Windows Vista Beta 2

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Pete
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so I got bored and set about downloading the MASSIVE dvd iso that is Windows Vista Beta 2. Even though I own a 64bit machine I went for the 32 bit version *for the moment* and did an upgrade install. Just for the hell of it.

I have to say it's rather nice. Although at the same time, odd. I do love the glassy windows, but then when you maximise something they vanish and go black :( - and windows live messenger - the program I use the most in non-max form, doesn't have native title bars anymore (at least not without looking stupid).

The account protection thing (something i've noticed using my mate's crapintosh) is probably a good thing, although slightly overzealous at the moment (surely Windows Firewall / security centre etc should be exempt?)

Also a lot of programs decide to crash for no reason :( outlook and wmp are particular favourites so far. although outlook seems to have restarted right after it closed.

What i might do (taking into account my current setup involves a partitioned drive) is reinstall it again, but clean. Then see how that goes before deciding whether to go back to XP for the moment.

Has anyone else tried it? I did give it a shot in vmware prior to installing it for real, but it's simply too slow in there.
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Jamez
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Meh!

Vista sounds like a stupid gimmick to me. It's just a tarted-up, RAM heavy version of Windows XP.

I don't think I'll be upgrading to Vista until I'm forced to.
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Gavin Scott
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I'd like to see it running, but I reckon I'm going to need a better pc.

The P4 I recently built could probably handle it (according to the minimum requirement info), but I'm not happy with the stability of it and think I must have done something wrong. The on board sound card seems to be knackered; but I won't digress.

Pete, tell me more about Vista, and what makes it significantly different to XP. I tend to run lots of applications at the same time (or at least, leave them all open). Clearly what I should have is a dual core machine, but would Vista improve the way my computer can handle multiple apps on a single processor?
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Bail
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You actually got it to download? The download sites been on "Oh, seems giving away vista free for more popular than we thought, naff off" for over a day.
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Reeves
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How can this be downloaded if it's meant to be an operating system that costs money?
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Jamez
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BETA version (in other words, its a crappy test version released to geeks so that they can complain to Microsoft).
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Neil Jones
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Bail wrote:You actually got it to download? The download sites been on "Oh, seems giving away vista free for more popular than we thought, naff off" for over a day.
You'll have to use your own Download Manager to get it, as that's the only way I have a chance to start downloading it.

Obviously the faster the broadband connection the better, I'm looking in at a 3.13Gb download. About 16hrs on 512k broadband, don't even try it on dial-up.
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Pete
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I went in through the Corel CDN to get the link and used the download manager they supply you with. Took overnight to come down.
Reeves wrote:How can this be downloaded if it's meant to be an operating system that costs money?
as troutie said - beta version. It's far from finished/perfect with "preliminary" written all over the help system. Things crashing, icons missing/low quality. Desktop wallpaper which is the word "placeholder 11" on a background, using the XP sounds. Stuff like that.

Plus it stops working in June 2007
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Charlie Wells
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I'm now runnig Vista, left computer on all day to download, nearing 3 hours to install. Usual problems so far, a couple drivers not working (audio), and a few bits of software not running. It looks interesting though slower (using 1Gb+ RAM).

Also worth noting that Microsoft Office is now available for beta testing.
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Jamez
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Charlie Wells wrote: It looks interesting though, slower (using 1Gb+ RAM).

That doesn't surprise me. I would probably need to upgrade my RAM from 1gb to 2gb just to keep this OS ticking over.

XP will do me fine for the next 3 or 4 years!
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Pete
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one would expect that it's memory requirements would shrink as it's fine tuned before release. I think I'll have a play with it for a bit longer before going back to XP.
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