Is your PC "Vista Capable?"
By Ryan Block 
posted April 2nd 2006 1:28PM
posted April 2nd 2006 1:28PM
Ok, so maybe there was a little confusion on the part
of Microsoft. Yeah, their hardware requirements for Vista seem are a little obscure -- and don't even get us started on
that system analysis thing
of theirs. And no, it looks like with Vista delayed into early next year, PCs
purchased today still may not actually be Vista capable. Enter the "Windows Vista Capable" badge, friends,
Microsoft's quick n' easy way to identify the Vista capable boxes from those sad, pathetic, sure-to-be-outdated-in-days
"Designed for Windows XP" computers Microsoft sincerely hopes you'll avoid buying. But being that chances are
your next computer might not be running Vista, for the general consumer, the Vista Capable badge only means it'll
support the baseline version, Home Basic Edition -- which we'll be promptly ignoring, thankyouverymuch -- and may not
do fun things like run Aero or be able to use more "advanced" Vista features like HDCP. Normally this is the part where we'd get a little huffy and
suggest Microsoft do it this way or that, but we're starting to feel we're in a little too deep here, you know?
Just 3 words:
Get a mac
Developers!! Developers!! Developers!! Developers!!
http://www.ntk.net/media/developers.mpg
Haven't PCs had this kind of sticker since Windows 95?
This is getting ridiculous, if all this hype is to be believed then, what, 25% of the current PC systems people have will be able to run Vista? It doesn't make sense. Vista will probably be able to run on entry-level computers, because let's face it, Windows XP ideally needs 512Mb of RAM to run smoothly, but it will run on under 128 with a 500Mhz Processor fine, until you start installing stuff and ...yeah. But it will run. Bets are on that no matter what Microsoft say, Vista will run on most of today's computers, because Microsoft can't realistically expect everyone to go and buy new computers or upgrade just for their new operating system when they've got one that works just fine. And if they do think that's what people are going to do, well this is one person that's perfectly happy using windows xp, and won't be shelling out any more money on hardware just to run a high-spec operating system.
Microsft should have a testing thing on their website to see if your computer is compatible.I won't buy vista home basic, cause it wont have aero. I'd get home premium.
If your pc doesn't have 1gb of memory, count yourself out of Vista. Machines are so cheap these days to replace that yes they can expect you to replace your machine. Now if you want all the bells and whistles you are talking replacing your machine with a bit more upscale item but people will definitely do it. Look at how many people have purchased 64 bit in lieu of anything good to use it for? Software can and does command hardware purchases for it.
Now one of the things none of this touches on "yet" is that if you are gaming oriented or your household is, the DX10 issue requires graphics cards you can't even buy yet. That means you have one part in your PC for which you will definitely have to buy new when it arrives. That part is several times more efficient than the best parts of today, and the parts of today will be unable to utilize the new software (DX10).
There are changes ahead. Be careful buying anything now you "think" will run later, certified or not. Because they will "certify" items that when you find out what their limitations are, you will be unhappy and feel fooled.
...
Hey MDJ, have you seen the Domo-Kun music video version of the Developers chant? It's really funny.
ill go home pirate edition
Mine is--well, my second video card might not make it, but my primary one will. I wonder how gracefully Vista will handle that?
Ya, I'd definately agree.. Vista ain't worth no $$$ at all. But neither is any of M$' horrible products.
Can I get a sticker that reads: Designed for Windows XP, Windows Vista Capable, Only Going to Play Solitaire
I happen to have Windows Vista running on my computer and my computer seems to run fine.
AMD 3700+ San Diego
2x1gig G.Skill pc4000 at 500Mhz
Radeon 9250 128mb pci gfx (my 7800gt is broken and with a P.O.S. card it runs no problem from what i can tell)
AND!!! i have been hearing a lot of talk about whether or not Internet Explorer 7 will need to have a re-written internet sites?!?!? its mostly html and of all the sites ive been to ie7 works.... plugins arnt avialable yet! i cant get flash and some videos to work . THE END
I'm going to start making 'Linux Capable' stickers and slap them on every machine within my reach. You can get a distro to run on almost any hardware, its free and I'm sure none of the GNU licenses their are distributed under involve selling your soul to Micro$oft.
Seriously, is it going to be worth switching to Vista at all?
First, right now there are a lot of very high-end Quad-SLI systems coming on the market (such as the Dell Renegade) for extremely high-prices. While they will be able to "run" Vista, they will not be able to do it as well as a true Vista capable system.
As was already mentioned, there are no DX10 capable graphics cards on the market at this point. DX10 is not an incremental change, it is a total re-write of the Windows graphics system and as such will tax the hell out of existing cards, while true DX10 hardware will simply fly by it. I would expect to see (in some cases) almost a 4x improvement in DX10 hardware over existing video cards.
Also, while there are several monitors which are HDCP compliant, there are, as of yet, no consumer video cards which will support this standard, thus many will be "locked out" of future DRMed video content.
Hold your money on a new PC until Vista is released, then we will see systems which will really let this new baby shine.
I haven't had problems running Vista on any of our crappy Dells at work. I'm assuming the release version will run faster then what's available now, so I don't think this is anything to get in a huff about.
im not even going to TRY to install on my pc, itd be a disaster, an expensive disaster, mayb ill just buy a computer in 07 if i can find the money
#12 - I have no trouble running vista either on my computer which is circa 2004 - with the curren't build 5342 i have the highest vista rating.
But that said i will be upgrading to a more current spec once Vista retail is released.
I think the Vista rating system is so you can tell which version of the software would be best suited for your machine. Like if you have a basic computer from yesterday that has a low rating, then the low rating = the most basic Vista. And one with a really high rating gets the Ultimate Edition. Only a guess, but who knows.
Irony, sweet irony - My new Intel dual core imac quite possibly will be once Leopard (os X.5) comes out THIS YEAR
The real cool thing about Vista for me is to see how 3d will be infused into everyday business applications. If you have time, do some googling for "Avalon" demos. They're going to offload a lot of the processing for business apps onto the 3d graphics chip.
all they want is more money...
I'm fine.
AMD Opteron 148 running at 2.8GHz
2GB G.SKILL Extreme Series
X1900XT
I'm going to be running the Vista equivalent of XP Pro, and I don't see what all the fuss is about the shit computers they sell pre-made anyway :P
I tried various releases of Vista on Abit AN7 AMD Athlon CP 2800+ with 1gig of memory and nvidia GF FX 5900XT 128mb
And it worked alright with glass, scored 2 in built in Windows Benchmark thing (I think PC mag or someone scored 2 with twice more expensive PC, and contributed to Vista PowerHOG rumors) Look if you get your drivers to work, and you have compatible drivers everything works fine. And if you turn off Glass effect off, it works even beter. I suspect these rumors were spread so people would upgrade like crazy.
Vista this! I'm still using win 98se with the unofficial updates.
Vista runs exceptionally well on my old Athlon XP 1800+ with 768MBs RAM and an internal GeForce 2. It can't use Aero, but it actually runs faster than XP on that machine.
I really hate how everyone complains about Microsoft's products...Vista is a new operating system and everyone in here will eventually upgrade anyways so quit complaining. This happens with every new Windows, and you should all just learn to deal with having to upgrade and dealing with the less-than-perfect nature of the program.
"First, right now there are a lot of very high-end Quad-SLI systems coming on the market (such as the Dell Renegade) for extremely high-prices. While they will be able to "run" Vista, they will not be able to do it as well as a true Vista capable system."
I think it's sad that it requires so much power because there is really nothing there that should be so taxing. And before anyone flames me, yes, I have installed and used it so I know what I'm talking about.
Is this Vista ??
I got to spend a few hours playing with Vista on the weekend, courtesy of a Microsoft Beta Tester friend. It was running okay-ish on a Centrino laptop, 1.7Ghz, with a 64Mb GFX card. So I'd expect the final build to be just fine on anything above a 2.4.
First impressions is that it was VERY efficient. The search function was very fast and pretty, comparable to the search function on OS 10.4. It also managed to pump out some very nice 3d procedurally generated music visualisations in Hi Def, which I was kinda amazed at, considering that there was slowdown when pulling up the My Computer equivalent.
The "gadgets" bar is tres pretty and efficient, although it's essentially the OS10.4 widgets bar with less widgets on offer.
But hey! The point of this comment was that the beta build in question was running at a reasonable speed, with all the aero looks enabled, on a 1.7 Ghz laptop. It crashed about 4 times though, which saddened me greatly.
Just for everyones info... there is no blue screen of death on Vista. Yet. It just dies.
I just love my cats.......You might have seen them around...
Cheetah, Puma, Jaguar, Panther, Tiger
They play so nice, and can take care of themselves. Not like some bulls I know }:>
Oh Look!!......Here comes my newborn.....right around the corner..
It's Leopard!!!
Sorry folks, I just love not having to worry about stupid issues like this:)
But I do love Micro$oft for one reason.....the more they alienate their customers...the more of them there are using a Mac ;)
I agree with Justin. We should all just shut up and take it up the keister because really, what else are we going to do? Act like smartconsumers and not buy we don't need?? I mean, c'mon!
Justin, go READ V for Vendetta. Anytime you just shut up and accept something, you have lost the greatest of your freedoms: self-determination. While V speaks to government, the same can be said for the largest software maker in the world.
-p-
Bah!!, I hear this same (I'm not going to upgrade.) BS story every time Microsoft rolls out a new OS. You people know you are going to do it regardless.
#20, not everyone will spend multiple thousands of dollars on the latest computer components, thats the "problem." Vista needs to be prepared to cater to the rest of us, even though in defense of Microsoft Moore's law has some influence on the future computer/software markets.
> Bah!!, I hear this same (I'm not going to
> upgrade.) BS story every time Microsoft
> rolls out a new OS.
Yeah, but look at what home users were getting away from... Win95/98/ME. This will be an interesting couple of years in the MS-Apple wars.
You people make me laugh. WHAT is this VISTA "certified" really mean other then something a salesman would say. I can say right now anything made in the last 3 years will run vista just fine. The areo effects will just depend on your video card which probabably most "hardcore" users will just turn off to make it run faster like we already do with xp skins. Needing 512 or more ram is nothing 512ddr = $60cnd wow now thats going to break the bank. A dx 9 videocard = $60 ati 9500 or better will do just fine. So for a $120 you can turn any pos computer into a VISA "certified" compter.
Ask me if I care. Personally, I've been Windoze free for years. I run Linux on all my machines. Mostly everyone else in the household uses a Mac. The only one in my family running Windows is my 13 year daughter. I keep a image of her HDD around for everytime she gets bit hard. She wants an iMac G5 for graduation. She'll probably get it.
OK, I'll admit it, I own an XBOX. But thats it!
There goes microsoft again, jumping the gun. Most relatively recent computers will be able to run vista basic, so the sticker doesn't mean much, especially since it doesnt guarantee that the computer in question will be able to smoothly use Aero.
#33: Matt E., I hope your daughter gets an iMac Intel Core Duo. It works very, very well (even with demanding non Universal apps).
Aero's nice, but so is WindowBlinds, which emulates the look very nicely. I think I can survive without the 3D window effects -- at least until Microshaft stops supporting anything but Vista. Which, given their love of planned obsolescence, will probably be two weeks after releasing Vista.
Please, Engadget -- Just because Microsoft issues news about their vaporware OS that might be released in a year, doesn't mean you have to give them free press for it.
Let them earn their press by delivering something. In the meantime, why not talk about computers that are capable of running "Mac OS X.5" or "Ubuntu" or even Windows XP, or some other OS that actually exists?
#20 i hear the same thing too - people always claiming they are gonna migrate to linux or OSX, yet after 4.5 80% of Windows users run Windows XP
Re: comment by deviateX. I did bite the bullet and switch all but 1 of my 4 machines (home and work) to Ubuntu Linux last year. Very cool dev tools and so much more speed to boost. I have to admit I do very basic things with the machine itself because I'm a Java developer. I still keep that one freebie home edition around for sites that choose to do windows only things (Yahoo Music Engine, MusicMatch, etc). Never been happier.
Linux isn't ready for use by the mainstream home user yet. Basic things like power settings such as monitor time out and hard disk spin down don't work. Even setting up of file shares is not easy. Perhaps Novell desktop 10 will improve the situation since it is supposed to compete with Vista.
People that care about simplicty and ease of use will pay the price and move to OS X. The rest of us will stick it out on XP.
I have the beta version of Vista on my Compaq Presario V2000 w/ 512 DDR ram and it is a little slow but it seems to be working fine.
SO glad I'm using OS X Tiger on a Mac mini Intel Core Duo.
Enjoy the wait, Windows users. And the punchline: It still won't be stable.
Maybe uncle Bill will throw in a new reliability guarantee ... oh wait, that was XP before the 2 service pack bundles and an additional 30 updates. Maybe this one will crash on takeoff too!!!
is vista capable for my pentium III 800Mhz?
I read about the first 20 of these and came to the conclusion that everyone whines and Mac people all gloat and MS is going to rip you off.
It is my full and honest intent to find a pirated version of the flaship version of the new os, and then to buy a mac. And install it on the mac. I think i'll run a mac theme on a linux box just to make the little apple ppl cry too
Vista is the worst thing I could of bought, right after I bought it the computer crashed, I called Dell they said Vista is worthless. You can't install nothing on it. I would not recommend it to anybody. It has been a living nightmare trying to get it all straighted out.