Should I go back to XP?

[AliSmith]

I bought a new laptop from Dell a couple of weeks ago, an XPS 1530, which I asked them to supply with XP on it, but they wouldn't, I had to have Vista. So I thought, oh well, better move forward I guess!

So I have started to use Vista, and I must say the experience has been really painful. I'm a software engineer, so not at all uncomfortable with new software, but I have come to hate Vista. Everything I try to do seems to take longer than before, but the worst thing is that it hangs on me all the time, even when I start it up in the morning. Sometimes the desktop doesn't show the blue plain background I've configured, and just shows black. Then very often Explorer hangs, and I have to close it and restart. I have a lot of programs running in the background, but this was never a problem with XP.

Looking at my current system tray, I am running Outlook 2007, Carbonite online backup, Roboform password manager, Zonealarm security suite, Skype, Download Accelerator, Winzip, DynDNS, TomTom Home, and Google Desktop.

After another frustrating weekend, I had decided to reformat the disk this morning and go back to XP SP2, but I saw this forum, so I thought I would just see if you guys can convince me to stick with Vista. I spent two weeks getting my machine up to the level of installation I need for my development work, and I don't relish the thought of doing it all again for XP!

How can I tell what is causing Explorer to hang, for starters?

 

[CreepinJesus]

Firstly, why is Winzip running in the tray? No need for it there. Don't know what a download accelerator is, but you probably don't need that either.

As for explorer hanging, it might actually be Winzip. I'm assuming it adds some shell extensions? Could be that. If it is, i recommend trying WinRAR.

Also, go through your installed programs and get rid of all the crapware that Dell put on, if you haven't already. My setup was from a clean install and it's performing brilliantly.

And one little note - the textbox in the Start menu... you don't have to click in it first to type (I see lots of people doing it all the time...)

 

[acdcfan]

As far as I managed to find out there are some incompatibilities with Zone Alarm and Vista.
What I would suggest do the fresh install using Vista and removing all the crapware manufacturers put on their machines, and see how you'll go.
I am Using Vista x64 and don't have any problems with it but I am not software engineer. Do Skype, password manager, download accelerator, winzip, need to start with Windows and what is their memory foot print?

 

[gazz496]

the memory footprint for those apps is minimal and the dowload accelerator is a usefull tool for download managment, but like everyone is saying remove some of the apps that ship with the laptop and look for compatability issues for zonealarm on the net, there are a few which is why i removed it and stuck with the vista firewall's, on that note did you disable those when running zone alarm you may be getting some conflicts from that. in all the years i've used laptops i always had problems with hanging but keeping minimal apps running other than what you need can help in this.

vista is a good OS almost all of the niggles are gone now and is worth keeping as apps are going to be less compatable with xp in the months and years to come which you probably know already as a developer.

hope i helped

 

[locoeng]

Here is a good tut for speeding up Vista, not really your question, but could have some relevance none the less. Have a look through and, as suggested, get rid of some things that are starting up on boot.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/81176-speed-up-performance-vista.html?filter[11]=Performance%20Maintenance

 

[gazz496]

nice pic

 

[AliSmith]

Thanks for the suggestions. Here's what I'm going to do. I shall remove apps one by one, and try to find out what's causing the problems. As far as I know, Zone Alarm V8 (which I am using) is compatible with Vista, but maybe there are other non-compatible things there.

I have 4Gb memory, so that shouldn't be an issue.

It's true that I would prefer to stick with Vista if I can get it to work, as my customers are going to be more and more running under Vista.

I'll post a note to let you know if I find out anything...

 

[AliSmith]

The system certainly seems to be working a bit better now. I disabled practically everything that was in the startup list in Windows Defender, then added things in bit by bit. It seems as if the Google Toolbar Notifier and the Google Desktop may have been causing problems, as well as my Blackberry Redirection Notifier and the Bluetooth Tray application. Or one of them anyway. Or some combination.

Anyway I can live happily without any of those, so I'm happier for the moment.

Thanks for the help.

 

[locoeng]

Glad it seems to be running a bit more smoothly for ya...I tend to stay far away from toolbars, no matter how trusted the source is.

 

[gazz496]

glad we could help out

 

[acdcfan]

Thanks for the suggestions. Here's what I'm going to do. I shall remove apps one by one, and try to find out what's causing the problems. As far as I know, Zone Alarm V8 (which I am using) is compatible with Vista, but maybe there are other non-compatible things there.

Just have a look here about zone alarm and you'll see what I mean

Thread Title Search - Whirlpool Broadband Forums

The system certainly seems to be working a bit better now. I disabled practically everything that was in the startup list in Windows Defender, then added things in bit by bit. It seems as if the Google Toolbar Notifier and the Google Desktop may have been causing problems, as well as my Blackberry Redirection Notifier and the Bluetooth Tray application. Or one of them anyway. Or some combination.

But I am glad it is working better now

 

[roy69]

The problem with alot of companies is they try to add software to the laptop. I had a customer with a HP that was having alot of problems. It turned out to be HP support software that was crashing the machine. After this helpful piece of softwae was deleted the machine was working fine.

You should be able to tailor the machine how you see fit being a software engineer.