Vista resurrected
Posted on Monday 20th July 2009
Some of you will remember that I have long been having issues with my laptop, and in particular, the gremlin-riddled operating system.
I’d been tolerating a number of flaws with the computer and come to learn to live with it’s idiosyncrasies. The slow boot up time, hardware conflicts, buggy drivers and generally lethargic performance had become typical behaviour so, of course, I forgot to back the system up.
Then, over the weekend, the ailing behemoth finally gave up the ghost and refused to load Windows. Very annoying as suddenly had no access to my files and settings. This could have been a major headache, but long ago I learnt not to keep anything important on the laptop, so there was little of any great importance lost.
Cue 12 hours hard slog getting the system going again. In a manner of speaking it has come as a blessing in disguise. Previously I hadn’t been able to update with Service Packs 1 or 2 as these caused software conflicts and crashed the machine. So the first order of business was to update a vanilla install to the latest fixes and improvements. Then I added the IBM-specific software suites that add functionality and make the difference between a ThinkPad and most other laptops.
And so far so good. The laptop seems to be running quicker than before and it is now fully patched against vulnerabilities. But this might not last that long. The next incarnation of Windows will be released in October, and I can’t wait to upgrade. Vista has many fine attributes, but most of them are cosmetic rather than technical. It is far inferior to XP in many ways, but that should be set to change with Windows 7.
Given a fresh reinstall seems to have breathed a new lease of life into this laptop, I’m optimistic that a new operating system will turn the horse into a cheetah.
Yes, Windows 7 can’t come soon enough to replace horrid useless Vista; at least Microsoft seems to be getting something right with Windows 7.
Fresh install is always recommended. When Service Pack comes out get the installation DVD with SP slipstreamed. So you eliminate possible headaches like not being able to apply the latest SP due to weird incompatibilities, and the system will run faster for sure…
As for Vista itself: it became better than XP when SP1 was released. I run 64 bit edition on C2D system with 8 GB of fast DDR2 and I have to say that this is the best M$ system (Windows 6) to date. Windows 7 should be in fact labeled as Windows 6.1 as it is very similar to Vista. Just as was XP (Windows 5.1) a minor upgrade to 2000 (Windows 5.0).