Vista SP1 upgrade experience

[Ned]

I have removed Vista SP1 from my 2003 machine, and replaced it with XP.

If you were running something earlier than XP and bought an upgrade from Microsoft, you may be in luck. If the Vista Upgrade was either Business or Ultimate, your license allows you to DOWNGRADE to XP Pro for free. You'll have to talk to live humans at Microsoft to get an XP activation code. The magic words are "exercising my downgrade rights". You can use any XP installation disk (not the restore disks some manufacturers supply). It doesn't even have to be yours, because you'll be activating it with your own legitimate code.

I had the XP Pro disk I'd used to upgrade my old laptop. I just used it to install XP Pro on the ex-Vista machine, and went through the activation process. All nice and legal.

I will never attempt to run Vista on my old 2.8Ghz PC. XP's not nearly as pretty, but in the end pretty is as pretty does. Crashing is not good.

It's true that Microsoft is trying hard to stop support on XP Pro. I think the last date I heard was June of 2009. That doesn't mean all the XP machines will stop working then.

Nick's right that Vista is inevitable (well, if you stay with Microsoft  ), but I figure by downgrading to XP I've bought myself two years before I must buy another computer. That'll probably be a Mac or Linux.

 

[Michael Kellough]

I have removed Vista SP1 from my 2003 machine, and replaced it with XP.

.... I figure by downgrading to XP I've bought myself two years before I must buy another computer. That'll probably be a Mac or Linux.

First quarter sales of Apple computers were up 51% over the equivalent 1/4 of 2007. 

 

[TomCrawford]

On Wednesday my wife's laptop, a Sony,  that came with Vista Home Premium installed got a Windows update which appeared to install ok. But when it booted up Yesterday morning it displayed a dialog stating the copy of Vista was not authentic and I would have to buy a new key.  I called tech support and several things were tried but did not fix it.  Including a KB931573 patch which was supposed to help this known problem on OEM machines.  It did not fix it. I was then instructed to do a restore point three days prior to the update. That took 50 minutes and did not help. So then a restore point 6 days before - and hour and 10 minutes later that restore point solved the problem. The support tech then wanted me to go to update and install what ever that said was missing - he wanted to be sure it would work when the automatic SP1 update began pushing last night.  Update said there was only one which we downloaded and when it began the install it said it was in fact SP1.  The tech said that SP1 removes that authentication code because it has caused so many problems.  So at this point things seem fine. If there is a problem when it starts in the morning I'm going to throw it in the pond and go buy her a MAC.

 

[nickao]

Throw it over hear Tom I'll take it!  One problem with an update?  You will surely have one problem with the Mac.  Especially when trying to run all the programs your wife is use to running on her machine. Which more than likely will not run at all on a Mac.

What took so long for the darn restores anyway?

Nickao

 

[graphex]

Especially when trying to run all the programs your wife is use to running on her machine. Which more than likely will not run at all on a Mac.

There aren't many of those....

And the mac isn't going to complain that its system software isn't "genuine" - you don't even have to enter a serial number for the OSX install. Other than it being illegal, there is nothing to stop you from taking your install disc to 50 computers.

I know my wife doesn't use any software that isn't available on mac, pc, or linux....

 

[TomCrawford]

Nickao,

The Tech was also surprised at how long the restore took, he had never encountered one that took that long before.  He had no idea why, he said it was normally about 10 minutes.

Other than email and web 99% of what my wife uses is Photoshop. So she could manage that on a MAC. She would just make me sleep with the horses if I tried to switch her though.

 

[graphex]

She would just make me sleep with the horses if I tried to switch her though.

My wife would probably make me sleep with the fishes if I took her mac away...

 

[woodshopdemos]

All the Junkie machines are XP...from my office machines to the Front counter POS...to the Home computers...to the company lap-tops...you name it...it is XP Pro.

With that said, I am looking to purchase a new Laptop for graphics and video.  I am an Adobe guy, Photoshop, Premier, Contribute..etc.  I am considering Vista rather than XP.

My question is, do I change over or stay with XP?  I am especially curious as to Premier, and how it functions with Vista...anyone have some advice?  Ned???

Timmy C

Timmy C,
  I don't have the answer. This whole area is way over my head and I want it that way, but a source I rely on for info of this sorts ishttp://www.videoguys.com/. They sell editing systems and software but their newsletters and archive discuss Vista and NLE compatibility.