I'm and MSDN member and was able to download the "official" Vista x64 SP1. Installation was Ok, took about 20 mins, no issues.

Has not solved "GTR2 is not responding" after I exit GTR2 or finish a race and exit online play.

First time ever rFactor gave me a BSOD when I tried to run it.

Have NOT noticed any performance change (either good or bad).

Still testing, but the 343MB SP1 doesn't appear to do much for my system.

vista; n.

1. a. A distant view or prospect, especially one seen through an opening, as between rows of buildings or trees.
b. An avenue or other passage affording such a view.

2. An awareness of a range of time, events, or subjects; a broad mental view.

Shades of WinME .... ;)

With harddrives so cheap, I don't see a reason why everyone doesn't dual boot vista with XP for at least another 3 years until SP 3.552.01.d comes out. I think MS is supporting XP at least until 2010 right?

MS will support and sell XP as long as people keep avoiding the Vista "upgrade" (I use that term with a sad chuckle).

This BSOD seemed to wipe out ALL of my rFactor driver settings -- spent about 1 hour trying to get them back to normal, FF on my G25 was all jacked up.

I don't think this OS will ever be fixed.

Yeah, dual boot is probably my next step. But if we all have to dual boot, what is the point in "trying" to make the OS backwards compatible anyway. This lame attempt at compatibility is just killing the OS and bringing endless frustration to the end users. I just can't take this junk from Redmond any more.

I bought Vista and a new hard drive to put it on 1 year ago. I abandoned the vista build after a few weeks out of desperation. Then when my XP build became a bit flakey I took the vista build hard drive, formatted it and put XP on it with a RC of SP3. Very solid operating system.

I dont know how microsoft got this one so wrong.

Ive just built my new system, the intention was a tri boot, XP / Vista 32bit / Vista 64bit...

So far i have bailed out on XP, since I installed it, it screwed up the bootloader, and I had to format all 3 drives and start over.

I have since also done about 5 fresh installs on both Vista 32bit and 64bit and am happy at the moment with my testing progress, I highly doubt ill go back to XP...

So far i am not able to choose between the 32bit or 64bit version, they both operate with the same problems.. *sigh*

For me, DX9 games are now less stable with Vista SP1. DX10 games seem unchanged. I see no performance gains at all.

DX9 games work best on WinXP
DX10 games can only work on Vista

Dual boot would appear to be the best option. Ironic considering Microsoft's claim to fame is compatibility. As it stands right now my Apple MacPro runs G4 (PowerPC) based applications under Intel BIN better than Microsoft runs it's own software under it's own OS using the same core instruction set.

6+ years to develop Vista (upto SP1) and this is the best Microsoft can do? Ugh! I was hoping SP1 would fix a lot, but it doesn't, has only made compatibility worse.

Buy a Mac.

:-)

David,

I have a MacPro :) I use that for all my real life work. I Boot camp to Vista on it (but don't play PC based games on it).

Unfortunately my other dedicated gaming PC has Vista SP1 now which I'm in the process of removing and going back to WinXP. I endured the months (year) of working with Vista and DX9 games, hoping that SP1 would fix the problems with Vista and give back some performance -- I should have known better as this isn't the first time Microsoft have messed up an SP.

Vista is pretty and that is about it. Turd of an OS.