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Windows Vista: Poll: What’s your personal experience with Vista?
- 5/7/08 10:29 PM
The Vista Nightmare
by sheltonreb - 5/10/08 7:46 AM In reply to: Poll: What’s your personal experience with Vista? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I'm not a MS basher, and have used all incarnations of Windows, and was pretty satisfied with XP. However, Vista is the nightmare I cannot wake up from that has cost my business dearly, which is what puts me in the "own it but have a lot of problems" category. Actually, if there had been a "own it and am switching to something else as soon as I can" category I would have been in that. Just a few lowlights: the UAC causes so many problems, delays, irritations and outright malfunctions that I had to turn it off (so much for improved security). Despite being on a 2.66 quad-core, Vista is ssssllllloooooowwwww. My son's 1.4 single core running XP runs circles around it. It's so slow I had to turn off the graphics "enhancements". The "Windows Genuine" is constantly causing problems as the OS keeps fooling itself into thinking it's not legitimate (the 2007 Office Suite is even worse), and the online authentication never works, so I spend hours and hours on the phone with the MS folks in India for no good reason trying to get software I paid for to quit shutting down my property. Even the DRM malfunctions, shutting down my media center and media player. There are hundreds of my files that Vista refuses to even allow me to open, and no amount of "taking ownership" and tweaking the admin settings will get it to let me use my own files. There is whole lot more, but the hundreds of hours lost on these defects are simply a nightmare which SP1 did nothing for (apparently because these defects are mostly by design, not error or omission). If you are a Vista user and happy, I'm glad for you, but give it time, as many of these defects don't jump out at you right away, and you may find yourself in a nightmare too.
user account turn off
by headmam - 5/10/08 8:37 AM In reply to: The Vista Nightmare by sheltonrebturn off user accounts in control panel.
Smooth OS Sailing
by cmcleavy - 5/10/08 7:52 AM In reply to: Poll: What’s your personal experience with Vista? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I've had Vista in my HP Compaq purchased last spring and have really been surprized that it just works!
The only thing that may bug me is my impatience while I'm waiting for the next screen to pop up when I have selected a link, and the cursor is no where to be found, or should I say, no indication that there is background activity going on - which would acknowlege that my mouse click has been addressed. (This may be a function of MY pc, not the OS...)
My wife uses Vista like any other appliance-open it, use it, close it, no complaints from her at all.
'Just an observation' being honest.
Chaz
I wonder...
by rbsjrx - 5/10/08 8:36 AM In reply to: Poll: What’s your personal experience with Vista? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
...how many people here actually understand what an OS is supposed to do? After reading many of the comments, both pro and con, I see people both praising and condemning Vista for things that really have nothing to do with the OS itself.
What is an OS?
by kjellw - 5/11/08 6:29 PM In reply to: I wonder... by rbsjrxCertainly Microsoft does not know what an OS should do both from a functionality and a terminology standpoint... No wonder there are people out there being slightly confused...
Also it took MS many, many years to discover that the iNTEL processors had both protection for process to process and user to user from the 286 forward. Just amazing! And the way they (MS) screwed up the interupt structure took about 10 years to remedy! And you can still hang/crash the OS with a wronly formatted floppy... Just swell!
Not a mature OS for sure!
by snottgaard - 5/10/08 3:20 PM In reply to: Poll: What’s your personal experience with Vista? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Had to replace old Pentium4 2GB pc last fall - got an HP Pavillion multimedia box, Quad-core Intel, 3GB RAM. It kinda works, but MUCH slower than the old box with XP, even with faster hardware. Mic/Phone jacks front & rear don't work & HP help says 'open box and wiggle wires' - what a joke! Have turned off UAC, all fancy interface goodies and disabled desktop search, but still slow! Even with an Admin account Vista will not let me do things that were easy under XP. Cannot revert to XP as hardware drivers not available, so leaves me little choice. Next PC will NOT be Windows - Mac or Linux. MS OS's are way too bloated with eye candy and the Registry is a nightmare for all but the MS gurus. Ten to twenty more lines of code in this desktop OS than in IBM's OS for their big enterprise boxes! Never use IE except for Windows updates - Firefox MUCH faster & more stable. Spend half of pc time on scans and updates, got getting work done!!!
Vista works great.
by JackHS - 5/10/08 4:25 PM In reply to: Poll: What’s your personal experience with Vista? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Dear Forum Members,
Having installed 'Vista Ultimate' on my fairly new PC, with 2x320 GB HD, 2GB ram, 8800GTX VGA card, MS Office 2003, and multiple other applications, I can honestly state that after working with it for the In past 10 months, I find 'Vista' excellent to work with.
Mind you, I kept my 'Windows XP' going,and still use it, thus having tested the water by dipping my toes first, so to speak.
In my experience with 'Vista'; I find it the most stable of all versions since 'Windows V3.' having worked with all versions, bar 'NT'.
I had to acquire a new compatible broadband modem, and some of my existing software which worked in Win98 and Win EM or XP, plus a number of other small apps proved incompatible.
Since having become familiar with 'Vista', and ensuring that ALL hardware and software and particularly drivers, are compatible, it is a pleasure to work with it.
What is all the fuss about? The silent majority of Vista users - of which I am only one - must be happy?
Bouquets to Microsoft!!!
Jack H Scheele
BOO!! to the worst. (Millenium)
Vista Areo vs Ubuntu Beryl
by Albertv - 5/10/08 7:47 PM In reply to: Vista works great. by JackHS"Dear Forum Members,
Having installed 'Vista Ultimate' on my fairly new PC, with 2x320 GB HD, 2GB ram, 8800GTX VGA card, MS Office 2003, and multiple other applications, I can honestly state that after working with it for the In past 10 months, I find 'Vista' excellent to work with."
I am happy for you friend.
Have you tried switching the hard drive and run the identical software and hardware in XP?
If you were able to do that you would find speed being significantly better and you would wonder what all the fuss is about with people liking Vista, you would discover Vista is slow. If you are impressed with the candy in Vista you have not seen the wonders of "WINDOWS VISTA AERO VS LINUX UBUNTU BERYL" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xC5uEe5OzNQ
Vista is pedestrial compared to this and you payed how much?
This speaks to my previous point...
by rbsjrx - 5/10/08 10:27 PM In reply to: Vista Areo vs Ubuntu Beryl by AlbertvRe: "WINDOWS VISTA AERO VS LINUX UBUNTU BERYL" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xC5uEe5OzNQ
Beryl is a 3D window manager for the GNOME desktop environment that runs on Linux. That is why I said that much of both the praise and complaints about Vista has little to do with the OS, per se. In the Linux world, the distinction between the various parts that make up a GUI are clearly defined and specific bits may be changed out to suit the user's preferences. (Viewing it from a software engineering perspective, even Windows is built to this same model, except that Microsoft hides the details and doesn't like to allow 3rd party bits to be used.)
The underlying OS in each case is Linux, but the desktop environment may be GNOME, KDE, Xfce, or others. Going further, the default window managers in each may be changed out for whatever effects the user would like. What's on display in the cited video is Beryl running with GNOME running on Linux.
Microsoft would have its users believer the whole package - OS, desktop environment, and window manager - are the "operating system". Moreover, because is so tightly interwoven, customization is limited, a "my way or the highway" approach.
Returning to the point, when each function is clearly delineated, bugs are easier to isolate and fix. Another nice point is that while each desktop environment comes with its own set of default applications, the user is free to use others. For example, GNOME uses the Nautilus file manager while KDE uses either the Konqueror or Dolphin file managers. However, under either Gnome, KDE, or even Xfce, I always use Krusader, an alternate file manager designed for KDE (which is modeled on Total Commander for Windows).
Also returning to the topic at hand, switching out the window manager or desktop environment may have a significant impact on memory footprint and speed. If you have a fast machine with a powerful graphics card, then use Beryl on GNOME. If you have a powerful machine without a serious graphics card, then KDE is probably better (it's also very Windows-like). Not quite so fast, try GNOME. Finally, if you have an older, slower, or memory-limited machine, then use Xfce.
However.....
by Igiveup2 - 5/12/08 9:25 AM In reply to: This speaks to my previous point... by rbsjrxThere are some third party desktop window manager add-ons for Windows that are quite good. My favorite one is Yodm3d 1.4 (freeware):
http://www.download3k.com/System-Utilities/Other-Utilities/Download-Yod-m-3D.html
I prefer it to the Beryl-Gnome desktop cube. It has easier configuration, more functional pointer-based switching options, cleaner zoom/rotate action, the option to have a different wallpaper for each desktop, and the ability to navigate to a window on any desktop through a taskbar menu. Moving windows between desktops is as easy as with the Beryl-Gnome cube. Its RAM footprint is about 70 mb.
I also prefer the native desktop switcher in Ubuntu to the Beryl cube with one caveat: the default scroll-based window switching is terrible for laptops. The non-configurable touchpad scroll zone is too wide, so accidental desktop switches are virtually unavoidable. The only way to change the setting is by downloading the Compizconfig settings manager. That should not be necessary to get decent functionality from one of the banner features of Ubuntu.
Two other drawbacks to the Beryl-Gnome cube. It doesn't seem completely stable. I got kicked to the login screen while using it. That was the only time I had that happen in Ubuntu. The graphics rendering in Ubuntu is not of the same quality as in Vista. The 3d cube effects tend to highlight its weakness with a jerky, jaggy appearance. That is not a problem with the graphics chip or RAM. Those issues do not occur when booted into Vista on the same machine.
How to overcome vista x64 problems
by shadzovgrae - 5/10/08 4:52 PM In reply to: Poll: What’s your personal experience with Vista? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I am currently using vista x64 ulimate and have found there to be so many compatiblity issues with it concerning both hardware and software that I almost gave up on the OS as being nothing more than a bad joke and humongous rip off by microsoft.
I use a lot of desktop customisation software from stardock and found that non of it would work under vista x64, even when using the compatibility feature by right clicking on the .exe file(s) and telling them to run as XP Service pack 2 compatible I would get the message "an exception has occured" Vista's way of telling you the program is not compatible.
The one thing that got me through it though was to download the vlite program and use it to rip the guts out of what is on the installation disc. The program offers one very important function, that being to stop certain services from loading as enabled by default. Some of these services, like Data Execution Prevention will stop heaps of XP compatible software from running and once loaded I found it to be impossible to turn off. The vlite program will allow you to do this so that Data Execution Prevention is loaded as turned off by default. I also used the program to strip out things that seriously slow down the vista OS like all of the language packs (over 1.3 gb of hdd space used), Wallpapers, video and music samples etc and a lot of the generic driver packs supplied by Microsoft. I found that as a gamer, leaving that stuff to load by default was a stupid idea. Especially as I supply all of ny own drivers anyway. Any unsigned drivers can be made to load and run successfully by running the bcdedit command.
Now I have a Vista OS that loads as fast and runs as good as XP ever did and better.
ps - Just be careful with turning off some of the security services
Horrible!! thanks to Microsoft Vista I turn to Apple.
by lattedude92 - 5/10/08 8:53 PM In reply to: Poll: What’s your personal experience with Vista? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
enough said, i am done with windows. I am just a home user to Apple is the way to go....
Windows Vista home premium
by cb5744 - 5/11/08 1:12 AM In reply to: Poll: What’s your personal experience with Vista? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I am running Vista home premium and although it is slower to boot up than XP the overall opereating system is much better. I can truthfully say that I have had no problems with Vista and thne slower boot up speed is a small price to pay for a much better OS
Follow up to my first post
by Glenn51 - 5/11/08 3:43 AM In reply to: Poll: What’s your personal experience with Vista? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I've been tracking this discussion since I first posted my comments.
Since then I've been amazed at some of the post's. Maybe I'm one of the lucky ones' who have had nothing but good results with Vista.
But I took it upon myself to do a little searching and found some posts by a Cnet/ Zdnet contributing writer, Ed Bott. There are 2 links to his articles as posted on Zdnet:
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=436
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=437
these 2 articles are named "Fixing Windows Vista Part 2 + Part 3", there is one more BUT it deals with a specific brand of computer.
Just remember the original, brand new XP out of the box, minus SP1 and SP2 wasn't a full blown swan. It was a ugly duckling that took 2, count them, 2 SP's to straighten out the bugs and as I'm typing this I'm downloading SP3 for my Granddaughters XP machine.
Now for the Apple Dumpling crew, who will lead you to believe every-
thing in Mac land is pristine is a third link by the same author about
problems in Mac land titled "Why do Macs need so much fixing?", so there is ALSO trouble in Mac land, ergo if your thinking about bailing
out to a Mac expecting NO PROBLEMS in Mac land, THINK AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!
Link to "Why do Macs need so much fixing?":
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=446
Bottom line- there is NO PERFECT right out of the box OS!! Each has its own unique set of problems, will take several updates/ upgrades to make "swans".
I've seen "New Computers being offered with as little as 1GB of memory", no wonder these machines are slow and have problems. So if you are a "Vista Stinks" person check out the first 2 links, even if you have to do it on a XP box! Tweak your Vista machine with Ed's tips
and see if you can get your machine up to speed! Plus if you have a box with less than 3 GB's memory you should up the memory!!
As for the Macaholics who would lead you to believe theres no problem in "Mac Land" I again say "go home" post to your own forums or better yet help your fellow Mac people straighten out their problems in Mac land. Stop trying to tell me and others that "Mac is good and Mac is beautiful" when your OS is just as clunky as Vista!! Straighten up your own house before trying to tell me my house needs cleaning.
As a footnote I'm surprised that the "moderators" didn't at least reference Eds' tips to people having "bad Vista experiences".
not my favorite OS
by beelissa - 5/11/08 1:38 PM In reply to: Poll: What’s your personal experience with Vista? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I have several anecdotes to share:
My husband purchased a low-end desktop last year that has 512 mb of RAM and it's definitely not built to use Vista, though Vista is installed on it. It's really, really slow and annoying. I never use it.
My husband also purchased a "Vista-ready" Lexmark printer that wouldn't not work with the above computer. HP (the computer mfg) said it might be Vista-ready and still not compatible. Ditto for my router, though I managed to get the router to work with it. But we had to swap printers, HP would give me support to get an HP printer working with the computer, so I swapped the Lexmark with our old HP.
I spent several hours last week making slides for a women's retreat that my church was holding at a Christian camp nearby. We were told we had to bring a laptop and the camp would supply the projector. So, apparently the ladies got up there and the laptop (running Vista) was not compatible with the projector, and they never were able to use the slides I made. I never thought such a thing could happen.
My old laptop died and I just got a Vista one last week. I've had it 6 days. It has Vista Home Premium and 3 Gb RAM. It runs much better than the one my husband has (I've been told since we purchased my husband's computer that Vista really needs at least 2 Gb). But I still have issues. Two or 3 times (mind you, this is in only 6 days of use) it's temporarily frozen on me, for maybe 2-3 min. each time. I get that spinning circle that just spins and spins and doesn't give me a CLUE what's going on. I even got "(Not Responding)" on the title bar of the apps that were running (Firefox and Open Office Writer) and then, inexplicably, everything just came back.
I also have been unable to get the Vista machine to network. My husband's too. We can see my husband's computer on the network, but we don't have access to it. And we can't seem to share printers. The only thing they share is the broadband connection. The other computers on the network (2 old Dells running Win 2000 Pro and a Playstation 3, plus the laptop that died which was running XP.
I was really happy with XP. I got a very low number of errors and it was just an overall great OS. I don't see why they changed it.
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