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| Windows Vista Ultimate with SP1 | 
 enlarge | From: Microsoft Software
Category: Software
List Price: $339.99
Buy New: $87.92
You Save: $252.07 (74%)
New (76) Used (5) from $87.92
Avg. Customer Rating:  104 reviews
Sales Rank: 57
Format: Dvd-rom
Platform: Windows Vista
Media: DVD-ROM
Edition: Ultimate
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Shipping Weight (lbs): 3
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.2 x 1.6
MPN: 66R-02261
Model: 66R-02261
UPC: 882224661447
EAN: 0882224661492
ASIN: B0013O77GM
Release Date: March 19, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Classic Case of Style VS Substance April 17, 2008
One thing you will immediately notice about Vista...it's pretty. There are plenty of new graphical flourishes within menus, directories, etc. The platform is also supposed to be excellent in regards to security. Haven't had problems yet...no news is good news, right?
But you aren't getting something for nothing. The system resources required to power all of this will make many a pc cry in realization of its own inadequacy. With Service Pack 3 coming out for XP sometime in the near future (with a rumored sizeable performance boost), it just doesn't make sense to upgrade if performance is at all an issue on your hardware.
And if you're a gamer, there's the added issue of compatibility in Vista. It's a little bit better in Ultimate, but I still had some difficulty getting some titles to run.
I think Vista WILL be worth upgrading to; people needed time to warm up to XP as well (though perhaps not as much). Microsoft just needs to find ways to tweak their new platform such that it reaches levels of efficiency already breached by XP.
 I still don't love Vista April 17, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I hadn't yet tried Vista Ultimate nor SP1, so this was a welcome opportunity. I tried it on one of my newer computers with moderately fast CPU and graphics adapter - and when I say moderately, I mean exactly that.
The install was trouble-free. But performance is still problematic with anything but really fast CPUs and graphic adapters. And the messages! The endless messages are enough to drive one mad. I didn't notice any spectacular performance gains over Vista Home Premium. Of course, I didn't sit there with stopwatch in hand either. Vista still seems to be sluggish. I definitely would not install it on any of my laptops which are not as powerful as the desktop I tested it on. I imagine the laptops would struggle with this version of Vista as they have on others.
One cool feature of Vista Ultimate is BitBlocker which is an effective encryption system.
The Vista GUI still does nothing for me. I am not a big fan of eye candy, so the Aero interface doesn't do anything to get my heart beating faster. Likewise the changes to the Start Menu and Control Panel turn me off. I don't like them. The addition of the sidebar widgets is a big ho-hum.
Finally, a number of the specialty programs I use still aren't Vista compatible.
I am a big Microsoft fan. I've been working with computers for a long time and think that Microsoft has done more for the industry than any other company. But occasionally they simply miss the boat. Windows ME was a good example as was Word 5. With Vista, I think Microsoft has gone off in the wrong direction. I would have preferred that they spent more time developing it and included some of the features, such as the dramatically revised file system, they first announced than deliver the half-baked ideas in Vista.
I will be using Windows XP Pro for as long as I can unless future Vista Service Packs make this OS more desirable.
Jerry
Do you feel lucky? April 17, 2008
The most important thing you have to remember to do, is thoroughly investigate the compatibility of your system. Don't just do the online checklists, call your computer manufacturer before you buy ANY Vista OS. Find out what you can handle or what you need to do to handle it.
With that said, this software is not ready to be released. Yet, here it is.
I was on the phone with Dell (don't get me started) three times before I installed this. Basically needing to upgrade my not so old laptop. I bought higher memory and made room for what was about to invade my system.
A couple migraines later (seriously), it's up and running... I think. I am liking the features and understand the new environment, but there are so many limitations and compatibility issues, I'm just not pleased. Update after update, and things you used to use are gone, and arrrgh. I am noticing after longer periods of use that it really slows down. The resources are being sucked up and my remedy has been to simply restart the computer.
I'm giving it more time, and hope I will adjust. But, I would think this is best to be pre-installed with a new computer and not to replace an OS on your current one.
Evolutionary, not revolutionary April 16, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I had avoided Windows Vista like the plague for its first year, knowing too well that it was best to give new operating systems some time to mature. Anyone remember the shift from Windows 3.11 to 95? How about from 95 to 98? 98 to XP? History has shown time and again that the launch of a major OS is always tricky, even more so now that computers are expected to function safely and quickly with the internet, wireless and multimedia devices. When given an opportunity to review Vista Ultimate with the first service pack (SP1), I decided to take the plunge, and have had, by and large, a smooth and positive experience. I've outlined some of the considerations regarding all versions of Vista below, along with my conclusion.
COMPATIBILITY: This is the big one that everyone, myself included, was worried about. First of all, it is necessary to mention that you should forget about installing the 64 bit version of Vista (all flavors of this OS come with both 32 and 64 bit versions), at least unless you enjoy hunting for hardware drivers that may not even exist. Compatibility with the 32-bit version of Vista SP1, however, is excellent. While Vista has gotten a bad rap about this (falsely so, WIN 95 and 98 were much worse off the bat), the number of programs and hardware devices that work with Vista is enormous with SP1. I have a wide array of hardware and software installed, and in virtually all cases, Vista has detected and installed the device smoothly and transparently. I've found some glitchiness with my sound card (Creative X-Fi), but the latest driver seems to work fine. I've had no problems with any of the security software I run (the excellent Kaspersky suite), or the many graphics and media apps (Photoshop, Office 2007, Dreamweaver, Video Studio, etc). I must admit that I am very impressed by the stability and ease of use- I too had heard horror stories.
IMPROVEMENTS: This is arguably the most subjective aspect to rank. As my title says, this OS is an evolution, an improvement, but nothing revolutionary, like WIN 95 was to 3.11. The visual interface is elegant and functional (especially the new search bar that replaces the "Run" command), and the Aero "flip screen" alternative to the good old Alt+Tab is cool looking though ultimately eye-candy, as are the Sidebar Widgets. The indexing feature is also quite useful, depending on your style of computing. It basically indexes files and programs on your hard drive, so that you can then type "chicken" in the search bar, and it will show you all of the files that are named or even include the word "chicken".
Vista is ultimately more secure than XP, and the included Firewall and Anti-spyware are good (though not great). An included antivirus is a big omission, though I'm sure it was a business decision to get people to buy Live OneCare. I use Firefox (currently the Beta 3.5 version), but I did notice that Internet Explorer is improved and faster.
I noticed that a number of applications run faster in Vista than in XP: Office 2007, ACDSee Pro 2, Photoshop, etc all run smoother. With SP1, file transfers (between hard drives or devices) is much faster than in XP, as well.
There are some quirky omissions: context menus do not feature the "copy to" or "move to" commands, though you can add these easily by creating a registry key. Getting the folder view to look the way you want it is also an exercise in trial and error, though it ultimately gives you more flexibility.
Vista also is much more intelligent at optimizing your broadband connection, through its IP/TCP auto-tuning feature. Basically, it is able to adjust key settings on the fly, to make your downloads faster and smoother. It accomplishes some (but not all) of what the excellent TCP Optimizer has done for years. Ultimate also comes with Encryption, though programs like TruCrypt and Cryptainer can easily replicate this feature.
COMPUTER HORSEPOWER: This is a big consideration, as your computer may be the one thing that determines whether you can or should run Vista. I am an avid gamer, and had read reviews of Vista's slower gaming performance. I am happy to say that I can run very demanding games (Crysis, UT3, Oblivion, etc) with very high settings and good frame rates. That said, Vista is indeed more demanding that XP. I wouldn't seriously consider Vista unless you had 1)A Dual or Quad core CPU, 2)A good video card (think GeForce 7 series and above), 3)2GB of RAM and 4)300GB+ of storage. It's not that Vista NEEDS these to run, just that it doesn't make sense to install a shiny, new OS in an older computer. For the record, installation went very, very smoothly-I was ready to roll in about half an hour.
CONCLUSION: Is it worth the upgrade? Yes and no. I am very happy with Vista, and am not going back to XP. As Microsoft is phasing out XP within the next year or so, Vista will become reality. If you are worried about security and compatibility, I can tell you that in my experience with Vista Ultimate, this OS works well, smoothly and quickly, and I have NOT CRASHED ONCE in over 2 weeks of intense tweaking, installing and generally power-user geekery! No blue screen of death, nothing. If you are buying a new PC, get Vista- it's a no-brainer. Similarly, if you have an old beater of a PC, don't bother. At the end of the day, Vista is better than all of the haters have been saying. It is efficient, elegant and polished, and if you have a new-ish PC, it is essentially a neater, leaner and faster version of XP for the future.
 solid OS upgrade with expected (but minor) incompatibility issues April 15, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I have been a Microsoft user since DOS days. Like most Microsoft customers, I have my love/hate relationship going on with the company and their products. Also like most Microsoft customers, I always reserve some skepticism for any new Microsoft product until the product has fully proven to me of its merits.
When big M pushed out its major OS update, I didn't exactly jump on it. Especially with all the negative press, I didn't even plan to upgrade perhaps until the time I upgrade my computer system. With my participation in Vine program, however, I was able to test out the system, and here are my findings/opinions.
First of all, Windows Vista is designed for the latest and greatest hardware configuration available. To fully benefit all the modernized UI bells and whistles, you need to set your expectations in a realistic manner: if you have a five-year old graphics card, < 1GB of ram, and sub-P4 CPU, you can still use the OS, but you are better off disabling all the fancy eye candies in order to get acceptable performance. The particular computer which I have installed the Vista on has a dual XEON processor, 2GB of RAM, and a very decent ATI gaming graphics card. So I have the luxury of checking out all the highly-hyped UI eye candies. Let me just say, with sufficient HW, all these UI enhancements do indeed work as designed. While we are on the topic of UI, I must add that the UI, in general, has been overhauled. It is evident that MSFT has hired some professional industrial/graphics designers to work on the UI, a lot of UI inconveniences in Windows XP, which we have more or less taken for granted, are eliminated and improved. The new UI is more intuitive, prettier, and (with sufficient HW muscles) faster.
A lot of the negative presses have been targeting the fact that the new OS is not compatible with many older devices and software. Being a software professional myself, I certainly understand the pain in maintaining backward compatibilities. In term of Windows, there have been THOUSANDS and THOUSANDS and THOUSANDS of devices and software accumulated over the years - many of which were not even written in a way that's compliant to Microsoft's 3rd development guidelines. In my opinion, if you want your OS to be fundamentally rearchitectured, you HAVE to sacrifice some backward compatibility. I feel Microsoft has done a decent job in this regard, out of all the software and peripherals that I have, the only thing that no longer worked after the OS upgrade is an extremely old Logitech webcam. I went to the Logitech website, and they do not have XP driver available for this device. My point is, customers need to be realistic about what an OS maker can do to make sure that devices and applications floating out there will work with the new version of an OS. Sometimes, it's simply impossible to maintain backward compatibility.
In summary, I was well aware of the HW requirement for the new OS, and I expected certain incompatibilities with the OS upgrade. Even with these previous formed concerns, the new OS has proven to be decent in term of backward-compatibility and improved performance with the recommended HW configurations. So my recommendation is, if you are prepared to face some early-adopter pains and have the solid HW to back it up, then this OS is for you. Otherwise just stay with XP and wait until Vista has been fully adopted.
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