Will SL Work on Windows Vista?

While I was dilly-dallying around about buying a new computer (Dell - we get a discount), Windows Vista came out and took over everything.

Will SL work on it?

coco

Do a search for "Vista" on the Forums and you'll get a list of all the threads that have discussed this issue.

Short answer is: Yes... BUT you may have trouble with getting Vista-ready drivers for a particular graphics card.

Although there is nothing inherently incompatible between Vista and SL, you may not be able to run SL without the appropriate drivers and many drivers have not been updated. Older cards may never get Vista versions. So you need to ask whether anyone is running the specific graphics card for that computer system on Vista.

Do you have your new computer already? If not, you may be able to choose which operating system it comes with.

Hi Coco, seems to be a difference of opinion as to whether SL will run faster or slower on Vista but ultimately SL must at least run on it.
Pretty sure one of the recent threads announced new Catalyst drivers for ATI. Can't remember if your Dell spec had nVidia?
It surely should be just a matter of time before any manufacturers of new cards get their Vista act together .. hopefully a very short time!

Personally, I'm in the market for a new computer in about 2 months. I will be doing everything humanly possible to avouid putting Vista on it. Even ignoring any potential grapghics card driver issues, it's a memory hog like nothing else released yet. I'd rather wait until high end hardware drops in price a little more.

Really, wtf was MS thinking? A good operating system is one that you don't notice is there. From the reviews I've read, the interface is very much in your face.

Quite so. For years now Microdosh have been bringing out software to bring the lastest raft of hardware to its knees

Chances are very high that any new computer with pre-installed software is going to have Vista. Few computer makers have the luxury of ignoring Microsoft.

If you really, really don't want Vista, then you have two choices:

1) Overwrite the Vista install with Windows XP

2) Buy a system w/o an operating system and install Windows XP

Pain in the *ss but entirely doable, unless you have some quirk of your configuration. Like I did.

WinXP install disk does not recognize RAID hard drives if they're being used as the boot disk. I had to find RAID drivers online, then figure out how to load them during the install process rather than after. Next time, I'm using a regular drive for my OS and the RAID configuration for data.

Not sure about the final release version of Vista, I still have the RC1 (last beta) running and SL does work with it. Hopefully the release version is optimised better as I found my framerate dropped significantly and SL crashed much more frequently.
In a years time once MS have released a ton of bugfixes and security patches I am sure it will be fine, but for now I am sticking to XP for everyday tasks.

Yes. Its working fine for me. It all depends on your video card driver. It seems that ATI users are having problems getting SL to work. nVidia users (like me ) are doing fine.

Yes, it will be nVidia , bilbo! I know to be sure and get that.

Torsten, that's why I was going to buy the computer before Vista came out! (Took a family trip to NYC instead, so had to put it off a bit.)

No, I haven't ordered the computer yet. If SL works okay on Vista, then I imagine I should go ahead and get Vista, rather than demanding they put XP on it instead, right? (If they even would.)

coco

Vista? What a piece of CRAP. Order the 64-bit DVD from Microsoft for an additional 10 bucks. Try to install it. Find out that Vista doesn't like RAID. Download drivers for RAID 0 Striped drives. Find out that Vista doesn't like RAID. Download updated drivers for RAID and find out the VISTA wants to download drivers for SLI Graphics Card. Download driver for SLI Graphics... Keep going and three days later it's STILL not installed.

Can anyone say WARP 2.0? Sheesh.

Kam

doesn't really matter if it's Vista, XP, or even Linux. If it's 64-bit, chances are you'll have problems finding working drivers.

Inasmuch that M$ withdraw support for their OS' in chronological order, eg Win98 no longer supported though we still use it at college, Vista will be more future-proofed than XP.

Gotta balance which is more important right now, a debatable speed decrease or a longer support time

3) Buy a Mac.

[giggle]

no sign of rain here!!

My current computer vendor of choice is selling custom spec PCs with XP and a voucher for Vista. I think that covers teh best of both worlds, windows-wise.

I am of course examining other options, but OS-wise, is there any reason not to see that as the best choice?

Just for reference, here is a website that modifies video drivers. They offer some for vista as well. I know some people may not trust 3rd party modded drivers, but they do work. My spyware-blocker and anti-virus found no problems running them. I recently installed their latest nvidia mod cuz my video card was having trouble with the latest forceware drivers. Totally fixed it.

www.NGOHQ.com


I should add that i agree a OS should not be huge and in your face. When i used to be in high school our computers in the school used to be all MACs. This was before they changed the name of the system to MAC OS. This was system 7.5.5. This is where i learned to use a computer. Wonderful system it was. It wasn't in my face in any way. I kinda saw this OS as a mini tool to open up other programs. It's sad to know vista isn't gona be as friendly.

ROFLOL!

Well two computers installed Vista 5 days back
Found all its hardware didnt hicup went to Nvidia got their forceware drivers all witin 2 hours. Both computers run as sweet as a bird, a lot better than xp used to
Yes it is in your face a little but it is a lot quicker than XP with service pack 2 and the trillion security updates.
And with two different nvidia cards we run SL as sweet as a bird.

So you pays your money and takes your choice.
Yes if you want pretty graphics get a mac.
But if you want pretty graphics and a workable computer that doesnt wait forever for mac version software get a PC.

Wouldn't it have been a better idea to wait until they had done so before bringing the operating system out?

Buy a normal box.

Put Linux on it.

Make it behave like a Mac

[insane laughter filters down from the attic]

Why are you paying him for something (although indirectly) you dont want?

Sell him the voucher back.

From everything that I've heard, Vista is a tied down OS. If you use Vista, you are giving up freedom on your computer. Boycott DRM. Boycott Vista.

No, I'm not a mac hypocrite either, I use Linux.

It doesn't work on XP, why should Vista be any different?

Second Life is the only thing that runs on the Vista box I got last week. (Well, it runs after taking out the video card I wanted and using the little on-board integrated graphics.) Every other program I have tried to install either will not install or will not run. Vista is junk.