Getting Dell to honour Vista Upgrades

[Craigsters]

  This was originally sent to my older sister in a e-mail, it wasn't personal, so I thought I'd post it here, also she just got a new PC at xmas time and was promised a free Vista Upgrade like me, the first two paragraphs are about  the Sims 2  and the last paragraph is about Dell and getting them to honour my Vista Upgrade!..


from e-mail

I had to start  over with my Sims 2 online downloads, because something I had downloaded was making my Sims freeze up, not move at all, plus the lot they where on would take forever to load, over 30 minutes, they only thing that I kept from online was my hacks/modds and Genetics/ Sims, started over with all my objects and building objects, my hacks/modds  and Genetics/ Sims loaded fine!..
 
I already had to roll back my new  PC, restore it, but now it's faster and easier, Dell installed symantec ghost on my PC,  the other day I removed my Sims 2 the wrong way, I deleted stuff from the programs folder, then they wheren't removable from my control panel, I was also having a run time error when I'd turn off my PC, so I called Dell yesterday and they helped me with  that new symantec ghost  roll back!..
 
I asked Dell  tech about Vista  upgrades and they at first  gave me a Dell Vista link from online and I started to give the site my info then it wanted my credit card number and I said to the Dell tech guy wow, I'm supposed to get the upgrade for free, then he gave me a phone number to call for Dell Vista upgrades, the number is  Vista Upgrade 1-866-634-7426 think you give them your service tag number then they check to see if it's available, I haven't called yet, there open from 8am to 5pm the Dell tech guy said!, sorry not sure what time zone there in!..

[J. M. Pescado]

VISTA BAD!

If you install Vista, Microsoft will not let you go back to XP when it blows up in your face.
And let's not forget their "Protected Media Path" trainwreck, which will chew up your computer's resources checking 30 times a second whether or not you've done anything interesting to it so you can "watch HD DVDs". Even if you don't have or watch any DVDs on your computer.

Boycott Vista! Do not buy it, do not upgrade to it, do not install it on your computer!

[kuronue]

not to mention the Big Brother like control over your computer they insist upon in their EULA

[Craigsters]

  Right now I have Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition version 2 service Pack 2 on my New PC, I managed to transfer all my DDR2 Ram all four 1 gig sticks to my new PC and I'm having no problem's, windows update wanted to add Internet Explorer 7 to my PC I denied it, because I don't like the button function and taskbar at the top of Internet Explorer 7!..

Think my run time error the other day was caused by Sun Microsystems java, I had problems with Sun Microsystems java in the past on previous PC's of mine!..

I'll wait to hear what everyone has to say about Vista, we should know more about Vista within a year and a half hopefully!..

[J. M. Pescado]

Friends don't let friends use Windoze Vista.

[Craigsters]

Wow I inspired J.M. to change his avatar!, nice avatar!..

[kutto]

Wow. It really must suck to have earned an avatar change from J. M. Whose idea was that "Protected Media Path," too? Why does anything need to be check 30 times in a second?

[Craigsters]

I heard Vista Requires at least 1 gig of Ram and a good video card, I was just so happy that my new PC excepted my Tom Clancy Splinter Cell Double Agent game the other day when my new PC arrived, my old PC rejected Double Agent, it needed that dual processor the games box said!..

[Paperbladder]

Hmm...

Vista's New Features
IE 7 - Can download onto XP.
WMP 11 - Can download onto XP.  10's better anyway.
Sidebar - Google Desktop, DesktopSidebar, and there's even a ported version to XP.
Desktop Search - Google Desktop, Yahoo Desktop Search.
Aero - There's no equivalent on Windows XP.
Flip3D - There's no equivalent on Windows XP.
UAC - You'll usually just click "Agree" anyway, I don't think it asks for a password to do anything so it's not as secure as Linux.
Windows Defender - Can download onto XP, worthless when you have a Virus Scanner.
DirectX 10 - Not in XP, but no games use it yet.  In addition, OpenGL has poor performance in Vista.

They cut out WinFS, PC-to-PC Sync(Groove?), and Monad which would have been reasons to actually buy the thing.  Instead they just added the things above, changed the Security Stack, and modified a lot of the interface to make it more Macish.

Still, since you have a coupon for Vista you might as well order it so if it does become worth having then you won't have to pay $150(Home Premium)/$250(Ultimate) for it.

[Craigsters]

Maybe I should tell Dell to send me a disc of it, that way later on down the line when it's mandatory to use it, I wont be stuck paying for it!..

[kuronue]

It's never mandatory to use windows. That's what emulators are for.

[MxxPwr]

...Vista's New Features
DirectX 10 - Not in XP, but no games use it yet.  In addition, OpenGL has poor performance in Vista...

And I have to wonder: why can't XP run DX10? It's just an api right? If you have the hardware, shouldn't you be able to run XP and DX10?

[wes_h]

WMP 11 - Can download onto XP.  10's better anyway.

I uninstalled WMP 11. While the extra effects were cool to play with, 10 starts up with the last playlist you used, even if it was a random collection. WMP 11 forgets what you were playing as soon as you exit it.

While I use WMP to play music to cruise the internet by, I am annoyed with it stopping that and distrupting the playlist because you clicked on a video.

So I wondered if anyone here has a favorite video player they want to recommend as a good default player?

<* Wes *>

[Venusy]

Personally, I use WinAmp as the default player, and VLC Player for any formats that WinAmp can't play.

[Tamha]

I still use Winamp 2.95 as my default audio player. It's clean, unobtrusive, and skins for it are still out there to make it customizable. Of course, I've never actually tried the Winamp 5 series, anyone know how it compares in functionality?

[wes_h]

Thank you for the suggestions.
I will try it. I have been having problems playing back old Sims2 movies I made anyway.
<* Wes *>

[Paperbladder]

There's no reason at all that they can't port DX10 over to XP.  If they did that though there would be no point in buying it.  As for WMP 11, I hate the fact that I couldn't listen to my DAP when it was charging while I could with WMP 10.  That's another thing keeping me from upgrading to Vista in addition to the DRM and lower performance.

I use musikCube when I'm just listening to music(WMP 10 for syncing), and VLC for videos.  VLC will play pretty much anything you throw at it compared to Media Player Classic which requires codecs.