i won't go to SSD's either cause I care not about boot time, but do care about PROVEN reliability of the platter. If takes 2 1/2 mins to boot or 30 secs, who cares?
(Could be a vista thing too... I'd never wish Vista on anyone ) [/B][/QUOTE] :eek: Is Vista that bad? Should I upgrade from Win XP or not as the support for Win XP is supposed to end by 2014? How about Windows 7 & Windows 8?
sleep mode is actually quite effective. Instant start up . If you're leaving the box for a few hours , why shut it down or leave it running? Only prob I have is some very ancient tv tuner card that wont work after sleep.
:eek: Is Vista that bad? Should I upgrade from Win XP or not as the support for Win XP is supposed to end by 2014? How about Windows 7 & Windows 8? [/B][/QUOTE] Windows 7 rocks. I hate Microsoft and everything about them, except Windows 7. They did good with it. Stable, smooth, clean, etc. They did plenty of bad too but there are workarounds. There are some threads on here for Windows 7 tweaks. As with XP you should set it for "best performance" under advanced settings, etc. You can get quick launch back too and you'll pretty much think you're in XP until you go to the control panel where they did a horrible job of arranging (hiding) everything.
Windows XP is like a workhorse. It just works and works and is quite stable after so many years. If you have older hardware and are contended with the current configuration, don't change it. On the other hand if you have some newer processor - maybe starting with Intel i3/5/7 class - even the first generation, then using Windows 7 is nice. Improvements in appearances and user interactions are all nice. Run the 64-bit version to take advantage of the memory. (Memory limitation in 32-bit).
mgookin, Bolimomo, thanks for the replies So, the best bet is to either stick to Win XP or upgrade to Windows 7.