Strange as it seems - Windows Vista was absolutely terrible when it was first released, in my case my notebook seemed 100x slower than it would’ve been with XP installed - the hard disk was always thrashing, while just about any software seemed to hang forever.  I lost count of how many times I thought about throwing this notebook through the window…

Fortunately for some of us, a few leaked beta copies of Vista SP1 found their way onto the Internet, and one of these made my computer tolerable, at least until now.  Yesterday you read a bit about the hassles I encountered when installing SP1, but you’ll be glad to know that once I removed the Nokia drivers, things went smooth as silk.

So today is a special day of sorts - next year I’ll be able to proudly mark March 21st as the day my notebook began to act like a notebook should.

But did it make things better for casino software?

Well, let’s put it this way.  In the day that I’ve had to play with my new toy, everything has run smoothly and seemingly more quickly than before, even when I had a test copy of Sp1.  My computer is no longer overheating when playing a Microgaming casino, or perhaps UTour Golf with Simmo - in fact it’s quite cool now, though at some point I will have to look at cranking up the power as I had to set it down to the least power-hungry setting possible to ensure it wouldn’t crash in the middle of something.

When booting a Microgaming casino, you often get a Flash introduction - Vista has been notoriously bad with that - as soon as the first scene starts, the software practically hangs until the entire video is loaded, before coming back to life.  Sadly, I have to report that SP1 has not changed anything in this regard - which leads me to believe that Microgaming has to go back and look at how their Flash loader and see how it works.

Having said that - I then went straight for the acid test - Thunderstruck was almost unbearable to play on my notebook, with all sorts of lag, apparent hangs, jitters, etc.  Maybe that has something to do with the tournaments, I am not sure.  But when I went to test just now, I went straight to the game and put it on autoplay - and I am happy to report that TS seems to have new life - not a hitch at all.

UTourGolf, which was also sporadically problematic with my notebook, seems to have pepped up, no apparent drag or lag - but my notebook still can’t handle anything other than the absolute minimum settings (which is fine because even then the course is beautiful and I highly recommend you golfers try UTour out).

Loading of browers (IE and Firefox) - a bit faster, but be aware that having many tabs can still be a bit problematic (I typically have some 20+ tabs open in Firefox).

Resuming from hibernation (when I close the lid) - much faster, and much more responsive, and seemingly a lot less disk thrash.  This is a very good thing because in the past, I was used to logging in then heading for a cigarette or the bathroom while Vista thrashed away.  Now - I can almost work straight away, which might mean that I will smoke less

If you’re out there thinking about getting a new computer or upgrading your XP to Vista, I think it’s safe now.  Vista, as far as I know, does not have any significant issues with your favorite gaming software, and generally never has - but at least after XP1 you know your Windows will finally feel like it’s working properly.*

* Disclaimer - I take no responsibility for your actions - if you upgrade to Vista and it doesn’t work, blame it on the dog.