SF Bay Area -- Free Windows Vista Ultimate available at Microsoft Event taking place in Mountain View/Los Altos, CA

[blacklit]

man, i didn't realize how fugly most ATers were

... in person

 

[SVOMaster]

Originally posted by: redgtxdi
And a couple folks have already hit on my dilema with this whole thing............


Sure, it may be fun to play with it for a day or two, but "free" is hardly the right word if it won't update, etc.

If this CD they give you (downloads we d/l, etc.) is/are only good for so long, then they're done..........what's the point???

XP works just fine for EVERYTHING I'm doing. I don't need anymore eye-candy. And I CERTAINLY don't need an O/S that isn't a real O/S. If it dies after a month or two, forget it. Bill can keep his software! :moon:

And if it really *IS* a free copy of the REAL DEAL, I suspect Bill wants something. He ain't gatherin' everybody together to give out free software. He wants names, addies, phone #'s, etc. etc. etc. Big Brother is watching and he wants your SOUL!!!!!!!!!

A little paranoid arent we? You remind me of mel gibson in Consiracy Theory.

 

[blacklit]

i'm interested to know what percentage of the attendees (and anyone else who upgraded -- NOT clean install) had a smooth experience.

i had a basic WinXP install with SP2 and my Vista upgrade was terrible. it rebooted my machine ~6 times in the middle of install. it picked up from where it left off after the 3rd reboot, taking me a little farther every reboot after that, until it eventually completed. it's running now but i'm not confident the install is good. with that, i don't know how they intend to have the official release by dec-jan.

 

[IBuyUFO]

Originally posted by: blacklit
i'm interested to know what percentage of the attendees (and anyone else who upgraded -- NOT clean install) had a smooth experience.

i had a basic WinXP install with SP2 and my Vista upgrade was terrible. it rebooted my machine ~6 times in the middle of install. it picked up from where it left off after the 3rd reboot, taking me a little farther every reboot after that, until it eventually completed. it's running now but i'm not confident the install is good. with that, i don't know how they intend to have the official release by dec-jan.

I didn't find any issues. My upgrade went fine with the migration tool that they gave you. I was out of there by 11 am or so and I can't complain about that. All I ever got from vista were a few warnings that my ata133 card might not work and there might be issues with the nview software and driver from nvidia. After Vista finished installing I installed the drivers for the ata 133 card and it worked fine.
So in summary my installation was as smooth as butter.

 

[herkulease]

Originally posted by: blacklit
i'm interested to know what percentage of the attendees (and anyone else who upgraded -- NOT clean install) had a smooth experience.

i had a basic WinXP install with SP2 and my Vista upgrade was terrible. it rebooted my machine ~6 times in the middle of install. it picked up from where it left off after the 3rd reboot, taking me a little farther every reboot after that, until it eventually completed. it's running now but i'm not confident the install is good. with that, i don't know how they intend to have the official release by dec-jan.

I believe the reboots were intentional. they actually tell you somewhere either on the instructions or before it started the install process that the system will reboot several times during the process.

My gripe as I noted on their forms was a lack of an estimated time frame and occasionally there would be completely blank screens. I progress bar would do wonders for users who might've believe their PC has hung when it did not. Oh and that it took way too long. took me 1hour and 15 minutes.

 

[LordGestle]

My upgrade was smooth, took roughly an hour. As already mentioned more information during the installation/upgrade process would be a nice feature.
Outside of that the only problem I experienced was driver related which was no different compared to all the previous OS releases. Example my soundcard aplet was there but non-fuctional. Video drivers were there but not my TV tuner. No vista drivers are available for the products via the vendor website but I'm confident those issues will be resolved shortly.

 

[blacklit]

Originally posted by: herkulease
I believe the reboots were intentional. they actually tell you somewhere either on the instructions or before it started the install process that the system will reboot several times during the process.

My gripe as I noted on their forms was a lack of an estimated time frame and occasionally there would be completely blank screens. I progress bar would do wonders for users who might've believe their PC has hung when it did not. Oh and that it took way too long. took me 1hour and 15 minutes.

my reboots weren't expected. the reps took over after i reported the 1st reboot. they couldn't figure out why it kept doing it after that... no info in the logs. anyway, i guess the system was a good candidate for their purposes.

i suspect a clean install would be better. but i figure why bother when i have to redo it anyway when the general release arrives.

 

[IBuyUFO]

Are you overclocking your computer? What kind of ram do you have? It truly sounds ram related though. One time I bought cheap no name ram and when I say cheap it was in the $200 range. My computer would reboot for no apparent reason until I changed the ram to PNY ram that I bought during black friday.

 

[blacklit]

Originally posted by: IBuyUFO
Are you overclocking your computer? What kind of ram do you have? It truly sounds ram related though. One time I bought cheap no name ram and when I say cheap it was in the $200 range. My computer would reboot for no apparent reason until I changed the ram to PNY ram that I bought during black friday.

not overclocking. the system is (was) stable with WinXP SP2. it was a clean WinXP SP2 i was upgrading from -- drivers installed but absolutely no other applications, just XPsp2. and Vista managed to screw it up.

a8v-mx
3800+ stock
2x512mb corsair twinx 2-2-2-5 stock
9800pro stock
seagate 320gb overclocked... j/k

 

[aimanzym]

nice post. thx

 

[ethiopianbuffman]

My system rebooted about 4-5 times and I had a clean install of XP Home SP2 and that was it since I went to 2 sessions. I thought it all went smoothly. I was in and out in a little over an hour.

 

[IBuyUFO]

My system has the following in it:

opteron 165 (no overclocking. Can't make the settings stick after reboot)
2 gigs of ram 4x512 corsair. I think it's the cheapy with heat spreaders 3-3-3-8 I think
pny 6600gt pcie 256 megs of ram
samsung 80 gb PATA hard drive
creative labs audigy 2 platinum
ati hdtv wonder
maxtor ata 133 card

My upgrade was also from a cleanly installed of xp sp2 and it went smooth as it can be, but it took longer than I expected.

 

[blacklit]

received a follow up email today... coming soon

 

[blacklit]

anyone received their copy yet?

 

[LordGestle]

I believe the email stated it would arrive between 2-3 weeks after the official release. So I'm expecting it later this month. I'm still wondering if we will recieve a Retail version or OEM.

 

[blacklit]

thx LordG. my friend already received VistaBiz from the webcasts, which was after this event.

should be retail. i've not seen oem software come out of such events.

 

[KPACOTKA]

Are you hoping ebay retail? That's other reason to get it over OEM?

 

[blacklit]

anyone received this yet?

 

[herkulease]

the email sent out couple of days ago says to expect it by the end of the month.

 

[howhao]

i have not received mine...email was sent out a couple weeks ago for me.

anyone got theirs?

 

[LordGestle]

Nothing here. The email said expect it by the end of the month.

 

[blacklit]

: o/ same -- nothing in the mail today

 

[KPACOTKA]

The month ended, any changes?

 

[esquared]

I sent off an email to the Windows Vista Install Fair Team people a few days ago and they finally got back to me and no one is going to be happy to hear this:

Good afternoon~

We apologize for the delay on getting your copy of Windows Vista. Unfortunately, the company that we work though to produce the Vista media/packaging has placed our order on backorder without providing us with a ETA for a ship date. The best response we have received is that it could take 2-8 weeks for them to just fill the order and ship. This means that in worst case, it could be up to another 12 weeks by the time you receive you copy in the mail. We are doing everything possible to get an confirmed ship and are looking at alternate ways of getting this media sooner.

Sincerely,

Windows Vista Install Fair Team

 

[bleuless]

i didn't know windows vista install fair team is into government politics