Hello Everyone, and thanks for your insight on my previous post (that stunk) about vista installation. I have this one as an update. Here is the new one:
You, along a plethora of others, may have installed a version of windows vista on a machine that had been purchased before 2005/2006 and "looked" vista capable. When u installed vista, lots of problems may have followed immediately if your pc wasn't updated to the right bios and drivers. If you were an average user, maybe these things like awful performance, or poor gaming weren't noticed. IF you didn't update your sound and video drivers, they wouldn't work 100%, and even that may not have effected you. But if you use your pc for more than email, light word processing, and web browsing, these things may have got you worried really bad. If you had updated drivers and an up to date bios, plus 2GB (or maybe even 1Gb for mid-users) and a decent hdd (60GB+ for starters, 100GB+ for mid, and 200GB+ for advanced, and also a medium-low range partially shared (or fully shared for light users, or fully dedicated for advanced with 128MB+), problems may not have been as bad. But if all seems to have failed, fear not, as i have heard several points of views and suggestions on how to fix these problems. First, contact your manufacturer for as many updates to everything possible as you can. That includes tv tuners, printers, other periphirals, and hardware that is over one or two years old. Then, if you have the cash, stock up on as much ram as possibe (u can get it for as cheap as 20.00 / GB)! But hurry, when DDR3 comes out, stock for DDR2 may get reduced a lot and its price will go up due to low stock and high demand. Also, for notebook users, start considering a 7200rpm hdd or a SSD for supreme performance (though a 4200 or 5400 will work for many). Then, desktop users should aim for a 10k rpm hdd if cash permits as well as a slightly better video card. Buy new software or even a new pc if money permits. Also, try to get DSL, as it's fast and is about the same cost as dial up and is 13x faster for that price! If you got no cash, or will get a new pc soon, continue to the next step.
NEXT STEP: Update all drivers, software, and hardware. Google tips and tricks and vista tweaks as much as you can. Take advantage of all (trusted) free software such a aus logics disk defrag. Don't load lots of crapware on your pc and strip it down as much as you can of special features, and software, especially if you only have 512 Megs of ram and a 40Gb hdd, as well as a shared integrated video card. If you have 2gigs of ram or more, stripping your pc down to the max is not needed. Also, disable all strartup programs except for quick launch buttons, antivirus, antispyware, firewalls, and video and sound drivers. Most other things can be safely disabled. If you know how, disable ALL unnecessary services as that can boost pc performance by up to 60%. Remember, vista is hungry and you are the one who can tame it, or even feed it (if you have cash to do so).
Summary: so to end this i have a bunch of points to stress:
1. if you are a light user, upgrades are NOT needed, and you shouldn't worry that much.
2. UPDATE Drivers
3.Update Drivers
4. Update Drivers
5. Update software
6. Update Bios
7. IF cash is scarce, but u want midrange to superior performance, save up the cash for later, except the ram, which should be then upgraded to a gig or two or three!
8. Ram is cheap
9.Vista is ram hungry, and ram is cheap
10. Disable start up programs and unneeded services
11. Upgrade to DSL or Cable, it's as low as 17.99/ month, about the cost of dial up but only 13X faster (56.6k dial up vs. 768.0k dsl)
Conclusion: Vista is hungry, and the only way to keep it running well is to feed it. If you don't want to go through a lot of trouble, plus get a pc that will last for five or more years, plus get the best vista experience, get a new home premium pc with dedicated video card for 800.00/desktop and 1250.00/laptop
Thanks for reading my post, and i hope it will be useful.