Windows XP and Vista Information
Windows Vista has been plagued with problems from the time it was introduced. Although it has some nice display features and improved security it’s downsides are that it’s memory hungry, non-friendly with older hardware, and prone to bugs and crashing. The latest problem involves Vista SP1 rendering several applications inoperable, including popular antivirus programs (ZoneAlarm and Trend Micro to name just two of them). You can get more info here.
For those reasons I’ve still been advising people in the market for new PCs to stick with Windows XP. Because of that I wanted to let people know that the cutoff date for purchasing Windows XP is June 30th, 2008. I hope that date is extended but I wouldn’t count on it.
Also, Microsoft is stating a cutoff date for support of XP Home of April 14th, 2009. That’s when they intend to stop providing patches for consumer versions. My advice is that if you’re in the market for a new computer, try to get one with Windows XP Pro prior to June 30th.
Apparently NVIDIA (a popular video card) drivers are responsible for nearly 30% of Vista crashes in 2007. Microsoft claims responsibility for another 18%. Interesting article about that here: http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/27/nvidia-drivers-responsible-for-nearly-30-of-vista-crashes-in-20/.
Regards,
-Bert
October 5th, 2010 at 2:22 pm
Dear Bert,
pls advice me i am running my compaq presario 1 gb ram with vista home edition, i find it not so slow but slow, should i keep updating and move further or can i format and install windows xp and have a faster computer, is is advisable, pls help
thanks
simon
October 5th, 2010 at 7:54 pm
Hi Simon,
If it were me I’d buy another 1GB of RAM. You could probably find it online at http://www.kingston.com for around $50 and that will help a lot. I like the kingston website because you can enter your computer information and they’ll tell you exactly what kind of RAM you need to install.
When you’re ready to upgrade go to Windows 7.
Good luck!
-Bert