....
officermartinez
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Must say I'm fairly impressed with Vista Ultimate so far. I've had a few issues with my DVD-RW disappearing but I've resolved that. Flash was a bugger to install also, but a quick Google search provided the solution. There is no Logitech driver for my MX510 mouse, so I can't map buttons. No crashes, very stable so far (touchwood). HDD does grind quite a bit more, but I've turned System Restore off as I never used it anyway and the caching is still in its infancy. On the gaming side of things, C&C TS seems to work fine. Thumbs up
Exact same thing here.. The HDD is a tad noisy'er and my mouse "jumps".. I am getting the Logitech Model: 910-000093 G5 gaming mouse (its Vista Certified) today. That should take care of the only minor issue I am having. F.E.A.R. and 3dmark06 BOTH run perfectly fine!
Mansize_tissue said:
For me, there are NO drawbacks now that I am on a 680i LT board. The board doesn't have the 3rd PCI-E x16 (for a phys-x card) - no biggie.. No silent pipe on the NB/SB - no biggie.. This board rocks. I am perfectly satisfied with my purchase. It overclocks just as good (probably even better) than my Abit board. (disclaimer - overclocks my quadcore better)
Luckily most of our customers have been wise enough to skip Vista for the utter crap it is. XP performs everything necessary, installing Vista is nothing but asking for trouble.
One whole city got tricked into getting Vista through some ass-wad consultant looking to build a house with the consulting fees resulting from the numerous problems with Vista. They're in it deep at the moment. Only the 'compatability' surveys are consuming several thousands of dollars rofl! What a bunch of dolts.
One whole city got tricked into getting Vista through some ass-wad consultant looking to build a house with the consulting fees resulting from the numerous problems with Vista. They're in it deep at the moment.
Only the 'compatability' surveys are consuming several thousands of dollars rofl! What a bunch of dolts.Well, I have had Vista running for a day now and so far I like it. I have all my external hardware working (two printers/label maker/NAS/router/hub). I even tried dreamescene, wasnt all that impressed with it, maybe if the scenes/videos were higher in resolution it would look better. The only negative I can find with Vista is the HDD noise. After reading all the posts I realize this will abate in time but for right now I am getting a headache from my raptor.
The only game I have installed so far is counter strike source, I t works flawlessly for me so far. I will be installing more games today, so hopefully they will work as well as CSS has.
The only game I have installed so far is counter strike source, I t works flawlessly for me so far. I will be installing more games today, so hopefully they will work as well as CSS has.
The only negative I can find with Vista is the HDD noise. After reading all the posts I realize this will abate in time but for right now I am getting a headache from my raptor.
No offense, but that's not a negative for Vista, it's a positive. The negative there is you neglected to consider noise when either building the machine or purchasing the Raptor - there are ways to quiet that thing so you never hear it, really. 2 pencils and 2 thick rubber bands and that Raptor will "disappear" totally as far as noise is concerned.
Rubber bands, rubber grommets, doesn't matter in the long run (I'll take the rubber bands, though) - anything that decouples a hard drive from the case itself so the case doesn't become a "speaker" for the hard drive is just one method to quiet that machine down.
The only reason I consider it a negative is in prior installations of “older” operating systems this was not an issue (I have used raptor’s before in the very same case). Now, I know as you have posted, this is a “good” thing. And as I have posted I am aware that this will lesson as time goes on.
Again, all in all I like Vista, I am glad I made the switch. Also, thank you for your posts, they have been very informative and helpful! One question though, am I right to believe that the constant chatter from the HD is Vista indexing the drive for faster searches? The reason I ask this is yesterday, and for the life of me I can’t find it today (being a Vista noob can be annoying at times), I thought I saw something that said that the indexing was complete.
All right, back to discovering Vista!
Edit: I again found were it told me that the indexing was complete … in the performance window. That being said … I am an idiot!! While I was busy complaining about the noise, I didn’t realize that my one-care was performing a tune-up (anti-virus check/defrag) this morning. Once that was complete and it notified me that it was complete … low and behold the noise went away. Of course I blamed this lack of knowledge on my dual core cpu,
the reason being if not for that I would have noticed a slowdown in the responsiveness of the OS.Edit 2: I tried the search function and wow what a difference compared to xp. Once the indexing is complete it is like instant. Bbz_ghost, I stand mightily corrected, the “noise” (well yesterdays, as of edit one … today’s, after extensive troubleshooting
can be blamed on something else, me) is indeed a “good thing”!!
Zardoz
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Luckily most of our customers have been wise enough to skip Vista for the utter crap it is. XP performs everything necessary, installing Vista is nothing but asking for trouble.
One whole city got tricked into getting Vista through some ass-wad consultant looking to build a house with the consulting fees resulting from the numerous problems with Vista. They're in it deep at the moment.
IMO Vista is not utter crap. however I do agree that XP does everything necessary for most people right now. Installing anything without testing or not a migration path is plane stupidly. You would not switch to a Linux platform at the drop of a hat would you? same different, you would do testing and have migration plans in place.
That city sounds stupid someone should get fired.
Zardoz
2[H]4U
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The only reason I consider it a negative is in prior installations of older operating systems this was not an issue (I have used raptors before in the very same case). Now, I know as you have posted, this is a good thing. And as I have posted I am aware that this will lesson as time goes on.
Again, all in all I like Vista, I am glad I made the switch. Also, thank you for your posts, they have been very informative and helpful! One question though, am I right to believe that the constant chatter from the HD is Vista indexing the drive for faster searches? The reason I ask this is yesterday, and for the life of me I cant find it today (being a Vista noob can be annoying at times), I thought I saw something that said that the indexing was complete.
All right, back to discovering Vista!
Vista is a very live OS. With that it does indexing, adjust data to user usage (superfetch) also maintains itself when you are not using the system (virus,updates,defrag. etc.) at first you system is very busy, but as time goes on, it will chill down a lot as it gets to know the user and falls in a routine that fits your usage.
First:
Read this and heed it - well, at least the first post.
Second:
Read this and heed it just as much - and again, at least the first post.
After that, browse over this forum, ask questions, etc. Note the following before you begin:
1) Vista isn't XP. Don't go into Vista with preconceptions of how you think it should work or why; just know it's a new OS, it works differently under the hood. This leads to..
2) Vista doesn't work like XP. It's not an idle OS like any other OS ever mad. See #3 below.
3) Vista uses about half the RAM you have in your machine for day-to-day activity because of SuperFetch duties, meaning it will precache a ton of the stuff you normally use in your "routine". This self-tuning takes anywhere from 1 to 2 weeks. During that period of time, Vista simply won't sit still for the most part because it is not an idle OS (note #2 above) and it will watch what you do for as long as you have it installed. It's not "hidin' in your machine, watching ur actions" as I've heard people say, it's monitoring your patterns of usage so it can best optimize itself for your behaviors and quirks when it comes to how you use Vista. See #1 and #2 above for clarification.
VISTA IS NOT A RAM HOG so don't head down that path, please. Imagine if you paid for a Ferrari that could do 200 MPH and you never drove it past 55 MPH. That would suck, wouldn't it? Ok, same principle: If you happen to have 2GB of RAM and you barely crack 512MB of usage under XP under the heaviest of circumstances (gaming, DVD encoding, whatever) then get ready for a surprise because... Vista sees all that RAM and thinks of it as pure horsepower, which in many respects it is. So when and if you see Vista showing 512, 750, 1GB of RAM in use according to Task Manager, calm down, take a deep breath, and read #1, #2, and #3 above, again. Print 'em out if you have to, keep 'em handy so you "get it" and don't go down the lamer path and just whine cry bitch moan complain compare it to <insert other OS here> etc etc ad nauseum infinitum.
It's big, it's mean, and it's not taking any shit... It's Vista, and it's the new Sheriff in town, at least on the Windows platform.
If you have questions, I/we have answers, but... but... and this is a BIG but (and keep Sir Mix-A-Lot away from me)... I/we seriously hope you'll at least spend time reading back through postings here at the forum, use the Search feature, do your own research instead of asking the same questions that have been answered countless times and exist now as "archived" material that you can easily scan through with a few clicks and a few minutes.
Hope this helps... have fun, always.
Bow to you, sir.
ok, i read the posts by bz ghost, and others, i have searched for and found not much that actually tells how to do a dual boot with xp and vista, the most i have gotten out of it, is to use gparted to partition my hard drive, but not anything else, while i do not quite need a step by step, i do need a little more than what i have found here. i am going to upgrade in the next week to a new CPU, RAM, and MoBo, and have a new 500gb barracuda to stick into it, and was planning on dual booting to see which would work with my SW and wto experiment with vista. i think i will be partitioning my HD 250/250. but what else and how do i do it, install xp first, or vista? i will be using xp64, and vista business.
You will need to install the oldest operating system first. XP doesn't know anyting about Vista...while Vista already knows about XP. See what I'm saying??