Should You upgrade to Vista?

Posted by admin

July 4, 2007

Musicians with home studios should carefully consider upgrading or not. Sometimes the old addage “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” applies. If you upgrade, plan on adding more memory, and other unforeseen expenses to keep your DAW in top running condition. Vista utilises different driver models and your hardware may not work. Take the Prsonus Inspire 1394, They have yet to release drivers for Vista 64 bit (you are running 64 bit are you not?)

If you use your DAW for editing and processing audio and video, then 64 Bit is the way to go. Unfortunately, it is not very well supported, and drivers for many devices are not available yet.

Microsoft Vista has some great enhancements and features. After all, it’s been a project in the making for several years. Of course with any new operating system release from Microsoft, there is always a warming period, or a certain amount of time that need to pass to allow the operating system to mature, and to get the bugs out so to speak. At that point, there are a number of patches and security fixes that are released in a service pack. Essentially a collection of these patches and fixes, all rolled up into one big download.

Usually, this warming period takes about a 6 months to a year, however with so many early adopters of the newest flagship software from Microsoft, that timeframe is quickly shortened.

Nowadays,. We can expect 3 – 6 months for the major bugs to be released. Patches are released almost every week by Microsoft. These are based on their risk severity, the potential for damage to your operating system, and security risks to your information or your personal data. Tell us something we don’t know. All of us are – or should be used to these patches. Way back from Windows 95, we’ve been downloading patches upon patches. Eventually our original files and operating system are just that – a collection of fixes and patches. Some say that Windows 98 to Windows 98 SE and even to Windows Millennium is just a patched Windows 95. The core of the operating system has not changed, the look and feel neither. Just more features and add-ons.

Vista on the other hand has been touted as a major change to the Windows Operating system. For fear of getting too technical, I’ll stay away from the geek-speak details. The point, with new software, you need new hardware. You did purchase a new computer for Vista didn’t you?

If you upgrade to Vista from your existing Windows version, you will almost certainly notice a decrease in performance. Before you upgrade, you should check the Vista Upgrade Advisor. The upgrade advisor is a free tool that will analyze your current computer and advise on what version of Vista your computer will support.

Vista has the Windows Experience Index which details which version of Vista is best suited to your pc. The lowest score will be a Windows Experience Index of 1. This is definitely not worth the upgrade. You should consider more memory and a better video card to say the least.

In the event you have purchased a pc with Vista included, and the rating is 1, you should look at tweaking Vista to improve its performance. Stay tuned, I’ll have that article ready soon!

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