[CQ-Contest] Vista

[Hal Kennedy]

I have to agree wit Neal, Mike and others.  All versions of Vista are to
be avoided.  The same may be true for WIN 7, which already has a bad
reputation WRT it easily upgrades off Vista but has great difficulty
upgrading off XP.
 
K4JA gave me the best computer advice for contesting I've received, and
it has saved me many times I'm sure.  Dedicate a computer (or as many as
you need) to logging ONLY.  No email, no web surfing, no connection to
the internet.  Mine is connected to my internal network only, where I
can get and transfer packet if I want it, and file transfer across the
internal network things like the latest SCP files and logging software
updates I get from an office computer that connects to the internet as
needed (often). 
 
Outbound, the logs get transferred from the logging computer back over
the internal network to the office computer and the office computer
saves a redundant copy and makes the submission - it also handles LOTW.
 
It is just amazing how fast the logging computer boots and runs (on
WIN2K - NT Professional), since it has no firewall, no cookies, nothing
running in the background, no old busted files, no crud that's half
deleted and half not, no scads of registry entries that don't belong,
etc.  There are no browsers loaded other than the version of IE that
uSoft illegally bundled with the OS - and I hid it.  I expect to use the
logging computer for logging, only, for the next 20+ years - I even have
spare parts for lightening events.
 
I buy all my computers from Dell Auctions, which still has XP OS
machines with lots of goodies and a warranty at good prices.  Newer is
not always better.  Did I mention my logging computer has 4 COM ports
and an LPT port, and I can buy top notch 192 KBPS audio boards for it
for $9.95?  
 
YMMV.
Hal N4GG