Ray D said:
Having gotten to this point, I wouldn't go back. Thanks for the encouragement, Bob. ;D Thanks everyone for the assistance through this fiasco! ;D
You're welcome, Ray. I continue to love Vista -- and my only problem now is that my main desktop is an XP pro machine. So that is where most of my "stuff" is plus it has a great hand me down monitor from Ned before he went to a 3 foot ??? wide screen. As I find time I will be creating a docking station for the Vista laptop so it looks and acts like a desktop. I have already added wireless keyboard and mouse but have other logistical moves planned to place the laptop on my dining table office vs. the little fold out table by the entry door. The wireless now requires a USB interface that I will be changing to Bluetooth when I change over for real.
Have you checked out the Windows Experience Index (WEI) utility as yet? To get the display, go to Control Panel | Windows Performance Tools. It evaluates the major components of your machine to give individual scores and an overall score. Components such as Processor Speed, Graphics generally and graphics needed to support Windows Aero, and such. Articles I've read suggest that if the WEI is less than 2.0, that is not a machine that will support Vista that well - even if installed on that machine. I like to go to Fry's and check out the WEI on displayed machines to see how they stack up. I find that a great feature - although I was not aware of it when shopping for my Vista laptop. Fortunately, I come in a 3.5 overall with a top score of 4.9 on my processor calculations/sec speed. The overall score is the lowest score among the various components tested - which will usually be the ability to run Windows Aero. The desktop that I converted from XP Home to Vista Basic comes in at 4.3 on the processor and 2.3 overall. That machine has a 3.1ghz processor whereas the laptop is 2.0 -- however, it is a dual processor (not dual core). So that shows the advantage of having duallies on a computer.
Windows Aero is the feature that allows displays such as the 3D multi tasking. Rather than clicking an icon in the task bar to restore an app, the user selects from a 3D display of the last screens sent to the task bar. Also, the title bar of a dialog is transparent. This is all in the category of cool, but not really that important. It just makes the user feel better about all that stuff on an Apple computer that makes the user feel they have something better than a Windows machine . . .
Have read other articles that point out that the WEI is not perfect as yet. For example, one article suggested that too much weight is applied to the Graphics component.
As far as competing SW -- I'm not one to stray from the MS standard. I dislike Bill Gates, MS, and Apple as much as most -- other than perhaps my friend Ron R
. But am much too busy to learn other stuff such as Linux, Foxfire, and so forth. MS products are what most of the world uses, regardless of my feeling toward the CEO's and their philosophies. I began learning this lesson when I insisted on using WordStar, then WordPerfect. I spent hours explaining on various forums how much better WordPerfect was over MS Word -- but finally realized that MS Word "is" the standard now, regardless of how good it is compared to other word processors. IMO, with what I do, sticking with standards vs. trying to find the best of breed elsewhere increases my efficiency and effectiveness.
Anyway, Ray -- am glad that you persevered and continue with Vista. To me, that puts you ahead of the curve . . .
