Upgrading to Vista

Penn

Basically, I think I need to upgrade to Vista because my laptop is being crippled by bugs and viruses which have been removed but have already done pretty irrepairable damage.

My concern however, is my Eircom Netopia router. A disk came with it which I had to install etc. I cant find the disk anymore. If I installed Vista, would I need to reinstall the disk for the router? I already know the WEP key, so connecting to the network wouldnt be a problem, but for changing router settings, running diagnosis etc, would I need the disk that came with the router?

elexes

upgrading to vista will not solve bugs and virus's. id recommend reinstalling the operating system that was originally on your system and upgrading the version of windows you have to the latest service pack

you can find the drivers for the dsl modem on the internet depending on what version of the modem it is. shouldn't be hard to install.

if its the normal eircom wireless router with the 4 ports for wired connections you dont actually need the install disk as you just point your browser to the routers location ( eg. 192.168.1.1 )

perhaps installing some sort of antivirus program while your at it also

Penn

I have plenty of antivirus stuff now anyway, thats for sure . I got rid of the viruses pretty quickly but they've already changed stuff in the registry and I keep getting messages about Command lines and Parameters and the like. It wont even let me install anything now, not even an update for WMP11 to get media sharing. I've read on the web that the virus I got actually doesnt affect your computer until you install something. I deleted the virus quickly, but now when I go to install something, it won't because it trys to load the virus. Thats what I've been told anyway, dont know myself.

The laptop came with XP already installed, I dont have the disks for it. I've tried getting updates and the like, but keep getting error messages. I figured installing Vista would in essence be like buying a new laptop, ie. I'd have to reinstall all my programs and such, but the bugs and stuff would be gone due to a new registry. I dont know a lot about computers so I was pretty much just guessing at all that

Penn

So would people recommend getting Vista or not? If it fixed even half the things thats wrong with it, I'd get it, especially cos I want Media Center too. But if its not going to help at all and I have to reinstall all my programmes again for no reason, to hells with it

Like I said, I can't seem to install programs, so do you think installing Vista would fix this, as if it doesnt, I wouldnt be able to reinstall all my programs anyway.

Computers are confuzzling

Gary ITR

I wouldn't recommend putting Vista onto your XP machine unless it has at least 2gb of ram and a 2.0ghz dual core processor.

If you install vista on anything less then you're asking for trouble. The best thing you can do is reinstall xp

Penn

I think the laptop meets those standards, I'll have to check though. It says its Vista Compatible anyway.

Like I said, I dont think I have the disks for XP. I'll check that too. Would installing Vista have the same effect as reinstalling XP?

Nothingbetter2d

chances are u have a partition with the xp setup program on it....

as for vista i wouldnt bother waste money on it.......1. vista is buggy still 2. vista is already obsolete (windows 7 is already available on beta release and apartently runs a whole lot better than vista does despite it still being a beta)
3. if your laptop is fairly old vista will not do u any favours

elexes

paddyirishman85 wrote: »

I think the laptop meets those standards, I'll have to check though. It says its Vista Compatible anyway.

Like I said, I dont think I have the disks for XP. I'll check that too. Would installing Vista have the same effect as reinstalling XP?

Microsoft are currently in the courts in America for vista ready pc's . from what i remember hearing. http://blogs.pcworld.com/staffblog/archives/006543.html

so the saying goes

may not do exactly what it says on the tin

leninbenjamin

paddyirishman85 wrote: »

Like I said, I dont think I have the disks for XP. I'll check that too. Would installing Vista have the same effect as reinstalling XP?

pretty much, although your laptop will run slower. I personally recommend having 3GBs of RAM for Vista. Vista uses up 1GB itself, so that means in order to have near the maximum available RAM available to any intsensive application you need another 2GB on top of that. with 3GBs the only you really notice is a longer bootup time, but any lower than that and it will slow down.

but upgrading from Vista to XP simply is not worth it, i would just reinstall XP to get rid of all the junk in your PC. if you don't have the disks I think you can borrow a disk from a friend, they are all the same, and then get software to back up your activation key to, and then copy it to a USB key or something (at least i think, i've never quite done this myself, but i don't think the activation keys are encrypted in XP like in Vista so they should be easy to find).