Windows Vista (And what I hate about)

[Mutou Yami]

I don't know what's worse. My Windows XP: Pro computer, or my Windows Vista: Home Basic SP2. My PC keeps loading up pop-ups with Firefox, and IE runs in the background (I can hear it when it loads, and stupid voices are heard through my music), Windows Vista, is slow, ands freezes/hangs a lot of stuff.

My laptop:
Windows Vista: Home Basic SP2
About 3 maybe 4 months old
Problems: Slowness, crashes/hangs a lot of things.
No death screens yet
Crashes: WMP11, Firefox, My files, Windows Explorer (desktop/tool bar), fails to update Microsoft Office.

I don't know why Microsoft puts Windows Media Player on Vista, when it's not fully compatible, with it. My last Vista laptop was Home Premium, that was missing that old MPEG-1 Codec (this one has it, bizarre isn't it?), but when I tried to download WMP11 to replace/fix the damaged files it wouldn't because there is no WMP 11 version for Windows Vista. I don't know what the hell is with Vista, it has a habit of making Firefox hang to a point it has to be closed by the Problem Reports and Solutions programe. IE 8 runs slow (on all systems, even my parents' PC), it makes my files crash (Not Responding), for like a few seconds maybe minutes before the Problem Reports and Solutions has to close it down. I can't downgrade to Windows XP, because everything will be lost. I got, s**t load of songs, a few movies, my files all my stuff in it, my pictures, stories (that I make), sprites, my games, links. There's too much stuff to be lost because Windows Vista sucks, and I'm not downloading/buying Windows 7, I wouldn't touch that with a 10ft pole. There's been many reports about black screens of death. I'll try and find a news article about it, on Google News. What do you guys think Microsoft should do? I say they should stop bring out more Windows Systems, to mask over the other problems their other systems have, because they won't do a damn thing about it, so they'll make Vista, which has a few bugs - making things hang/crash, "failing" updates, (It's ALWAYS Error 646, with Office updates, and I've done all that like Gary's said, and it still does not work), making Vista a bit more faster, but instead they build other systems that mask over Vista's problems which becomes Windows 7 until they get black screens of death, which are no doubt the same ones I get when my computer runs Guild Wars. If others got problems with Vista, feel free to post, I only made this topic to seek some help, to what's with my Vista maybe a bit of help with my computer without anything about "downloading" Windows 7 (I don't want Windows 7, I get enough problems with Vista, and downgrading to XP without any risk of losing what's left of my stuff), and to find out why it keeps loading pop-ups.

[Adrian Malacoda]

If you hate Windows so much, stop using it.

[Mutou Yami]

Easier said than done. I can't find any Mac/Lunx systems in England, all we got it Windows.

[Adrian Malacoda]

Easier said than done. I can't find any Mac/Lunx systems in England, all we got it Windows.

You don't need to buy a new computer, you just install the OS on your existing one. Unlike Mac, which is an OS and a computer, Linux and other Unix-like OSs are just software. You can install one on the machine you're using now, without harming your Windows install, using Wubi. Try it - it's 100% free, and if you don't like it you can uninstall it and keep Windows.

FYI, Guild Wars runs perfectly under Wine, the Windows compatibility layer for Linux.

[Party Poison]

You don't need to buy a new computer, you just install the OS on your existing one. Unlike Mac, which is an OS and a computer, Linux and other Unix-like OSs are just software. You can install one on the machine you're using now, without harming your Windows install, using Wubi. Try it - it's 100% free, and if you don't like it you can uninstall it and keep Windows.

Wow, I should give that a look- I've always wanted to try Linux. How long does it take to install and switch from Windows to Linux?

Never mind; site answered my questions. I'm probably going to do this over Christmas Break, or maybe even today if I find a couple of spare hours.

[Mutou Yami]

I can't trust my laptop - it runs slow, and my computer is just useless. If nothing gets lost, I'll use my PC as the test subject. X3

[Tombstoner]

I'm trying this. I'll download it after some studying.

[Mutou Yami]

Would anything be lost during the change?

[Adrian Malacoda]

No, since Wubi installs it in a virtual disk residing within Windows. Nothing in Windows is harmed.

[Mutou Yami]

Oh good, since my Windows XP tends to suffer a black screen of death, when my PC is still on, but nothing loads whenever I play Guild Wars

[Party Poison]

Wow, the install is waaaaaaaaaaaay long. (9 hours by the programs estimation!)

Any way I can shorten the install?

[Tombstoner]

Wow, the install is waaaaaaaaaaaay long. (9 hours by the programs estimation!)

Any way I can shorten the install?

Grab a coffee it says *shot*. Maybe just close all the other programs when you get off for the night.

[Party Poison]

Wow, the install is waaaaaaaaaaaay long. (9 hours by the programs estimation!)

Any way I can shorten the install?

Grab a coffee it says *shot*. Maybe just close all the other programs when you get off for the night.

Good idea.

I loled at 'Grab a coffee, and it will be done'. I'm already a bit dissapointed with Linux; empty promises don't sit well with me.

[Adrian Malacoda]

Wow, the install is waaaaaaaaaaaay long. (9 hours by the programs estimation!)

Any way I can shorten the install?

Grab a coffee it says *shot*. Maybe just close all the other programs when you get off for the night.

Good idea.

I loled at 'Grab a coffee, and it will be done'. I'm already a bit dissapointed with Linux; empty promises don't sit well with me.

It's downloading 2+ gigabytes from the internet. The speed at which it takes you to install it depends on the connection.

Generally, though, I've found that Ubuntu installs off of a CD much quicker than Windows.

[Party Poison]

Damn it, I let it install while I was at school, but the installation failed (message about 'access being denied'). Wonder what went wrong (there are not multiple Windows accounts on my computer, so by default I am an administrator)?