Damn, John, it sure looked like you were talking about 64-bit Vista instead of one of those virus hoax thingamajigs, so I changed the thread title to make it a bit less generic. If you can come up with a specific title that fits the space and tells what the thread is about and doesn't sound like another virus hoax, I'm open to whatever you'd like.


But John, you make it sound like this is some kind of scam the computer manufacturers are foisting on us. I've been interested in the possibility of getting 64-bit Vista on my next computer, and I haven't found it hard to tell which computer has which operating system. I suppose, though, that most of the people who use and purchase the computers I maintain, have no idea what a 64-bit operating system is. I have to admit that I don't have any experience with a 64-bit system myself.

One would imagine that most business software would work quite well in a 64-bit environment. Googling proved me wrong on that, though - apparently, QuickBooks doesn't run (or runs poorly) on 64-bit Vista, and an awful lot of small businesses depend on QuickBooks. It took me 6 hours to install QuickBooks 2007 on 32-bit Vista.

But 64-bit Vista is becoming very common on high-end machines, so it would be worthwhile to know the pros and cons of the system.

There's no doubt you know your stuff and you're a valuable resource here. But frankly, your "sky is falling" reaction to every Microsoft innovation is starting to affect your credibility. I've used Vista and Office 2007 since they came out in January, 2007. Yes, I've had problems with both - but no more problems than I've had with Windows XP - and there are a number of things I do better than I'd be able to do with Windows XP and Office 2003. If you have newer hardware, you probably need the capabilities of Vista to deal with it. If your machine came with XP on it, you're probably best off to stay with XP.

I suppose the truth of the matter is that if you use a computer, you're going to have problems. Personal computers have been used widely for some twenty years no, and one would think they'd operate a lot more smoothly than they do. Still, think back on some of the thorny problems you dealt with fifteen years ago. Can you really say that there hasn't been vast improvement?

And hey, I kinda like the search function on Vista. It works quite well for me.

-Joe-