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michaelalreadytaken

My Vista Upgrade Experience

I decided to go ahead and install Vista--curiosity does eventually kill the cat I guess.

1) The "compatibility" check disk from Dell, that runs first, said everything would be OK and to go ahead and upgrade.

2) Everything basically went OK. It took about three hours for the entire process.

3) After the computer went to "sleep" overnight, the wireless modem shut down and would not re-install due to compatibility issues. Point of amusement: "Would you like to check online for a solution to this problem? Actually, yes... LOL

4) I took a chance on a new Belkin USB wireless adapter which ($50) solved the problem nicely. I couldn't find any wireless adapters anywhere that actually said Vista compatible on the label. It linked right up.

I'm finding that the Belkin products are a world easier than Linksys and Netgear which can require some pretty arcane configuration to install.

5) Firefox "shimmies" "shakes" and "bounces" on some pages--I was able to find a fix for that-- right click on the bookmark tab and then uncheck the Bookmarks Toolbar. Problem solved. Firefox say version .0.0.4 will address the issue. The latest version is 0.0.2.

4) Norton Internet Security completely reinstalls itself during the process--in itself a lengthy process.

It's nice enough--the interfaces are cool--no Earth shattering features--although I'm still looking for voice recognition--which I probably don't even have--

The hard drive runs more-- it barely ran at all in XP.-- Irritating.

Six billion dollars invested by Microsoft. Hopefully, there are important features buried somewhere.

MichaelAT

Comments (6)

  • paparoseman
    16 years ago

    That is one reason I bought a 20 inch I Mac last summer. No issues with compatibilty and not a crash or lost data in sight. My filter for junk email is set so high that I have only 10 to 15 emails a week unless I contact someone else. Not a single phishing email and no offers to refinance the house.

    Lance

  • michaelalreadytaken
    Original Author
    16 years ago

    Lance,

    I certainly did want an Apple for those very reasons and it was a tough choice for me.

    In the end, the new software that prompted the purchase of a new computer, dictated the choice.

    It runs much slower on an otherwise equivalent Apple than in a Windows environment. It was expensive--and I'm not done yet--so I just didn't want to get locked into that situation.

    It's always something :)

    MichaelAT

  • jody
    16 years ago

    Vendors did not jump on the Vista wagon like they have done for previous Microsoft releases. Many of our clients have software that is not Vista ready and the vendors do not seem in any hurry to get to Vista ready.

    Actually, I was amazed at how much of the web based admin software packages were not ready for IE7 and how many are still not ready for IE7.

    A very different attitude from vendors this time.

    Loaded XP Pro on a machine yesterday - 62 security updates not counting SP2. I love Microsoft

  • hoovb zone 9 sunset 23
    16 years ago

    My DH has Vista, he says Norton seems to have problems with it--he's gotten the Blue Screen Of Death a few times. It's like the 2nd Star Wars trilogy--fabulous looking, somewhat disappointing overall.

  • sammy zone 7 Tulsa
    16 years ago

    We bought a new computer, and asked Circuit City to 'get it ready" for us. That was so smart because they were able to fix and adjust it, and we were not required to call India for trial and error solutions.

    We needed Microsoft since my school has it. If I want to send a "word" document to my school mail, I need to save it as 2003 (or something like that), and my school program will accept it. The email will read Vista, but if I try to save it, it will not save correctly. In other words if I want to print off my vocabulary list for the student quizzes at school, I can send it through the email, and print it, but if I try to save it to the school's "my documents" it will not recognize Vista. Vista will recognize anything, but the school's XP won't accept Vista.

    That is not a huge problem.I don't know if I think Vista is working well, or if it is the new computer, but I have had few problems.

    We do have Linskey (router), and had to buy a new one, but we expected that.

    I hope you get everything worked out ok.

    SAmmy

  • labrea_gw
    16 years ago

    Lynksis router died last week new one was a beast to install. Same exact model as the last just the softwear would'nt work. Back seat driving EDD risked his life telling me it was'nt the same model the pacakging trust close to his eyes helped him change his mind and room. I installed another piece of softwear that permited the router to install and once the router installed I removed the softwear that helped it get installed becuase when I'd used it in the past it caused conflicts. It's like one of those puzzles on diner place mats.

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