Vista - Vista Performance

I have to purchase a new desktop and Dell will only honor their sale prices
if Vista is installed (in other words, they'll give me XP, but they'll
charge me more).

I need to know if Vista is a stable OS -- or if it would be worth it to pay
more for XP to be included. Also, is there anything in particular I need
to know about the differences between Vista and XP? For example, I've
gotten into the habit of using Windows Explorer as my primary way to
navigate around my computer and keep things organized, and the loss of that
would cripple me. Does it work the same in Vista?

Thanks in advance.

Perri

"PMorgan" <pmorgan.nospam@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:Xns9A4D5D85A9549pmorganncrrcom@xxxxxxIt works quite a bit different in Windows Explorer. See my other recent
post. Basically, the new WE has a nice Address Bar design at the top of the
window that makes general navigation easy. But if you do a lot of file
copying/moving like I do...you'll probably get very upset about the way the
Navigation Pane (the left pane) only has links to certain folders
(Documents, Pictures, Music, Recently Changed, Searches, and Public) visible
as links. If there is a way to make the Navigation Pane show the entire
folder tree like in previous iterations, I can't seem to find it. As it is,
I'm getting close to reverting back to XP, which sucks because there are
definitely a few things added/changed in Vista that I'm finding very useful
and good to have.

Just curious, but how much of a price difference would you be paying if you
have them install XP for you? If the price change is more than you would
have to pay for XP, you might be better off letting them put Vista on it,
then replace it with a self-purchased copy of XP after you receive the
machine.

"Jughead" <whatsit@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:j4GdncvJS8F7tl3anZ2dnUVZ_ommnZ2d@xxxxxx
In the bottom of the left pane do you see a bar that says Folders with a
little caret ( ^ or up arrow ) on the right hand side? Click on the up arrow
or just drag the bar to the top of the pane.

--
Kerry Brown
Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience
http://www.vistahelp.ca/phpBB2/

"Jughead" <whatsit@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:j4GdncvJS8F7tl3anZ2dnUVZ_ommnZ2d@xxxxxxIt sounds as if you are only exploring your user folder. What does a
desktop shortcut with the target
%SystemRoot%\explorer.exe /n,/e,C:\
do for you ?

Tom

On 23 Feb 2008 14:11:29 GMT, PMorgan <pmorgan.nospam@xxxxxx> wrote:

I've been running Vista here since RTM in November of 2006. It has
been absolutely stable. It hasn't crashed once, and I've had no
problems at all with it.


I certainly wouldn't. Although I don't think that everyone should rush
out to upgrade to Vista, I think using XP on a new computer makes no
sense at all. XP is on its way out. As newer software and newer
hardware devices come out, you will find that some of it won't work on
XP. If you get XP now, you will likely find yourself upgrading to
Vista anyway at some time in the future.

Make sure you get an adequate hardware configuration. In particular,
don't get less than 2GB of RAM.


It's essentially the same, but there are always differences in the
details. You may find that it takes some time to get accustomed to
some of those differences, and it can be frustrating at first, but
most people manage to learn what's new fairly quickly. I did.

--
Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience
Please Reply to the Newsgroup

"Jughead" <whatsit@xxxxxx> wrote in
news:j4GdncvJS8F7tl3anZ2dnUVZ_ommnZ2d@xxxxxx:
I've just been reading the postings about Explorer and at this point, I
don't think I care what the price difference is. I use Explorer much like
you do, and if they don't show the parent folder and everything under it,
I'm sunk. How can you FIND things? Also used to dragging, the cut-and-
paste sounds torturous.

I have the XP disks that were used for my current computer -- perhaps I'll
look into how difficult it is to reinstall it. Dell insists on loading a
bunch of garbage onto the computer whether you want it or not, so I don't
think I can avoid either having them load Vista or paying additional for
XP, which I've already purchased twice.

Thanks for your comments.

"Vern Linard" <VernLinard@xxxxxx> wrote in
news:47c02f1e$1@xxxxxx-privat.org:
I know! And I got the salesperson to admit that they use XP at Dell!
Thanks for the info. I'll try it.

"PMorgan" <pmorgan.nospam@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:Xns9A4E53A01A96Dpmorganncrrcom@xxxxxx
If you haven't used Vista then please ignore Jughead's post and try it for
yourself. The folder tree is there. The fact that Jughead didn't know that
only points out their inexperience. I spend a lot of time copying files
between servers and workstations. The UI is slightly different from previous
versions of explorer but once learned I find it more powerful. The
breadcrumbs feature in particular saves me considerable time scrolling up
and down large directory trees. The context sensitive icons on the tasks
toolbar are great. The stacked view is a great way to view directories with
many files. Overall it is an improvement, but it is different and you have
to learn how to use it.

--
Kerry Brown
Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience
http://www.vistahelp.ca/phpBB2/