Windows Vista

Post Reply New Topic

So what do all you guys think of Windows Vista?
Personally, I don't have it, but from what I've heard, I don't think I'd want it.

If you're happy with XP, then there's not much reason to upgrade to Vista.

However, if you're getting multiple BSoDs per day, like I was, then an upgrade would be a good idea.

Additional note that applies to gamers: Vista has DirectX 10, which is nice for graphics, but not for sound. The only audio hardware that can render surround sound or even basic echo effects under DX10 is Creative's SoundBlaster Audigy/X-Fi. (With these, the sound quality is the same as on XP.)

Windows 7 is slated for release very soon now. If you have XP, I would strongly recommend giving Vista (be it viewed as good OR bad here) a pass and just going to Win7 when it comes out (assuming you stay Microsoft).

And now for my "I'm-not-a-fanboy" tagline: There is, of course, the Mac or Linux route too if you are so inclined .

Vista has some major irritations. I curse it every day for one thing or another.

Yesteday I'd left a long running program running for several hours only to find out it was using the old version of the program and had consequently messed up 2 GB of data! On closer examination it turned out that Vista UAC had decided to protect an old exe (that shouldn't even have been under UAC protection in the first place) and had prevented the newer version of the exe from replacing it - BUT it hadn't brought up the UAC confirmation window and had merely ignored the command to replace the older file with the new one!! ! Consequently wrecking a lot of data and wasting a lot of time.

The file search feature in Vista is complete garbage. There is no direct way of getting into the advanced search window without doing some crummy search in the other box first. This means sometimes I have to type complete garbage into that box to search for, just to bring up the advanced window then type in what I really do want to search for. This merged run / find box is total crap.

Vista frequently forgets its folder settings and then switches to default views. Do I really want to give star ratings to spreadsheet files or data? No!

Vista crashes if there are zip files with lots of files in them - it tries to treat them as folders then chokes itself to death on them.

Vista temporarily hangs if you try to delete a lot of files in one go. It can sit there for several minutes saying "Preparing to delete". I now use the old DOS commands from the command line to do this immediately because Vista sucks so bad!

I could go on but I won't. Lots of irritations and shortcomings with Vista.

I'm currently running Windows 7 on my main PC and my EEE PC 1000H, which I upgraded to 2GB RAM. The OS runs silky smooth, and there are a lot of little improvements that elevate the overall experience. Networking in particular is much simpler to setup in Windows 7 compared to XP. I've quickly become very fond of the new UI and would recommend anyone still using XP to consider upgrading to Windows 7.

As for Vista, I have never used it extensively but have been avoiding it for some time, knowing that Windows 7 was around the corner. There is no point in getting Vista at this stage with the release of Windows 7 so close.

I bought a computer that came with a M$ OS installed. I booted up once to make sure the computer was running. I immediately shut down, ran fdisk, and proceeded to install Gentoo Linux. Once set up, I had no problem since. This is thr eoute I recommend for everyone unless they are a serious game head.

It's nice. If you have a computer that can run it properly. 2+ gigahertz dual core and 2+ gigabytes of RAM and your fine. My school got it this year and it's horrible on whatever they have.(486's?)

I have no problems with vista.. it works great for me so no complaints. dont really use any of the gadgets on the sidebar anymore and never use aero. I do like the little preview pictures of games/apps that popup when you hover over the taskbar. Not much else to say about it.

I wouldn't know. I went from XP to a Mac (Leopard 10.5, by the way).

I think the hate is a bit exaggerated in many ways, but there definitely are shortcomings with Vista. High energy consumption and constant freezing is one of them. I do prefer it over XP, but nowadays Linux is my thing (along with the occasional Windows 7 boot, just for syncing my iPod).

Ah, vista... I have fond memories of that terrible excuse for an OS. Random crashes, compatibility issues, the massive appetite for system resources...

But in all seriousness, there was one good thing that came out of it: I moved to linux :p

Windows only gets worse and worse.
BTW Windows 7 is VISTA aka "Mohave Project" or maybe "Solitaire 10".
Everyone knows how bad VISTA is so they'll buy anything not called VISTA.

And unless you are a computer whiz, you really should use a mac.
Although we generally prefer UNIX variants except for games.
You can't imagine how SICK(VIRUSES) and EVIL all versions of Windows are.
If you click I AGREE then EULA be sorry!
________________________________________________________________
Note: JOKE:
At a computer expo (COMDEX), Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated: "If GM had kept up with the technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25.00 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon."

In response to Bill's comments, General Motors issued a press release (by Mr. Welch himself) stating:


If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics:

1. For no reason at all, your car would crash twice a day.

2. Every time they repainted the lines on the road, you would have to buy a new car.

3. Occasionally, executing a manoeuver such as a left-turn would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, and you would have to reinstall the engine.

4. When your car died on the freeway for no reason, you would just accept this, restart and drive on.

5. Only one person at a time could use the car, unless you bought 'Car95' or 'CarNT', and then added more seats.

6. Apple would make a car powered by the sun, reliable, five times as fast, and twice as easy to drive, but would run on only five per cent of the roads.

7. Oil, water temperature and alternator warning lights would be replaced by a single 'general car default' warning light.

8. New seats would force every-one to have the same size butt.

9. The airbag would say 'Are you sure?' before going off.

10. Occasionally, for no reason, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key, and grabbed the radio antenna.

11. GM would require all car buyers to also purchase a deluxe set of road maps from Rand-McNally (a subsidiary of GM), even though they neither need them nor want them. Trying to delete this option would immediately cause the car's performance to diminish by 50 per cent or more. Moreover, GM would become a target for investigation by the Justice Department.

12. Every time GM introduced a new model, car buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.

13. You would press the 'start' button to shut off the engine.

^ Very old joke but still funny.

So funny, yet so true!

Vista is good, but I'm looking forward to upgrading my computer to Windows 7 for 30 dollars (thanks to a student discount). I tried the Release Candidate 1 and it was pretty good. I like Linux (my favorite distro is Linux Mint, which is based on Ubuntu, comes with all of the video and audio codecs and is very compatible), but it's all about what programs are available for the system, and because of that, Windows will always win.

Is it me, or is Microsoft improving after Bill Gates left the company?

Constant freezing? Are you sure that you're not talking about XP?


Again, that sounds more like XP.

Seriously, Vista doesn't crash on me like XP did multiple times per day... Usually, it put the blame onto nv4_disp.dll. Vista never does this. Ever. I can play games without randomly getting a BSoD.