ScottJC
At your service, dood!
The Windows Vista RC1 (and above) thread
I've noticed i've posted a lot about Vista pre-rc1 in threads that have nothing to do with vista (i.e. is my computer comprimised thread). Rather than continue that trend i've decided to start a thread dedicated just to Vista and our experiences of Vista pre-rc1 and above.
My experience with it, i'll break it down into categories.
Installation: In Vista Beta 2 installation speed was almost unbarable, it'd litterally take hours but no longer! Vista Pre-RC1 build 5536 and 5552 install like road runner, less than an hour! (About the same as XP). Installer is very impressive, its simple and effective - it needs you to do nothing meaning I have more time to go make myself my breakfast.
moving on now-
Booting up: Like windows xp, windows vista pre-rc1 boots up incredibly quickly- beta 2 was super slow in this area, another massive improvement. Even the boot up process has had a major face lift and speed boost to add icing to the cake.
Driver installation: I had less bother with drivers this time around, my audigy 2 actually works on this build. Installed drivers and that was it - sounds fine to me. Dunno if it counts under this section but I can now unplug my usb dvd-rw and plug it back in immediately and on vista it continues to work, on XP it won't until I reboot.
Application & Game Compatibility: see my compatibility list below.
GUI (Graphical User Interface): This is refreshing,its not too different from beta 2 but the performance of it has increased! it is now more stable to boot. the glass transparency effects are very impressive, love the theme.
Features: Some of the features of vista I love include, the search feature in windows explorer allows me to search the current folder quickly (its like the search bar in firefox) so I can find files quickly, handy if i'm looking for something specific in a rom folder.
The built in games rule even solitaire has had a face lift. That counts as a feature right? Oh well. Mspaint and the picture viewer work superbly better than their XP equivilents. Picture viewer in XP would often pause for up to a minute at times on XP, on vista its immediate. love that.
I like the ability to silence individual applications instead of my entire systems sound, very handy if an installer decides to play mozarts entire symphony for no apparent reason.
Overall, very satisfying Operating System - i'm using it as my primary one right now - it just rocks. Beta 2 was severely disappointing, this however is not. Recommend you give it a try also.
Please reply with your experiences of this os if you have the time.
Game Compatiblity list (so far as tested by me):
Act of War - Perfect, runs straight out of the box.
Battlefield 2 - Perfect on version 1.3, haven't tested anything else.
Black & White 2 - Perfect!
Command & Conquer: Generals - Perfect!
Doom 3: Perfect for Clements, Unplayable for me due to graphical issues.
F.E.A.R - Perfect!
Final Fantasy VIII (PC) - Unplayable, says midi support is missing and enters a black screen.
Hitman: Blood Money - Perfect, says some dll is missing at first, just find the dll and put it in the games dir.
Need for Speed: Most wanted - Perfect.
Prey - Unplayable, complains about opengl missing effects.
Prince of Persia: Sands of time - Perfect.
Psychonauts - Perfect.
Rayman 3 - Perfect.
Simcity 4 - Perfect if you update to version 1.0.242.0 or above, a straight installation=unplayable.
Sonic Adventure - Perfect.
Sonic Heroes - Perfect.
Quake 4: Perfect (Reported by Clements)
Application Compatiblity list (so far as tested by me):
Avast Antivirus - Doesn't work
Azureus - Perfect if you use Java 6 beta, otherwise windows loses aero effects.
Borland Delphi 2006 Studio - Perfection itself, all compiled apps work fine.
Daemon Tools v4 - Doesn't work, workaround is using v3.33 available on the daemon tools website.
Epsxe v1.6.0 - Perfect
Macromedia Flash 8 - Perfect
Project64 - Perfect
Visualboyadvance - Perfect, vista loses aero if you don't use DirectX as its renderer.
Zonealarm - Doesn't work
Here's a screenshot of my desktop:
I've noticed i've posted a lot about Vista pre-rc1 in threads that have nothing to do with vista (i.e. is my computer comprimised thread). Rather than continue that trend i've decided to start a thread dedicated just to Vista and our experiences of Vista pre-rc1 and above.
My experience with it, i'll break it down into categories.
Installation: In Vista Beta 2 installation speed was almost unbarable, it'd litterally take hours but no longer! Vista Pre-RC1 build 5536 and 5552 install like road runner, less than an hour! (About the same as XP). Installer is very impressive, its simple and effective - it needs you to do nothing meaning I have more time to go make myself my breakfast.
moving on now-
Booting up: Like windows xp, windows vista pre-rc1 boots up incredibly quickly- beta 2 was super slow in this area, another massive improvement. Even the boot up process has had a major face lift and speed boost to add icing to the cake.
Driver installation: I had less bother with drivers this time around, my audigy 2 actually works on this build. Installed drivers and that was it - sounds fine to me. Dunno if it counts under this section but I can now unplug my usb dvd-rw and plug it back in immediately and on vista it continues to work, on XP it won't until I reboot.
Application & Game Compatibility: see my compatibility list below.
GUI (Graphical User Interface): This is refreshing,its not too different from beta 2 but the performance of it has increased! it is now more stable to boot. the glass transparency effects are very impressive, love the theme.
Features: Some of the features of vista I love include, the search feature in windows explorer allows me to search the current folder quickly (its like the search bar in firefox) so I can find files quickly, handy if i'm looking for something specific in a rom folder.
The built in games rule even solitaire has had a face lift. That counts as a feature right? Oh well. Mspaint and the picture viewer work superbly better than their XP equivilents. Picture viewer in XP would often pause for up to a minute at times on XP, on vista its immediate. love that.
I like the ability to silence individual applications instead of my entire systems sound, very handy if an installer decides to play mozarts entire symphony for no apparent reason.
Overall, very satisfying Operating System - i'm using it as my primary one right now - it just rocks. Beta 2 was severely disappointing, this however is not. Recommend you give it a try also.
Please reply with your experiences of this os if you have the time.
Game Compatiblity list (so far as tested by me):
Act of War - Perfect, runs straight out of the box.
Battlefield 2 - Perfect on version 1.3, haven't tested anything else.
Black & White 2 - Perfect!
Command & Conquer: Generals - Perfect!
Doom 3: Perfect for Clements, Unplayable for me due to graphical issues.
F.E.A.R - Perfect!
Final Fantasy VIII (PC) - Unplayable, says midi support is missing and enters a black screen.
Hitman: Blood Money - Perfect, says some dll is missing at first, just find the dll and put it in the games dir.
Need for Speed: Most wanted - Perfect.
Prey - Unplayable, complains about opengl missing effects.
Prince of Persia: Sands of time - Perfect.
Psychonauts - Perfect.
Rayman 3 - Perfect.
Simcity 4 - Perfect if you update to version 1.0.242.0 or above, a straight installation=unplayable.
Sonic Adventure - Perfect.
Sonic Heroes - Perfect.
Quake 4: Perfect (Reported by Clements)
Application Compatiblity list (so far as tested by me):
Avast Antivirus - Doesn't work
Azureus - Perfect if you use Java 6 beta, otherwise windows loses aero effects.
Borland Delphi 2006 Studio - Perfection itself, all compiled apps work fine.
Daemon Tools v4 - Doesn't work, workaround is using v3.33 available on the daemon tools website.
Epsxe v1.6.0 - Perfect
Macromedia Flash 8 - Perfect
Project64 - Perfect
Visualboyadvance - Perfect, vista loses aero if you don't use DirectX as its renderer.
Zonealarm - Doesn't work
Here's a screenshot of my desktop:
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