Microsoft Vista

Kinetic^

Just wondering if anybody knows when Microsoft Vista is being released??

rossious

October this year say microsoft. Expect it for christmas at earliest then!!!!!:D

Kinetic^

rossious wrote:

October this year say microsoft. Expect it for christmas at earliest then!!!!!:D

Yes, Christmas 2027

youcancallmeal

I heard the BSOD is gone to be replaced by the Red Screen Of Death :mad: :eek:

Capt'n Midnight

Windows XP SP3 Due Out in Second Half of 2007
ie. Microsoft have dropped work on it so as to get Vista out the door this year.



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The red screen of death (abbreviated RSoD, sometimes "of doom") is a nick name for the error message which exists in some prerelease versions of Microsoft's upcoming operating system, Windows Vista (previously codenamed Longhorn). It is so called because of the resemblance to the Blue Screen of Death, that would sometimes appear in earlier versions of Windows. It was dropped in Build 5112 of Windows Vista.

The red screen of death is said to differ from its blue counterpart, by being shown as a result of a boot loader error.

The red screen of death also sometimes refers to fatal errors in recent versions of Lotus Notes. These errors are not full-screen like the Microsoft red or blue screens of death, but rather are bright red boxes with black borders. The RSoD uses 80×25 text mode, with a screen resolution of 640×400 and a font similar to Fixedsys

===================================================
But you can have an RSOD today

You can change the normal colours of the background and text when you get a Blue Screen of Death, ( BSOD ) to something new and exciting!

Edit the SYSTEM.INI file in the Windows directory:

In the [386Enh] add the entries:

MessageTextCOLOR=X
MessageBackCOLOR=X

Where X is replace by the number for each of the following colours:

Black = 0
Blue = 1
Green = 2
Cyan = 3
Red = 4
Magenta = 5
Yellow/Brown = 6
White = 7(Well, you couldn't see it if I coloured it white now could you?)
Grey = 8
Bright Blue = 9
Bright Green = A
Bright Cyan = B
Bright Red = C
Bright Magenta = D
Bright Yellow = E
Bright White = F (*See white!)

=================================
And CBA looking for it but you can tweak the reg so that ctrl-alt-print screen generates a BSOD if you want to test it :rolleyes:

WizZard

RSoD here

I wanted an aubergine screen of death :mad:

Kinetic^

So should I wait for Vista or just get XP?

uberpixie

Keyser Soze 69 wrote:

So should I wait for Vista or just get XP?

Get XP. It works.

Most of the bugs are ironed out of XP and it's pretty damn stable when you take care of it.

As with all new microsoft os's the os will prolly be released half assed and unstable with very little driver support.

(still remember the days of win98 and sticking with 95 coz it was more stable to begin with!)

Vista may be worth getting a year after release, they may just have it stable by then.

Kinetic^

uberpixie wrote:

Get XP. It works.

Most of the bugs are ironed out of XP and it's pretty damn stable when you take care of it.

As with all new microsoft os's the os will prolly be released half assed and unstable with very little driver support.

(still remember the days of win98 and sticking with 95 coz it was more stable to begin with!)

Vista may be worth getting a year after release, they may just have it stable by then.

Ok here's the situation.

About 4/5 years ago I got my first PC, didn't have clue about spec then (not much has changed), and I ended up getting windows millenium.

Its pants, enough said. I got it like a month before XP came out so I don't want to make the same mistake again.

I still have the same PC at home and I intend on keeping the next PC for a further 3-5 years.

So any advice on what to do after taking that into consideration?

aidan_walsh

If you're thinking of running Vista on a 5-10 year old machine, forget it.

WizZard

Keyser Soze 69 wrote:

Ok here's the situation.

About 4/5 years ago I got my first PC, didn't have clue about spec then (not much has changed), and I ended up getting windows millenium.

Its pants, enough said. I got it like a month before XP came out so I don't want to make the same mistake again.

I still have the same PC at home and I intend on keeping the next PC for a further 3-5 years.

So any advice on what to do after taking that into consideration?

I would still recommend XP Professional. Don't get the home one.

Kinetic^

aidan_walsh wrote:

If you're thinking of running Vista on a 5-10 year old machine, forget it.

I'm not, I'm getting a new system.

astrofool

We managed to get a green screen of death when testing/building Vista (have a photo on my phone still)

the_syco

If your getting a 64bit OS, get Windows 64bit XP Pro. Many people say its more stable than XP Pro, and for me, no crashes thus far.

Kinetic^

the_syco wrote:

If your getting a 64bit OS, get Windows 64bit XP Pro. Many people say its more stable than XP Pro, and for me, no crashes thus far.

From what you just said, I got "Dime ....... Bar"

aidan_walsh

the_syco wrote:

If your getting a 64bit OS, get Windows 64bit XP Pro.

Has the range of supported drivers been extended? Because last I heard it was pretty meagre...

dango

"I would still recommend XP Professional. Don't get the home one."

Why not? What are the vital differences?

the_syco

Yes, it seems so to me. I've had little to no problems with drivers (which after 2K is something).

superfly

whats the specs needed for this and don't you need a high end graphics card?

scrap that i found it here
its pretty high, especially if you have an older system

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsvista/evaluate/hardware/entpguid.mspx#EBAA

Balfa

Get XP! It's the only MS operating system that isn't utter crap. I've had XP Home on my laptop for three and a half years without a reinstall, and only in the last two months it's started to get a little bit dodgy and hang for a few seconds here and there, take way too long to open a program, or something. I might reinstall it soon, though now that I have a good desktop PC for gaming, I'll probably put Ubuntu on the laptop.

Compare this to back in my Win 98 days, I had special quick-install discs setup and had it down to like 30 minutes for a format and reinstall because I used to do that every 4 months or so. And ME is much worse than 98SE!

netwhizkid

For those thinking of getting Windows my advice is get MAC I have a hard time with Windows Xp since the transition from Win 98 this time last year, I crashed once and had to re-format, Crashed several times since but recovered since, I have got everything in order and have survived the last few months okay. I have heard a rumour that Vista will be massive and be a pure system hog and that only the newest up to date machine will be Capable.

Would my year old machine be up to the task of Vista?

Dell Dimension 8400 Details
PROCESSOR: Intel Pentium 4 Processor 550 with HT technology
SPEED: 3.4GHz
MEMORY: 1024MB DDR400 RAM Dual Channel Memory (2x512) 1MB Cache
STORAGE: 160GB (72QQrpm) SATA Hard Drive, 3 5" Floppy Drive
MULTIMEDIA: 1024MB DDR400 Dual Channel Memory (2x512)
MODEM: V 90 Data Fax Modem Ireland/Spain
DISPLAY: 17” TFT LCD Monitor Flat Screen
OS: Win XP SP2 Home
Burners: 16x max DVD+/-RW and 16x DVD, 2 Drives one reader and burner.

I know it's a year but still. Also i wonder when will we migrate from GHz over to teraflops?

Creamy Goodness

i remember the advent of the Xp release the exact same topic was here except instead it was

win98/2k over xp.

almost every post was win98 is much better it much more secure and doesn't look like it's being released by playskool.

if you can wait then get vista, if you cannot get xp.

Thomas_S_Hunterson

Balfa wrote:

Get XP! It's the only MS operating system that isn't utter crap. I've had XP Home on my laptop for three and a half years without a reinstall, and only in the last two months it's started to get a little bit dodgy and hang for a few seconds here and there, take way too long to open a program, or something. I might reinstall it soon, though now that I have a good desktop PC for gaming, I'll probably put Ubuntu on the laptop.

Compare this to back in my Win 98 days, I had special quick-install discs setup and had it down to like 30 minutes for a format and reinstall because I used to do that every 4 months or so. And ME is much worse than 98SE!

You should never have to reinstall an operating system full stop

jesus_thats_gre

netwhizkid wrote:

For those thinking of getting Windows my advice is get MAC I have a hard time with Windows Xp since the transition from Win 98 this time last year, I crashed once and had to re-format, Crashed several times since but recovered since, I have got everything in order and have survived the last few months okay. I have heard a rumour that Vista will be massive and be a pure system hog and that only the newest up to date machine will be Capable.

Why are you recommending the MAC OS?

netwhizkid wrote:

Would my year old machine be up to the task of Vista?

Dell Dimension 8400 Details
PROCESSOR: Intel Pentium 4 Processor 550 with HT technology
SPEED: 3.4GHz
MEMORY: 1024MB DDR400 RAM Dual Channel Memory (2x512) 1MB Cache
STORAGE: 160GB (72QQrpm) SATA Hard Drive, 3 5" Floppy Drive
MULTIMEDIA: 1024MB DDR400 Dual Channel Memory (2x512)
MODEM: V 90 Data Fax Modem Ireland/Spain
DISPLAY: 17” TFT LCD Monitor Flat Screen
OS: Win XP SP2 Home
Burners: 16x max DVD+/-RW and 16x DVD, 2 Drives one reader and burner.

I know it's a year but still. Also i wonder when will we migrate from GHz over to teraflops?

Quite simply, yes!! You will be able to run Vista in some shape or form.. You probably won't get to see all the nice 3D desktop crap though..

netwhizkid

jesus_thats_gre wrote:

Why are you recommending the MAC OS?

Quite simply, yes!! You will be able to run Vista in some shape or form.. You probably won't get to see all the nice 3D desktop crap though..

I think that MAC is better and when eventually i get another PC it will be a MAC, it easier and isn't full of holes like Windows. Why shouldn't I view the 3D stuff this is my Graphic card I think! 128MB PCI Express ATI Radeon TM X300SE I'd say its not the best but when getting the PC graphics weren't a big issue. How does this Graphics Card rate too though.

Creamy Goodness

if you get another PC it wouldn't be called a mac. mac =/= PC.

if you want to play any games you'd be better off with a PC.

Capt'n Midnight

Keyser Soze 69 wrote:

So should I wait for Vista or just get XP?

They have dropped so many of the originally announced features you could just wait another 3-5 years for the real thing instead of getting another stop gap OS.

Remember Windows ME ?

As for servers if the standard 2003 license coverd 64 bit processors then IMHO there would be no point in getting software assurance unless you have a key requirement for a feature that's on the roadmap.

And licensing for Vista is going to be a nightmare
embedded/home/mce/pro/premium/server/enterprise/datacentre
times OEM, Retail , upgrade, licensing times 32 bit / 64 bit
that is an awful lot of CD's that are esentially the same apart for the registry and T&C's

Kinetic^

Capt'n Midnight wrote:

They have dropped so many of the originally announced features you could just wait another 3-5 years for the real thing instead of getting another stop gap OS.

Remember Windows ME ?

As for servers if the standard 2003 license coverd 64 bit processors then IMHO there would be no point in getting software assurance unless you have a key requirement for a feature that's on the roadmap.

And licensing for Vista is going to be a nightmare
embedded/home/mce/pro/premium/server/enterprise/datacentre
times OEM, Retail , upgrade, licensing times 32 bit / 64 bit
that is an awful lot of CD's that are esentially the same apart for the registry and T&C's

So should I get XP or wait for Vista??

Capt'n Midnight

What so you want it to do ?

New hardware + OEM ?
self build ?
Old pc and buying an upgrade copy ?

SouperComputer

XP home is fine. Rest assured there will be plenty more bugs with the many versions of Vista to contend with.

2k is getting a bit old and suppoprt ends next year from memory.

Unless you need to join a domain or encrypt your files, XP home is perfect. Let everyone else test vista for you when it arrives

UberNewb

astrofool wrote:

We managed to get a green screen of death when testing/building Vista (have a photo on my phone still)

What build version are you testing? I'm thinking of installing Windows Vista CTP build 5270 to see how it runs and looks.

Kinetic^

Capt'n Midnight wrote:

What so you want it to do ?

New hardware + OEM ?
self build ?
Old pc and buying an upgrade copy ?

New hardware is a must, I couldn't even tell you what sort of spec my comp is.

Here's what I need my computer for:

Internet (obviously)
Streaming live NFL/NBA games
Using accounting software
small games which my gf plays, like the sims etc.
I'm hoping to also use the monitor for tv/xbox 360 as well.

Airblazer

Keyser Soze 69 wrote:

New hardware is a must, I couldn't even tell you what sort of spec my comp is.

Here's what I need my computer for:

Internet (obviously)
Streaming live NFL/NBA games
Using accounting software
small games which my gf plays, like the sims etc.
I'm hoping to also use the monitor for tv/xbox 360 as well.

ok..judging from the above you'll want a fairly decent pc...
Vista is not out till Dec 2006 and there are approx 11 different versions of it to be released..otherwords, a nightmare,
XP is fine now for what you want is for and will be supported for at least another 2 years or so...
It will also be able to avail of the WinFS database plus Avalon (Graphical desktop) so waiting for Vista will serve no purpose..hopefully this helps..

Cake Fiend

netwhizkid wrote:

I have a hard time with Windows Xp since the transition from Win 98 this time last year

Us competent computer users don't have such problems. But anyway, if you're having so many issues with Windows, why are you still running it? Download a linux distro and see if that solves your problems.

Cremo wrote:

almost every post was win98 is much better it much more secure

/me slaps thighs and guffaws!

WizZard

netwhizkid wrote:

Also i wonder when will we migrate from GHz over to teraflops?

Totally different things :rolleyes:
FLOPS

ShiverinEskimo

possibly he meant THz

Not for a while I reckon - progress in core speeds has slowed down considerably.

A whole new approach may be required such as what sony and co. are attempting with the cell chips in the PS3.

Kinetic^

Airblazer wrote:

ok..judging from the above you'll want a fairly decent pc...
Vista is not out till Dec 2006 and there are approx 11 different versions of it to be released..otherwords, a nightmare,
XP is fine now for what you want is for and will be supported for at least another 2 years or so...
It will also be able to avail of the WinFS database plus Avalon (Graphical desktop) so waiting for Vista will serve no purpose..hopefully this helps..

Ok cool, so can anyone point me to a good base model on dell's website.