Grrrr Vista

[Nismo240]

So Vista is taking up 2.2 gigs of my 4 gigs of RAM when I'm not even doing anything. I just got this laptop like 2 weeks ago too! And the menus aren't even easy to use. I can barely find anything in them. Anyone have any tips on what I can do to help performance while I wait for Windows 7 to come out so I can use my free upgrade?

[KEN]

Bud the best advise I can give is hold out for Windows 7. Only 21 days to go! I've been running it for a few months now and I have nothing but good things to say about it.

In the mean time you can check out this article

http://www.techsupportalert.com/make-vista-run-faster.htm

If you are a bit more of an experienced windows user there are some other tweaks you can do as well. (linked in the article)

[cline]

Very true Ken, I am actually going to be a host for a 7 launch party so I will be getting a free ultimate copy in about 10 days:D. But if you are a person that backs up regularly you can cut off system restore a major hog and cut off user account control if you have sidebar on I would cut that off too.Of course do this at your own risk,what works for one may not the other.

[roadweasel]

How easy will it be to bypass vista completely and go from xp to 7?

[kevmeister]

somebody we know has used the beta version and while they really liked it, they also made the point that it's actually an upgraded version of vista; but with everything working the way it's supposed to. unfortunately, they also said, a lot of games that work on XP aren't compatible with the 64 bit structure. in my case he recommended going with a dual boot setup (because of my old games)

[gcountach]

somebody we know has used the beta version and while they really liked it, they also made the point that it's actually an upgraded version of vista; but with everything working the way it's supposed to. unfortunately, they also said, a lot of games that work on XP aren't compatible with the 64 bit structure. in my case he recommended going with a dual boot setup (because of my old games)

What games are that? I'm running XP x64 and I haven't seen anything wrong. It should just run the game in 32-bit. Guess it depends on how old the games are... I know Gearhead Garage is one game that won't work right, but I can't think of any mainstream games that don't work.

If you recently got the computer new, like In July 2009 or sooner, you should have gotten a voucher for a free upgrade to Windows 7. Worth checking in the box for.

As far as "bypassing".... I never recommend doing a dirty-upgrade to ANY operating system, but that holds true ESPECIALLY for Windows. in that case, if you get an OEM/Retail copy of win7 (not upgrade), back up everything on your computer and format, you should be a-ok. Of course, get the newest drivers (From the internet, your driver discs won't have windows 7 versions) and make sure windows update says you're good to go. I don't think you can use an upgrade copy from XP to Win7 anyway. I think you have to use the upgrade disc from Vista only. I could be wrong though.

[Chaul]

How easy will it be to bypass vista completely and go from xp to 7?
I almost managed that. I never used Vista at work, but now I also got a laptop with Vista about a week ago because the graphics card on my old laptop finally overheated and failed or something.