If you have a new gaming PC, believe me installing XP is HEEEEELLLLLLLL...
XP Sp1 official genuine, (I know you can upgrade with Windows update, I'm talking here about the SETUP)
- Doesn't like SATA HDD's
- Hmmm dual core?!?! it sees my Intel Core 2 Duo and AMD Athlon 64 X2 as a single 800Mhz CPU
- PCI-Express Ethernet card: everything (including windows updates) are successful once every 5 times. The rest of the time, the file is corrupted, or clock at 99%.
Of course the millisecond you upgrade to SP2, everything works perfectly.
This can take up to a full day of work
Vista, 20min and your done.. printer works too without putting a disk in, or downloading anything from the support site.
FAST startup, programs starts faster. The second you log-in to your account, even while you got your startup programs starting up, you can start using your computer right away, the start menu won't disappear in front of you. And trial software system fails in most programs (that means it considers that you purchased it and that a serial was inserted. Heck you even get "Thank you for purchasing xyz program" message)

Many never before fixed bugs since Win2000 are finally fixed:
- Programs don't lose focus
- tool tip on start menu does not appear on the back of the menu.
- improved network system
- FIX the bug: plug/unplug multiple times a USB device on the same USB port, and then the USB port will stop working, until reboot of computer.
- MUCH better resource management.
- A REAL firewall system (quiet good actually)
BTW: Windows Vista runs quiet smoothly with:
- 512MB of RAM @ 333Mhz
- Geforce FX 5200 AGP
- AMD Athlon XP 2500+
- Nforce 2
- Aero GUI with transparency
The reason why it take so much RAM, is because of super fetch. Disable that service, and see your programs take more time to load, yet see your RAM used amount drop.
The only reason why it's slow on games, is because there are no optimized drivers for the sound card, motherboard and video card. Remember Windows XP was out since 2001 and was based on Win2000. So companies was very comfortable programing drivers for it. Oh talking about games, I got all my old 1999 and older games that WORKS under Vista RC2 public beta, yes they work, without any hack!
Tested games:
- Megarace
- WarCraft II (original for windows)
- Emperor: Battle of Dune
- Simcity 1
- Simtower
- Prince of Persia DOS version
- TestDrive for DOS
- Need For Speed HighStakes
and more...
Anyway, in my case, I have no choice to upgrade...
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A bit more interesting question:Since Vista come out, we see many people change to MAC or Linux...
Do you think releasing vista was bad for Microsoft? What do you think that caused Vista to cause people to change to different OS?
When I saw Windows XP came out, it had less features then added from Win2000 then Vista from XP.
Windows XP main new features:
- New ugly (at my taste) Skin
- Dog in the search
- Side column
- Remove the ability to make your own custom folder style.
- Activation system
- Welcome screen
- Fast user Switch
Heck I was using Win2000 since 2006 Jan. and that was when I build my new computer.
I had a Windows XP SP1 CD that I won in a contest, and I never bother to look at it.