Let's see. It's beta so you expect it to be bit rough around the edges.
Backup your family jewels before playing with it because IMHO it really is
still not ready for prime time.
I attempted to install it as a dual boot on an Athlon64 3200 with 1gb of ram
and decent video. Vista rated the machine as a 3. I couldn't get it to
install correctly and ended up restoring an image to get XP working again. I
learned later that there are better ways to get the dual boot to work.
I then attempted to install it with different (I think better install
instructions-Install it through XP, works much better) hardware (Athlon XP
3200, 1.5 gb of ram, less powerful video but adequate, older motherboard).
The dual boot went well and both versions (Vista, XP) worked well together.
Installing networking drivers and audio drivers was problematic given the
age of the MOBO, but they did work. Windows couldn't locate anything, and
nvidia has some vista ready stuff but it wouldn't work with my setup.
Finally broke out the drivers that came with the motherboard and they took
after some grumbling from Vista. Sound was restored as were network
connections.
On the older machine, Aero glass works well and performance did not suffer
greatly after I made some tweaks (you can tweak performance settings in much
the same way as in XP but you have to look around a bit to find everything
you need. For some reason everything seems to have been moved to separate
locations (display properties, for example and everything is not as obvious
as it could be).
I found (after looking around) that it seems Vista is XP on steroids. Lots
of muscle but I'm not sure how much extra strength. The visuals are nice and
the user interface is unique. I tend to like the gadgets and even added a
couple but who knows that thrill may wear off as I tend toward a clean
(i.e., uncluttered) desktop. I think overall performance will be enhanced
with the better processors (probably dual core) and more graphics memory
(256mb seems about where you want to be, but that will ultimately depend
upon how fast you want to go-doesn't it always?).
I had a problem moving the Outlook.pst file around (I'm testing the new
Office beta too at the same time). The new security (I'm guessing) in Vista
seemed to have locked a portion of the file and would not let me copy it. I
had to go into the XP partition to retrieve it and move it to my production
machine.
Under the hood, security is definitely strengthened but I'm not sure why
M/soft seems intent on locking everything down. The user account control is
just plain annoying. You can't make any changes without being second guessed
and questioned.
More later as I continue to play...
Vincent Winterling
Vineland, NJ
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