I tried ME and and I'd say about 45mins later XP was considered - and was used. But it only works for certain stuff so you have to keep it.
There shouldn't be too many issues, I know that there are a few little problems but nothing that can't be sorted with alternative programmes or ways to do stuff.
I found it kind of strange to use at first but I'm upgrading very soon. I had a weird problem with my RAM because it doesn't see more than half the stick all of a sudden when it used to read dual-channel memory anyway. Weird thing to just start happening.
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Vista is kinda like XP when it was first released...you'd likely know of the problems with drivers, software but now it's a standard and most people use/recommend it. With Service Pack 1 later this year it should fix the most annoying bugs and issues:
From an article about it:
* Improvements to Group Policy management tools.
* Performance improvements with Windows Disk Defragmenter that are also slated for Server 2008.
* New security APIs for the benefit of antivirus software that currently relies on the unsupported practice of patching the kernel (see Kernel Patch Protection).
* A new version of Windows Installer, version 4.1.
* Users will be able to change the default desktop search program to one provided by a third party instead of the Microsoft desktop search program that comes with Windows Vista. Third-party desktop search programs will be able to seamlessly tie in their services into the operating system.
* Support for 802.11n.
* Terminal Services can connect to an existing session.[45]
* IPv6 over VPN connections.
* Direct3D 10.1 is an incremental, side-by-side update to Direct3D 10.0 that provides a series of new rendering features that will be available in an upcoming generation of graphics hardware
Reports from various sources have suggested that SP1 will include a kernel that will be up-to-date with the version to be shipped with Windows Server 2008. A newer version of Windows Media Center is under development, but whether this will be included with the service pack, or be released separately, has not been clarified by Microsoft.
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Mainly, I want it for Media Centre to upgrade from version 2005 which I use but don't have the kind of system it demands for high-def and that sort of stuff.