Review by Robert J.

I purchased a Toshiba Laptop last December that came with a free Vista upgrade. When I got the upgrade, I installed it & then uninstalled it soon after. Mostly because I had no security programs available & I wasn’t going to purchase anything new for Vista when the word on it was so negative. Also, it was a pain to navigate & I just didn’t have the time to spend with it to learn how to use it.

Fast forward to August: The desktop that I put together about 7 years ago is acting up & beginning to nickel & dime me to death. First a new hard drive, then a new NIC card & then a new sound card. I decided to scrap this computer & just upgrade to something newer but inexpensive.

My choice was an HP that came with Vista Home Premium installed. Like my Toshiba laptop, this HP desktop dosnt come with an official MS Vista disk but instead has a recovery disc. Actually I have to create my own disk but it amounts to the same thing. Used to be that I wouldnt have a computer unless I had an officially licensed MS disk, but that dosent matter much to me anymore. These days I just want my computer to operate properly & with the minimum of problems. Hopefully, Vista will accomplish that.

Now that I have a new PC with Vista installed, I find that I actually like the Vista OS now as opposed to when I installed it on my laptop.

I do tend to be taken in by the appearance of the interface as it is cooler & more intuitive. I like the imitation of some of the MAC qualities as Ive always liked the way the MAC did some things. And even though I own a MAC & its a good computer I find that overall its a pain to navigate sometimes. Maybe because Im primarily a Windows user & I cant get used to the MAC navigation. But again, the use of some MAC ideas was/is a good idea for Windows.

I haven’t found all the tips & tricks to Vista yet as Ive only had this new PC for a few days. But there seems to be plenty to learn…

As far as the the requirements of Vista, I knew it was going to take more to operate than my other PCs.nSo when I purchased my new HP I made sure that I got more than the minimum to operate it smoothly as I figure Im going to have this PC for awhile & I don’t want to be frustrated trying to operate a slow machine.nI have an AMD dual core 2.4 ghz, 3 gb ram & a 500 gb HD. I also have a 160 gb Fantom drive & just purchased 3 Sabrent HD enclosures to install an 80 gb, 160 gb & a 250 gb ide HDs that I will connect to the new computer which will probably keep my 500 gb HD fairly clean for some time.

As for my graphics, the computer came with NVidias GeForce 6150SE nforce 430 intergrated grphics & there has been no problem running anything graphic-wise. I haven’t installed any games yet as Ive been too busy but Im anxious to see how it does.

Another reason I got a new computer is so that I could record all my old albums & cassettes ( a few hundred ) to CD. For the last couple of days Ive been doing that with remarkable ease & with great results. The intergrated Realtek HD audio system works great. Ive been using Audacity 1.3 to record the albums & tapes & MS media player to record to CD. Flawless & fast operation.

I did have a problem at the beginning. When I first began to setup my new PC I put something in that vista didn’t like & ended up just doing a full recovery.

I think it was the HP Photosmart 3180 update driver that caused the problem as Ive reinstalled everything I had installed before except that & Vista seems to be operating just fine.nSo my point is Vista is doing ok but watch what you put in it…

I think that software & hardware companies are still trying to get it right & some of the updates & drivers are just not up to snuff. Ive got several programs, Nero6 Ultra for one that I cant use & Nero won’t be updating v6 to work with Vista. You have to buy v7 or forget it. I imagine many software companies are going to use the Vista excuse not to upgrade their previous software & you will have to purchase their new products in order to use them at all.

Overall, I like the program & Im enjoying learning about it. Im also waiting for the first SP update. And since Bill has decided that this is the way he wants MS Windows to be, I would suggest getting used to it. I believe it won’t be too long before support for XP goes the way of ‘95. ‘Cause Bill is the man & what Bill says seems to go!