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[James]

I'm thinking of buying a new laptop, and many, many people are telling me that they've had endless problems with Microsoft Vista. Is it really as bad as they are making out? Should I stick to XP? If so, is it still possible to buy XP and install it in a laptop with Vista already in it?

Thanks in advance.

[CathyJ]

I've heard nothing but bad things about Vista.  For awhile it was possible to buy a Dell laptop with a downgrade to XP.  I don't know if that's still true, but you might be more likely to find it in their small business selections than in their home selections.

I don't know whether you can buy XP and install it on a new computer or not.

I would be very hesitant to run Vista until they've improved it significantly.

Cathy

[B L McAllister]

When I went looking for a new computer, the store had almost nothing but Vista pre-installed, but the salesperson agreed with my statement that Vista hasn't yet earned whatever good reputation may eventually be attributed to it, scratched his head and remembered that one (only) computer in their display still comes with Microsoft XP.  Insisting may work for you as it did for me.  Of course, some details are less desirable, e.g. the pre-installed MS Word is now 2007, much altered from my old whatever it was, resulting in quite a bit of incompatibility with stuff I moved infrom the old computer and a really strange looking set of toolbars across the top, but at least it all works and I'm gradually finding out how to do most of the old things (except read my files originally created in WordPerfect--but maybe their content is obsolete?)  My new one is a Compaq--from a company now owned by Hewlett Packard--but I can't promise that that was the key to avoiding Vista.  Whether someday I'll be sorry I avoided Vista or not i's hard to predict.  MS is sure, eventually, to quit supporting whatever they aren't currently pushing, and their programs do sometimes develop glitches.
Byron

[fawnridge]

You can order a Dell laptop with XP or XP Professional. Vista appears to have serious problems, which I'm certain Microsoft will eventually fix. But do you want to be a guinea pig?

[Chuck]

Kind of way out of date here, but I've been away. My wife and I both have Vista sp1 on our Dell laptops and absolutely love it. Neither of us has had any problem whatever.

I avoided Vista based on word of mouth comments. Now, I'm positively delighted I bit the bullet and went to it. My desktop, with xp, is seldom even turned on any more. I do everything on the laptop.

We've had no problems with any older software. In fact, my wife is running an ancient Paint Shop program designed for Win95. I had and used Word97 on my laptop, recently upgraded to Word2002 because in a moment of clarity I remembered I had 2002.

Since service pack 1, Vista has been a rock solid operating system. I can't speak for it prior to SP1's release. One point I can make. I'm speaking of factory loaded, not the Vista upgrade which, I understand, has had problems. On that note, if you have the upgrade version, the full Vista download is on it, and there are sites on the net that can tell you how to do a full install. It's legal and ethical.

[Lance Charnes]

As Chuck said, Vista isn't as bad as it once was. I have it (reluctantly) on a Dell Studio laptop, and it's been an okay experiance. Like anything else, there's a learning curve.

Be aware there's little point in trying to run Vista on anything other than a brand-new computer. There are still problems with Vista not playing nicely with some hardware components that are more than a year or so old. And also keep in mind that it's an absolute resource hog, so unless you have plenty of processor and memory to burn, be careful.

If you've managed to go this long, you might hang on a bit longer and wait for Windows 7 to come out (it's in beta now). It's supposed to be Vista without the bad stuff, and the advance word in the computer press has been largely favorable.

Microsoft still supports XP. You can still buy XP and XP Pro online, and it should work fine with any reasonably recent hardware. Also, Dell still sells a few laptop and desktop models with XP (my Dell XPS is a recent example).

If you're comfortable with an Office 2002/3 installation, try to avoid Office 2007. As Byron mentioned, Microsoft completely changed the interface for all the Office components, in essence shredding 10+ years accumulated experience in working with Word, Excel, and so on. The native file formats are also incompatible with older versions of Office. It works acceptably well, but it's frustrating and you won't make a lot of friends slinging around .docx and .xlsx files.

[B L McAllister]

...

If you're comfortable with an Office 2002/3 installation, try to avoid Office 2007. As Byron mentioned, Microsoft completely changed the interface for all the Office components, in essence shredding 10+ years accumulated experience in working with Word, Excel, and so on. The native file formats are also incompatible with older versions of Office. It works acceptably well, but it's frustrating and you won't make a lot of friends slinging around .docx and .xlsx files.

The catch being, of course, that when people send you stuff made with Office 2007, your Office 200x (x<7) programs may not be up to reading them.  Sometimes I wonder why MicroSoft is currently canning people, and then sometimes I hope they're after the ones who cause all the trouble.

[linda]

Is anyone else having a problem with their cursor jumping around when they're in the Word program on a computer using the "Windows Vista" program?

I use Microsoft Word, because it's what I'm familiar with.  But I'm finding that my new Toshiba laptop and the "Windows Vista" program is giving me fits.  When I'm typing in the Word program, my cursor jumps all over the page.  I have to keep an eagle eye on it so that I can catch it before I've got whole pages in the wrong spot.

Everytime I try to explain this to the computer people, they just give me a blank look.  It also happens when I'm typing in other programs, like when I'm responding now.  My cursor has jumped position four times since I've started this response.

Is this a "Windows Vista" problem, or another problem?

I'm running out of computer people to try, so I'd really,really appreciate any advice. 

Thanks,

Linda

[Dave Freas]

I have the same problem, Linda, and I'm using Word 2003.

I think the problem may not be in Word but in the touch pad.  If you're not careful, the lightest brush on it with a thumb send your cursor zipping across the universe to new places.

Hope this helps.

Dave