Windows Vista forum: Windows Vista Bugs

When a new OS comes out, there are ALWAYS bugs. and i agree that most of it has to do with other companies not updating there software to be compatible. I suggest people wait a little while till Vista has been out for awhile then upgrade and then only after checking to see if there are updates for all there software and drivers. it may sound like too much work, but in the end, it is all worth it. This is what I do everytime and I dont go through the grief everyone else does. you just have to be patient and let the other software companies catch up. YES they should have already been prepared but most are not.

(This Post is actually to anyone that reads this, not aimed at photoham.) Hmmm. Seems a new OS is released in 2007! Wasn't there a new OS released in 2002, like Windows XP? Have we forgotten the problems with the release of Windows XP? My memory is fuzzy, for certain, but that was quite an advanced in Operating Systems over Windows 9x. It seems as many problems were created then, as now. This is expected. So everyone is not running on the same clock to release their drivers and 64 bit software. Not all software and hardware share equal complexities. Give each vender time; a year? More, maybe? For now, one should make a dual-boot; keep and/or first install Windows XP and then make a clean install of Windows Vista Business, Home Premium, or best, Windows Vista Ultimate, as the second OS. I will continue serious use of my trouble-free Windows XP (32 bit) platform and play with Windows Vista (64 bit on the Athlon 64 X2 platform) until all the hardware, drivers, and software I wish to use are replaced and/or updated. When the day the Vista side of my computer out-performs the XP side, then Windows Vista will become my primary OS. Windows XP will fade into the background as Windows ME and Windows 2000 did. I'm in no hurry, as 3rd party venders will develop better products when not rushed! As I find the time, I plan to enjoy tinkering with my new VISTA. Even reload it if need be...for I'm sure to "over-tinker" as usual...how else to discover what a new OS will do? I've already installed Microsoft Office Ultimate (2007) and what a sweet package this is. This is a very nice upgrade to the old Office 2003 Professional which seemed like a warmed over Office 2000 PRO (my opinion). The Outlook 2007 is great and Excel, Word, Access, Publisher have a most useful set of big tool bars/menus! Im only learning what more I can do now! Yes, I stumble while learning.the learning curve has not peaked. Oh! My first hardware update arrived today. I had to change from a Linksys EG1032-V3 1GHz NIC to an Intel PRO/1000 PT Desktop NIC. Seems the EG1032-V3 is a 32 bit only NIC and headed to a Windows Vista 64 bit, I needed this. Vista has the Intel driver(s). The EG1032-V3 works extremely well with Windows XP. Ill replace the Linksys LNE100 in my childs Window XP platform with the EG1032-V3 1000 MHz. Now, I should get to the bottom line and drive to the point I wish to make: ENJOY THE NEW EXPERIENCE! Dual-boot and DONT GIVE UP THAT WINDOWS XP, just yet! In about a year (plus/minus a few months), this new OS, the hardware drivers, and the 3rd party venders will harmonize, nicely! (stlaw01)

Look... This is how it is. Microsoft put the Vista OS out over a year ago in beta. There is no reason why the 3rd party vendors did not have drivers and software ready.

The 3rd party vendors may claim that they did not want develop software/drivers until the final version because they were worried that they may have to reengineer what they write while the product is in beta.

This is a misconception. The best time to develop drivers is while the OS is in beta. Hence the reason for the beta version. Driver and OS issues can be resolved before the final release of the OS.

No Printer Drivers... Shame on you HP, Xerox, and the other printer manufacturers.

No Audio Cards/Legacy Drivers... Shame on you Creative. (You had plenty of time to be CREATIVE)

Apple (iPod & iTunes) Shame on you Apple, you are on the top of my list. There is no reason why you software doesn't work with Vista. Crashing iPods. iTunes crashing. You had plenty of time! And for for the love of music, MAKE IT WORK WITH 64 bit machines! Is this really too much trouble? I have spent over $1000 on the iPod and it accessories to make it work everywhere else. It's apples job to make it work on my PC. Get it done! (perhaps you can sense my feeling on this one, or shall I find a place for another exclamation point?)

The only company that I know of that had their stuff together was Nvidia. They may have had issues on release but at least they had something there to work with. I am not sure about ATI as I do not use ATI.

You have to ask yourself... If you were a 3rd party vendor and you wanted to sell a lot of product , lets take printers for instance, would you not do some advanced preparation to be ahead of your competition?

For instance I bought my new computer 3 weeks ago. I found out that my old printer, an HP Photosmart 7550 had no drivers for Vista. It was at the end of it's life anyways. It was a good printer, but I was ready for something new. So I headed off shopping. I looked at everything, HP, Xerox, Brother, Epson, etc. Any one of these could have won my business that day. Unfortunatley, not a single one of them was equipped with Vista Drivers. Heck I would have even bought a printer from the company named 'ABC123 Try Me' if it had Vista drivers. It was the perfect time for new start up companies to make a name for themselves. ...Nothing... ...Nada... Noone interested.

The only thing Microsoft is guilty of is 'slowness to inovate.' It takes them for ever to come up with new ideas. But that is another topic entirely.

Why should we not hold these 3rd party companies accountable for not being prepared?


Thanks for the rant space.

Prior to jumping into a new o/s, one should make sure that the software they have currently is compatible and if not check with the manufacturer to see if there is an upgrade. If you are purchasing new software, it is your respinsibility to READ the box and see if it has any compatibility issues with your o/s. It is frustrating to find that you can't play that new game or use your old programs with your new system but ultimately, we are in the drivers seat and we must make informed decisions. Don't be so quick to keep up with the Jone's and all will be well.

Though I generally agree that third party hardware and software companies should share the blame for the incompatibilities, Microsoft should have assessed the playing field before going full scale with machines sold on the retail shelves. I know two new owners of Toshiba laptops who can't wait to get copies of XP to put on instead of struggling through Vista One is an iTunes user, and the other said her printer isn't compatible (and very upset about it). And what is up with Vista's requirement to require "at least" a Gig of RAM to run Home Premium??? That's just a sign of poor fundamental design. I mean, I run a department with about an equal amount of Macs and PCs. OS X Tiger can install on machines older than three years, with only 128 MB RAM, and they do quite well with that OS. Does Microsoft really think that we all have the money to go out and buy all new equipment because they wanted to make a hog of an OS that really needs 2 Gigs of RAM to run well???

The release of Vista is hardly a surprise; it's been promised for years. So, developers should have been prepared. Perhaps some thought it was another MS false alarm and did not want to waste effort on an OS that would never happen. There does seem to have been a rush by MS at the end to get the thing to market, which may have not given developers enough time, but if MS had to wait for every developer to get its act together, Vista would never come out.
Apple, which does major OS upgrades much more often, seems to have figured out a way to give its 3rd-party developers the information they need before a release, so users experience only minor bumps on the road. The initial release of OSX years ago was not smooth, but was corrected in the second release; perhaps MS could learn from the Apple experience.
For users, all this translates to varying degrees of overall usefulness/frustration to Vista, depending on what 3d party stuff they rely on. Next time, look before you leap. Or, leap to Mac?

OK, this is not shocking revelation. Vista has been on its way for over 2 years now. Third party vendors beware, you need to step up and put people on upgrades. I am tired of having to wait months and months to get adequate support for a new OS. Even software I bought in December was not compatible! The great HP should have software for my new AIW. I was amazed at the lack of attention DST got and how some updates were last minute and some are still pending. You can't blame Microsoft for that. Get a grip guys. I call MS to the carpet many times, but you can't always pass the buck. Then again, I have little expectations that this will change since so many times you set the bar so low on expedient upgrades. Another thing to consider, you not only impact consumers, but you make it a hundred times worse for corporate customers. It takes long enough to make upgrades happen in a large enterprise, delaying compatible software and drivers exasperates the situation further.

Wonder what you could have been doing if MS had done their job right.

To say that MS doesn't have to carry the blame for incompatibilities (software, drivers and hardware) is rubbish. It's like buying a new washing machine only then to find out it isn't compatible with the local power voltage! Do we then say it's up to the power company to alter its supply - or do we stick it up the washing machine manufacturer!
The question is a no brainer of course. So what is the differnce if the "washing machine" happens to be a new O/S?
We use our computers to do stuff; to work more effectively and efficiently. If MS (or any other software producer) tells us that there's an upgrade available to make getting stuff done even easier, then it is very much their responsibility to make sure the upgrade works properly. Why upgrade otherwise?? (Neither I nor my Company will move to Vista until and unless this situation is resolved by MS!)
Users are NOT software engineers. We only want to get our work done.

I built a machine very capable of running VISTA, but I'm not going to get involved with it until these "Compatibility" problems disappear.

Before people go blaming the third party software developers, maybe they should consider that Microsoft was the one that developed a new operating system and didn't make "it" compatable with the existing software that was already on the market.
Why should I have to go out and buy a new version of software I already have just because Microsoft can't be bothered to make their new operating system compatable with my word processing software or games that are a couple of years old.
This seems to me almost like it is an industry wide conspiricy to sell more software, regardless of the amount of money you spent on the software you already have. How about showing some loyalty to people that have already purchased software from these third party venders. Release updates available to all existing customers that require them and make them free.
I purchased two HP DV8140us notebooks 13 months ago at a total cost of a little under $4000 and it bothers me that in 12 months time the operating system on these computers will no longer be supported. At two years old these things will effectively be useless unless I "upgrade" to Vista. Upgrade my a**.

My verdict....So far I am not at all impressed with the way Vista has been pushed onto us and bugger the ones that don't want it. Come on!!!!!!!! Most of us computer users have spent alot of time and money on our existing computers and I think it unfair of Microsoft and the third party venders to expect us to shell out more just because they think we should, especially when we are happy with what we already have.
When I buy a new car, I don't expect the dealership to stop servicing and carrying out maintanence on it just because they have released a newer model. Nor do I expect the manufacturer to stop making and supplying replacement part just incase something needs fixing. Yet microsoft are trying to make me buy a new "car".

MS has been tooling up for VISTA for a v-e-r-y long time and subtracting features, altering the OS, delaying release, etc. throughout that period. If it weren't for [a] typical keep-your-cards-close-to-the-chest ultrasecrecy by MS and desire to keep real or imaginary competitors off-balance since, uh, forever....MS could have enabled third-party suppliers to offer appropriate drivers for current and legacy hardware and ......tah-dah: FUTURE hardware releases.

If I admired closed OS secrecy, I would go with Mac OS-X or wait a few months, swallow hard, and go with Vista. I have two other and better choices: [1] stay with Windows 2000 on my steady antique computer and semi-solid XP on three others until hell freezes over or [2] start migrating everything worth attention to Linux (Linspire and/or Ubuntu).

I am staying with these two. When my elderly but stable Dell laptop finally turns belly-up, I'll have to get another one. Dell's 800 number for business offered a Latitude with XP last week for about twice what Gateway or Toshiba offers in prices and features. My answer is to go with a non-Dell computer, pay for the unwanted Vista Home Premium, and boot off Linspire or Ubuntu.
End of rant.
J

I don't believe Microsoft is being treated fairly here. It is their job to develop an usable next-gen OS; it's not their job to make sure everything is compatible with the new OS. The third party developers should have had enough time to prepare for Vista - after all, it was the largest beta program of its kind - so blaming the incompatibility with Vista on Microsoft isn't fair. Of course, older machines won't be able to run Vista - but then, it was the same when XP came out. I believe it demanded a minimum RAM of 64MB - when PC RAMs were still in range of 16-32. Now, I may be wrong here, but my point is that Microsoft is not to blame for 100% of the fault. Look at those third party developers who did their homework and produced a program compatible with Vista.

I fervently believe that Microsoft should have ensured that older software and hardware would run on Vista. We poor old PC users can't afford to go out buying new software and hardware just so we can use Microsofts latest OS. I'll stick with XP thankyou, I know what will run on that and fancy GUI's never really grabbed me and that' all Vista offers.............Dave

M$ should have made sure Vista was backwards compatible with XP so that any software or hardware that worked with XP, would still work with Vista.

From my point of view, Vista is a total waste and I feel sorry for anyone who has it. It's not really any kind of improvement, aside from a couple of "bells and whistles" graphic feature, (aero glass), and it is a real resource hog. Making it virtually unusable without significant hardware upgrades. In a test lab training, we had Vista running on a machine with 512MB, (which MS claims as the minimum req). It ran, but just booted to the OS, not running any other apps, it used up over 400MB of RAM. That doesn't leave much for other things.

I work as a tech support specialist for Gateway Business Systems. Besides all the compatibility issues, sometime on or just prior to last Sun (3/11), there were some Windows Updates to Vista, which people got on their machines, (many w/o even realizing it). These updates caused Vista to crash and they were booting to the BSOD. Did MS miss people getting this and that is why they sent this latest update. We have had numerous calls all week with this same problem. Fortunately, it only took a couple days before we had a fix, booting to the OS DVD and running 3 DOS bootrec commands, that resolved the issue. But how many people aren't going to get this? How many people are going to reload, and loose all their data. Or maybe even worse, reload and not realize that Vista, by default, (unless you delete the existing partition during the reload), just installs another copy of Vista on the HDD. I had one customer who wound up with 4 copies of Vista on his HDD before I got him. I walked him thru a reload, deleting the partition, then making a new one, then loading Vista. After we turned off automatic updates.

All that said, there are some unscrupulous vendors who are taking advantage of this situation to bleed customers dry. One of my customers told me that his copy of QuickBooks would not run on Vista. He was told by Intuit that they would not be releasing a patch for this and he would have to purchase their latest version. This smacks of nothing more than a way to try and force people to buy software they would otherwise not need. I fully suspect a major conspiracy of collusion between M$ and hardware/software vendors.

It is so bad, another customer asked me how could he reload his system to XP, as he also owns a full retail version of XP.