Hmmm, HP gets to continue selling PC's with a Windows XP downgrade option, and the latest Microsoft commercials both have their protagonists choosing HP computers in the end... Coincidence?

Yeah, I bet this is some ploy to up relations with HP so they will stop selling Linux with their PCs

By the way, how about a Windows XP 2.0, Microsoft?

They already answered the need for XP 2.0, it's Win7.

No great feats of engineering with a good bit of UI polish = XP revisited.

Ugh... this is so stupid. 8 year old OS instead of Windows 7? I can only imagine one reason to choose that: stubborn. You've learned XP and understand it. You're afraid of change and fear Windows 7. You never actually tried Vista and fear it based on "rumors" from its early days where nVidia drivers were poorly written. Honestly, some of the complaints I've seen for Vista are just user ignorance. Hate UAC? Turn it off; sure, it offers no protection, but its not less secure this way than your beloved XP. Don't like where they put the menu items... sorry, just adapt it won't take long. Don't see a "run" option? Hit Windows+R or hell, just enable it on the start menu options. Laugh at these examples? They were part of an article explaining why Vista is so bad posted on C|Net / ZDNet. This is where people get their information from folks, and if they're reading this junk then they probably believe it and will choose XP over Vista. I'll grant that XP is a bit faster, but in 2009 we have dual core 4GB systems as entry level, with quad core 8GB being more in line with what most THG users probably have. How slow could one OS be on this hardware to make you absolutely hate it and want XP? The difference is measured in ms, and in games we're talking 1-2 fps. You can tell the difference between 57.8 and 59.2fps? Really?

Hopefully Windows 7 will let us move on. This XP vs Vista debate has gone on far too long and the large base of stubborn XP users has impeded progress / change. Fact of the matter is Microsoft rewrote its kernel, hence why drivers needed to be rewritten. You can't deny that every software company is writing programs to run on Vista and Windows 7. You're stuck in XP, it won't be long before programs have to be released in two stages: Windows 7 first, then XP.

Plus, if you're running more than 4GB you need XP x64. The driver situation here is actually worse than Vista x64. You don't get any compatibility points for XP x64.

XP actually hasn't been faster in Vista since SP1, and a lot of the comparison charts were false. Vista is actually faster in certain situations.

I admit i'm one of the stubborn, though it's actually more because my laptop was purchased in 2005, and wouldn't run Vista with any sort of speed.

I switched to Ubuntu a few months ago on that PC, and am holding off on getting another computer until Windows 7 has been out for a while (maybe 2nd quarter next year) and has proven to be the next "XP".

I think many people simply don't want to switch over because they don't see Vista lasting. Who would want to buy an operating system that is going to be obsolete within 3 months? Personally, when i build my next computer, i don't want to have to worry about upgrading the OS within the life of the machine.

He didn't mean people should move to Vista now, he means that most people should have moved to Vista about a year ago.

joex444, do you work for Microsoft, do you get a commission for every XP user you turn over to Vista? Why do you care what OS people use? My biggest problem with Vista is that I don't see any reason to pay $200+ for it. It was bad enough I paid $200 for a Windows XP Pro Upgrade License 6 years ago (when I finally moved to XP), but XP is a world apart from Windows Millenium Edition. Vista isn't that much of an improvement over XP, especially if you turn off Aero and disable UAC (you take away its fancy graphics and security).

Corporations and government want XP machines, whether their machines are brand new or 5 years old. There is demand for XP on new hardware. This has nothing to do with home users or gamers. We're talking Microsofts biggest customers, office users.

But again, why would you move if the talk is generally negative? What's the incentive? You have a good OS in XP already. And in the past, when an OS is not well received, it doesn't last very long. Why buy a new OS if you know you've got to upgrade it again within the life of the machine?

I am ok w/ the VISTA home prem on my laptop (C2D T7500 2.2GHZ 2G memory and 8400M GS). I like the small goodies in the vista and I am defintely having less blue screen of death (my programs still crash just less crash in the system level).
However the price I paid...
1) even w/ C2D 2.2G and 2G RAM, my new laptop is not significant faster than my old one or even my old Athlon desktop w/ xp (I know it is not fair to compair desktop and laptop..... but lower than an old athlon + AGP graphic card + xp system on DX8 games (for example: Final Fantasy XI)... that is a little too much for me).
2) I can not play some of my old favorate games on my vista system (sush as Railroad tycon III) even with some twist.
I agree that vista is not as bad as people are talking about. However, for people who have a not so perfect system or expect to have a big big profermance jump from an old xp system to a new C2D vista on some old DX8 games... they may be disappointed.

By the way: "according to an article over on AppleInsider, Microsoft generously granted the PC giant an extension to its current Windows XP rights beyond that July 31 termination date. "... a microsoft vista news from the "AppleInsider"?? hmm... that is an interesting source of information... wondering how people think about vista there? guess kind of different than us here.. ..lol

The only reason (IMO) MS made Windows 7 is because vista got so much bad hype from the ignorant teeming masses that they said "Hell, we will release a new OS, with all the new features of vista, and some even newer ones. Wrap that up with some fancy graphics and its GG!"

Which is true.

*patiently awaiting windows 7*

I don't like the vista file explorer. Windows XP feels a lot easier to use and I know where everything is in it right away. Vista just seemed to downgrade the user interface experience although it has spiffy stuff such as Aero.

I still remember the hype people has before MS releasing vista...

Now I can not help to think what will people think about win7 this time next year or 2.

Hope Win7 final version is going to be as good as they promis (or at least not too far from they promis now).

"Keeping Windows XP is definitely a good thing, "

No, it is not. XP is far more likely to be hacked than Vista and doesn't include critical security features other than UAC such as user-mode drivers. It's disingenuous for any tech to try to prop up XP over Vista, it's really just a matter of doing anything they can to whip on Vista publicly despite the fact that Vista's growing pains are far behind it.

And let's not forget the chilling effect that XP has on hardware. With XP Pro 32-bit, there's no incentive at all to include more than 4GB or RAM nor include a DX 10 graphics solution. Microsoft is doing a real disservice to the entire industry by allowing the fear-mongerers to continue to publicly subvert the entire market so they can get their jollies undermining Vista.

I have used Vista Ultimate64 since the day it was released…

I have much experience with the Vista file system (not saying you don’t) and I agree, I do like XP’s file system better then Vista’s. I think it is something that worked well and did not require changes.

I always defend Vista to everyone, I like it… But I also still have dual boot XPpro32 just in case. I look forward to Win7, perhaps I can run just one OS finally.

I Really Patiently Waiting for 7, like I waited for Vista, and Love it from the first day of using it...
If you like, thumb me down, but it's time to move on to something new, OK, vista is a failure, like Win ME, but come on, XP is an old dog! you can do maths even with a abacus [XP], but will you when you have something far more advanced like a Digital Calculator [Win7]?
MS must not give another company a 1 YEAR XP downgrade option!

I agree completely… XP is an old dog, time for something new already.

However, I do believe Vista’s low acceptance is based on ignorance not fact.

I have not seen a reason to update to Vista.

What real benefit do you receive?DX10?A shiny new interface?Great networking "features"?

Microsoft know how to make money and that is to release new products making the old ones obsolete.

XP is fast and stable, and gives me everything that I want in a gaming OS... for now! After working all day on computers it is nice to come home and just know where everything is. Personally I would rather put effort into developing my next Linux project server rather than waste time trying to figure out where MS has moved all the buttons and icons to this time.

However, your "beliefs" are based on your opinions, not facts.

XP > Vista issue is not the same as Win98 > XP. Win98 was MS's first consumer GUI OS. XP, based off of Win2000 is a different beast. There was never a question that XP was better than Win98. Its issues we more to do with things like Activation (still hate it) and privacy (Worse on vista and Win7).

XP is old, whoopie. OS X is still OLDER than XP, yet still more polished than XP or Vista. If you think about it, XP-MCE is a nice update (Vista looks a bit like MCE).

And besides, you and any other MS-Vista cry-baby (I know some of you guys work for MS and/or worked on vista) go nuts if anyone says one neg about vista... guess what. YOU DON'T own me or the companies who bought their computers. Its their bloody choice, its their money. And with Win7 coming around the corner (along with a new Office), that'll be the time to go from XP to something new... another 6 months isn't going to kill me or anyone else! Thanks to vista (but also crappy economy) memory is dirt cheap (4GB $20~30) X2 CPUs are $50~100, X3 CPUs are $100 so making a bloated OS like vista (and Win7) run well shouldn't be a problem.

At this time... there if someone TODAY is still using an XP box and buying or building a new PC - they should go ahead and get it with XP (today) if they want to and move to Win7 later...

For most home users, vista should be fine. $350~400 gets you a dual core AMD with 3GB of RAM... enough to check your email.

Why doesn't Microsoft just redo windos XP with the same user interface, slightly enchanced look,better security,directX10 & call it windows XPII. Everyone can use it & Microsoft makes more money. Then everyone's happy.

i dont think alot of people hate vista because of ignorance, cause they have actually used it. Better security? when is it a good idea to store credit card number in ur pc? I have tried many times to switch, and i am still trying. I did alot of tweaks to make vista faster. And creative sound cards are crap on vista. Programming is a pain in the @$$ too, i kept saving a file with .xul extension, i thought everything was going well until it didnt work. i moved to my XP (duel boot) and saw that vista had saved the .xul extention as a text file, "file.xul.txt" Thats what i get for spending 3 hours thinking i programmed something wrong? and it was all cause of vista? At my work the boss had gotten around 40 pcs with vista home premium, when he tried to hook them up to a network they couldnt cause some feature wasnt supported in premium for networking ( i forgot the exact problem) he then had to upgrade all pc's to business... U know problems that never existed with xp came with vista, and it always made the user feel stupid cause he did all the right steps.

Home versions of XP and Vista support a limited amount of connected computers. XP-PRO, Vista-business, Win7-Pro are needed.

Your boss should have ordered XP-Pro if the purchase was recent. And whoever sold your boss 40 PCs didn't know what they were doing.

GTO127: WinXP needs to be replaced... Vista just offered so little, but its bloatness has made 64bit computing a standard, especially for Win7. I like XP-MCE because it has a nice glassy look (Vista is a black vesion of MCE)... and yes, MS could have been doing face-lifts for XP-core and I think we'd all be just as happy as long as the thing didn't break. Vista broke a lot of stuff for stupid reasons for little gains. DX10 could have worked just fine for XP, if they chose to... funny, DX9 works perfectly well on Win98 as it does on XP... hmmmm.

If Vista was soooooo good, then XP should have been put out the pastor within 6~9 months after vista came out. But here is XP, extended again.

If Win7 blows (which I doubt and hope its usable), I can use XP fine for the next 4 years... it doesn't really make much difference.

Im telling you now, I know as a fact RRT III runs perfectly well on a vista system, I have it running on 3
Your doing something wrong.

XP is dead! Any new pc has 4GB of memory or more, and thus could profit from a 64bit system. So anyone who'd pick xp instead of win7 would shoot himself in the left foot, while microsoft shoots him in the right one by dropping the maintainance.
The only version of xp people should consider is the 64bit, and we all know that isn't a very good system making it essentially not a choice either.

I'm glad to see hotfix support until 2014 though. Almost all our computers at work run xp, so it's nice knowing the old garbage can keep running til it eventually fails instead of till microsoft dictates it to.

Thanks for your suggestion. I know some specific version (not the most current) of RR3 works on "some" VISTA system and I tried all suggestion on the web. The problem I had was crashed most likely due to incompatibility w/ my 8400MGS vista driver from HP. Too bad, since it is for my laptop, I can not use the standard driver (more current updated) from Nvidia. RR3 may works on desktop in vista w/ new driver, but it does not work on laptop (at least in my case). Though in this case I can not say it is MS VISTA's fault (it is more due to the laziness of HP), it has pointed out one problem of incompatibility of VISTA to older programs specially when the hardware drivers or the softwares do not patched well for visa.. and if you are unlucky to fit in the grove... you will face the choice between staying in XP or move on... I am ok that I can live w/o RR3 but for some business envirnoment with softwares cost thousands of dollars... move on to a new software or upgrade to a new version may not be cost effective or pratical.

To those that think that Vista is a good Idea, You have no knowledge of business or Computers. The computer is a tool to be used by both home users and business users. Most humans have a learning curve and that curve takes time and money. Businesses don't get any advantage from vista in fact businesses lose productivity to Vista. Most business users need e-mail and and a browser and I don't see any advantage to buying 5,000 new computers for my company just because MS made a change. We have various security measures in place that more than make up for whatever Vista has from security standpoint. What does a home user get for Vista, headaches learning the "new" way to do what they have done for years. Most of my games will not play on Vista and various other software I have will not work on Vista. So I can only surmise you are MS workers promoting Vista. How disingenuous. Ms understands marketing very well but still after more than 20 years doesn't understand OS 101. Instead of completely scrapping an OS you should build on the past success. Linux has been around for quite some time and it only gets better building on success. At this point our company after a trial with Vista where the users and the techs howled we are working with 2 distributions of Linux and one or both will become the desktop OS uses company wide. Please remember most business users only need a browser and e-mail and for documents and such Open Office works quite well.

Henry in Virginia:
I believe most of people here are not working or promoting vista. However, since this is Tomshardware, the place for people love and (most likely) spend a lot of time on computer hardwares (or at least on the hardware information/knowledge)and low level software (OS, drivers, and.....), it should not be a surprise that most of people here will look at vista more from a techinical point of view.
It is no doult that vista did bring in quite a few new improvements and technology. And most of us here do have the knowledge and ability (both hardware preformance and human power) to enjoy the cool part of vista while keeping the inconvenient parts of vista in check. So it should not be surprise to see a lot of people here do enjoy their vista experience.
Since none of XP and vista are perfect. The experience from them are all dependent on the "purpose" of the computer and "who" is using it.
If people are looking for the vista experience from average joe or businesemen (though they may account for >70% of the computer user), here may not be the best place for it...
There is nothing right or wrong. It is just different points of view.

I like XP. I like Win7.

They're both awesome.

XP is a brick, it's reliable, fast, it supports almost anything, can work with an array of performance levels, and is simple.
Win7 has so far been reliable for me, free (for now), easy to upgrade from XP user-side, fast, and runs almost anything that XP does.

Though I believe as long as you have the hardware to support it, go to Win7. My Pentium D and 1gig of ram even takes Win7 flawlessly.

My only real complaint with Win7 is the lack of emulator support thus far.