Was the Vista upgrade good for you too?
- posted by Michael Walsh on April 11th, 2007
- (2)
Got a mail from Bill yesterday asking help on a Vista upgrade problem.
Bill’s problem was that during the upgrade from Windows Xp to Vista, he “lost” GridVista and was no longer able to re-install it as his version of GridVista was no longer compatible.
Now I am not a software engineer, nor am I related to customer support but Bill’s misadventure got me thinking how bad/good the Vista upgrade process has been for other Acer users (and any other manufacturers for that matter).
[eminimall]
Did it go smoothly? Did you run the Windows Vista Advisor before you installed and were the results accurate? Most of all, what, if anything, did you lose or gain in the process?
Again, this is not intended as a support page (you should check the Service and Support link at the bottom of your local Acer site to see which products have driver upgrades available), more as a testing ground to see if it was good for you too?
BTW, I’m still on XP.
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michael cave wrote, on April 21st, 2007:
great website.
the acer laptop i have came with vista..9303wsmi model.
brill laptop could not find one with xp on it.
vista was useing 800 meg..lol..it has 2gig but felt that
800meg was way to much…so ive turned down all the settings..its still at 600meg.
after using this for a week..ive found it slow in every way.
im going to install xp…this laptop is running at half speed with all the garbage on it..ill lose the waranty
Michael Walsh wrote, on April 21st, 2007:
Hi Michael,
You would have a hard time finding XP on a new laptop now and although I’ve never used Linux, I can see why the Dell Ideastorm site took to it so, erm, “violently” (for want of a better word). The timing couldn’t have been more relevant.
The Aspire 9303 is quite a machine. AMD Turion™ 64 X2, 128MB NVIDIA® GeForce® Go 7300, 17″ CristalBrite screen and all the rest, but your point about it being “slow” (or rather Vista being heavy) is a good one. Out of curiosity, what is your Windows Experience Index?
Forgive the dumb question but do you lose warranty cover for your notebook if you touch the operating system? Even if you install a fully licensed version of XP?
I know 3rd party software failures is one of the biggest (and therefore costliest) problems PC vendor support centres (not just Acer) have to deal with and if it’s true, I think I know the reason why. Still if you’re comfortable installing XP, and think you’ll get a better mobile experience from it, I don’t see why you shouldn’t.
Personally I’ve never even seen a Vista interface, let alone upgraded to one and although I’m fanatical about updating my software, I must admit to being a little doubtful as far as Vista is concerned.
I have everything set up just so on my workstation and notebook and can’t stand glitches. Even those slight hiccups that happen when Windows automatically updates something I never knew I had or needed send me into mad fits of anger. Losing features (even unwanted garbage) would push me straight over the edge.
I still need a LOT of convincing.
While I’m here what do you mean by “garbage”? Are you talking about the Empowering software and/or the Cyberlink Power DVD and/or NTI CD/DVD maker suite (all of which I find great when I need them)? There isn’t much else pre-installed on these machines and if you delve into their real uses, particularly Empowering Technology, they’re actually pretty handy.
I can’t really weigh in on this argument as the first thing I do with any new machine is download and install something like 30 programs… And you think your 9303 runs slowly?? LOL
Michael