Buzz Out Loud Lounge forum: Silent Vista-loving majority?

The reason people have problems with software and hardware drivers isn't because Vista screwed something up, it's because the software was written badly in the first place. You can see the most common problem simply by trying to use a "user" account instead of an administrator on either XP or Vista. A lot of software - especially games - will die because they violate guidelines that have existed since Win 9x: save data created by users in user-specific locations. Games in particular tend to save configuration files and saved games to their installation folder, which is read-only unless you're an administrator. Try making your kids a user account on your XP machine and see how many of their games and learning programs blow up with a useless error message or just die silently.

Drivers similarly take shortcuts, or keep code that worked on older less secure versions of Windows, and big surprise they don't work as Microsoft progressively plugs holes so bad drivers can't destroy you machine.

There are other reasons too, but the fact is that a _lot_ of software is just written badly. As someone who writes software myself, I often can't believe the low quality of work that well-known companies let out their door.

I really like Vista and a lot of the things that are just part of the built-in user experience. Having said that, 3 years was way to long to wait for what (at least to the end user) is mainly a UI upgrade. Yes, a _lot_ of stuff was improved under the covers too, but at the end of the day when you're asking people to shell out a few hundred bucks for an upgrade it's going to be the visible benefits people are looking for ... and in all honesty I can see why people don't think it's worth it when they already have XP up and running the way they want.

My only real pet peeve is User Account Control. It's a really good and necessary idea, but the implementation is really annoying and it's the first thing I had to turn off.

I like Vista. It is reliable and pretty. My computer works well and is fast (I use only office software and do some picture editing). The trouble I find relates to Vista itself, not the way it deals with other software. It is absurd that I cannot disable Parents Control since I am the only user and for this reason the popup little window reminds me to turn on its features every time I reboot. I have tried everything imaginable to disable Parents Control to no avail. Very annoying... Microsoft should correct this problem.

I just got a new computer with Vista and have not encountered any problems so far. I think it is much easier to use that WindowsXP, which I never really liked all that much. I think people are just resistant to change and yes there are always bugs in new software, but when they are worked out, Vista will be praised by more people.

Eventually I have to say Vista will be the OS that everyone, will have sooner or later. So far I haven't had any major problems since I upgrade to Vista, but I have to say there was a few issues like some programs I had didn't work properly after the upgrade. So what I did was to either check for drivers for that program that works with vista or just replace it for one that works with vista. The only major problem so far is that I recently purchased a Dell SP2208WFP Monitor, and for son reason the Webcam applications, or I better say the Webcam is not working properly. I contact dell technical support, and they tried to help for three days, and at the end neither them were able to help he solve the issue. But I n general I have to say Vista is the future, and eventually everybody will have to upgrade to Vista.

I have 3 computers at home: a 5 year old Dell desktop, a (fairly) new Dell Inspiron E1705 laptop, both running XP, and a brand new HP 1320TX laptop, running Vista. both laptops have 2 GB RAM, and let me tell you, compared to the XP system, the Vista system is barely crawling. First of all, that user account manager thing is a piece of <bleep>. It made everything so unnecessarily difficult. My wife and I started avoiding that laptop because it just made everything slower and harder. She even went back to her old desktop, which is still (on 512MB RAM) way faster than her new laptop. Now that I turned off the user acccounts manager it gave us some breathing room, but it is still unacceptably slow for a dual processor. i am planning on returning to XP, although HP support is not offering this option. still, they gave me links for all the XP drivers that i would need.
there were very few nice things about vista, right now all i can think about is the preview of the windows when you hold your mouse on the buttons on the taskbar, but really it's not worth keeping Vista just for that, besides, i bet there are 3rd party applications that would do that in XP.
so, to summarize, GIVE ME BACK MY XP!!!

"type in folder/file name and it will recognize all that you type, not just the first letter, and go to it" - actually XP does that too!!!

"windows defender is built in to defend from malware" - ally, there are so many better alternatives... although i understand why this would help a novice. however, you're not a novice.

"there is a built-in mail client windows mail" - doesn't XP come with Outlook Express too?

"search in start bar is nice"; "windows sidebar and gadgets" - I assume that your computer, just like mine, is an HP that came with Google desktop preinstalled. Those are both Google desktop apps, not windows vista. so you can install them on XP...

"when file extensions are viewable and you go to rename a file, it does not select the file extension" - really, did it bug you so much that you had to switch "view file extensions" on/off to do the same? maybe you want to change the extension? there's extra work there, then

on most of the other statements, i agree more or less with you, but still they're not significant enough for the drain on resources that Vista implies

I've been running Vista Ultimate on two home built systems for over a year now and I run some pretty tough games as well, like Crysis and Bioshock, as well as older games like Prey, Half-Life, Quake and Doom and Vista has performed very well. Like Windows XP in it's beginning, hardware manufacturers just don't seem to get ready for what they know is coming and don't get the drivers ready for the new OS's, or they make the decision to never provide the drivers so you'll come buy a new piece of hardware from them. But look folks, Vista works and works well, so buy a new system with confidence, and don't look back. But be careful if upgrading, for you'll need plenty of memory.
Shireytx

I upgraded from XP to Vista Ultimate in January, and I actually like it! No major problems.

I was concerned about switching to Vista, but bought a new Gateway with Vista installed and have not had a real problem. I am content with the OS.

I was just about to toss out my HP All-in-One Office Jet because the fax quit working with my XP machine. I purchased a new Vista computer, hooked up the printer and all is well. It saved me $500. Apart from Vista's love for huge RAM, I'm pretty happy with it.

Oil politics asside, if you ever have the chance to visit redmond, you should. A college-like campus with free drinks, and when they throw a party for a launch or something, tons of food, free booze, etc. You may not like the price of the software (which I would imagine is driven by demand) but the company isn't stingy. Though they could spring for a few more parking spaces!

after a slow start with driver issues, which were really NVidia's falut not, MS, I've been running Vista, 64bit no less, for about a year and love it. It looks great, runs good, no real complaints.

For me, Vista 32 is much more stable than XP. No, Vista does not run every bit of software I own, but for my work requirements, it operates just fine. Of course, I had to gag that annoying 'security cop' feature to keep it from asking me if I really wanted to do something, but once he was tied up and gagged, Vista and I have gotten along just fine.

My home computer is XP pro and that thing locks fairly regularly but that may be due to the fact that I multitask until it chokes. :0)

The Vista release at Midnight reminded me of the last time I waited in line into the wee hours to obtain a Microsoft OS. It was Windows 95. The departure from Windows 3.11 was to be the end all of computing.

It took 3 days to get Windows 95 up and running and I loved every minute of it. I think I slept about 4 hours over that 3 day period. But there it was in all its shining glory. I didn't get up from my home office chair for a week.

Vista was released in much the same way. There I was at 10:00pm standing in line at Best Buy with 30 or 40 other first release hopefuls. Only this time there were free cheeseburgers and hotdogs on the grill, sodas and a DJ spinning some tunes. There were Microsoft reps giving away those neoprene can cozies and other branded swag. Enough hoopla to keep the excitement from waning as the witching hour approached.

As the doors opened just past 10:00pm we were let in one at a time in single file and we were handed a USB thumbdrive (more MS branded swag) and a flyer with specials. Each store was to give away a top of the line HP laptop in a drawing, so my first stop was to fill out the entry form and drop it in the box.

I perused the newest 'Vista ready' laptops and found a laptop attached to a big screen plasma in the back of the store. It was online and running Vista. With no one around to tell me to go away, I sat down and started going over the features like I was sitting in my own living room.

Best Buy announced that you could purchase your copy of Vista prior to midnight, and have it waiting for you so you could leave as soon as the release was authorized by the in-store Microsoft reps. I bought Vista Ultimate upgrade since I already own XP. It came with both 32 and 64 bit versions on two separate DVD's.

Gathering all my swag I waited patiently for the laptop drawing, which ended up going to the guy sitting next to me. Always the bridesmaid and never the bride...damn. So I went to the customer service desk, picked up my prepaid and bagged copy of Ultimate and headed home for another Microsoft OS all nighter.

Now this was not my first 'upgrade' experience so I faithfully had my original XP disc on standby as I formatted my hard drive and prepared for a fresh installation of Vista Ultimate. The excitement was building as I stared at the clean slate before me waiting for new life to be breathed into it. I plunked the 64 bit disc into the DVD tray and rebooted, anxious to unleash the 64 bit power of my AMD Athlon 64 bit processor.

It booted into a familiar MS installation sequence and I was on my way. I went through the installation options, entered the lengthy serial number and then it happened. "You must install this version from within Windows". The upgrade process no longer required previous ownership validation by popping the original installation disc from your previous OS into the CD tray. Vista 'upgrade' would only install from an already existing, validated XP installation. Damit!

So I spent hours reinstalling XP, just so I could upgrade it. Not a happy camper at this point. The clock is ticking and I'm already tired.

I start the upgrade from within XP and it says in order to format the drive for a clean install, I need to boot from the disc. So I did. Re-entered all the info again and lo and behold I get the same message "You must install this version from within Windows". Apparently you cannot do a fresh install with the upgrade at all. Now I'm really mad.

I boot back into XP, start the upgrade process and follow the prompts until hours later I finally boot into Vista Ultimate. The first problem I had was it would not detect my network card so I had no Internet to get updates and drivers. It was a standard Linksys card and Vista was blind to it. Ugghh.

I used my laptop, found some drivers and transferred them via the new thumbdrive Microsoft gave me. Now I see the logic in that giveaway.

Things get a little better from here, other than to say 64 bit drivers are virtually non-existent and this point. I get by with help from forum blogs packed with people offering problems and some solutions.

I ended up dumping 64 bit and reinstalling 32 bit. It has been running faithfully side by side with my XP machine on the same network. I stayed with it through all the slamming, insults and general hate mongering. I took time to get to know it and all its quirks.

I don't like the search feature, preferring the old method of file searching but it has been very stable and as my favorite programs became updated to accommodate Vista, my computing life normalized under the new Vista banner.

With the release of Vista SP1, I found many minor annoyances have disappeared and it seems to be running like clockwork. Now it seems that every program I look at, or piece of hardware I covet are now Vista compatible. The long walk through the desert of loneliness has ended and I am better for having endured it. I have seen the face of Vista, and it is good.

Ken Wilson
San Diego CA

Been using it without problems and in some ways it is better. Some folks just have issues.