Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium FULL VERSION [DVD] [OLD VERSION]

Customer Reviews

Avoid if you can

2008-03-29
It is pretty. But that's about the only advantage of Vista over XP. PC dealers are now reverting to offering PCs with XP, because there is such a demand to AVOID Vista.

I am not a computer expert, but use it all day at work for word processing, email, spreadsheets, statistics programs, internet, and a variety of other programs. Also do quite a bit of photo editing and cataloguing, music, accounting, etc. I rely on my PC a lot for home and for office.

Caveat to my review: I did not spend $4000 on my PC system. I don't know if that would solve the problems. But I did buy a brand new PC that came with Home Premium as the only option for the new PC.

My main complaint is how slow everything is. It literally takes about 8 minutes or more to boot up. I often wait 1-2 minutes for my Photoshop Elements to open. In contrast, on my old laptop (2.5 years old, XP, but with same Photoshop program), the program is zippy. Pretty much the same for rest of the functions. I have adjusted the start up setting as per Vista website recommendations with no avail. And I'm not even talking about the crashes, bizarre interruptions, etc. that seem to occur.

It is a sad state of affairs really, because 99% of folks would be just as well served by XP. MS needs to make money, so I guess they have to come out with a new system. But it is just bizarre that a business can come up with a WORSE product that everyone is virtually forced to buy. How does this happen? The ONLY reason I got Vista was because I needed a new computer and a new PC only came with Vista. I did not want it, and I just can't imagine why vast majority of PC users would want it. Isn't there something wrong here?

even worse after installing Service Pack 1

2008-03-27
As has been noted elsewhere, Windows Vista is the best advertisement for Max and Linux out there.

I've been a dedicated Microsoft OS user going back to the pre-windows days of DOS, and this is the first time that one of Microsoft's little masterworks has driven me to Apple. I recently upgraded my desktop machine to an iMac, which I recommend without reservation.

Unfortunately, to get there I first had to undergo the frustration of purchasing a new laptop with Vista pre-installed.

I'm a journalist with minimal computing needs--word processing, photo uploading, email and Web browsing--but I need my computer to work well and work quickly to meet crazy deadlines while on the road.

Instead of repeating what's already been said in many of the negative reviews here, let me just tell you that Vista doesn't cut it. Windows XP did the job fine, and Vista makes me feel like I'm trying to do my work with a manual typewriter, a fax machine, and a photocopier kludged together with twine and electrical tape. Sure, I can get it to work, usually, but the process is so maddeningly slow and bug-ridden that I often spend as much time struggling with the tools of my trade as doing my job. Not at all the situation I want to be in.

I installed Service Pack 1 hoping like mad that Microsoft had miraculously fixed all the problems inherent in Vista, and found instead that my system had become even slower and more buggy. For instance, I can no longer play a full-screen movie with Windows Media Player on my HP Pavilion tx1000z without choppiness, the HP-branded DVD player no longer functions, and my system overall now seems about as stable as the old Windows 95, i.e., it crashes, hard, far too often, and without warning.

Right now I'm looking at either downgrading my laptop to XP (the reason I'm here on the Microsoft product page), or giving my laptop to my three-year-old and getting a MacBook. Actually, I'll probably do both since I don't want to saddle even my three-year-old with Vista, and I have found to my tremendous relief that the Mac OS is everything Vista tries to be, and very much more.

The only thing holding me back at this point is the extreme annoyance of shoveling yet more money at Microsoft to purchase another of their products to fix problems the company created in the first place. Hey, come to think of it, maybe Vista is nothing more than a plot to drive sales of XP!

In any case, I have Microsoft to thank for steering me toward to best OS I've ever used, Mac OS Leopard. Thanks, Microsoft! (Fun fact: Windows PCs show up in the Mac networking utility as beige monitors displaying blue screens of death.)

Bottom line: save yourself a whole lot of headache and steer well clear of Windows Vista. Service Pack 1 does not, repeat, does not solve Vista's problems, it makes them worse.

Vista is Working Fine for Me

2008-03-21
I have XP running on a bootcamp partition on my MacBook and it is doing just fine. I spend most of my working time in Word, hardly ever using any of the other programs in the Office suite. However, I use the Adobe products Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator a whole bunch. Other than that I play solitaire, watch videos and, of course, use both Explorer and Firefox when I go online. That's about it for me, software wise, and XP handles it all without fail, without crashing and without giving me any headaches.

And I will miss it when I upgrade to Vista, however my machine can handle the upgrade, so I'm giving it a try.

Okay, I like the look and feel of Vista, however it's not as snappy as XP or even System X. I like the AERO bit, quite snazzy and one of the reasons my machine runs a bit slower, I suspect, however I'm loath to turn it off as it's so cool.

Word works fine and that's to be expected. My Adobe software runs well too. The browsers, no problem. I did have to upload a printer driver, but that only took a few minutes and I was good to go.

I've read a lot of reviews by people who are having problems with Vista and I'm getting the SP1 upgrade any day and I'll instal it, but I'm not experiencing the problems others appear to be having. Maybe because it's because I only use four or five programs on my Machine. I don't use iTunes or Windows Media as I still listen to my CDs the old fashioned way and only then if I don't have the phonograph record.

Vista

2008-03-21
Windows Vista is a great OS if you can run it. If you have an up to date computer with hardware that is compatible with Vista, then it will not let you down. It is nicer, smoother, and faster than XP and has a lot of neat features. So far it has let me run any software that I've thrown at it, some of it even faster than my PC did when it had XP installed.
Most people complain about Vista because they can't run it well, in truth it's because they have the wrong hardware, and if you don't want to spend money upgrading then, by all means, stick with XP!

Where to begin?

2008-03-21
If you want to take a powerful PC and dumb it down to a 'Web Appliance' this is the garbage for you. I run XP, 2000 and Server 2003 at my office, and I can not for the life of me figure out how to do things that even Win 98 could do - easily!

It is obviously positioned for dumb teens who want to take pics and upload them them to You Tube, not for anyone who would actually want to do any COMPUTING! try sharing files with anyone who also uses your PC (wife, kids) via a simple folder. Try then to get "help" from the menu and be talked down to you like you are turning on a PC for the first time.

Hello - Windows Explorer (file manager) has long been the most useful tool in Windows - why is it still buried??

Kim Kamando says skip it, and she's the spout for people who don't know much. Keep your XP! I may upgrade to Vista Pro, but for what? More 'Google Gadgets' on my desktop. Aggh!!

Good and stable but not fully compatible

2008-07-14
I got this with my dell. I love it. I have read alot of reviews about how it is a bloated programme and how so many others are better but i honestly love this OS. I need not go into how nice the interface looks for i am sure alot of persons have done that for me. With Service Pack 1 and my regular updates i have not noticed any problems stability-wise. I have even read reviews that show that with SP1 its performance is now comparable to the hugely successfull predecessor XP with SP2.

I was very disappointed with the fact that i could not use certain programmes with it...noteably ArcView 3.x and ArcGIS 9.0 . All other compatable issues i had were eventually solved by driver updates from the device or software manufacturers.

I love it.

Windows Vista

2008-06-11
Ok, so first of all, i have no idea why people are so pissed at this software, u may call me lucky, but windows vista runs perfect on my computer with just about no faults, now or ever (and my computer (custom) is kind of out dated: AMD Athlon 64 3200, NVidia GeForce 6600GT, 2Gb of memory...), plus i literally have the very first version of home premium, i pre ordered it.

I REALLY like the interface, and all games play a lot (a lot!) better than on Xp (i do hard core gaming between crysis (also wrote a review), counter strike, Day of Defeat, CS:s, and Flight simulator x). The only thing thats actually really slow on vista is MS office, but thats also slow on Xp, and on my MacBook. As for the security pop up screen, the first week or so its annoying but then u dont even notice, or even care about it. Windows also does all the tasks that u had to do manually be fore automatically, for example drivers it downloads automatically, and it has a very very easy wireless set up (first it downloads the drive (automatically!), and then u just click on what wireless network to join.

Also my friend has a $500 laptop and WINDOWS VISTA ULTIMATE runs on it amazingly fast, and he too likes it (he upgraded from Xp) more than the update

now after using windows vista, Xp seems really outdated, hard to use, and just plain bad (horrible interface!).

i love this product and strongly advise you to buy it (except for ppl w/ really bad and really outdated computers)
Btw, im currently building a new computer (just about done!!! ive ordered half from Amazon, half from newegg) and when ive used Vista long enough one the new computer, i will update my review

Specs:
Computer Case: Antec Nine Hundred
Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 (over clocked to 3.3 GHz)
CPU Cooler: Zalman Ultra quiet CPU cooler (LED)
Graphics Card: EVGA e-GeForce 8800 GTS KO Edition
Motherboard: DFI LP LT X38-T2R
Memory: CORSAIR DOMINATOR 4GB (2 x 2GB) 1066
Hard Drive: WD Caviar 500Gb
PSU: Corsair CMPSU-620HX 620W
Sound Card: Creative Labs PCIE Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium FATAL1TY pro
Stereos: Logitech Z-5500
Monitor: Samsung SyncMaster 953BW 19"

Vista vista vista.

2008-05-27
Why, microsoft??

A couple years ago, microsoft came out with a good product with the XP system. It was a relatively good program, with only the occasional patch. Very user friendly, and didn't make people want to shoot themeselves.

Along came Vista.

As it is aptly said in a different review, the complete de-evolution of computing. The boys at microsoft really screwed this one up, trying to copy the more popular mac software.

Whoops

They completely failed at it!! Vista is the absolute worst form of computing. Complete suckiness. It was way overcomplicated and made very user-unfriendly

I wonder how many Vista-related suicides there have been?

Not as bad as people think.

2008-04-27
Vista has improved alot with SP1 and pretty much all of its bugs have been fixed. Its a good time to buy

Good, Not great

2008-03-30
Upgraded from XP to Vista. Seems to be a smoother operating system. Fewer steps for setups and to keep the computer system working. Nicer screen displays. Watch out for Windows security that can be intrusive into other software like setting up your wireless router and adapter. Turned it off to use my own antivirus and firewall software. Currently Vista does not support wireless hubs for USB printers while XP does, I am told. Go figure. New format in drop down screens looking at directories and files takes some getting used to but then so did the dos prompt. Have Vista on two computers and like the operating system in general.