Others say...

"Don't Get Suckered By Microsoft"
Another horrible product by MicroSatan. XP is much better, and much faster. If you love to waste your time and money, buy this junk. I'm sure that little freak (bill gates) would love to take your money, and, as usual, provide horrible customer service. If you have XP, keep it. Or save your money and buy a Mac.

"Windows Home Basic"
I bought Windows Home Basic for my Gateway MX6124 Laptop because it was the recommended version. I have been extermely pleased with this upgrade, the computer seems much faster and is very stable. I know most of the computer magazines really look down on the Basic version, but in my thinking less is actually better. My computer is not bogged down with a bunch of asthetics that I do not really need to get my work done. Installation was much easier than XP even though I bought the upgrade version. The installation did a clean install moving everything on the drive into a files named "windows.old". After reinstalling all my old programs and savinf any documents, I just deleted "windows.old" and defragged the hard drive. I recommend this version to anyone with an older computer.

"Broadband a must for installation"
My reason, because of the 60 if not more updates that vista downloads during and after installation.some one said that installing vista with out
CD Key on the first time install, worked for me on a warm boot.I did find out that once you have it installed it runs fine,but you have to run the install again over vista to enter the CD key and complete the install as a upgrade.this was a clean install,tried to go over XP Pro kicked me out.
in general I like vista,waiting for service pack 1.Im running a AMD 64 X2 4000 2.10 Gig cpu 1Gig Ram,try to stay with dual core Cpu for vista it seems to like the horse power.I pushed vista pretty hard the first night put a lot of my programs back on,they all seem to work.not real happy with Soundblaster my Audigy 2 software don't work anymore,vista loaded a driver for the sound part of the card. Didn't give 5 stars because of Soundblaster.

"Grandkids are now Happy as CLAMS...!"
Product upgrades older Dell CPU(s) with Vista which make both of the Grandkids very Happy; it runs smoother, and faster. It is a real HIT!

"Great Value"
Okay, first we need to discard the whole notion of Vista Aerio right here and now. Vista Home Basic doesn't offer it, but I feel this a superb upgrade for someone using a previous edition of Windows.

This review is based on the upgrade of a Dell Dimension E310 running a previous edition of Windows, Windows XP Home

Specs on upgraded PC:

Pentium 4, 3.06 GHz
1.0 gig RAM
DVDRW

Now thats out of the way, I'll grant the upgrade on my Dell took a good bit of time, I think it was 1.5 hrs if I remember right, with a couple reboots along the way which were fine, thats apart of the process of upgrading an OS on any computer.

Afterwards and after finishing the upgrade, I'll be honest. I love Vista. I came into this unsure and with a very negative view of Vista and to be honest, I was very tentative coming into this. I'd seen a computer not take so well to Vista and was fearful of the same experience with my Dell.

That was not the case. My case with my Dell proved to be a very positive experience. While Basic does not have Aero, there are plenty of benefits to this version that are not listed and plenty of software out there to customize Vista, such as Stardock LogonVista, that allows some very nice customizations of Vista logon screens, plus a few other pieces of software that allow for some nice customizations of Vista along with already existems schemes loaded on Vista.

The security on this system is very nice, it alerts the user to any program access, love it or hate it, it is a layer of security thats nice to know it exists. Windows Defender isn't much of a surprise, I was able to download it onto my Toshiba tablet that couldn't quite make the jump to Vista, but it is a decent piece of software to have on a machine. Security is the same as XP and I don't have much to comment on that, only thing that would upset me is if it was worse or weaker than XP Security, but since all security is in place and does a nice job defending the system, I have no issues with secuirty. Disappointing that there's nothing new, but at least its up to par with XP.

Functionally, I've not experienced some of the problems I've witnessed on other machines running Vista, and operationally, I'd say Vista has speeded up and optimized my system a good bit and optimized its performance for both graphics and overall performance of my machine.

In conclusion, I'd say that Vista is a very solid OS, that has plenty of options for customization and for performance. Only thing I would say that for someone interested in Basic and other versions of Vista is just how much value do they as users want to place on Aero and the advanced options of Vista Business, Home Premium, and Ultimate, or as end users if they want a simple, customizable OS that has solid performance and don't let the lack of Aero fool you, graphics on Vista Basic are drop dead gorgeous.

In the end, its up to buyers and what they want.

Some things I would really suggest before upgrading to Vista is to consider just how much RAM and processing speed their computer has, what graphics their computer can support, and how much hard drive space they have. If your computer barely gets past the minimum requirements to run Vista, I'd very strongly suggest either upgrading your system to clear the minimum requirements a little better or hold off upgrading to Vista.

I have seen Vista backfire on a system, and it was one with a weak processor, minimum RAM, and a hard drive that almost wasn't enough and it doesn't and it nearly destroyed the computer, so I do suggest that before anyone upgrades to Vista, they very seriously review their system and whether or not its wise to upgrade.

If your system can handle Vista and go a little above minimum requirements, then Vista is a wonderful OS for anyone interested in a solid, customizable OS that can be alot of fun to use.