As I look into my Windows Vista desktop my view is a bit hazy right now. If you're considering an upgrade to Vista or looking at a new PC right now, read this first.
My experiences in buying computers since the late 1980s haven't been the best. First there was the 8088 powered PC that ran on DOS and had a "whopping" 20 MB hard drive. Then a few years later I bought a PC running Windows 3.1, just under a year before Microsoft rolled out Windows 95 and rendered it obsolete. This past December I bought a new PC, but Microsoft wasn't ready yet with Vista, so the box had XP in it. I was determined not to be burned this time, so I sent off for the free upgrade that came with the computer.
After problems with the upgrade center's website registration and numerous phone calls to straighten things out, the Vista discs finally came in April. Fortunately I had burned a recovery DVD for both the PC and backed up all my programs and files. When you buy a new PC, do a recovery disk by all means if one isn't supplied with the unit.
It took several hours to do the upgrade. Microsoft says so in their upgrade advisor, which displays during the process. Then I attempted to update Vista with one of the "recommended" files, which I don't remember the name because when I installed it the computer went blank, displaying only text message "missing operating system." When that happens you know you're not having a good day.
After pulling my hair out, I then did a clean install of Vista and installed as many programs as I could from the DVD. Then I replaced all files. I installed all of the drivers I could, including those I had to download to work with Vista. If you upgrade to Vista, I can guarantee that drivers for some of your older peripherals and some of your older software will no longer function. I had to put a favorite scanner in the closet because there's no driver available for it (at least not for free). Also, I tried fixing my Norton antivirus program but stopped when I got a warning that a change Norton recommended would jeapordize the functionality of Vista. So that issue's not resolved yet.
Now that everything's set up, the PC runs a bit slow, so I've also got to up my RAM from 512 MB to at least 1 GB, which I plan to do. Guess that will speed things up a bit. We'll see. After tweaking msconfig so certain nonessential software will not start when booting I improved things just a tad. I'm just a bit ticked off when the screen dims and a window pops up imploring me to grant permission to do a particular operation, no matter how trivial it may be. This is sort of like the little kid who keeps tugging at your shirttails and you just want him to go away.
Closing Thoughts
If you haven't upgraded to Vista yet, I would wait a while at least until Microsoft works out more of the bugs. This has happened with every new Windows release, so it's to be expected. Still want to upgrade. Here's some more information:
Vista's minimum system requirements for Home Premium , according to Microsoft, are a 1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor, 1 GB of RAM (memory), 40 GB hard drive with at least 15 GB of available space, Support for DirectX 9 graphics with WDDM Driver, 128 MB of graphics memory, Pixel Shader 2.0 in hardware - 32 bits per pixel, a DVD-ROM drive, audio output and Internet access. An open Internet connection is recommended as you install Vista, since the setup program scans the Microsoft site for any updates.
Prices, according to ZD Net, are not cheap. An upgrade to the Home Basic version of Vista is $99 (full version $199). On the upper end, Vista Ultimate is $199 for the upgrade (full version $349). Of course there are intermediate levels of Vista, including the business version.
Finally, let me point out some alternatives if you're fed up with playing the Microsoft game: If you can afford a nice new computer, consider a Macintosh with dual processors running OS-X, especially if you run lots of graphics and video applications. I have worked on one doing graphic design and have had few headaches with Macs. On the other hand, if you have an older computer that wouldn't even run XP, look into one of the flavors of Linux Suse or Ubuntu. I have an older Pentium II PC on Suse loaded with open source "Office" type apps and great photo manipulation software (GIMP). The installation CDs or DVDs can be had fairly cheaply and some of this can be downloaded and installed.