It has begun, the steady stream of email questions of whether or not you should upgrade your current Windows XP to the latest Vista operating system. In one word-NO!
The only time I would even consider such a decision would be if you were to purchase a new computer that happened to have Vista already installed since this would be the only reason you would have to use this version of operating system. With any new program that you have never used before, there is the obvious uncertainty of what to click on and where everything that you are familiar with is now located. For most people, as I have learned over the years of helping train how to use the computer and repair it when it is not functioning correctly, they don’t like change, and since you would be required to re-train yourself on this new operating system you will have to ask yourself if you really want to go through that since you are probably just getting good at what you currently are using!
Sure there are those that can’t wait for something new, and want to give it a whirl but a lot of these people are also the first to complain when they start having issues of not being able to use the system the way they “thought they would be able to use it” (from what they have read about this new operating system being ‘even easier to use’). Of course marketing is everything when dealing with an entirely new O/S.
The first major problem I see for those thinking of upgrading their existing systems to the new Windows Vista is the memory configuration requirements. Even though Vista “may” function with only 512mb of memory, they recommend you have “at least” 1gb of memory installed and to truly be satisfied with the performance, you should have double that (2gb) installed! Better still, you will configure the flash drive/swap file system which will enhance substantially, the overall operating system performance by utilizing the flash drive drive you plug in to one of the available usb 2.0 ports on your system which then uses this for random access memory utilization.
The next issue is the choice of 32 or 64 bit operating systems. Of course Microsoft is not providing anything new here as the 64bit Windows XP O/S has been out for years, however they never truly got it off the ground since many manufacturers still refuse to build 64 bit drivers for devices and as a result, the 64bit “business edition” of XP never truly took off. So why would you consider looking to Vista’s 64bit system if you are going to have troubles finding drivers? I guess this too will work itself out over time, hopefully a lot quicker then the 64bit XP driver availabilities.
So when should you be considering this major upgrade? Probably when you are ready for a new computer! Seriously, I really see no need in moving to this operating system since there are already issues with security problems (more so with the Internet Explorer version 7 but that comes standard on Vista of course), and don’t get me started on IE7 or Internet Explorer in general since I believe you are best to never open this program! It is definitely a different feeling from when they first introduced windows XP to the market since I was very keen on getting (people) moved to this new O/S comparing it to most that were still using Windows 98 at that time, it was by far a much superior, secure and stable operating system. Since windows 2000 had been out for some time, but this was a business operating system and a lot of people had not moved to it and of course there was the Windows ME version which most hated, it was a no-brainer to move to the new “XP”, but this is definitely not the feeling I have with Vista!
Of course this is only my first report and there will be many more as time moves on.
