Another Vista Thread...

[FieryGoose]

I'm seriously considering buying Vista before the year is up since I don't really want to install XP when I get my new hard drive. Reason being I'm just so bored of the old interface and want to upgrade to 4GB of memory soon.
So my question is, if I do go ahead and get Vista is there going to be any advantage to getting Vista Ultimate vs. Getting Home Premium? All I'm going to be using my computer is gaming and basic Video editing, Photoshop, and possibly some Maya/3D MAX (along with what every other computer users does downloading...) I just don't want to pay an Extra hundred bucks for features that I wont need. I do have a Xbox 360 and want automatic detection via home network, I'm guesing that's built into the core. Why would I or anyone else need Vista Ultimate? I'm sure I could get a overly simplified answer or overly technical answer on the Microsoft page, but I know you guys are mostly gamers and could give me a better answer considering what I use my computer for. Thanks. :cheers:

tangent: I'm not a super genius hacker or anything as you guys could probably tell by my lack of knowledge regarding something probably for the most part elementary in the world of computers. Basically I'm not going to be tweaking my OS and make it do weird stuff, so if that's all Ultimate does, I guess it's not for me. /tangent

 

[bigburpco]

Vista Ultimate's added features are pretty ****ing useless imo.

Comparison of the 4 editions here.

 

[Thandurin]

Home Premium is the way to go, there's just no benefit to getting Ultimate over it. Unless you wear a tinfoil hat and feel the need to encrypt your entire harddrive.

 

[Cole]

No point in really getting ultimate unless..... you umm.....

talk like a pirate?

 

[cjohnson]

hmmm You could use a BrickoPack to redisign the GUI, but thats up to you

 

[FieryGoose]

Yea I've tried stuff like windowsblinds and stuff but it seemed to eat up quite a bit of my computers speed, if that's possible. But it seems the general consensus is to go with home premium?

 

[AtomicSpark]

It all depends what features you want. I have Vista Business Edition on my notebook. Oh and that feature list is wrong. For example, you can install the games on the Business Edition and I am pretty sure you can install Remote Desktop Connection on Home Premium. I am not sure about Windows Fax and Scan. The only thing I can say for sure is the Ultimate Edition only features are defiantly Ultimate Edition only.

As far as the whole Vista vs. XP thing, I would say that each operating system has pro's and con's. Of course Vista uses more resources. It has a lot more features than XP did. It also can be tweaked to your liking and there are some improvements over XP (for those of you who call it just a "re-skin"). There is however a few problems you have to deal with. You'll hit some bumps once in awhile with program compatibility. Most of the time it is just old, no-name software that you have issues with. Also I seem to get a random Windows Explorer crash once in awhile. It restarts pretty smoothly, so I ignore it. Hopefully Service Pack 1 will fix a lot of the problems.

 

[Ridge]

Vista Home Premium 32bit on my machine...wish I had bought 64bit back in January so I could utilize all 4 gigs of my RAM...personally I love it...sure, it has a bad cred on it, but its stable as all hell...not to mention DX10 support...

 

[Chug a Bug]

I'm seriously considering buying Vista before the year is up since I don't really want to install XP when I get my new hard drive. Reason being I'm just so bored of the old interface and want to upgrade to 4GB of memory soon.
So my question is, if I do go ahead and get Vista is there going to be any advantage to getting Vista Ultimate vs. Getting Home Premium? All I'm going to be using my computer is gaming and basic Video editing, Photoshop, and possibly some Maya/3D MAX (along with what every other computer users does downloading...) I just don't want to pay an Extra hundred bucks for features that I wont need. I do have a Xbox 360 and want automatic detection via home network, I'm guesing that's built into the core. Why would I or anyone else need Vista Ultimate? I'm sure I could get a overly simplified answer or overly technical answer on the Microsoft page, but I know you guys are mostly gamers and could give me a better answer considering what I use my computer for. Thanks. :cheers:

tangent: I'm not a super genius hacker or anything as you guys could probably tell by my lack of knowledge regarding something probably for the most part elementary in the world of computers. Basically I'm not going to be tweaking my OS and make it do weird stuff, so if that's all Ultimate does, I guess it's not for me. /tangent

Yeah I was thoroughly bored with the XP gui too. I used Windowsblinds to change it theres also StyleXP etc that you can use to change the icons, welcome screen, bootscreen, etc. Mine looks like this:

bootscreen
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v322/chug-a-bug/?action=view&current=pirate.jpg

desktop

Changing your entire OS just for the sake of the GUI is daft in my opinion. I've no intention of switching to Vista anytime soon theres too many problems with it and it's slower than XP.

You don't need Windowsblinds if you're having problems with it you can change XP's themes without it for free you just won't get the option of transparent borders around the windows, etc. Or use Bricopacks to change the entire works in one go (also free, but less choice.) Shouldn't make any difference to speed as it doesn't leave any processes running in the background it just changes the system files' stored images.

 

[Ridge]

Eeeh wrong. Vista is just as stable if not moreso than XP nowadays...the GUI is a bit slower, but its got equal framerates when gaming. When you start a 3d game, Vista shuts down all unneccessary programs, freeing up memory for the app. I actually did an FPS comparison in some games and noticed a 5-10% increase in FPS in Vista. That was back in July...drivers for it nowadays make it even faster...

 

[cjohnson]

Yea I've tried stuff like windowsblinds and stuff but it seemed to eat up quite a bit of my computers speed, if that's possible. But it seems the general consensus is to go with home premium?

BrickoPacks dont. They replace the shell file so it is just the sam speed as luna.

 

[cjohnson]

and you can get one that look pretty much like vista

 

[Chug a Bug]

Eeeh wrong. Vista is just as stable if not moreso than XP nowadays...the GUI is a bit slower, but its got equal framerates when gaming. When you start a 3d game, Vista shuts down all unneccessary programs, freeing up memory for the app. I actually did an FPS comparison in some games and noticed a 5-10% increase in FPS in Vista. That was back in July...drivers for it nowadays make it even faster...

I didn't say it was unstable. It has problems with older games and drivers. And stability was never an issue on XP.

In tests of framerates of Quake Wars F.E.A.R Company of Heroes Stalker Oblivion Bioshock XP still comes out top though Vista is miles better than it used to be.

 

[AtomicSpark]

Opps, I was wrong. I did some more research and found out that you cannot have Remote Desktop Connection on either of the Home Editions. I guess that feature list is right after all.

 

[Javert]

Unless you're a security or IT administrator whore, you don't need Ultimate.

 

[Ridge]

Exactly. Its only useful if you want someone off site to show you how to do something, or vice versa...

And there are plenty of video drivers for Vista...here is a list of games I currently run with no problems whatsoever:

BF1942
BF2
BF2142
NFS: MW
NFS: Carbon
CFS1,2,3
FS2004,X
All my Source games
DiRT
IL-2 series

And Ive run both an ATI card and an nVidia card on Vista, so dont say incorrect stuff on that.

Have you even tried Vista? Know anyone using it? Sounds to me like you are just parroting the naysayers...

Probably the oldest game I own I will be trying shortly, and that is Jane's USAF and F/A-18...

 

[Kadayi]

Vista Home Premium 32bit on my machine...wish I had bought 64bit back in January so I could utilize all 4 gigs of my RAM...personally I love it...sure, it has a bad cred on it, but its stable as all hell...not to mention DX10 support...

Did you buy retail or OEM? If you bought retail then you can get M$ to send you the 64 bit edition by post (costs about $10) the details are in the retail box.

 

[Chug a Bug]

Yeah I have a copy of Vista Ultimate 32bit RTM. I've been using Vista since RC2. I have a dual boot.

 

[Ridge]

Did you buy retail or OEM? If you bought retail then you can get M$ to send you the 64 bit edition by post (costs about $10) the details are in the retail box.

I bought a System Builder version back in Jan...