Microsoft office 2003 + Vista

[ccprincess]

I'm thinking of buying a computer at the weekend. It has the Vista operating system. Now I don't know much about 'puters but I'm assuming that I will have to buy an office software package so I can have Word etc. What I want to know is will Microsoft office 2003 work with it or will I have to buy 2007 version? Sorry if that is a really stupid question!!

[Machecoul]

Reading through the answers on here Vista seems to be causing a lot of problems at the moment. Have a read before buying it. Type Vista into the search box you might get some results or otherwise it's a matter of trawling through some of the questions that have Vista in the title bar.

[rojash]

Office 2003 will be ok, but I REALLY REALLY don't recommend that you buy a machine with Vista - at least for another year. For all the hype from MS, in my experience (I have a test machine running it), and that of many others, it is the flakiest, buggiest, most unreliable piece of junk ever to come out of MS. Even if you are lucky enough to avoid all the problems, the benefits are so slight as to be undetectable to a normal human being.

[vehelpfulguy]

I agree with rojash.

Buy a PC with Windows XP on it.

Windows XP is like a Ford Focus, fairly reliable, and it just works.

Vista is like one of those car mock-ups you see at motor shows, all flash with nothing underneath and likely to crash if you took it out on the road.

[ccprincess]

Thanks for the replies. The Vista thing is part of a package from PC World - do you think I could ask for XP instead?

[vehelpfulguy]

In fact look at the two questions either side of this one.

The one above (memory dump) is someone trying to install Vista but failing.

The one below has the subject "Vista nightmare"

I know these are both upgrades, but I would steer well clear of Vista.

Even if you buy a new PC with Vista on it you may find that any software you have (or buy) will not work on it - Nero 6 does not work with Vista for example

[ccprincess]

It seems most of the packages do have only the option of Vista - and as for building my own and customising it would seem all the stuff that is included in the package I want - Vista will cost much more else where!

[vehelpfulguy]

Microsoft may be pressuring companies like PC World to put Vista on rather than XP.

In fact I think once a new operating system comes out Microsoft are reluctant to sell the previous one.

If PC World cant or wont sell you a PC with XP on it go to a another company who will build the PC and put whatever operating system on it you want.

Loads of companies can build a PC for you like Novatech.