Top 5 Reasons To Avoid Windows Vista
Version 0.52 (Updated Mar 2008)

This article lists the five top reasons not to upgrade to Windows Vista.

5. Security

Many people have a misunderstanding that the latest operating system has the best security. Take Windows XP when it was released. Why does Windows XP need to be continuously updated via Automatic Updates?

Microsoft has released many patches for various XP holes with the 2 mega ones being Service Pack 1 and Service Pack 2. Service Pack 3 is coming soon.

Update March 2008: Whole slew of patches are now downloaded via Windows Update for Vista. This just proves the point that security is never 100% perfect.

4. Hardware Compatibility

Hardware vendors are catching up fast with many releasing beta drivers. Till then, you can check your hardware in this list and see whether its compatible with Windows Vista.

This was a big issue previously and has been lightened thanks to manufacturers rolling out Vista drivers. But it is still a issue with older devices that are not supported by the manufacturers. Like bluetooth and infrared adaptors.

3. Software Compatibility

Examples of software programs are Slysoft's AnyDVD, DivX Converter, ZoneAlarm, WS-FTP,

Games like Sims 2 and Second Life also fail. You can check the full list here.

2. High System Requirements.

The recommended system requirements are much higher than XP:

This is perfectly all right, since most of us who got our PC 1-3 years ago would most likely fit nicely under Vista Basic requirements.

But that means you will be foregoing performance. Think about it, your current Windows XP system, which far exceeds Windows XP system requirements, is now going to contain another OS that has a higher system requirement.

The bottom line? The upgrade to Vista will make your system slower than with XP.

1. No Features That You Really Need Right Now

You can find a full list of Vista features here.

DirectX 10? You need the latest graphic card and a relatively fast CPU to run games at full native resolution.

Windows Aero? It's just some candy which reduces overall performance. But if you insist, there's Vista Transformation Pack for Windows XP (free).

Instant Search? Get Google Desktop Search (free).

Encrypting File System? Truecrypt. Its free.

Games Explorer? Create a folder in your start menu (double click Programs, New Folder) and move your games to there.

Internet Explorer 7? Download IE7 for Windows XP

ReadyBoost? Just upgrade your RAM - its still much faster than using a thumb drive

You get the idea.

Conclusion

Stick with XP for now :)

Last Updated 2nd March 2008.

Errors? Omissions? Need Help? Know something? Post your queries in the Windows Vista Discussion Forum.

This document is Copyright(©) 2001-2008 by G.Ganesh.

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UndeadDevil on Tuesday 13 Feb 07 12:51:51 AM I upgraded to Windows Vista and now unable to enjoy any Games. Microsoft says this will be the best Windows for gamers. Well I am having major issues, I am unable to play Unreal Tournament 2004 at decent frame rates (Get between 5-20fps, compared to the 100fps+ in Windows XP) Doom 3 works better, after lowering graphics details it is Playable most of the time, but does slow down alot. Command and Conquere General's slows down completly randomly, one minute your having a battle next your getting frustrated as its running at 1fps. My Machine is a Dual Core 3Ghz, 1GB Ram, GeForce 7300GT. I get a Performance Rating of 4.6 in Vista. | reply | UndeadDevil on Tuesday 13 Feb 07 12:54:51 AM Also I should add that getting sound in Vista took alot of time, eventually I found Beta drivers for my SoundMax ADI1986A HD. | reply | UndeadDevil on Tuesday 13 Feb 07 9:45:56 AM Also now Tried Half Life 2 and Counter Strike, both games are unplayable. I'm very annoyed. I paid alot of Money for Vista only to find that I can not play any games. Performance is worse in the final version of Vista than it was in the Beta Versions. I have to agree with Bootstrike. DO NOT GET VISTA FOR A FEW MONTHS, IT HAS HUGE PROBLEMS | reply | UndeadDevil on Saturday 17 Feb 07 12:42:44 AM I should update my previous comments, games are now working fine. The problem was not my graphics card or drivers but infact my Sound Card! I disabled it and suddenly everything worked perfectly. So I'm now using a Sound Blaster Live 5.1, unfortunately this 4 year old card is apparently not compatable with Windows Vista, thats odd as it was in RC1. Im using the NGO Modified Drivers and can now enjoy Vista for gaming (I noticed about a 5FPS drop) Now I have a new problem, every now and then explorer.exe starts playing up and my desktop corrupts (Graphicly) End tasking explorer solves this problem. | reply | sdjksdj on Friday 23 Feb 07 4:51:59 AM where did u find these drivers? i need them | reply | UndeadDevil on Monday 26 Feb 07 11:17:38 AM Which drivers, SoundMax ADI1986A or SB Live? http://www.ngohq.com/ for the Sound Blaster ones. If its SoundMax then i'm not saying because they are awful, will cause you nothing but problems. Just wait another week for the official release on your motherboard's site | reply | . on Thursday 4 Oct 07 4:15:22 PM upgrade to more Ram, you'll need atleast a gig or 2 more to run games on vista | reply |

Joker on Saturday 3 Mar 07 5:32:29 AM Well im stuck with vista, i just bought a new computer not really paying any mind to it being vista, the only thing i can play is halo 2 (pc) thats pretty much it so far, so obviously im pee'ved about this is there anything i can do to fix this problem...? wanting to play a few old games, everything is stock at the moment, 512 mb ram 160g hdd.....is there anything im missing? | reply | Joker on Saturday 3 Mar 07 5:36:23 AM System Specs intel penti 4 ati radeon 1100 graphics card not sure on the sound card 512 mb sdram 160g hdd any help would be greatly appreciated | reply | UndeadDevil on Tuesday 6 Mar 07 8:16:59 AM Have you installed the latest ATI drivers? With only 512mb of RAM you shouldn't be attempting to play games on that machine. It is extreamly low spec and below the min req for Vista Home Premium. You also didn't mention that its a laptop, I have not seen a laptop that manages to play games without costing a arm and leg. The ATI Radeon 1100 is so low spec that it would not play any recent game. Take the laptop back and get a Desktop which will be atleast 4 times more powerful for the same price? | reply |

Play Guy on Tuesday 20 Mar 07 8:18:25 PM I just bought a new gaming PC for over 2 grand, simply to find out it doesn't play games. This is the most ridiculous crap I've ever seen. Screw Vista; it's maddeningly broken. Way to jack it up Microsoft- one of these days someone is going to go crazy and shoot you all, and I'm going to read it in the paper and laugh. Stupid vista. | reply | UndeadDevil on Wednesday 21 Mar 07 1:41:52 AM I'm sorry but Games work fine on Vista. Games in my collection that work perfectly fine on Vista: Half Life 1,2,2EP1,Lost Cost Counter Strike Source Unreal Tournament 2004 The Sims 2 Diablo 2 Serious Sam 2 Call of Duty Command & Conquer Generals I had problems getting The Sims 2 to work, basicly it need a no-cd crack as Vista broke the CD Protection system it uses. Have you actually installed the drivers for your Graphics Card? Games generally need them to work no matter what system your using lol | reply |

Essji on Saturday 31 Mar 07 6:54:45 AM I'm switching back 2 Xp.For those who want to take the plunge to vista,I say,it was nice knowing u! | reply |

epsilon on Thursday 5 Jul 07 9:14:12 AM Here's what i notice with the gamers.. U buy vista after buying into the hype. Frame rates suck worse than XP. You make some compromises - lower graphic details, disable sound effects or cards that worked fine with XP (citing UndeadDevil). AND when u do c some improvement, ur happy even though frame rate still are way lower than wit xp & the usr experience sucks. MS teaches u to accept his over the years with every new OS. DATS NOT HOW ITS SUPPOSED BE! U pay for a better product, not crap... n don't get me started on the DRM crap. You decide what u do with ur PC, not MS or execs at hollywood. Sheeple who buy into this will face severe restrictions in a few years when MS dictates what u watch and can't. my 2 cents Peace | reply |

RockStar on Friday 20 Jul 07 6:23:28 AM hmmm.. Vista sure is trouble at the moment for compatibility stuff. It is important to ask urself whether you really need an update. All the software I need works fine under Windows XP sp2 why would I need Vista? Unless I'm forced to work on it I'm not considering any update. | reply |

degenerate1991 on Sunday 22 Jul 07 4:46:52 PM got a free vista upgrade with my comp. 1.5gb ram and a crappy IC video card. even media player lags and compatability sucks. I feel sorry for those with only 512mb ram. what a cruel experiment this is. when sp1 comes out I will try again with a ram upgrade. | reply | NeoMang on Friday 10 Aug 07 10:06:36 AM You guys gotta give Vista a chance. The posts above me are now months and months old. Vista, with a sweet Nvidia card rollign DirectX10 on a 64 bit OS running a 64 bit compat game also DX10 compat, and even Dual Core compatible is going to rock your face off. Youll have BETTER graphics and effects while actually getting same or better FPS because of DirectX10. | reply | Kermit on Tuesday 11 Sep 07 6:20:03 AM Bill Gates... is that you? | reply |

Richard on Saturday 27 Oct 07 7:45:16 AM Hi Guys, I too was a happy XP user. I went and splashed out on a Dell System. Quadcore Extreme Processer 3G and a GeForce 8800 Ultra 768MB and 4G of the quickest ram I could buy through Dell. I thought I would give Vista a go... moving forward etc but my external M Audio soundcards aren't working properly. I've d/ld the Vista drivers which are betas from months and months ago and the sound was crackly and popping etc ( I realise this is M Audios fault not vista). I have a couple of Monitor speakers which also cost me a pretty penny so there is no way I will use an Operating System currently that I can't get drivers for. Anyway the system has gone back to get XP 2005 Media Centre Edition installed and I hope to be having some fun on it in a few days. I'm disapointed about DirectX 10 not working with XP since I am going back there because I would like to play the newest games coming out with full eye candy but I might just wait until things have settled down a little and maybe there are some new sound card drivers available for me. I also have a 30inch monitor so have been told I may well need to upgrade to a second graphics card before I can look at going back down the Vista DirectX10 route running everything high as high can be.. Does the fact that I have a DirectX 10 capable graphics card not matter if I am only running XP? I hope XP keeps me happy for the next 6 months or so. | reply |

vistallation on Thursday 31 Jan 08 5:43:54 PM well vista works fine at the part of games that don´t have any issues installing them, but if u get anykind of error i would advise to forget about even trying to fix the installation problem or the game wont start problem, other than that there shouldn´t be anything major malfunctioning at the vista system | reply |

flam on Thursday 27 Mar 08 9:24:13 PM gamers with crappy PCs.... oh well it's your choice :) Vista is not bad but it is not good either it works perfectly as long as user is not stupid to the bone... if you have 512mb RAM stick to the XP or rather win2000NT there is no perfect solution to everything, there is no best OS.. | reply |

Jesse on Friday 28 Mar 08 6:41:49 PM It's the simple things about XP that I miss using Vista...like Properties when I right-click the desktop...or Run on the Start Menu. Of course it's possible to alter these things, but it's a pain! It's like having to switch settings to view the Classic View in the Control Panel for XP. In efforts to make things easier for most people, it's harder for others who are more experienced. The pretty graphics are just crap. As far as I'm concerned the basic grey of Windows 98 is fine. Games are meant to be pretty, but not my OS - that's meant to be responsive. I'm going to install Vista again, though, now that a SP has been released and see if I've changed my mind at all. :) | reply |

DX10 sucks monkey on Saturday 12 Apr 08 1:24:40 AM DX10 is Microsoft trying to get an edge on Sony. That's it. The difference in DX10 over DX9 is almost ZERO! Don't be a dumb a$$ and go buy vista for dx10. It sucks. Infact trying to run Vista with games is stupid. Vista already requires you to have an above normal spec for hardware and you want to run Crysis on max specs? Go buy a 360 for that. It's cheaper. Besides DX10 is a waste of time. Decreases a lot of FPS and doesn't do much in graphical increase. DON'T BELIEVE THE HYPE! | reply |

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