Compatability with Vista

[Mike Reed]

Hi All

I am thinking of changing my computer and find that Windows Vista seems to be the only operating system on offer. Has anybody experienced working with vista. Do you know if it is backwards compatable with programmes designed for Windows XP i.e. Photoshop Cs and especially PTE.

[Ken Cox]

Mike

use the forum search function -- lot of vista entries -- majority good

ken

[fh1805]

Mike,

I've been using Vista Home Premium on both desktop and laptop computers since August last year. Some older software isn't Vista-compatible (e.g. I was using Photoshop Elements 3 under Windows XP. Vista wouldn't let it be installed. I had to switch to Photoshop Elements 5).

PTE v4.47 and PTE v5.1 both run fine. Be aware there is a known problem with running PTE exe files created with v4 under Vista but Igor has produced a utility that will patch the exe to eliminate the problem. You will find the patch under the post about PTE v4.49. (Search the forum using "v4.49" without the quotes)

The Vista code seems to be just as stable as XP-Sp2 was.

As Ken also suggested, run some searches on the forum using "Vista" as your search argument to find some of the posts that have discussed various aspects of this subject.

[Conflow]

Hi Mike,

Just to advise you concerning 'Vista' being the only thing on offer....

Many vendors including Dell will offer you XP should you demand that Op.System.

Now lets forget PTE for a minute ~ Its very well known within the Computer Industry

that 'Vista' has major issues with its 32/64 bit Op.System and refuses to run any

worthwhile (old) 16 bit Program ~ there are very many of those out there.

Furthermore it demands the usage of (Microsoft) Certified 32 Bit Programs and let

me say thats its really some "hassle" should you wish to run anything otherwise.

That will preclude most Prorams you have gathered over the years which run quite

happily on your XP-System. There are ways around that but ?.....

I know for sure that Hewlett-Packard offer their entire range in both XP and Vista.

Apart from the chosen Op.System their 'pre-loaded' Suite of Programs is very good.

Their 'prices' are generally within 5% of Dell's for their Lo-End PCs and within 10%

for the equivalent Hi-End Machines before they move into the Ferrari end of things

and from there ~ the sky's the limit.

We just bought 3 of their "Re-Engineered" Compaq 5500 Laptops (HP Invent Series)

15"Screens -Dual I.66Gb Centrino Processors -2Gb Ram -88Gb.HD -2 PC Cardslots'

3 USB Ports, Printer, Bluetooth, Ethernet, Modem, Camera, and 2 Expansion Ports,

Wireless LAN Enabled, Mic & Headphone Socs, Superb 'Altec-Lansing' Sound System.

Battery Life:3Hours, Bright(controlable)TFT Screen, Steel Case,

They run XP-Op Systems + Vista Compatible, and surprise they also run PTE.5xx.

The HP.Laptops totally out-classed our "2-Sony Viao-Vistas" which we promptly sold.

Hope this is of some help ~ its well worth while getting a HP.Demo,you will be surprised.

Brian.Conflow.

[Lin Evans]

Hi Mike,

Let me second what Brian just said. I just purchased a new Dell myself and did so specifically "because" they offer Win XP.

Personally, I wouldn't touch Vista until SP2 has been released and maybe not then. My new Dell takes about 30 seconds to be up and running. My wife's Vista Business Edition took over two minutes to get through all the BS and be usable and about the same amount of time to shut down. Yes, it's possible to dink with it and speed up the process but it's a real memory hog and has the issues Brian discussed with 16 bit programs.

I found that Vista would not run Photoshop versions earlier than CS3 meaning I would have to upgrade it as well as lots of my other software - definitely not worth it for me.

The Dell I purchased was a Inspiron 530 which comes with a decent integrated video with 128 meg, and a core 2 duo Intel 2.33 ghz processor. I tried my wife's Nvidia 8600 GT card and it worked perfectly. I ordered and received an Invidia 8800 GT card but the power supply which shipped with the Dell was only 300 watt so marginal and only had two open 15 pin SATA connectors both of which would have needed a 15 pin SATA to 4 pin Molex connector adaptor so I upgraded the power supply with a 750 watt model which I found at Tiger Direct for $119.00. The new power supply is fantastic with more cables than one could ever need and shoehorned into the Dell case without issue.

All together the Dell with four gigabytes of RAM, the new power supply and Nvidia 8800 GT cost $1500 without a monitor. Surprisingly, the integrated video actually would run most of the PTE files perfectly but I wanted the Nvidia 8800 GT so without that it would have been only $1200 and that's with Windows XP Home Edition which works great and comes already activated.

Best regards,

Lin

Hi All

I am thinking of changing my computer and find that Windows Vista seems to be the only operating system on offer. Has anybody experienced working with vista. Do you know if it is backwards compatable with programmes designed for Windows XP i.e. Photoshop Cs and especially PTE.

[Mike Reed]

Hi Mike,

Let me second what Brian just said. I just purchased a new Dell myself and did so specifically "because" they offer Win XP.

Personally, I wouldn't touch Vista until SP2 has been released and maybe not then. My new Dell takes about 30 seconds to be up and running. My wife's Vista Business Edition took over two minutes to get through all the BS and be usable and about the same amount of time to shut down. Yes, it's possible to dink with it and speed up the process but it's a real memory hog and has the issues Brian discussed with 16 bit programs.

I found that Vista would not run Photoshop versions earlier than CS3 meaning I would have to upgrade it as well as lots of my other software - definitely not worth it for me.

The Dell I purchased was a Inspiron 530 which comes with a decent integrated video with 128 meg, and a core 2 duo Intel 2.33 ghz processor. I tried my wife's Nvidia 8600 GT card and it worked perfectly. I ordered and received an Invidia 8800 GT card but the power supply which shipped with the Dell was only 300 watt so marginal and only had two open 15 pin SATA connectors both of which would have needed a 15 pin SATA to 4 pin Molex connector adaptor so I upgraded the power supply with a 750 watt model which I found at Tiger Direct for $119.00. The new power supply is fantastic with more cables than one could ever need and shoehorned into the Dell case without issue.

All together the Dell with four gigabytes of RAM, the new power supply and Nvidia 8800 GT cost $1500 without a monitor. Surprisingly, the integrated video actually would run most of the PTE files perfectly but I wanted the Nvidia 8800 GT so without that it would have been only $1200 and that's with Windows XP Home Edition which works great and comes already activated.

Best regards,

Lin

Thank you Lin and all the others who replied. You all really confirmed what I had been lead to believe, that for now don't go near Vista.

Mike

[Guest Yachtsman1]

Thank you Lin and all the others who replied. You all really confirmed what I had been lead to believe, that for now don't go near Vista.

Mike

Microsoft have brought out Service Pack 1, (shades of XP) according to Computeractive, it still wont accept some software even with SP1.

Yachtsman1