I just got a new PC sent to my house.. I used Vista for the last year on my last PC and ran into enough issues to make me crazy. I wanna go back to XP on my next machine, but will it be fully supported for all my gaming needs? Have people moved on from PC enough?

Stick with Vista damnit

You may miss some XP features, but guess what, you'll miss more Vista features than you can think to remember

And of course games will support XP for at least the next 6 years....Over 200 million businesses use XP, therefore software will almost always be comp.

XP has still plenty of support for games, i actually believe that they will run a lot smoother since most Vista-running PC's are equipped to run XP at blazing speeds...so I would go for the OS downgrade

I still don't get why so many people are claiming to have so many problems with Vista. I've had far less problems with Vista than I did with XP.

"I still don't get why so many people are claiming to have so many problems with Vista. I've had far less problems with Vista than I did with XP."

Windows XP should still be supported by games for a while, but you won't get native DirectX 10 support so don't expect to get the best experience.

I've been using Vista for over a year and a half and have had minimal problems. I'd have a hard time going back to XP at this point. Unless your problems with Vista are fundamental issues, I'd recommend running it on your new PC for a while to see if these problems persist before downgrading.

Here's one example... I play FFXI.. you can tweak the graphics beyond their capabilities with some registry fixes in XP.. not in Vista..

ya know.. stuff like that.

I have vista at home, it was crap at first but now w/ the service pack it's a wee bit better

XP is fully support except by alot of windows live games and most of those games have hacks and patches that make them XP supportable, Microsoft extended the support period for XP by another 6 months and all the news points to one simple fact

Microsoft will literally skip the Vista gen as much as possible and release Windows 7 as soon as possible, So i wouldn't worry about using XP.
P.S: I love vista i've had no problems whatsoever with it i cant understand how people have such problems with it when i dont.

I got vista at launch and ran dual boot for a while due to some compatibility problems with older games (RA2 and FS2004). After SP1, I moved to Vista only and the only problems I've had (at no fault to Vista) are SecuROM crashing Windows Explorer and preventing it from starting on boot.

The real problem is having a PC.

"The real problem is having a PC.
"

"Here's one example... I play FFXI.. you can tweak the graphics beyond their capabilities with some registry fixes in XP.. not in Vista..

ya know.. stuff like that."

1. Have never even used it (or haven't used it for more than ten minutes)
2. Are idiots (fact! I've noticed the people who have the most problems with it are the stupidest people I've ever met.)

"kamolahy said:

"Here's one example... I play FFXI.. you can tweak the graphics beyond their capabilities with some registry fixes in XP.. not in Vista..

ya know.. stuff like that."

You can do that in Vista. I know, I have Vista and FFXI. Don't spread bullshit."

even microsoft admits vista was a giant mistake.  It's not the worst OS ever, (Windows ME) but it's an epic phail

I've mainly being using windows XP but recently I've started using vista and have had no problems yet, some of my games are even running significatly better. I split my HDD into two identical partitions for an XP installation but to be honest if vista keeps performing without any real issues then I might just stick with it. Most of the bad stuff you hear about vista is coming from people who havent properly used it.

"kamolahy said:

"Here's one example... I play FFXI.. you can tweak the graphics beyond their capabilities with some registry fixes in XP.. not in Vista..

ya know.. stuff like that."

You can do that in Vista. I know, I have Vista and FFXI. Don't spread bullshit. Most people who bash Vista either

1. Have never even used it (or haven't used it for more than ten minutes)
2. Are idiots (fact! I've noticed the people who have the most problems with it are the stupidest people I've ever met.)

"

Why the hell does everyone hate on Vista?

it runs fine, I've never had any problems with it, and I've been using it for just over a year.

If you can tweak it enough(look up the youtube guides), and have a beast of a machine, it's supposedly better.

I'm an XP Pro holdout but for the most part I hear Vista's got its wrinkles out. Plus if you're hoping for 64 bit computing (unlikely) or at least more than 3-3.5GB of RAM (since XP PAE is gimped), then get Vista 64-bit.

EDIT: to clarify, I mean see more than 3GB of RAM. I'm running 4GB in my desktop running XP, but I can only see 3GB of RAM.

"If you can tweak it enough(look up the youtube guides), and have a beast of a machine, it's supposedly better."

I love Vista and intend to upgrade to Windows 7 when that is released.

If you already have vista, there is no need to spend $100 to go back. Just stick with it and get windows 7 when it comes out if it bothers you so bad. No need to spend money to downgrade your computer.

To the reasons already given for sticking with Vista, I'd add that you're not actually going to get all that great of a framerate boost by switching to XP as long as your machine meets the sysreqs for Vista.  Benchmarks for Vista SP1 and XP SP3 actually show Vista as close to or even faster than XP.  Make sure you have at least 2gb of RAM, and you'll be fine.  I've found Vista to be fairly nice since SP1.

"To the reasons already given for sticking with Vista, I'd add that you're not actually going to get all that great of a framerate boost by switching to XP as long as your machine meets the sysreqs for Vista.  Benchmarks for Vista SP1 and XP SP3 actually show Vista as close to or even faster than XP.  Make sure you have at least 2gb of RAM, and you'll be fine.  I've found Vista to be fairly nice since SP1."

I think the OS experience really depends on the person. I personally don't mind Vista, on most days, but I feel the same way about it as I did with XP. Now as for gaming, I'm pretty sure going back to XP isn't going to make your games stop working. Its not like you're trying to change to a competitor's OS. So I say if you feel the need for XP, and want to give Vista the finger, go for it.

I advise sticking to Vista.

1. It doesn't give me any problems
2. Have the service pack installed
3. Downgrading will give you even more problems... Big time problems.

I got Vista Home Premium on my Alienware. I upgraded it to 64-bit, and I love it. Honestly, I have less trouble on my Vista machine that I have had on any XP machine I've ever owned. The above posters are correct: it can be as big a memory hog as XP was, but with tweaking, it's a slick OS.

Oh, and about those PC/Mac slights. I'd love a Mac, but I can't justify paying Apple's prices just to get an Intel rig to dual-boot Vista on anyway. It's kinda funny how the biggest thing to hit the Mac was being able to run Windows :)

FACT: Windows 7 will be worth the price you pay for it. Hopefully...

believe it or not, vista is running my work computer way better than XP did. The key I think, is stripping down all the hand holding and baby sitting features. I even have it setup to look like classic windows xp style.

Vista is a good OS ive been using it for atleast 1 year and I havent had any real problem that I coudlt resolve with it.

Vista is 10X better than when it launched now  that it finally has a decent service pack

Microsoft basically charged people to beta test for them, as per usual