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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:
 Vista Ultimate vs. Retestrak XP March 27, 2008
7 out of 9 found this review helpful
First, you need to know a few things about me before reading this review:
1.I'm a novelist and a screenwriter living and working in Los Angeles. Most of my education is in Computer Sciences and English.
2.I do not now and have never worked for Microsoft or any sub-contractor thereof.
3.I did not purchase my copy of Windows Vista Ultimate. I was offered it free of charge due to membership in Amazon Vine. Every month I'm offered numerous items to review and this month, I selected this product.
4.My first computer was a Sinclair "Zed" X-81. Nuff said.
I'm not going to write the usual benefit bloated review of this product. There are large quantities of MS Shills and MS Stooges on Amazon leaving phony reviews in praise of this product and other products by Microsoft, and they are all annoying and as bloated as the programs they praise. There are also enough MS Haters reviewing as well, just to be fair.
Most people are here for two reasons:
1.They are on the verge of buying this product and are probably ready to let go of XP.
2.They already own this product and are looking for some insight.
This is a key point. I'm not going to tell you how great this product is, you can go anywhere for that, or just read the package. I'm going to do my best in telling you how to optimize this product for best results so that it's effective for the rest of us, including our not-so-windows savvy parents, that way you can feel better about purchasing or not purchasing - which is the point of Amazon reviews anyhow.
My Machine ...
For the last handful of years, and I wont give a length of time on this, due to a probable lawsuit; but I've been running what's commonly known as Retestrak XP on one of my machines. Google it. It's a pretty sophisticated piece of OS for users wishing to remain "off the grid". The serial code is one of those FCKGW codes that was probably intended to be a political statement, but turned out to be the most populated serial code of all time, and probably the biggest nightmare for Microsoft as well.
Supposedly, Retestrak is a pirate version of Windows XP that does not dial home to Redmond, it's been modified to run faster and it installs with everything you need to operate including antivirus and firewalls. It's been pretty interesting and problem free using it, and it's a shame MS can't seem to take a que from the European Programmer that Frankenstein'd the thing together because it's pretty awesome and has a lot of underground support, much like Linux. If I start getting hate mail from Sniper's Redemption Network, the author, then I may go into hiding. Someone's going to say I'm insane for admitting my use of Retestrak, but whatever. To quote Humphrey Bogart: "I left a note in my apartment, they'll know where to find me."
In the first comment, I've left my Machine stats below to see for benchmark and comparison.
I tell you this history, so you can understand the machine I'm putting Vista on and my reluctance to run a MS OS unchecked. Like most people, I don't trust Microsoft ... and rightly so. I have several other machines at the house, my laptop runs Vista Home ( a Dell), one's a Mac and another still has Windows 2000 on it (a very nice OS) , and all are registered.
The Install ...
First - unplug all your external hard-drives, flash card readers, what have you. If you want to chance leaving your printer connected, go for it, but you may be playing with fire by doing so. I would say unplug everything but your keyboard, monitor and mouse. I say this because your equipment might be old and Vista may not have the driver, thus causing problems during the install * even if it already said you're fine.
Second - Nobody but a fool would recommend doing an upgrade. If you're going to install this thing, do it right and do a full install.
Third - if you're worried about losing information from your old OS, then let me say a few things here:
Go buy an External Hard Drive and keep everything personal on it.
Buy two if you believe in redundancy as I do.
Never put anything but the Operating System on the C drive.
Never put anything but the Operating System on the C drive.
Never put anything but the Operating System on the C drive.
Do not partition your C drive.
Do not let other people tell you to partition your C drive.
Do not run multiple Operating Systems one drive.
Back up all your files elsewhere. Don't EVER use a backup program. It's tedious and a waste of resources.
Now, back to the program ...
The Installation process was relatively painless. After checking my computer with the Vista Upgrade tool, which has to be downloaded, everything but my wireless Belkin transmitter would apparently survive the installation. Above, in the pictures section I've left a few screenshots for anyone curious to see what this Vista Checker looks like and what it found.
Surprisingly, the installation was only 46 minutes in total from having control of my machine - to having control of my machine again. It rebooted a total of four times at 25 minutes, 33, 37 and 40 minutes, respectively. I wasn't too put out about the time I spent, as all I missed was another late-night Cold Case re-run. Vista does want to fine tune itself after it's all said and done - which was annoying and then it "must prepare the desktop". What is that, like a turndown service at a hotel? I could've done with out all the delay. But overall, it wasn't bad. No crashes, no blue screens and no lock-ups. Microsoft must have also taken a hint about all the annoying nag prompt boxes, as I didn't encounter a single one, not even once I got on the internet.
Boot time ...
Here are some records I kept to benchmark the basics of the two Operating Systems. I'm comparing Vista against Restestrak XP as I believe this is really, the only true test worth running ...
Retestrak Boot Time: 1:08 secs (fully operational - HDD quiet)
Retestrak Shut Down Time: 0:21 secs (completely off)
Vista Ultimate Boot Time: 2:10 secs (fully operational - HDD quiet)
Vista Ultimate Shut Down Time: 0:08 secs (completely off)
After adjusting services.msc, I got the boot time down to 1:48 seconds. Please keep in mind that the boot time for Vista reflects a fresh install, while my Restestrak XP had about 40 programs installed. Over time, you may experience a longer boot-time with the more programs you add. Please see msconfig below for improvement.
Retestrak XP Program Benchmarks:
MS Word / Ms Office 2003 - 1 Second
Adobe Photoshop 7.0 - 4 Seconds
Adobe Photoshop CS3 - 7 Seconds
Vista Ultimate Benchmarks:
MS Word / Ms Office 2003 - 15 Seconds
Adobe Photoshop 7.0 - 12 Seconds
Adobe Photoshop CS3 - 16 Seconds
Services.msc ...
This is the first stop of places to visit once you're up and running. To activate the panel, click start and then type SERVICES.MSC in the start search box at the bottom, which is the equivalent of the Run Prompt and Search from XP and beyond. They've finally combined it.
When the box pops open you can then make the needed adjustments which will improve the ability of your system dramatically. I have listed the basic settings/ adjustments that I have chosen for each instance in the comments section below in the second comment. I have listed only some of what you will see within services. Some people recommend disabling everything and turning your computer back to the stone ages. These options cover a few glaring security issues, memory and CPU drains and processes that are just outright unnecessary for just about everyone. I've left Vista's functionality, firewall and visual effects alone as those can be manipulated elsewhere.
A quick search of the internet will put you in touch with a lot of advice about managing your services. I say to err on the side of caution and if want to turn a lot more of these things off, then turn them to the manual setting instead of disabled; that way they'll come on when needed. But be careful and read up, as you're trudging in murky waters adjusting any more of these things than I suggest in the post.
Msconfig ...
Going back to the Start menu and the search box, you will then type msconfig and hit enter. Once the System configuration box pops up, click on the start-up tab. If you look down the list of items, you'll see every program that automatically starts up when you power on. Note, these programs come on whether you need them or not and most of the time - you don't need any of them. The best thing to do is to uncheck anything that says:
iTunes, Apple, Adobe, Dell support, Ecenter, Google Desktop, Java, Nero, Quicktime, ... whatever. These programs will all come on when you decide you want them, instead of hanging around in the background hogging up memory for no apparent reason. Just Google anything that you're unsure of, and you'll get a quick answer.
Please be advised, that the advice I give in this review is information from tweaking Microsoft's Operating Systems for about the last decade. This review and information below is intended for the general user and not the die-hard gamer or C++ Programmer. Those folks will probably have an even tighter and faster running machine than my own. This review may take a lot of negative votes and may receive a lot of negative comments, but I would suggest that you take all of it with a grain of salt as the whole world typically wants to express themselves, and everyone's opinion differs, especially when it comes to Microsoft and computers in general.
And please, understand that you are using these suggestions at your own risk.
Conclusion ...
I would suggest anyone thinking of switching to Vista to make sure that you have at least two Gigabytes of Memory and a relatively new processor. Anything below 2 Gigabytes will give you sluggish performance no matter what. And don't be too hard on Microsoft about this OS being a memory hog, as most OS's from now on will probably be bigger, more bloated and require more memory to run. It's the wave of the future, accept it.
I've given Vista Ultimate 4 stars instead of 5 for the following reasons:
1.It's still slow doing tasks, opening certain programs and multitasking, even with 2 GB of RAM Memory.
2.The OS is bloated and should install with all the cool junk turned off. Microsoft should've already come up with an easy to use instrument panel which turns features on and off.
3.MS Live OneCare should've been built into the OS, instead of trying to nickel and dime the customer to death. At the amount of money they want, the absence of real protection, Virus and spyware control is incredibly questionable.
Other than that, it seems like a vast improvement over it's predecessor. If I could replace my Vista Home edition with Vista Ultimate, I would.
EDIT: One Week Later ...
After using the OS for about a week, I wanted to report on a few developments.
1. I did begin to experience the prompt screens that everyone talks about once I configured my internet.
2. After I did configure the internet, Microsoft Vista actually scanned my computer, knew which drivers I needed from my ATI Video Card, to the Motherboard and my Belkin Wireless adapter ... and then retireved them and installed them, with no effort on my part at all. very cool. About time you guys.
3. The Vista Dreamscape download is an extra but animates the desktop and is pretty cool.
4. I was able to fully customize my boot sequence and other operations to streamline the OS for booting and memory optimization with no problems.
5. Having never used Windows Media Center before, I gave it a chance and I'm really impressed by it and the Photo Gallery. I typically use iTunes and Picasa ... but who knows, in time I may migrate.
6. Vista put my old OS into a folder called windows.old, and from it I was able to extract or retrieve anything I needed after the installation which was a benefit. After I deleted it, I recovered about 10 gigs.
It seems that MS may have worked out the majority of the early OS kinks that accompanied the previous version. Not bad.
This OS is just as good as XP if not better.
 I'm not sure I see a compelling reason to upgrade March 26, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
I would like to start this review by encouraging you to run the Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor. I'm not going to paste a link because links change but you can find the tool very easily on the Microsoft website. That tool will tell you, up front, if Vista is going to give you problems. You would do yourself a great service by NOT skipping that step.
In my case the upgrade advisor told me that I'd lose several things and most of them didn't matter much to me. My Adobe Acrobat Professional 6.0 is now useless and I was warned that it would be. I was also warned that my video card was not fully supported and it isn't. It works but I can't change the resolution. When I ran the Advisor on my desktop it told me I'd lose Nero 6.0 and that was a deal-breaker (so I put it on my laptop).
My laptop has a 1.5 ghz single core processor, 1gig of RAM, and an 80gig hard drive. My install of Vista was done as an upgrade and it managed to do the upgrade without any intervention from me at all (that made me very happy, I started it and went to bed--it was done in the morning). The very first thing I noticed was that Vista has a very pretty interface and I immediately turned that off because that just slows the computer. The next thing I did was begin stress-testing. I opened up lots of programs and ran a virus scan and got some torrents running, etc. So far the only major thing broken is that my Nortel VPN client will no longer connect to the server at work (even after upgrading to the Vista-compatible client). The only minor glitch I encountered was that one of the folders that Azureus wanted was marked as 'read only' so I had to fix that. Aside from that everything worked fine (except Acrobat 6.0 but I was warned about that up-front).
The next thing I did was look for things that this OS has that XP doesn't have (that is the whole reason to do an upgrade right?) One thing that looked promising was the drive encryption but you need a special chip on your motherboard to use it and I don't have it. That was really the only thing that specifically interested me and I can't even use it. Vista does have some very nice improvements in security and that is great because it will help prevent people from getting viruses.
Overall I would say that Vista has the "feel" of a Windows XP service pack. I don't think it has slowed down my computer at all and if anything I think it works a little faster under stress. It WILL break some old legacy soft/hardware and that is why you really need to go to Microsoft's website and run Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor. If you get a clean bill of health from the advisor I don't see any reason why you shouldn't upgrade though I'm also not sure why you should.
Good OS but you better have the right requirements March 26, 2008
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
Windows Vista has gotten a lot of flack and negativity and I will be one of the minority? to disagree. Microsoft spend many years developing this operating system and I feel that they succeeded with improving the flagship OS of PCs overall. The biggest difference with Vista vs XP and earlier OSs is the overall look and feel. Mac OS X had beautified the OS experience for many years and Microsoft had to change things up to compete in the market. With their new 'Aero' look letting you tile windows in 3D and integrating a sidebar with the OS, this is the prettiest Windows you have ever used. A new black system bar replaces the XP blue look and I think it's much easier on the eyes.
With all the improvements spoken of here, my favorites are without a doubt the new Instant Search that lets you easily search for files from any Explorer window (very hard to go back to XP without this) and the way pictures are managed in Vista. I have XP and Vista systems at home but whenever I want to scan through photos I always go to the Vista machine for speed and performance benefits.
Along with these improvements you also get Internet Explorer 7, Windows Media Center, Enhanced Backup and Restore. For computer newbies it's a pleasant experience, for veterans it might take some time to get used to the newest flavor of Windows but it shouldn't take that long.
Negatives that jump out to me are the massive system requirements that are needed. If you install this on a system with anything less than 2 GIG of RAM you are asking for trouble but with the reqs of systems purchased today that shouldn't be much of an issue. The same issues go for graphics cards. If you don't have a decent one you can't use many of the Aero effects that are part of Vista.
Ultimate Edition has all the goodies of the other versions of Vista along with Business Networking, Remote Desktop, and Bitlocker to better protect data. This edition is recommended for power users that want the FULL version of Vista with nothing missing.
All in all a great effort by Microsoft that will only improve over time with the myriad of service packs which are released.
**** RECOMMENDED
Windows Vista March 26, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Unlike other reviewers whom I have a great deal of respect for my install went well. I preformed a fresh install. The machine I use is strictly for testing, I did not install this on a PC that I use daily. I installed it on a laptop that's 1.67 ghz processor over clocked to 2 ghz it has 512 shared ram (Microsoft recomends 1 gig)other then that the laptop met all of the other suggested minimum requirements. It has the Intel 945 chipset that comes with integrated graphics Intel accelerator 950 video card.
Vista didn't recognize an old Laserjet 4 plus network printer but neither did did XP. It is a network printer so I set it up using IP printing. My Open office ( a free office suite of applications that rivals MS Office) applications work well with Vista. Vista recognized my Canon camera. It didn't recognize an old Omni scanner that I have and there are no drivers for it on the but which is ok because I have a Mac that I do all my photo and scanning work on.
In general Vista is slower then XP on the same machine. The search functions take longer partially because it's doing a more complicated search. The login takes a little longer because it takes longer to load the user profile.
A breakdown of new and improved features.
The Windows software firewall works well but still is not a replacement for a hardware firewall. Vista's mobile computing is better then XP. The spyware is also getting better but I would still recommend lavasoft over the Vista defender spyware. The parental controls haven't changed much since XP. I haven't tried Sync center because I don't have any devices that support it and the limit is 10 computers. Windows Meeting space worked ok but Vista has to be installed on any computer joining the meeting. Windows meeting spaces replaces net meeting. Windows photo gallery is ok but seems to have lost some functionality over Windows photo manager. Windows has a thing called Gadgets. Mac users will recognize this it's very similar to Mac Widgets. It enables you to have applets on your desktop that will tell you the weather, sports tickers, calendars. Windows comes with a few gadgets and there are many more available on line. The Windows media center is nice. It does a good job of visualizing photo's, videos both stored locally and over a network. Windows aero is interesting to play with but fairly useless, basically what it does is give the title bar some transparency so that you can see what's below it.
This is a nice operating system but I don't know that it's worth spending the money to upgrade from Windows XP. If your upgrading from Windows 2000 then it's worth it. The price is also a bit steep at 300 dollars.
 Defective bloatware. March 26, 2008
2 out of 7 found this review helpful
This product would be great if you bought a new computer or very recently purchased computer already had Vista home basic installed. But as far as upgrading a computer from Windows XP, I would stick with XP.
The installation runs somewhat smoothly, the Vista upgrade advisor said all was well and I proceeded.
I really didn't have any problems with installing the operating system, I had problems when it came time to run the program. Despite my laptop saying Built for XP and the update advisor saying that the update would be ok, I found the computer ran painfully slow. Boot time was almost doubled and the time it took to load simple programs also greatly increased.
Windows XP had a lot of changes under the hood from previous versions of Windows NT, with minor cosmetic changes that added to the experience. Vista seems to make many changes under the hood with cosmetic changes that detract from the experience. Many features have been moved and are more difficult to find. The constant nag screen asking permission for actions gets old rather quickly.
I do like the Windows sidebar with gadgets and improved search are great ideas I'd love to see included in newer versions of Windows. These features are already refined and have been available in OS for some time now.
Overall, I think Windows VIsta shows some promise. Some. XP had some bugs when it was first unveiled. Those were minor in comparison to Vista, even after the first service pack.
The graphics are nice, though they slow your system down, gadgets and instant search are great. I would wait for a service pack 2 before I even think of buying this to upgrade your system.
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