http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/help/83EC0FFE-EE04-4D53-8B87-25D1F05C954E1033.mspx

This info is from Microsoft’s official website. It is of great help for the newbie like me who just moves to Vista (or can we say downgrade to Vista).

It said 512MB memory can run Vista, I will take that with a grain of salt.

But 1MB is enough, but there is a tradeoff between performance and appearance. In this article it recommends a way to add more memory, that is to use the memory of your storage device to speed up your pc. And it is interesting. If you have a flash drive, just give it a shot.

I like Vista. Yes, and I look beyond the fact that it's pretty. But I've heard other people say Vista was a downgrade. Well... if you don't know how to turn off those annoying security blocks that ask you right and left, "Can I do this? Can I do that? Are you sure I can do that? Wait-- are you sure?" then yes-- it's a downgrade. You can turn them off, though. Then some drivers aren't supported on Vista yet, either, so that might add to the negativity. To each his own. Ah, but I'm just rambling! :P Sorry. Just had to put my two cents in.

Anyway, I wouldn't run Vista on 512MB of RAM unless you paid me enough moneys to buy another computer to run it at two gigs. I wouldn't run it with less than two just for performance. Maybe one gig if all I really needed was basic Internet browsing and desktop publishing-- like in a lappy I'd use for school and some simple gaming (like when we pull out the classic Star Craft. ;) )

As for that nifty feature with utilizing flash drives to make more memory-- I still want to try that. It's certainly a cheap way of boosting performance-- even if it isn't as fast as your normal RAM. Isn't it only supported on Vista Ultimate, though?
 

intelguy:

http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/help/83EC0FFE-EE04-4D53-8B87-25D1F05C954E1033.mspx

This info is from Microsoft’s official website. It is of great help for the newbie like me who just moves to Vista (or can we say downgrade to Vista).

It said 512MB memory can run Vista, I will take that with a grain of salt.

But 1MB is enough, but there is a tradeoff between performance and appearance. In this article it recommends a way to add more memory, that is to use the memory of your storage device to speed up your pc. And it is interesting. If you have a flash drive, just give it a shot.

I doubt one gig is enough. You would be paging to the hard drive because of lack of memory when using a certain number of applications. I would recommend 2 gigs at least. I can’t imagine running Vista with anything less than that. I assume it is possible but not pretty. If you cannot afford more memory try using a usb flash drive. Vista will use that as additional RAM.

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I really like Vista. I agree, 1 Gb is the minimum you should use with it. I have seen some of those underpowered $900 Dells, Sony and HP's try to run Vista with poor results. Usually adding some ram and removing most of the junk that is installed on those machines makes Vista run really well.

Remember when we went from DOS to Win 3.1? That 286 with 8 Mb of Ram suddenly would not run so well? That 486 did not seem so snappy when we went toWin 98. Vista does much more so it takes more resorces. A weak computer requires that you turn off some of the eye candy but there are may features in Vista that I very much like. I consider Xp, as good as it was in it;'s time, to be the downgrade.

I think that many of those who make a career of Vista bashing write their reviews and bashes on overpriced Apples and have a fanboi agenda. Some are just plain trols and some just don't want to learn anything new. They are all entitled to their opinion but this is mine.

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Asus Commando, QX6700@2.93, 4GB Corsair PC28500 Dom, Tt Armor case, BFG 1KW PSU, BFG 8800GTX OC, 2 Raptors in RAID 0 for OS and Apps & 2 Raptors in SATA for music and graphic files and a WD7500AAKS (.75Tb) for large files, video files and back up, X-Fi, 2 Samsung monitors 245t and 244t's @ 1920 X 1200, Plextor opticals, Aerocool, Zalman, Etc. Vista Ultimate SP-1

One more thing, adding a gig or two of ready boost (use a fast memory key) is cheap and doing that as well as moving your main page file to another drive besides the boot drive also really helps, especially when doing intensive tasks such as PhotoShop filter renderings Etc. Try it.

Isuggest that you just keep a small page file on your boot drive, just enough to accept a memory dump just in case you do something to tork your set up and want to see what happened.

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Asus Commando, QX6700@2.93, 4GB Corsair PC28500 Dom, Tt Armor case, BFG 1KW PSU, BFG 8800GTX OC, 2 Raptors in RAID 0 for OS and Apps & 2 Raptors in SATA for music and graphic files and a WD7500AAKS (.75Tb) for large files, video files and back up, X-Fi, 2 Samsung monitors 245t and 244t's @ 1920 X 1200, Plextor opticals, Aerocool, Zalman, Etc. Vista Ultimate SP-1

Just coming back to old posts... I suppose I'm ressurrecting this one.

But I must agree with Baer-- people want to run Vista on machines designed for Windows XP. It just doesn't work. New systems need more resources. People say Vista is a downgrade to XP, and I beg to differ. I bet 25% of those people who hate Vista are working with machines built by big companies who load the system with preinstalled software and build it with components not matching the system's needs, and so the computer is slow and full to the brim with useless software that average consumers don't know how to remove, sadly enough. I bet another 50% of Vista haters are people who heard that Vista stunk-- so they never try it and are predisposed to hate it if they ever do. And I bet the last 25% of Vista haters are those obsessed with the Mac system or those who hate Microsoft because they "put my dad out of business and stole his software! He invented Microsoft Word and would have made a fortune, but Microsoft stole it from him" or some other sob story (yes-- a kid told me that once. He hated Microsoft and that was his story.)