Forget for a minute how good or bad Vista is. It's what I'm going with when I build my new system. I have both Vista Home Basic x64 and Vista Home Premium x64 on disk. I have been running Home Basic x64 on a slightly underpowered machine for about six months. So, among other things and because it's been underpowered, I'm no judge to say whether or not it's stable. So I was just wondering if anyone has heard if Premium is any more or less stable than Home Basic?

Jan,

I see you have the habit of posting the same question at multiple sites. You also asked this 64-bit question over at Tech Support Guy.

Other examples include, but are not limited to this same question about the registry here and elsewhere:

http://www.d-a-l.com/help/other-soft...tml#post177493
Registry program error message

You asked the same Windows Mail attachment question at at least 3 different sites:

Attachment won't open in Windows Mail - Cyber Tech Help Support Forums
http://www.d-a-l.com/help/windows-vi...dows-mail.html
Attachment won't open in Windows Mail - Tech Support Guy Forums

For all reading, not just Jan, please understand that while we realize users always want their problems resolved immediately, if not sooner, "shotgun" or "cross" posting the same question at multiple sites and/or across multiple forums at the same site is considered poor forum etiquette and is frowned upon - not just here at D-A-L, but across the Internet. Why? Several reasons.

1. There is a finite number of volunteers that work (donate their spare time) these sites. There are many times more folks seeking assistance. When you ask the same question at multiple forums, it ties up multiple volunteers, "hogging" their time from others. This in effect, is like spreading your kids across the busy checkout lanes at the grocer in order to reach a cashier and get out the door before every body else - considered rude by most people's standards.
   
2. Every responder approaches a problem from their own "comfort zone", their own area(s) of expertise. What may be appropriate from this approach, may not be appropriate at this time, from that approach. Therefore following the advice from two responders who are unaware of the other's advice may, and some times does result in the user making things worse.
   
3. Again, because each responder has their own approach, following the advice of one responder changes the dynamics of the problem and can cause confusion for the responder in the other thread.
   

There are more reasons, but those are the main ones. So I ask you to stop this practice immediately. Post your question at one site, in one forum only. If you get no response in a reasonable amount of time (24 - 48 hours) then post the question elsewhere if you like. If you don't like what one responder is saying, or simply want a second opinion, that's okay too, but tell us what was said elsewhere (providing a link if needed for clarification) and tell us why have misgivings or why you hesitate to follow previous advice given.

And, as always, remember that Google is your friend.

****

I have been running Home Basic x64 on a slightly underpowered machine for about six months. So, among other things and because it's been underpowered, I'm no judge to say whether or not it's stable.

Dude! You are the one in possession of this computer. You are the user. You are the ONLY one qualified to say whether or not it has been stable!

Let's not confuse performance with stability. An unstable computer freezes or reboots. A computer with budget or older technology hardware, budget graphics and less than ample amounts of RAM my have lousy "performance" but be rock solid stable - never crashing - just a bit slow after loading up today's Windows, a full (and usually bloated) security suite, and then the user's applications and data files after that. Even when "idle", there is serious multi-tasking and data exchanges going on.

A simple Google Search for compare vista versions shows 26+ million hits with the top one the horse's mouth. We can easily see the big difference between Basic and Premium involves graphics (including multimedia features) - the Aero desktop was designed to dazzle and take advantage of today's very advanced and powerful graphics cards and widescreen, high resolution monitors that folks pay big bucks for. Can your hardware handle that? I don't know. But another simple Google Search for minimum system requirements for vista yields another 3.5 millions hits, with the top one being MS again, showing considerable more graphics requirements. Can your hardware handle that? I don't know. But there's also a link there to the Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor worth checking out.

So I was just wondering if anyone has heard if Premium is any more or less stable than Home Basic?

I don't think that can be answered. There are too many variables that affect stability. High resolution, high speed graphics places a much greater demand for, and on hardware. This, in turn, increases demands on case cooling, all of which demand more (often much more) from the power supply - the inadequacies in any may affect stability, yet have nothing to do with the performance of the OS running (or trying to run) it.

My generally philosophy is new operating systems go on new hardware. Not doing so holds back one or the other - usually with Microsoft taking the blame unfairly.

My generally philosophy is new operating systems go on new hardware. Not doing so holds back one or the other - usually with Microsoft taking the blame unfairly.[/QUOTE]


well, its not like microsoft doesnt ask for it, its not exactly the best OS out there, Im running vista ultimate on a machine that far exceeds the recomended (not minimum) requirements for it and it still has its bugs. Has its good features to, but its nowhere near as stable as my linux has been. Me personally, I would say I would have to know the hardware involved before I could recomend one before the other like digerati said, premium is the nicer package, but basic isnt as demanding on the system-the factor you need to know here is whether your hardware can run it in full mode or not, if your hardware exceeds the recomended requirements put the highest version you have is my recomendation, but this is a decision you need to make based on your hardware. both are run off the same basic code, the only real difference is the aero interface, which was unstable especially with lower end video cards and low amounts of ram, but if you have a good vid card and a lot of ram, and service pack 1 did solve many of the stability issues, aero really shouldnt affect you at all. So look at your hardware and look at the system specs of the OS and go from there.