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 enlarge | From: Microsoft Software
Category: Software
List Price: $129.95
Buy New: $72.00
You Save: $57.95 (45%)
New (40) Used (6) from $72.00
Rating:  94 reviews
Sales Rank: 58
Format: Dvd-rom
Platform: Windows Vista
Media: DVD-ROM
Edition: Home Premium - Upgrade
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Operating System: Windows Vista
Shipping Weight (lbs): 3
Dimensions (in): 87.6 x 64.8 x 20.4
MPN: 66I-02388
Model: 66I-02388
UPC: 882224661324
EAN: 0882224661263
ASIN: B0013O54P8
Release Date: March 19, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Stick with trusty XP! This product is shocking November 24, 2008
I wrote a review of Vista not long after I started using it. I gave it two stars and suggested that while it's not worth replacing XP with Vista as there are a few annoyances, chiefly the lack of some of XP's best features, Vista isn't too bad. I am not a Microsoft basher, as I think XP is an excellent operating system. I've now realised just how good it was after a few months with Vista. I have wasted more time sorting out problems in Vista in two months than I did during the seven years I had with XP. It is fair to say that I now hate this OS to the point that it turns me into a kind of Basil Fawlty with Tourette's more often than not. My shiny new laptop has the imprint of my fist following a time when Vista just pushed me too far. Therefore I have deleted my original review and replaced it with this new one.
Let's start with Vista's good points. It looks marvellous, with its transparent windows and 3D effects. There is a display pane which gives you an overview of the contents of many file types without you having to open them. The sounds that herald failures or errors are far less annoying than those in XP. The colours are lovely too. And, er... that's it, unless you're the kind of computer user that enjoys spending hours and hours solving OS problems. If so, you'll have a field day here.
I'll start with the minor irritations, in no particular order.
Searching in XP was easy. You typed in the name of a file, specified your search criteria and you always found your file if it existed. Alas, Vista is very different. Search is done by indexing, which means that although the searches are faster your initial search won't find files in all but the most obvious locations. You can index every file on the computer of course, but this takes ages, uses a lot of space and (I am told) slows the computer down. There is an option for searching non-indexed files but you can't do this until you've done the indexed search first. Even then I have found search results to be unreliable. I would bet that people use Search to find system files rather more than they do to find a letter (it's likely to be in Letters, right?). Worse still, Service Pack 1 removed Search from the Start menu, and you have to download third-party programs or do a registry tweak to get it back.
There is no Network Connections folder - one of XP's more useful features was this folder where you could check and modify your internet connections all in one place. You can get it back, but it also involves a registry tweak.
Windows Update in XP installed the majority of the updates while the computer was running. Vista does this on shutdown and startup - which means that if updates have downloaded and you do a restart you can wait over 10 minutes to get your computer running again.
XP had a facility to associate a particular icon with certain file types. Not Vista - you have to download a third-party program to do this.
Screensavers often don't work properly.
In XP you were given useful information when you copied files, for example which particular file was being copied at any particular time. Vista doesn't do this, it just gives you a progress bar and a time estimate which is usually wildly inaccurate. Copying is painfully slow, too.
Say goodbye to Outlook Express - with Vista you get Windows Mail. It is similar to OE and indeed has some improvements, but whereas OE used your spell check from Word, Windows Mail only has a choice of 4 languages and the English option only allows for US English. I am not one of those Brits who gets sniffy about US spellings - they're just as valid as British spellings - but for work I need to use British English and get fed up with having to tell it that "realise", "marvellous" and the like are NOT wrong.
Unexpected shutdowns, freezes and the dreaded "not responding" are far more common than they were in XP. At least with XP you could, as a last resort, pull the plug and XP was savvy enough to recover from it. Do this with Vista and more often than not you'll have to wait while Vista repairs itself - admirable in one way, but it created the flipping problem itself!
I've gone on too long already, but please indulge a little further. I would like to describe how Vista ruined my computer today. I tried to copy a large collection of files from one folder to another. Halfway through the OS froze and stopped responding. I managed to restart - same thing. I mirrored this on my XP computer and there was no problem. Third time lucky...not quite. Halfway through the copy Vista froze and all the screen icons disappeared. No way to get Task Manager so I had to pull the plug. Vista then spent hours repairing itself on restart. Eventually I moved the files in small batches. Then I wanted to transfer some of these to DVD and got an error half way through. Another freeze - no way to restart normally so another unwanted switch off with the off button. Since then Vista refuses to start at all - any attempt to do so generates an error or just sits there halfway through startup. Somehow it has corrupted the hard drive and I am now waiting for those nice people at Dell to send me a new one.
There are worse things in life than OS problems, I know that all too well. But if you want to save yourself a lot of hassle, time and stress, stick with XP as long as you can. It sounds like Microsoft have already recognised that this shoddy product is a disgrace and if you're lucky, there will be a better OS (or at least a decent revamped version of Vista) before you are forced to change OS.
Thank you for listening.
More trouble than it's worth November 22, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I bought a new Dell XPS 1330 a few months ago which came with Vista as the OS and it's an inferior and buggy product. Here are the issues I've had to deal with:
1. Right out of the box, Windows would not shut down. Vista gives you something like seven options but all of them led to the same thing--the system froze. The only way to turn off my computer was with the power button.
2. The problem with the system turn off mysteriously solved itself after a month, but then I had problems connecting to the internet. I kept getting a dialog box saying "limited connectivity"--the basic issue was I was connected to my router, but for reasons best known to itself Vista wouldn't let any of my browsers access the net. This drove me bats and I ended paying a tech service a hundred bucks to fix it. It took them about 30 minutes--they said they were seeing the same problem over and over with Vista (they may be the only demographic to really love this OS, it must be making them a fortune).
3. The display driver just doesn't work with Vista (it's an nvidia driver, and this issue is all over blogs and net forums). It repeatedly causes the system to freeze, crash, and when that doesn't happen the screen will at odd moments fizzle into mandelbrot fractals or trippy 60s style lines. These inevitably end in the blue screen of death experience. I've downloaded a series of "updated" or "improved" drivers from Dell and nvidia and, if anything, the problem has gotten worse. This problem happens randomly, and it basically means I no longer use the $2,000 laptop I bought expressly for work for anything but casual web surfing--I simply can't afford to do anything on this computer that is work critical because chances are I'll lose it.
I've got some of the same nitpicky complaints about Vista aired elsewhere (it's HUGE memory hog, the Aero "experience" is more of a pain than a delight etc etc), but really the bottom line is that I just can't fathom putting out a product that is so bad; the biggest fan of Vista has to be Steve Jobs, it's almost as if Microsoft wants people to shift to Macs.
I'm no innate Microsoft basher (I used XP and NT for years w/no complaints), but my strong advice is avoid this OS if you can.
Do not buy November 17, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Never recieved item. Tried to email seller several times, no answer. Had to go to Amazon to get money back. I would never buy from this seller again.
Mojave Experiment is an insult! November 16, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Only the makers of this horrible, tragic system would have to trick people with a different name to get them to try it.Have had this on my computer for almost a year and let me say it has just about made me hate the internet!Everytime i see that commercial for the Mojave Experiment where they have people who are either(1) paid or (2)liars talk about how "cool" this product is, it makes me wanna jump thru the tv and strangle them!Microsoft dropped the ball on this one, it is absolutely without fail, a failure!So, if you are a martyr, or maybe need a few more grey hairs to get the complete Richard Gere look, try this, if you would rather enjoy your computer and the internet avoid this at all costs!
 GIve it a go you might like it November 14, 2008
I'm not going to start by saying a computer programmer or helped design the rocket ship because lets face it its a review over the web and you can be anything you like. Anyway....
I brought and updated to vista from xp and all I can say is boy am I glad that I did, the install process was fine took a while, but was problem free, the real problems started when vista loaded up, like everyone else I had some old programs/equipment plugged into my system, so I started to get some errors and the odd crash. thing was most of these problems were easily fixed with a update, there was still a couple, my printer was to old and not supported, now I was a bit upset at this as the printer was fine, but a quick Google search reviled that I just needed to install it as a newer model. yes vista seemed slower at first but again a quick search of the internet will revel that there is 2-3 programs that run in the background that can be switched off, the main one and the reason that your hard drive light might be on all the time is that vista archives everything and sorts it constantly (like having disk defrag running all the time) no worries turn it off in the settings, same as the scan it likes to run, turn off defender while your there, I installed spybot and AVG (both free) and grab yourself Firefox as a alternative to Internet explorer, if one isn't responding the other can take its place for a while and not had any problems, the machine is stable very fast to load up and to power down I have multiple applications open and its fine, and I have found the photo/video editing to work really well without having to spend lots on separate software.
there was a lot of early problems that have now been ironed out, like there was with XP or any early version of electrical item's that comes out, just don't expect to much if you have a old machine and less then 2 gig of ram, hell stuff 4 gig in your machine its so cheap now.....
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