ordering a new laptop tomorrow (another Ace Travelmate) and it comes with Vista as standard
i have nt used Vista and they will downgrade to Vista pro if I want it – wwhich should i go for?

i currently run Norton but what else is recommended which is at least as good?

thanks

7?

Avast!

Windows 7, far superior and uses less resources than Vista.

Windows 7 and Microsoft Security Essentials. You might have to wait a few days to place the order tho.

Vista is great, kicks XP into last year, but now you'll want Windows 7. Windows 7 is like Vista should have been to begin with.

7 seems to be what everyone is recommending but I'm sure I read somewhere if you purchased a new machine with Vista since June you can upgrade for free to 7. Here it is:

Windows 7 Free Upgrade

I'd just use AVG free – Norton is awful! Also install spybot free.

ubuntu!

no serioulsy I would go for 7

and as for av, either AVG or AVAST- anything but Norton/McAfee

molgrips:

Vista is great, kicks XP into last year….

😯

7 seems to be what everyone is recommending but I'm sure I read somewhere if you purchased a new machine with Vista since June you can upgrade for free to 7. Here it is:

Windows 7 Free Upgrade

"Free"? That word doesn't appear on the page anywhere. It's down to the manufacturer to supply it, and they can charge P&P, which over here can be £30+.

Anyway, Windows 7 is out today so if you're buying, no reason not to get a laptop with 7 pre-installed unless you're getting a hefty discount off old stock.

Definitely 7. Wait a week or so until you can get a machine with it installed rather than having to upgrade. AVG or Avast for antivirus

Having spent last night installing 7 on a desktop, I'd recommend getting a machine that comes with it pre installed. I've had one or two issues with the video card/driver.

7 and Avast

ps. for antivirus – Microsoft Security Essentials. Free for anything from XP onwards, as long as you've got a genuine copy of windows.

http://www.microsoft.com/Security_Essentials/

gonefishin – what video card + driver? (only asking, because tonight I am going to install on my machine)

The video card is an ATI HD3470 (I think!). I've updated the driver from the ATI website but my LCD display will only work if I also plug in an HD display i.e. my TV. I know it's the video card as I've removed it and connected the screen directly to the motherboard and it works. It's just the resolution that's rubbish.

This was a particular hassle as my house is over three floors with the TV on the bottom and the computer on the top so all the computer equipment, and router, had to be shifted downstairs. The computer it still in bits in the lounge. The only saving grace is that it's not my main computer. for that I use a Mac!

Wait for win7 or at least the upgrade before using it IMHO 🙂 – Use Avira Free and Comodo firewall and they are great and been using them for 2 years now with no problems 🙂

cool. cheers for the info. got a geforce card in mine, so hopefully not the same hassle (I do expect some hassle of course – it wouldnt be fun without it!!)

going to dual boot this with ubuntu – which I think I would completely migrate to if only there were a decent (Lightroom/Apeture) quality RAW convertor (plus one or 2 other bits and pieces of esoteric software which wont work under Wine) – got latest version installed on a netbook and a 4 year old celeron laptop which was an absolute dog with XP (something to do with 256mb ram)

Gonefishin sounds like it had defaulted to HDMI output it could easily have been changed in the ATI console.

My brother has 7 on his pc and I've got Vista on my laptop. Tbh I think I like the 7 more as it seems quicker and might be even a bit easier to use (might be down to his pc being faster with quadcore cpu, geforce 9800 and some other things I don't understand ;-)) but it really is nice to use and simple as well plus not much different from Vista (in a way that if You have used Vista You'll find it natural to use 7) but as OP never used Vista than he might just get used to 7.

As for antivirus software I use Kaspersky now as it's on a nice student deal. My bro uses Avast as it's free and works for him as well. Before that I used BitDefender. Both are good (never had any virus related problems with my computer) but Kaspersky being cheaper wins for me. I did have Norton on one of my older computers, didn't stay there for long as it was slowing everything down and I just didn't like it.

Cheers Drac I'll try that tonight. Any other suggestions as to what might be wrong will also be gratefully accpeted.

Not really sure why it would have defaulted to HDMI though as is a bit odd, one possibility is that your on board card is still active so that is triggering your ATI card to go to HDMI. You will need to disable the onboard in the bios settings to avoid conflicts.

7 is definitely great! Been using it for a bit and I can only fault it on one thing, which seems to be unique to me! (when running dual monitors my mouse pointer image corrupts randomly)

I suggest Windows Cotic 2.0. With Cotic Anti-virus and Cotic+ Malware Edition.

Get a Macbook & forget about AV 😉

Get a Macbook & forget about AV

Your time will come…. 😈

chvck:
Your time will come….

Well i do wish it would hurry up. Been sitting here waiting for over 6 years now 😉

Guess you've been blinded by Apples then.

http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/osxleapa.html