What the fuck are you guys talking about? LOL When I first ran FFXI on Vista, it runs AMAZINGLY well. I have no problems whatsoever, no slow-down, no heating up (the only heating up I get is with virus scanning, and that's IT), no lag etc. Just update your graphics drivers, use Clean Disk to remove temporary files, defragment your hard drive and what not, but mainly just keep your laptop/computer up-to-date.

I have Vista Home Premium, 2 gigs of RAM, NVidia GeForce 8400M GS with 128MB and 200GB hard drive (will get a desktop expansion with 400GB hard drive this summer for $390 as a combo, possibly another 2 gigs of RAM for a total of $610; don't worry, I can make almost $500 for working 2 weeks at a DAYCARE lmao That is if I don't spend it ). Like I said, my computer can run FFXI flawlessly. The ONLY problem I had to play the game on my once-new Vista computer was that on S-E's FFXI website, you had to download their Vista-compatible PlayOnline viewer.

EDIT: Oh, and it's an HP laptop brand. I also have no issues whatsoever with the OS. The ONLY issue that started is with the first service pack, that one of the updates before I installed it conflicts with Explorer and causes my desktop screen to not load when I boot or restart my computer. All I have to do is open Task Manager and Run Task for "Explorer," and then everything comes up. I had that Task Manager help from when I took my laptop to Best Buy's Geek Squad and one of the guys just did "Run Explorer," and everything was fixed. All I have to worry about is when Microsoft is going to fix it, or I may have to email them about it... Oh, and I have NO SLOW-DOWN WHATSOEVER with any other applications. I just wish my damn Sonic the Hedgehog CD (the PC version of the Sega CD console game) would work on Vista (didn't on XP either; only Windows 98 lol). The sad thing is that my Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles CD works on Vista, but not Sonic CD

Those are valid arguments though, just like they were when XP came out...although I'm pretty sure it's even more so, since there wasn't a whole DirectX being exclusive controversy, and performance was generally better for games on XP. Why should anybody switch to Vista, unless they REALLY want the added visuals of DX10, of course suffering some of their framerate?

We're not blind Microsoft haters...if and when Vista becomes the standard and has the best performance for gaming, then we will say Vista is better than XP for games.

Currently, that's not true, so I don't understand why you're even arguing. Do you really love Vista that much? Because I don't know what you're trying to prove. I had it for half a year and while there were some nice features, XP is cleaner, faster, and is easier to work with.

 lol, are you serious? That's so funny because I think it was stupid to try and force gamers to switch to Vista by having Halo 2 and Shadowrun as 'Vista Only' games. I have Gearbox's (crappy in my opinion) port of Halo on the PC and I may have given Halo 2 a chance, but not anymore. 

I killed the OP. You will all obey me from now on.

Mod note: No, I killed the op, and you will obey me. ~naznatips

I think you seriously underestimate my computer knowledge. To be clear I'm not telling you to take my word for it because I'm smart, I just want you to be aware that I know a bit more about this stuff than the average joe smoe on the net. I'm a senior with a double major in Computer Science and Computer Electronics Engineering. In short what that means is that I'm not only a programmer knowledgeable about how to write software, but also how to build hardware and as a result, obviously, how it functions. This combination is especially relevant in regards to Operating Systems because the operating system is in essence the layer between hardware and software.

As someone who is proficient in these fields and experienced in all manner of PC building, I want to assist you in avoiding paying far too much for your PC parts as you've mentioned you are planning to. You can purchase a 500GB Seagate HD for $99 from newegg.com. As I'm also unaware of your PC knowledge level as you were of mine I will offer to assist you in selecting the right type of hard drive for your PC (SATA vs IDE100/133) and if necessary explain how to install it (very simple). As for memory it is also quite simple and I will extend the same offer of selecting the correct type if you need it and I point out that 2GB of DDR2 800 is only $40 on newegg and that both the hard drive and memory typically offer free 3 day shipping.

With that out of the way, I'd like to address the topic: I encourage you to surf the net for a myriad of articles discussing that Vista is slower relative to XP. Most of those issues aren't a big deal to me. What is a problem is specifically when you lose framerates playing video games and this is where the problem is actually at its worst imo. Here are some examples of what I'm referring to on modern games on modern PCs that are up to date on drivers:

Encoding Video (lower is better):

Benchmarking software (ie test application not real world):

Now we get into gaming, which is where I mentioned before my issue was:

Summary of more benchmarks:

I tried ot grab as many different benchmarks as I could to alleviate concerns that it was a fluke. But I can attest to the fact that I've personally tested Vista against XP on my PC in a dual boot configuration and it was pretty conclusive that Vista on the exact same settings using up to date drivers and doing the same things in the game will cost you about 4-12 FPS depending on the game. As PC gamer this is unacceptable..its that simple.

@Gnizmo,

A lot of gamers are putting hope in Vienna right now and pretty much plan to skip Vista altogether if at all possible. I'm leaning this way myself currently.