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64 bit Vista and PzC
06-23-2008, 05:09 AM, (This post was last modified: 06-23-2008, 05:11 AM by Glenn Saunders.)
#11
RE: 64 bit Vista and PzC
Foul. Wrote:It seems to me the only people who get Vista are the ones who don't know what they are letting themselves in for. :chin:

Well that is a little strong and a bit taited too:)

But Seriously - I bought my first Laptop with Vista just before the last Tillercon and have since added two more to the house as my kids are of university age.

I waited for Vista not because I had high expectations or anything - nor did I have the need to be on the bleeding edge. It is just I figured when it comes to development, this is where Microsoft will be putting their effort - not XP.

I recall when XP came out I had no real use for it - Windows 98 was fine as far as I was concerned. In fact I thought Windows 3.1 was perfectly fine and a huge step up from DOS. But I figured people would be buying PCs with Vista and thought being able to view issues in Vista might be helpful. Truth is however, I haven seen a single BTL file that did one thing in XP and something else completely different in Vista.

Now it hasn't all been somooth sailing - I initially had a frustating time with the game engine crashing usually when saving or ending the game turn. But when John finally fixed that - AFTER the Tillercon I might add - I haven't had any game related issues. Blackie just got his first Vista box so we've updated the Map editors now so they work OK in Vista - but any Map work I've done in the last year was on my Desktop system running XP.

Now I am not a huge VISTA lover - oh there are things I do like but plenty I don't.

- I find it harder to keep files in sync on several PCs.
- If I UNZIP a file over the network, the unzipped files take on a new date\time stamp
- The file manager has a way of "bouncing around" making it at time tricky to use and find where you want to be in the tree. I thought at first I would get used to it but I still haven't.
- Finally, related to the file manager, it is easy to accidentially drag a folder to a new location and then it is lost.

On the PLUS Side - I confess I like the damn Gadget bar. I have a battery indicator promptlly visable with % and TIME remaining. My Wife and I plan to visit the Battlefields of Crete next May on the anniversary of the German invasion and so I have the TIME and teh Temperation at Iraklion - both are vital because of the nine hour timezone difference. And I have a nifty countdown clock that tells me exactly how long before I PLAN to retire in Days, Hours, Minutes and seconds (but who is counting).

I understand (although I haven't tested this) that Vistas Laptop Power management is first class. My last two PCs are DELL XPS 1330 and on a nine cell battery I get SIX HOURS on Battery life and that is with the screen fairly bright. Now part of this Battery life thing is the LED screen vs the normal LCD. But I love not having to plug in everytime I move around the house.

Outside of that - to me at least Vista is just the current ver of Windows that MS is putting virtually all or most of their devolpment into. In my day job I work with PCs and often other peoples PCs so I don't get to choose which flavour of Windows I use. So honestly I just work on the PC and only need to know what the OS is when I have to go look at something in the PROFILE and XP had \Documents and Settings and VISTA uses \Users.

So I honestly don't understand all the Vista bashing that goes on - maybe I am just lucky but all the VISTA PCs I own or work on with my day job seem to work fine.

Glenn
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06-23-2008, 01:57 PM,
#12
RE: 64 bit Vista and PzC
.... as if to underline what I said about the Vista file manager, I found a complete copy of FG85 inside Campagin Gettysburg tonight - no idea how it got there but these things happen to me in Vista and sometimes when they do I "think" I moved something but I have no idea what or even where to look.

Glenn
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06-23-2008, 08:46 PM,
#13
RE: 64 bit Vista and PzC
I don't understand all the Vista bashing either. I've not had a single problem running any program on Vista since I bought my new computer 16 months ago with it loaded on it. I turned the security features off the first day and let Norton handle it and everything has been smooth sailing.
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06-25-2008, 04:59 PM,
#14
RE: 64 bit Vista and PzC
Thanks again for all the useful comments.

Well I have made the fateful ( some might say fatal Eek) decision.

I went for 32 bit Vista.

If I hadn't been getting a new computer I would have stayed with XP. But as I needed a new computer I figured I might as well get the latest OS. Also although you clearly do not need Vista to play PzC I like to play other wargames as well,some of which require high end video cards to fully appreciate the graphics e.g the Silent Hunter series. Future games of this type will likely make use of DirectX10 and above which, as I understand it, is supported by Vista but not XP.

I went for 32 bit because it appears to have fewer driver compatibilty issues than 64 bit. Will probably upgrade to 64 bit at some time in the future.

Notwithstanding all of the above I will keep my old XP computer for a while as insurance. Braces come in handy if your belt doesn't work Big Grin

Everybody's situation is different of course, and I'm sure that for many it makes good sense to stay with XP
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