Installing Vista RC2 As My Main OS Was Definitely A Bad Idea
My decision to install Windows Vista RC2 as my main OS last week was a very bad idea. Yes, I know I should have known better but I thought it was time to force myself to give Vista a real tryout.
The installation of Vista itself went almost without a hitch. The only problem I had was trying to get it to recognise my 4GB of ram, but I think my crappy A8R-MVP motherboard was causing the problem not the 64-bit version of Vista.
The real issues began once I had to install my hardware and software. There were far too many incompatabilities. Some were flagged by Vista during the installation process, others only became apparent once I attempted to use installed programs. After half a day of frustration I gave up and restored Windows XP.
I know that Microsoft can’t be held accountable for 3rd-party software not working, but the fact that I couldn’t get my programs to work properly made me realise a key thing about my PC - the programs I use are much more important to me than the OS itself. XP allows me to run all the programs I want to run, whereas it is going to take a long time for Vista to allow me to do this.
Vista itself may be very sexy and fast (on my machine anyway), but I really don’t think I’m going to be upgrading to Vista until at least a year after it comes out in order to give software developers time to catchup.
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Comment by Steve Myers on 2 November 2006:
I was unable to load either the initial beta program nor the RC2. I have a relatively powerful desktop Presario with a P4 3.06G speed processor, 2GB RAM, 200GB memory and a score of bells & whistles (including both CDROM and DVD burner drives. Vista would hiccup during file extraction and die to a blue screen. I tried to load it on my Compaq laptop (specially beefed up to meet Vista’s opening bid) and the LT whizzed past where to 800lb primate fell on its face - and got to the cleanup post-install. . .and crashed. It took me a long time to deinstall my Norton programs (as indicated I should in the Vista “see if your PC can hack it” routine) and a midnight to dawn “almost install” to raise my hopes the LT install would succeed. I was on the horn to HP and Microsoft several times, sent a huge log file to MS, but we never came to a conclusion why neither computer was incapable of loading Vista. HP’s tech, somewhere in Mumbai or Nova Scotia, opined my desktop motherboard was not designed to accept Vista. The LT failure remains a mystery.
My question now is: will the retail Vista OS fail on my computers?