Refurbished Laptops and Windows Vista

Laptop sales have increased the last year. Some say it is because of Microsoft’s new platform the Windows Vista. When it came out, people welcomed it with mixed feelings. Some fell in love with the new, easy-to-use, user friendly platform right away, but some people criticized it for its high system requirements, high price, lack of drivers and for the bugs and flaws found within the new design. There is some truth in both opinions. The user friendly Vista is easy to navigate and manage. It offers an aesthetic design, somewhat similar to the Mac OS. But as it was with the XP, that took Microsoft over three years to get mostly bug free, this new platform has its bugs and flaws as well. Since it requires powerful system performance, you start to wonder: Is Windows Vista really a good choice of operating system for a laptop?


The new laptops are already designed for Windows Vista. They come with features and functions that were engineered for the new platform. They possess powerful computing resources which allow the Vista to run smoothly, even with high performance settings.
The only setback is the battery life. The Vista’s high demand of processing power and memory usage brings with it elevated battery use as well. It will not be a problem, if you are near a power source, but when you are on the road, you might want to set your performance settings and display brightness lower to enjoy a longer battery life.


But what about the older models? Is it convenient to install Vista on older, refurbished and used laptops? Check the system requirements on Microsoft’s website. If your laptop’s performance is capable of handling the Vista, you can give it a shot. However the system settings that Microsoft recommends for running the OS do not provide enough performance to run it completely smoothly. It might not be worth it. If your computer is having trouble performing under the Vista, or it’s not even capable of running it, I recommend you to stick with the XP. It is still trusted and useful, and with extended Microsoft support until 2014, it is a reliable operating system platform that won’t eat up all your resources.


Even those refurbished laptop owners, whose machines are not capable of running the new OS, do not have to worry. Although the power-demanding Vista offers some extra features and pretty design, they will always have reliable, fast running Operating System alternatives that match their laptops’ performance.