Upgrading to Vista.

I was wondering if you can upgrade to vista from XP, as in run the installer and just tell it to upgrade, at the moment I really don't want to format, I always lose something when I do and I have some very valuable files on here, not all in neat and tidy places so hunting them all down would be annoying.

So is it possible to just upgrade and have vista write over the current xp file system and files with its own stuff?

Yep, the Vista installation CD can just upgrade XP if thats what you want it to do.

I've heard its quite a process that requires a number of reboots, though.

ah reboots are fine as long as I don't have to format..

thanks for the info.

I would seriously consider staying with XP for now. Atleast until Vista SP1 is released.

I can pretty much guarantee that you'll be going back to XP within a week of installing Vista.

I thought a service pack had already been released for Vista?

That's news to me. I'll go check it out.

yeah. you should make a list of WHY you want to upgrade to Vista and make sure you will achieve those things.

fancy GUI is NOT a good reason considering all of the problems people (including myself) have had with Vista.

It is a Nice OS, and has a great future ahead of it but right now (APRIL 27- 2007) it is not any better than XP and much worse in alot of ways.

it is a resource hog, game performance drops (albeit just slightly) in most games, There are still alot of compat issues.

some of the security stuff is just plain bad.

and then there is DRM.....

Amon: nevermind. I think I got hold of the wrong end of the stick, after seeing this thread:
http://www.blitzbasic.com/Community/posts.php?topic=68815

Vista is Wack

Mabe in a few years at the end of life it will be good (like XP)

Time for a full backup ?

I bought Vista Home Premium Upgrade, and upgraded... And it took less time than actually installing a fresh copy of XP!

People have had problems with Vista, and people havent (including me)

Why dont you create a new partition, install XP again on that, upgrade, then, you still have XP, and you also have Vista...

When the point in time comes to fully migrate to Vista, you can shift XP and resize your harddrive accordingly!

Dabz

Or you could format the lot and install linux (with an XP/SHITESTA partition for b3d of course) :P
...or buy a mac

Working happily with Vista for more than a year now and can't understand why I don't have any problems. Yes. It requires strong hardware but otherwise it's faster, it's nicer and works well. At least for me.

Barney

Is vista still being classed as an upgrade?

Exactly

It (as dabs suggested) works GREAT for some and HORRIFIC for others. A modern non beta release of an "industry standard" operating system should work on ALL modern pcs (esp. "vista capable" ones!) with NO (or few), problems whatsoever.

They've all got problems, but vista takes the piss:
-linux is a !!PAIN!! in the arse to set up, has BIG hardware issues but once its up and running 100% on good hardware its fast stable & secure (then just back it up for the next time ;)
-OSX Smooth, secure, 100% hardware (as far as macs allow)
-XP it installs well, has FANTASTIC HW support and runs (now) quite stable and well (but annoyingly and extremely insecure without loads of slow security apps)
-Vista it seems it "50/50 installs great" and then "50/50 runs great" with "50/50 hardware support"

Stick with Xp until you really want to do something you cannot do with XP. Otherwise, whats the point?

Yavin, Vista is a good OS to get with a computer, but not worth upgrading to.

I disagree, DX10 is coming, it might not take off this year, but developers, the big fish, usually follow DirectX technology.

He might have a perfectly good PC setup, and the only thing he may need (On top of the Vista Upgrade) is a DX10 graphics card, which, a currently priced £200 8800 GTS will probably drop down in price when ATI finally kicks in with their DX10 solutions.

So why buy a new £1000+ PC, when he could spend, say, £350 upgrading his current one?

Dabz

Listen to the "Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor" and trust it that you WILL have problems with the applications and drivers that it reports.

Upgrading works ok with Vista. But do yourself a favour and uninstall everything reported by the Upgrade Advisor --before-- you launch the upgrade. For example, you cannot uninstall PowerDVD 6 once you have upgraded to Vista. You'll get an annoying error message saying that "this setup program requires Windows 2000, XP or a NEWER VERSION OF WINDOWS". Isn't that fun? ;-) By the way, it's not the only program with flaws like that.

Make sure you have a Vista-compatible Anti-Virus software. Only few are at the moment.

If you install it on a BootCamp partition on a Mac, prepare yourself to re-install OS X afterwards. It mustn't happen, but it can.

Also be careful with Windows Update in Vista. I actually saw it happen that Vista would no longer boot after downloading and installing WINDOWS updates.

Once you have it running, switch off that damn User Account Control crap. You're down to the security level of XP then, but at least the OS becomes usable and no longer bugs you with those stupid Cancel or Allow messages.

At a first glimpse, Vista feels more responsive than XP. But once you start copying files, you will quickly learn that this is just an illusion: "Calculating remaining time for that operation..." After a few seconds, it will start to copy and a moment later it will actually have copied that 34 kilobyte big file. No. I am NOT kidding.

XP --IS-- the much faster operating system. Vista, however, is tomorrow's standard operating system and the software you are currently writing should better be compatible with it. And if you're in the admin business, well, guess what client platform you will have to support in two years from now. Better get used to Vista now, then you are prepared when it finally becomes the standard.

On the other hand, I still believe that Microsoft's star is sinking and that they will lose significant market shared in the next five to ten years. They have become yet another IBM, and besides the inherited desktop monopoly (the only business section where they actually make money), they are just no longer as important as they once were. Google and other net-centric companies are the new big kids on the block. Anyway, that's off topic.

I wana upgrade for .Net basically .. I cant install .net 2 or 3 for some reason, Iv got XP Pro Student and it simply will not install keep getting some stupid error. and I cant for the life of me solve it.

some one just gave me XP pro 64.. since I have a duel core amd 64 chip I took it and installed it.

Has anyone got it or had any problems with it ? tbh iv not really noticed any diff.

Usually yes, because DX9 and below have been available for all major versions of Windows, thus allowing a very large market share potential. How many people have Vista? How many people will have Vista in 2 years? Still a lot less than the number of people having XP or below and MUCH less than the number of total Windows systems out there, including XP AND Vista.

Couple that with the fact that DX10 offers nothing except geometry shaders and improved efficiency and rising development costs and writing DX10 exclusive games within the next 3 years or so will be suicide. Sure, developers will likely choose a DX9/DX10 combo rendering system within those years, but since XP has advantages in the resources department (it's slim comparitively), is a sturdy, finished OS (more or less), has zero driver problems and a large market share, making the move to Vista (unless it is forced on you by buying a new computer, or you don't actually legally own an OS yet) is not a smart idea.

And by the time DX10 because the norm, DX11 will be out.


Although, in situations like that, Vista will usually come back afterwards and say 'This program did not uninstall correctly. Run again with recommended settings?' which basically means to run the uninstaller in XP compatibility mode, which is enough to fool most things.


iexbeta.com/wiki can help you there. I'd recommend Avast!.


MS XML 4.0 SP2 is the only update -I've- had problems with. I'm sure other people have had no problems with it whatsoever. But it doesn't surprise me to hear of horror stories I personally havn't encountered yet.


Unless you're a developer.


Yes, Vista is seriously screwed up in some aspects, but I don't think the responsiveness of the GUI is linked to copying files ;] It's just one thing they did really good with and one thing they let trainees at. If they weren't trainees, then whoever fiddled with that stuff needs a sacking.


It turned out a much slower OS for me, but I think the most hassles you'll have with it are drivers. If they are all working well for you, smooth sailing.

Got it, tried it, tried it again, got annoyed, tried it again, used it for a while, then got extremely annoyed and then dumped it.
Its patronizing, restrictive and seems slower than XP!

I then upgraded my existing primary dapper partition to feisty and felt better about the future of home computing.

All this Vista crap has forced me to seriously consider buying a Mac for my next desktop computer. NEVER thought I'd see the day. And now I'm running Ubuntu 7.04 on my notebook computer with reasonable success. NEVER thought I’d see the day.

Microsoft has really dropped the ball with Vista, IMO. 5 years in development and we get a resource-hogging, DRM-crippled, broken version of XP that looks a little nicer. What the hell are they spending their billions of research dollars on?

Tonnes of really nifty features that will never be implemented in anything, because the whole build tree system MS uses is seriously screwed.

But in all likelyhood the majority will be DX9 compatible for a long time -- given many people's reluctance to switch to Vista, that's a sizable chunk of the market that most game publishers will be hesitant to leave behind.

And as a sidenote -- supposedly there's a 3rd party patched DX10 release that will work on XP as well...

That's all fine and dandy, but with the amount of PC's selling with Vista, it'll not take long before a decent sized user base is created.

Look at the consoles, just because a new 'next-gen' model of a specific console comes along, doesnt stop developers making games for it, even though, say, the PS2 is probably their better/safer bet as nearly every man and his dog has one, but they still target PS3, a relatively unknown platform.

The basic fact is, after reading so many things about DX10, like consoles, if you want to play games shinier than before, more efficently than before, you've got to update!

And DX10 is a complete rewrite, handles shaders a lot better, the pipeline has been totally revamped.

I've upgraded, but, only time will tell when an DX10 game is released, and I've slotted a DX10 compatible card into my PCI-Express slot will I truely know if its been worth it!

But saying that, I enjoy using it, so if I personally do like using something, I will jolly well use it! :D

Dabz

I have a question:

In Vista Upgrade, it states it might have to format my system.

The question is, How does it know i've got XP once the partition has been formatted? Can I install this £140 piece of softawre just the once!? :O

What amount is that then? Most people buying from Dell et.al. are primarily buying XP systems - because as it turns out, most "Vista capable" PC's really aren't.

Even many of the high-end PC builders are recommending XP - Vista doesn't work with for example SLi configurations.

In which country? Rwanda? Kazakhstan?

MS Flight Simulator X is a DX 10 game. If you happen to have a beefy computer (NOTE: a Core 2 Extreme QX6700 is not enough). The performance / visual quality ratio makes Neverwinter Nights 2 and Silent Hunter 4 seem completely reasonable. Now it might be that the Flight Simulator X guys are just criminally incompetent developers - I wouldn't know, but for a DX10 flagship game, it's an absolute joke.

I wrote a longish reply, clicked post, then found out my internet was off (I've upgraded my broadband and its a little flakey)

So, you install from XP (Start the installation from XP), but not by booting from the DVD-ROM, it tells you its not the correct key for that type of installation.

You can reinstall using the DVD-ROM, as long as you start the installation from Vista, so yes, you can use it more than once!

Dabz

Oops, sorry, dell are offering it on four notebooks and 2 desktops... How long do you think that will last when XP is to be retired?



okay, I'll rephrase the words... new platform



Well, I wouldnt pull out £200 for a card to play that, and to be honest, I would rather go fishing than sit and play it! :)

Dabz

Does it matter? The PC market is pretty much saturated as it is. The only thing still driving PC sales forwards are hardcore PC gamers who have to upgrade every 8 months to keep up. Why do you think Dell acquired Alienware?

Well neither would I - but I do have a friend who's a bit of a plane nut (who is the proud owner of a decommissioned F-100D Super Sabre cockpit). He went out and bought a $7000 USD top-of-the-line gaming rig, just to play it. He then found out that his new SLi graphics cards weren't supported by Vista (meaning one of the cards is effectively dead weight for now). Then he discovered that the game he had looked forward to playing for so long, while certainly looking marginally better than his older flight simulators, ran at almost unplayable speeds.

I don't really imagine flight simulators are the most demanding games out there.

Sooo, when my drive dies unexpectedly, i'm screwed then.

No thanks.

I'd say I could just backup the vista partition BUT when you put it on a new drive I bet it starts yelling thief, or just doesn't boot, just like XP.

Technically, no, as you should still have your old XP key, and even if you dont have the XP disc, you can usually get a hold of one pretty easily. Install, update like you did before!

Bit of a hassle, yes, but screwed, no! ;)

Dabz

*sigh* Plan: save an image of the XP partition with NO IDE drivers, so it starts on any system :) then, use that to start the vista install. Woop.

Bugger that.

If Vista boots to the desktop and you can run programs etc, regardless of how it looks, it's obviously capable.


Yeh, cuz DVD readers are so prohibitivly expensive these days.


I'm about to try moving my Vista partition from one motherboard to another - I figured under normal circumstances it would cause no end of problems (probably wouldn't even boot), but I have Sysprep on my side ;] If all goes well, the only thing to complain after the move will be activation.

This isn't about the DVD "readers"(!?).

Have you ever tried transferring XP from one drive to another? :P Ghosting only works when I ghost onto the same drive. Change the drive and it bluescreens.

This is where I'm hoping the old "uninstall IDE drivers" trick will still work.

What version of Ghost? the one bundled with norton systemworks is a pale immitation of the full product. I've used Norton Ghost 2003 to ghost countless machines at the office, without issues... Even jumping hardware models (Dell Optiplex 170L -> 210L) often works without problems.

How do you think Dell gets the exact same OS onto thousands of different computers?

They don't have a bunch of guys doing the same installation tasks over and over again.

Google Sysprep.

Obviously not, but i wouldn't mind guessing they removed whatever causes the crashes I tend to get when ghosting (any version- i've been using ghost for going on 7 years now :P) XP.

@hotcakes,

Thanks, that might solve *some* of the issues (Nice section there about the mass storage devices...) However if you read the requirements, Cloning my desktop image, having the desktop break, and cloning the same image onto a totally different machine introduces several different possible compatibility problems.

I can generally solve the broken drive problem by uninstalling the IDE drivers before creating the clone, but some of that info was useful, cheers.

Well, it's mostly a drivers issue. It's rare to have problems, but it depends on motherboard/CPU/other things on both machines. Having problems can be pretty random, but if you have problems you will know about them up front. If you don't, then whoopee. I've more often not than did. At least the drives actually boot... I'll never understand why they can't just do that anyway.

I moved up to Vista Ultimate. I love it. I had to buy more memory and a better video card, but that's something I was wanting to do for a while anyway. So far I haven't had any problems with it. There are some support issues regarding Visual Studio.Net 2003 and Sql Server 2000. But I do all my work in VS.Net 2005 and Sql Server 2005 anyway. I can use my company laptop (XP Pro) to support my old 2003 apps.

I strongly recommend making the move.

The only thing you really need to have is enough memory. I guess 512Mb is the minimum (I recommend 2GB memory's cheap right now). If you want the Aero features you have to get a pretty decent video card. I found a 256Mb GeForce 7300 video card for $80 USD that works a treat!