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Contemplating an XP vs Vista question


cyberformer

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I was a dedicated 9x user well past the date when it became a chore to use it; had XP even then, liked it--but ignored that PC for the 9x ones.  XP so far, is what I've been using these days, and using it really poses no problems.  The question I've pondered lately is, after acquiring a used Vista PC (which is certainly not slow, and looks great) ---does Vista offer any real advantage over XP in 2019,  considering that both have been abandoned so to say by MS. 

 

Edited by cyberformer
unneeded word
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Unfortunately, as great as Vista is, it's been lost in the middle ground between XP and 7.

DWM will put an end to the window tearing/artifacing that happens sometimes in XP. If you need to run DX10/11 games (older ones for the latter), Vista is good for that, but performance is reduced in DX9 applications.

Video drivers were moved from kernel to user-mode, which allows the OS to recover from driver crashes, but in practice drivers for XP are very stable.

Built-in MTP support, which will allow you to transfer files from newer smartphones and cameras. 2000/XP can have that through WMP10 but it doesn't work well with anything recent.

SP1 and above can boot off GPT partitions (but not with pure UEFI; must use UEFI-CSM).

Unfortunately I can't think of other useful Vista components that cannot be added to 2000/XP through third-party software and hacks.

Edited by win32
My command of the English language had slipped considerably this afternoon.
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6 hours ago, cyberformer said:

... does Vista offer any real advantage over XP in 2019,  considering that both have been abandoned so to say by MS. 

Aside from what @win32 mentioned, Vista can still get updates. Not directly, but Server 2008 updates can be installed on Vista, and they'll keep coming for at least a while longer.

But software support is about the same. Pretty much everyone who's dropped XP support has dropped Vista support too :(

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Windows Vista is literally the in between of Windows XP and 7; there are more modern features at the cost of less native backwards compatibility and higher system requirements.

A couple examples are...
-DirectX: Windows XP only supports 9 (unofficially a buggy 10), Vista officially supports 11. If your system needs newer things, use Vista over XP.
-Web browsers: Windows Vista has a tendency to work with unsupported web browsers meant with 7 a bit more than XP. Although not much in practice. Qutebrowser is a notable example of working on Windows Vista 64-bit but not XP (forget which version, latest version doesn't seem to work...but I didn't install all Vista updates)

There are a couple more conveniences Vista has that XP doesn't:
-Built-in screen brightness adjuster
-Sound mixer for individual programs

Another random example of Vista working w/ Win 7 or later stuff that XP cannot do:
-Resident Evil Remake works on Vista
-Newer versions of Netframework work fine on Vista with some modifications

Would I choose Vista over XP? Only if Windows XP is not stable with system drivers. Windows Vista has a tendency to more or less work with newer drivers than XP because its kernel is more similar to modern windows. I would advise Vista, if your system isn't super low-end.

Edited by ~♥Aiko♥Chan♥~
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Vista is the SO most similar to Windows 7 without all the telemetry mess related to W7,W8, W10.

But if it's not a problem why don't use Windows 7? Another aspect that can be considered is that a lot of smartphone hardware can take advantage of a much wider driver base on W7 platform via WU.

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On 8/2/2019 at 1:41 AM, ~♥Aiko♥Chan♥~ said:

Windows Vista is literally the in between of Windows XP and 7; there are more modern features at the cost of less native backwards compatibility and higher system requirements.

A couple examples are...
-DirectX: Windows XP only supports 9 (unofficially a buggy 10), Vista officially supports 11. If your system needs newer things, use Vista over XP.
-Web browsers: Windows Vista has a tendency to work with unsupported web browsers meant with 7 a bit more than XP. Although not much in practice. Qutebrowser is a notable example of working on Windows Vista 64-bit but not XP (forget which version, latest version doesn't seem to work...but I didn't install all Vista updates)

There are a couple more conveniences Vista has that XP doesn't:
-Built-in screen brightness adjuster
-Sound mixer for individual programs

Another random example of Vista working w/ Win 7 or later stuff that XP cannot do:
-Resident Evil Remake works on Vista
-Newer versions of Netframework work fine on Vista with some modifications

Would I choose Vista over XP? Only if Windows XP is not stable with system drivers. Windows Vista has a tendency to more or less work with newer drivers than XP because its kernel is more similar to modern windows. I would advise Vista, if your system isn't super low-end.

Actually, the Resident Evil remake does work on xp, not the official steam version, but some cracked versions do. (example: fitgirl repack) You could also play the gamecube or wii version.

Edited by Duck42069
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