Believe it or not this is not another "Vista sucks" rant. Sure, my experience with Vista, so far, has not been perfect but not to that point. I am, so far, actually quite pleased with Vista. I have had a couple of issues with some games that won't work but I'm sure I will find a version that does. It just a matter of doing the research online.

So, down to business. This is my baby, an HP Pavillion dv9740us. Here are the specs;

PC Wizard 2008 Version 1.82

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Owner: *****

Organization: Hewlett-Packard

User: *****

Operating System: Windows Vista (TM) Home Premium Home Edition 6.00.6000

Report Date: Tuesday 29 January 2008 at 18:45

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<<< System Summary >>>

> Mainboard : Quanta 30CB

> Chipset : Intel GM965

> Processor : Intel Core 2 Duo Mobile T5500 @ 1666 MHz

> Physical Memory : 3072 MB

> Video Card : Nvidia Corp GeForce 8600M GS

> Hard Disk : TOSHIBA (160 GB)

> Hard Disk : TOSHIBA (160 GB)

> DVD-Rom Drive : Optiarc BD ROM BC-5500A ATA Device (this baby plays Bluray)

> Monitor Type : LGPhilipsLCD - 17 inches

> Network Card : Intel Corporation Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN

> Network Card : Realtek Semiconductor RTL8168/8111 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet NIC

> Operating System : Windows Vista (TM) Home Premium Home Edition 6.00.6000

> DirectX : Version 10.00

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I don't know about you but I think that's a pretty sweet setup. I have waited 10 years to get myself a laptop and I figured I get a decent one. As you can see it has Windows Vista Home Premium. While I would have preferred Ultimate, I'm ok with this for now. So far my experience with Vista has been pretty good. A few game problems as I have mentioned but nothing I can't eventually solve. I do, however, hate that constant screen that comes up everytime I install or run a program asking permission to run it. I can understand the security point of it, but this is ridiculous. Microsoft really killed it here.

The large screen is awesome; everything looks great including movies and games. Considering how much I was gonna pay for a 15.4 inch Dell XPS with similar components, I got a great deal and saved on shipping time and price. At first I was unable to play a bluray movie I bought; I had to update the Quickplay feature this HP PC came with in order to play the Bluray disk. It's similar to the Windows Media Center and I like it somewhat. I can listen to my MP3's, watch DVD's and other movie formats, I can listen to local FM stations, internet stations and it even came with a TV Tuner card and a nice remote control so I can watch TV anywhere.

I bought myself a copy of Call of Duty 4 and, while this still being a laptop it does lag from time to time but works great none the less. It's a great game though it's very short. I beat it in 2 days. I figure it was more designed for the online experience than anything else. So far most of my programs have worked flawlessly so I think Vista is a keeper. My wife is also happy; she got herself her own laptop, a n HP dv9000 series like mine, just not as powerful and with a few less features.

I'm a happy camper. This Pc will keep me busy for a while. What do you fellas think?