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February 8, 2008 12:01 PM PST

Get ready for Vista and XP updates

by Seth Rosenblatt
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Microsoft has been quietly readying several Service Packs for its operating systems. Windows Vista SP1 has undergone several public release candidates, but CNET Reviews' Rob Vamosi got his hands on a copy of the real deal, not due out until March. The verdict? You'll have to click through to find out.

CNET News.com's Ina Fried got word of private beta testing of Windows XP SP3--that's right, I said Service Pack 3. Although it's nearly six months away from being ready, Microsoft promises that SP3 will contain the usual security fixes, but no word on whether it will introduce any major overhauls, like Windows XP SP2 did.

That could indicate Microsoft will not be abandoning its old workhorse anytime soon, or it could also be a last fling to keep Vista-haters happy until Redmond figures out what direction it wants to take its operating systems in, as they bleed market share to Apple's OS X and various Linux flavors.

Seth peers into the deep, dark corners of software so that you don't have to. He has yet to suffer a single nightmare about OS/2. You can follow him on Twitter.
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Add a Comment (Log in or register) Showing 1 of 2 pages (66 Comments)
by christiandouglas February 8, 2008 1:10 PM PST
oh my good
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by christiandouglas February 8, 2008 1:10 PM PST
oh my good
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by Rottentomato February 8, 2008 1:58 PM PST
Hmm... Seems like many people are not ready to make the move from XP to Vista. People go crazy over Apple but not over Microsoft. Although the IPHONE is nothing special and nor is their new MacBook Air.
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by dontillman February 8, 2008 7:56 PM PST
What are you thinking?!?!?! The iPhone is an astonishing development! Sure MS has a touchscreen, the size of a card table!!! Apple did it with a cell phone!!! Not to mention one that has GPS already!! What do you WANT?!?! As for the MacBook Air: what are you thinking!??!!? It IS THE thinnest laptop that uses a real CPU (Intel Core 2 Duo), a beautiful screen and amazing styling?? What are used to staring at, COW PIES????
by bfidel20 February 8, 2008 11:14 PM PST
A lot of the people going crazy over MACs are younger users, home user, or graphic designers. MACs are great for people into Photoshop and those sorts. Those who need business resources and tools usually still get Microsoft products. One great thing about a MAC for home use is that its duel bootable so you can have MAC OS and Vista or XP on the one machine. Im going to wait for iphone2! Should be great since iphone is nice.
by alice_b0wie February 8, 2008 2:57 PM PST
i don't get the XP hanger onners. do they still wear mullets? why do they complain about anything windows, WHILE THEY'RE USING WINDOWS? are they really brainless zombies that can only repeat phrases taught to them? like the phrase "vista sucks"? there are only two reasons i can think of for not letting go of an old has been operating system going on it's third service pack. 1.) too poor to buy a new computer or 2.) too slow to figure vista out. i also found out that 90% of the people who say how bad vista is, haven't even used it.
lets see what the XP parrots have to say...
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by jayman268912 February 8, 2008 3:31 PM PST
I use to be one of the "XP" people who didnt want to change OS but, once got a new computer and used raid 0 to increase the performance because Vista is a huge OS in comparison to XP. A raid setup on XP is much more faster than vista, noty question but think more and more people like myself are going to vista. gamers will have to soon in order to use directx 10, compatiability problems are being straightened out or are minor that even some one who inexperienced could figure out how to get it to work. But being a student at Stony, which always has problems with internet especially if you have vista, in that situation its easier to have Xp. Overall pretty happy with vista at the moment.
by ArmoredCavalry February 8, 2008 5:13 PM PST
XP is lighter than Vista (no denying this). Also, many of the games I play are buggy in Vista, but run fine in XP. So...... XP will continue to be my choice O/S, as it is for many gamers.

Just because something is the "newest" doesn't mean its the "best". Thus you have websites like oldversion.com. ;)
by ArmoredCavalry February 8, 2008 5:15 PM PST
BTW, my computer is less than 2 months old, and I am a computer science and engineering major, so there goes your theory. :)
by newgun2000 February 8, 2008 5:20 PM PST
Well Alice. There is one very good reason. As for someone that uses there PC for work purposes I can not use VISTA. The software that I need will NOT work with it. If I was a person that reads there email or browses the net then I guess vista would be ok. But If your as good as you think you are then please help the bussiness world update there software to work with vista :)
by dontillman February 8, 2008 8:04 PM PST
WOW! Maybe... VISTA sucks!! I had installed it on a DUAL core AMD Athlon X2 4400, 2 Gb RAM with NVidia video on a new system and hard disk. Vista killed itself in less that two hours?!?!?!?! People are hooked on XP because it does not require new hardware, it runs games faster, well it runs faster in general....: P Vista is a grave disappointment and until they finally at least optimize it, I'd rather run Ubuntu or OS X. Ironically Ubuntu will run on a Pentium III 600 with 256Mb and OS X 10.5 will run a 900Mhz processor with 256Mb... Vista does SUCK!!
by jonnyjwol February 9, 2008 2:19 AM PST
yeah most people who bad-mouth vista will never have any proof to back it up.

i have two computers in my house, my parens one being a vista and my own personal being their old xp (im only 15 so i would be saving up for a very long time, that's my reason for still owning an XP).

While i'll admi that vista is a lot better, XP sill does the job for me so theres no real reason to upgrade just yet...
by alburyants February 9, 2008 3:53 AM PST
Hi I am from Australia and I have used vista and it look great and works great on my friends computer. I bought my computer in may 2006 and have not needed to upgrade it yet allthough I added more rame and a new video card which was very cheap. The cost of vista in Australia is more than most people can aford.
I like xp and vista but for what I do with the computer xp is just fine. I have never said anything bad about vista anyway. Since 1991 I have used a few os and find that microsoft is always getting better. It is just a matter of if it is not broken then why spend money to fix it.
by udins9 February 9, 2008 5:54 AM PST
Do you know why people says bad thing about Windows Vista and still using it? If you buy something and the seller cheat you, what do you do? smile to them and says thank you? well alice_b0wie you have a smart brain to think that questions but not smart enough to use and find out the answer.
by reevus_1990 February 9, 2008 6:58 AM PST
Or maybe its the fact vista still has bugs, or maybe the fact not all hardware is supported, or maybe its the fact that all previos windows os have had huge security holes early on
by vacektomy February 9, 2008 8:54 AM PST
hmmmm...sounds like someone needs anger management therapy. "wear mullets"? "too poor"? "too slow"? We have Vista on a newly-purchased PC (I won't go testosterone here by mentioning the cost of the machine), and invariably my kids end-up back at the keyboard of our Linux desktop (with half the processor speed and memory of our new PC) and my wife and I boot the XP laptop. Why? Not be because we're poor, stupid, or have bad haircuts. Quite simply, they boot faster, they run applications faster, and are more intuitive. Guess that puts us in the 10% of people who've used Vista and don't like it. alice_b0wie, sounds like you should stop ranting, get back to your marketing job in Redmond and give people a good reason to like Vista.
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by sdel February 8, 2008 4:09 PM PST
oh my good
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by royauty February 8, 2008 5:29 PM PST
Ok, Alice_bOwie, I'll bite. I bought a brand new laptop with Vista pre-loaded so that I could use the next version of Office in November 2007, about 9 months after Vista launched. I figured they would have the bugs out by then. My old machine (XP SP2), with one-quarter the RAM, half the processing speed and twice the weight still boots faster, shuts down faster, opens word, excel and powerpoint faster, and doesn't blank out for a split second every time a dialog box pops on the screen to find out if I really wanted to do that! The only way for me to get this bloated piece of junk to run at the same speed as XP used to for me is to turn off all the "features" that make Vista "better." I guess you could make the argument that decreased speed is the price I pay for security, but I have about the same amount of spyware/adware on each of my computers, and about the same number of virus alerts. So, you're partly right: I had to buy an expensive new computer for me to figure out that Vista is slow and crap.
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by Artemis Faust February 8, 2008 5:59 PM PST
Royauty what are the specs on the new laptop. And why did you buy a version with Vista to use Office 2007. It works fine on XP as well. I have Vista and XP partitioned on all 3 of my laptops, and I still don't see any speed problems with either. As for the new security measure for Vista, they are not so much designed to stop viruses from getting in so much as they are intended to provide damage control and prevent viruses from damaging your computer as badly. As for Alice's comments I have to agree with them. Vista is simple to get used to, even if the interface is a bit odd for windows. The graphics style for it reminds me of my mac.
by chalan29 February 9, 2008 3:19 PM PST
Amen! royauty
by skshrews February 8, 2008 6:06 PM PST
The elitists love Apple-the elitists hate Vista-the elitists despise the plebes who buy cheap computers for practical reasons, and not for the snob factor of owning an aesthetic. Go where the wealthy congregate and you'll see smug Apple users, telling you how "creative types" use Macs.
The people I know, who actually HAVE TO work for a living use Windows, because they can buy a cheap box to get what they need done.
The dreary drone of how VIsta is a "flop" is an empty spiel to most people who actually use it. Get on the internet, get email, save your pictures, word process-Windows is still the cheapest and easiest way to get these things done.
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by dontillman February 8, 2008 8:14 PM PST
Elitists??? Is it elitist to want an excellent computing experience??? What is wrong with that or are so used to suckage it would HURT too much to have a GOOD experience??? Speaking of the creative types, I have a Computer Science degree and an Electronics Degree... I have more than TWO Macs here!! Right now your PC is dreaming of running like a Mac Pro : ) 8 cores !!!
by Andrew Denn February 10, 2008 2:44 PM PST
Actually, the cheapest way to go is Linux. If you happen to have an older laptop (read 1 or 2 years), pop Ubuntu or Mandriva on it and see how much faster it runs.

And I take it you have never owned or used an Apple, or you wouldn't be spouting that elitist crap. The design is much better, but they are also more expensive.
by corbulo87 February 8, 2008 6:24 PM PST
You also forget, Alice_bOwie, that for some businesses that have spend thousands on software that currently has zero compatibility with the bloated Vista monster. Don't go throwing around things like XP users are 'too slow to figure Vista out' when it is a necessity to make use of their many-thousand dollar investments.

If anyone's 'too slow', it's people with bad grammar skills.
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by jvlgato February 8, 2008 8:05 PM PST
I agree with royauty and corbulo87. I purposely bought an XP laptop a month ago after careful research informed me that three of my core programs WILL NOT run on Vista. On two, this is flatly stated on their support web sites, and on the other, a call to tech support told me there were no plans to make a version that ran on XP at this time, and in fact they were not even in the testing phase yet, nor were there plans to get into testing phase any time in the next year. One of my programs has an upgrade planned, but it's just coming out now, and would cost me $1000 to upgrade when my current version is running just fine. That alone made it necessary (not optional) to stay with XP, but add to that the many articles I read stating that XP just runs faster for the same level of hardware, it was a no brainer for me to stay with XP.
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by bfidel20 February 8, 2008 11:05 PM PST
Here's a few points as to why many don't switch from XP to Vista:

1) Many of us are IT professionals! And like one of the repliers mentioned earlier, many hardware and software don't work with vista yet. It costs thousands of dollars to implement a new system. It includes training, integration, support, and maintenance. What many people need to understand is that while Vista is a "Pretty" OS, it is not very efficient at the moment. Personally, I have "tried" Vista. Its not hard to learn and everything is very simple to understand. But when programs needed for business purposes are not able install because of compatibility issues, you got to make a choice: pretty or efficient?

2) Vista still has many flaws. One rule of thumb in the IT world is that it best to migrate to a new OS (Microsoft) after the first or even second service pack comes out. WHY you ask? Because when the 1st or 2nd service pack comes out, it usually fixes majority of the issues that arose after the release of the product.

3) Its MICROSOFT! Everyone knows Microsoft products has it good days and bad days. Why do we still use it? Because its compatible with almost everything used for business and personal purposes. MAC is a great product, but its great for graphic designers and basic home users, not system engineers or network admins.

So Alice, please see the big picture. Its not that Vista sucks.....it'll get a little better. But I don't think it'll overthrow XP. Hell, some companies still run Windows 2000 and NT on some machines, and it gets the job done!
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by joevargas February 10, 2008 3:17 PM PST
bfidel20, i'm behind you 100%! I too work in the IT field and many employees were asking when we were going to upgrade. i told them the same thing you listed: lots of money to upgrade, train and maintain. We have, however, upgraded to Office 2007 because corporate asked us to do so. XP SP2 and office 2007 are working just fine...for now.
by ashley1969 February 9, 2008 3:01 AM PST
Hey, I'm running vista ultimate on a 7year old laptop with 512ram, it runs just fine, never slows down, and never stops, except for that annoying"Are you really sure you want to do that?" thing that it does, but hey, that can be switched off if you want.
I've been running it for about a year now, I took my laptop in to have the screen repaired, and the IT guys were amazed at how vista was running so well on such an old laptop.
I agree with some of what Alice said, I know people that have said that vista is sh*t, because they were told it was, a guy at work told me it was sh*t, I asked him why, he said because the guy in the shop told him it was.
Oh and corbulo87, don't pick on peoples grammar skills, when you are going to say,"that have spend thousands", when everyone knows that it should be "SPENT"
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by HKFKHF February 9, 2008 4:52 AM PST
HKFKHF
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by HKFKHF February 9, 2008 4:52 AM PST
HKFKHF
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by udins9 February 9, 2008 5:16 AM PST
Okay Microsoft Windows XP SP3 sound good but Windows Vista SP1 is uncertain, for me Vista is just like Windows Me... a total falure... looks good but worst... and believe me I used it. My first impression on Vista I says Wooowwww.. nice.. after 1 day using it... I says it suck and back to XP. Why? the security... the requirements, the driver... yes I can't even use my wireless network card..... I think Microsoft have the idea to create and revolutionize the IT industries but can not really make a perfect job on doing thing right. Do you know that Microsoft now already planing to create another operating system call Windows 7 code name Viena? take a look at Youtube or just find it on Google. Similar situations after a few moth of the release of Windows Me... Microsoft Introduce the Windows XP... I think after they realize Windows Me is a failure...
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by fisherperson February 9, 2008 7:52 AM PST
XP SERVICE PACK 3 This is a must on my computer had it for 2 months. Be sure to update excel & word with svc pk 3 updates also. runs my neighbors vista in the ground.
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by missrazorblades February 9, 2008 9:35 AM PST
soo what is better? xp or vista?
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by denzii2006 February 10, 2008 5:53 PM PST
I own my own business and 99% of my time is spent on the computer. So I will in a short summary tell you what I like about them both.

I have XP and Vista and love them both. I like vista and DX10 for gaming. Vista on my laptop for email, surfing the web.

When it comes down to Business XP is the work horse. So in my opinion it's XP hands down.
by Vfloe February 10, 2008 7:09 PM PST
right now Xp is much better than Vista. but in another few months hopefully MS will release a service pack and "cure" some vista problems. the samething happend in 2001 when Xp came out it looked better than 98(second edition, damn!!!) but the performance wasnt that good. in a year Ms released the patches etc
by libbycove February 9, 2008 5:33 PM PST
I upgraded to Vista and had to download quite a few patches for the software that I was running. It is a nice operating system for basic users but it is not compatible with a lot of systems. I have a highly advanced computer with a Raptor drive and Serial ATA. I'm also running 4 gigs of RAM and two video cards.Vista bogged my system down it would not work. So I've gone back to my XP professional which works just fine with all of my programs and hardware.
I am looking forward to the XP service pack three I still have a few glitches and I'm hoping that this will fix.
Vista also has compatibility issues with a lot of online and PC games I will not be running at any time soon so I fixed the issues about it recognizing my hardware.
TD Parrett
libbycove@Hotmail.com
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by cjlm30 February 10, 2008 6:10 AM PST
If you are a gamer, vista does suck. Yes i have tried vista. I had it on my system for three mouths but reinstalled Xp. Try running Need for Speed Most Wanted or Carbon on Vista and you will get bunch of errors or have it shut down. I upgraded my computer, with 2gigs of ram, a 512Mb video card and Vista rejected the video card. I reinstalled XP and Its works great.
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by Burner79 February 11, 2008 9:15 AM PST
Correction cjlm30, if you are a gamer and have all your drivers updated with the correct newest vista drivers, not the ones included on the CD in your box then Vista is great for gamers. I built a 3Ghz Pen. D Dual core system a year ago and currently it has 2GB ram and a Geforce 8800GTS XXX version. Its not in NO WAY slow or boggy. All graphics are more intense and clear. DX10 makes even DX9 look and run better than it ever could on an XP machine. I use XP @ work and Vista for home.
If you have an HP PRINTER the complain to HP for not having drivers over a YEAR after the release of vista. Its not vistas fault your programs and manufacturers are trying to make some extra $ off the upgrade/support that should be FREE!
Get over it Vista is not the devil... its not a piece of crap and in no way should be compared to Windows ME.
Win NT,2000,and XP are just currently better for business and networking solutions and will probably continue to be until a new business platform is released. No big deal thats just the way it is. All you people expecting to buy vista and pop it in ur 98-XP machine... get real, you're what causes the bad hype of vista. READ THE SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS!!!
by alice_b0wie February 10, 2008 10:16 AM PST
i also forgot to add that most XP hanger onners need to quit sniveling because technology has past them by. instead of the new improved programs that run, they still use old worn out software. to learn something new would be too much effort. to replace an old printer would cost too much, boo effin whooo. i can't wait for the day microsoft doesn't support XP any longer, all of the hanger onners, still combing their mullets, will be out begging with a cup. or even worse, they'll be using ubuntu...
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by lankychris February 10, 2008 12:26 PM PST
As someone who owns and uses XP, Vista (Ultimate) and OSX (Leopard) daily, I have to say that Vista is winning the battle right now, I like some of the little features. The first time I upgraded to Vista I did an upgrade install, not a clean install, as expected I experienced all kinds of problems. Always do a clean install when you upgrade operating systems. With a clean install I have had no problems with Vista, in fact it was faster than XP on one of my systems. To be honest there is not anything on Vista that I find a 'must have' feature. Much like the the upgrade from Tiger to Leopard, which was not worth $129. I would delay upgrading as long as possible though, finding new drivers can be a problem for some hardware.
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