A few months ago, I ordered Home Premium with the upgrade coupon for $12. I mailed in my Newegg and Fry's reciepts for the heck of it. Just last week, I got an email saying my order was shipped, and should arrive in 3 weeks. I say "yeah right" especially after reading that TG article about the Vista express upgrade. Only 1 week later, it arrives in the mail, and works seamlessly! I am now dual booting XP and Vista.

I just have to say that my experience so far with Vista has been better than ever expected. All my friends told me "vista sucks" and that "it is so slow and incompatible". But I install it on an E6600 and just 1 Gig of RAM on an OLD 5400rpm hd and overall it is still faster than XP at navigating most menus. (don't know about intensive programs, though) One more thing-I have a 2wire pc port adapter to connect to the home network which the Upgrade advisor said specifically wouldn't work due to drivers and incompatability. Seeing all these driver complaints I figured I wouldn't be able to get online. Somehow, the XP driver works perfectly! I'm using it right now.

Anyway, it still seems a bit overrated to me. Just a fancy version of XP combined with linux and mac but that's my opinion. Honestly, I don't even know what to do with it right now that XP won't work better for... but for $12 it was DEFINATELY worth it. I would advise anyone to try to get that upgrade with XP and dual boot it just for fun and to save a lot of money.

Cmon i spent 15 minutes typing this lol could someone comment?

Mostly it is fud (google it) from the dead-end crowd (linux and a few XP hold-outs)... and your friends are just falling for it; they obviously have no real knowledge. I too haven't had a single problem, aside from the 3rd driver release from ATI, the other two releases were great. I had many more problems with the initial XP release than I have with Vista and I am running the 64-bit version. Also, I still have never had a single Vista pop-up during shut-down/reboot telling me that a driver or app wasn't responding (that was my last memory for XP).

for one, since XP is a dead OS, you will know about Vista long before most of your friends do (and they _will_ eventually change over).

To say that XP is dead is something of an overstatement.

I've still not found any reasons personally why I personally would ever want to upgrade. For my usage it would just slow me down and cost me money I don't need to spend. If I was into the latest and greatest games maybe I would have a reason. But having had a look I've made my informed decision. It's just possible that some of the posters friends have done the same.

I never said XP was dead. I specifically stated I am keeping XP and dual-booting specifically for the reason that it still does almost anything I need it to as good as or better than Vista. (especially dx9 games ) Vista is cool, but you are right-it isn't worth $150. I got lucky and nailed it for $12 so I'm not complaining. Wait until you need it to keep up with games and software.

I know you didn't say XP was dead, which is why I replied to Joke and not yourself..

Vista will improve, just as XP did. I just chuckle that so many people seem to think that XP or the older Windows versions are now somehow worthless. They still do all the things they would do yesterday...

No more of an over-statement than saying Windows 3.1 or 95 is dead (time to pull your head out). It won't be long (it will happen so fast...) until MS issues a statement saying that it will no longer give free support; service-packs and security updates will become few and far between. Most manufacturers will stop releasing software for XP systems and the minimum requirement will be Vista (something about a video or audio feature that will not be in XP - but the next sw/hw you want to purchase will need it to really function well or even properly...).

Have you seen the processor afinity selectors yet? The only system that really supports multi-core processors is Vista and it will probably improve radically in the next sp. Multi-core support in XP is very similar to the extended memory support in windows 3.1. In a couple of years when _you_ finally have a 4 or 16 core CPU, the only way to make any use of them will be with a Vista-based kernel.

yeah, XP is a dead OS. good luck hanging in there...

Sorry I guess my post was aimed at joke also then.

@joke: As long as anyone has unfinished business with XP (unfinished games, office programs, software, or even hardware) that would cost money or be slower with Vista, there is no NEED to upgrade for a while. My dad still uses 2000 on his home laptop and it works perfectly fine and still works with the programs he uses. There is still plenty of online support for XP, and will be for years to come. This is getting flamey so I think i'll bail out now! Cya

I'm a Linux user so already enjoying all that multi threaded goodness... and have been for some time. Unfortunately at work I'm stuck on an NT4 workstation connecting to Windows 2000 servers and terminal sessions on OS390 systems. The only XP you will see is on the handful of new laptops and I'm working for a large UK corporate. The situation is repeated amongst my friends. Very few are on XP yet at work.

I'm not going to argue that there is advancement in Vista. MS have learned a hell of a lot in the last few years. What I am saying is that for many many users who probably don't push systems like you or I would there really is no reason to change. At least until the present solution stops physically working. They browse, IM and surf for porn.

I'd not put it past MS to force the issue with updated formats rather than wait for the HW updates which you correctly point out do give more reason to be on Vista. Given the HW requirements I think many people will hold out for the new os = new rig route.

I think you probably made the point better than I did there.

If you're running dualcore / duo it is better and takes advantage of the processor .