I've liked Vista alot. It's just a shame that some companies don't want to support it and "upgrade" their software 🙁 It's their problem, cause technology is advancing and I bet what won't work on Vista, won't work on Windows 7, so it's the software developers' concern to update their software, not Microsoft to downgrade theirs 😀
If it works on Vista, it will work on 7. If it doesn't work on Vista, there's a slim chance it may work on 7. The product name "Windows 7" is a misnomer, it's not Windows NT 7.0, it's Windows NT 6.1, just like XP was the 5.1 to 2000's 5.0.
And my laptop first ran slow with the built in bullshit like some recovery system wasting all of my RAM and CPU all the time, when it decided to do stuff I haven't "ordered" it to do. And gigantic Antivirus and Firewall applications are a nightmare. They crash easily and I don't get it when people don't blame big companies like F-Secure or Norton and McAfee. I mean they are more responsible for making your computer slow, not Vista.
That is my #1 beef with PC makers. CRAPWARE. I do NOT need all the garbage that they, in their wisdom, think I want. For example... six different DVD burners (none of them work), four movie players (all suck), and an animated calculator that crashes when you click the = button. What's wrong with the disc burning capabilities in Windows, or Windows Media Player and Media Center? What's wrong with the Windows Calculator? Nothing, but HP gets a kickback from Suckass Software for bundling their shitty apps.
But I got my pre-built laptop all fast and running, when I just formatted and installed it clean. And no, it wasn't "piracy" or anything. I already had a Vista Install DVD and I just used the key I got when purchasing the laptop 🙂 Now it works _REALLY_ fast compared to the "factory state" it was shipped in. Mostly everything has worked on my Vista and what hasn't, some people have said HAVE worked on their Vista operating systems, so it isn't always the OS's fault if something worked on your XP comp and not on your Vista one. TeamSpeak and Ventrilo, for example, have never worked on my Vista machine, but some friends said they work like a charm on theirs... mine says something that codecs missing and so forth.
I have no idea what TeamSpeak and Ventrilo are, so I can't help you there. I sincerely hope that when you re-installed, you installed a 64-bit version, since that's where Vista's glory really shines.
A great OS, but Windows 7 will be far greater! 😉
Not really. I've used it, and it's... nice. That's about it. It's a touch faster, but most of that is perception. MS sped up the window transition animations (open/close window, minimize/restore) and played with the hysteresis a bit (hysteresis is the process of regulating motion and determining the user's actions) so that things would feel snappier. As far as real-world gains, I'm not sure I noticed much on my box.
If you go from a 32-bit Vista install to a 64-bit 7 install, though, you'll see a night-and-day difference, though.
Ending, I'd have to say that while 7 is nice, it's not nice enough to make me fork over for it again so soon. I already paid for Vista Ultimate (because I rock like that) and I don't feel like ditching it yet.