One Third of New PC Buyers Downgrade to XP

When Microsoft stopped selling licenses to Windows XP on June 30, they gave users an option to "downgrade" their operating system to XP, even though they had to buy a Vista license first. According to a study conducted by the exo.performance.network, 35 Percent of Vista PC's Downgraded to windows XP. "That's way out of proportion for even the dramatically unpopular Windows Vista," says Randall C. Kennedy, an InfoWorld contributing editor.

The vast majority of PC's that have been downgraded to Windows XP are typically sold to small businesses and gamers. Although the operating system is 7 years old, it continues to upstage its successor at nearly every turn

What is Mojave.. Wait. Windows Vista?

Microsoft has used a trick up their sleeve in order to get people to try out Windows Vista, and has created a series of we-told-you-so videos revolving around the "Mojave Experiment".

A Microsoft Crew has disguised Windows Vista in a brand new box, called it Windows Mojave, and claimed it to be the latest Windows OS in development. In the Mojave Experiment volunteers were asked about their opinions and notions about Windows Vista, many of which said they hated it although personally never using the system. These volunteers, after viewing and using some of the features of Vista, became quite impressed with the Mojave features. One volunteer even said that it was "everything that they would need".

Spinning off the Mojave Experiment Windows has begun using the slogan see for yourself in order to convince people to give it a try. While Vista may look pretty and incredibly accessible and easy to use, I would like to see videos about these people actually installing the OS on their computers or notebooks and asking them about what they thought after a few weeks of use.

Windows Gaming Performance: Vista SP1 vs. XP SP3

Since Vista's first release in the winter of 2006, many a gamer have sworn not to upgrade to the latest OS because of its poor application compatibility and driver errors. Since Windows Vista received its first and highly anticipated service pack in April, many of its obvious flaws have been smoothed out making Vista a viable OS for many users. XP has also recently received its third (and final) service pack update which has resolved many security issues and bug fixes. With both of these operating systems getting a very recent upgrade through a service pack, one glaring question remains that begs to be answered by all PC gamers.

Just how well do these operating systems stack up against each other in the gaming performance department?

While Vista has a distinct advantage over XP, mainly due to DirectX10 compatibility, PC gamers have largely ignored this unique feature and have refused to switch to vista in favor of XP's more reliable system features. In order to test XP Service Pack 3 vs Upgraded Vista SP1 gaming performance, an average PC was built in order to test what most users would be likely to experience. The specs are as follows:













The testing was conducted through the use of two identical hard drives, one with each operating system, and physically interchanging the hard drive cable after each reboot. Two benchmark tests were used, PCMark05 and 3DMark06, as well as three games, Crysis, World in Conflict, and Supreme Commander. While testing each game DX9 was used as well as two presets. A low details preset at 1024x768 resolution, and a high details preset plus 4X anti-aliasing at 19200x1200 resolution. The results are as follows:











If you were expecting a huge performance drop between Windows XP and Windows Vista, sorry for the disappointment. As you can plainly see through the test results, Vista's gaming problems have largely been solved and the performance gap between XP and Vista has finally been closed.

Source: ExtremeTech

PC Gamers Hate Vista

Possibly Vista's biggest selling point to the PC Gaming market is the fact that Vista is the only way for users to get DirectX 10, and to play games in their beautiful DX10 glory. Its abundantly clear that games such as Crysis and many Next-Gen games coming out will benefit from the DX 10 upgrade. However, current statistics show that this graphical upgrade hasn't been enough to shift the PC Gamers towards Vista.

Currently there is no way to play DirectX 10 on Windows XP, and the only way to get the best possible gaming experience would be to upgrade to Vista If you are unfamiliar with the differences between DX9 and DX10, see here for a video comparing the two. However, this difference hasn't been a big enough to push many gamers into upgrading to Vista. The statistics from Valve show that less than 15% of users are using Windows Vista, with over 80% of users running Windows XP.

Another poll shows the exact same information, that many users don't see the need to upgrade to Vista right now. Perhaps once a truly great game comes out that is compatible with DX10, we will see the market shift towards Vista.

How To Make Vista Bearable Pt.1

Its been a year since the release of vista and still this OS seems just as buggy as ever. Most users have resigned themselves to be contempt with the shortcomings of Vista and have given up hope of it improving. After listening to several different tech's about Vista, I have come up with several things which can improve your OS and make Vista liveable.

First off the bat you will want to throttle user account control. Nothing is more annoying in Vista than to get overloaded with Vista's security pop-up system. This is a quick and easy fix that will help keep you from pulling your hair out when dealing with this system. It's easy to do, just visit the User Accounts control panel and click "Turn User Account Control on or off," then uncheck the box in the following screen related to UAC.

Another relatively simple thing that will give your PC a little boost is the refine the Registry with TweakVI. TweakVI is a downloadable application designed to fine-tune your Windows Registry and give your PC a speed boost. To tweak your registry, simply download this free version of the application here and install. When running this application focus your time and energy on the System Information and Tweaks section, then lastly run the CPU Tweaks. While this will in no means turn a core 2 duo into a quad core, expect to see a small increase in overall speed and performance. Don't waste your time and money buying the $50 yearly subscription as the free version should give you everything you need.

This ends my first installment of how to improve your Vista system, there are many more things you can do to increase your overall experience with Vista and make this OS much more enjoyable. These updates should be coming soon.

Dual Booting XP and Vista

If you want to give vista a shot but at the same time you dont want to give up on XP, then Dual Booting XP and Vista might be a solution for you. The process is simple and gives you all the benefits of both operating systems. This can allow you to use the next generation of software such as DirectX 10 and then go back to the simplicity and reliability of windows XP in a matter of minutes.

Windows Vista and Call of Duty 2

I have been waiting for a chance to see the new windows vista for myself ever since it was first released. I had heard all the bad things about it and just dismissed them as lies concocted by nay-sayers. When i moved to Ohio i finally got to see windows vista first hand on my Mom's computer. But to my avail it was not everything i had wished for. There was so many security issues that it was hard to get anything done at all. Every time i opened a program it wanted to confirm that i indeed had meant to do that. When i went to install call of duty 2 i had to click yes about 5 times before it even began. Coming from windows xp where everything is simpler, i had not anticipated this. When the game finished installing windows vista had alot of compatability errors and i was unable to play. When i contacted windows about this problem they said there was nothing they could do. I agree with one person's view about vista.