Windows Vista forum: Microsoft admits Vista failure

Dell "going back to XP"? No, Dell offers XP for some machines for another 6 months. That's all. Nothing.

KE

there is no way on God's green Earth (or, at least, the parts that are still green) that I'd go to Vista.

Everyone who thinks it's "wonderful--it seems--is some minda computer geek who can figure it all out. I'm no. I'm just a user.

Everyone--it seems--who is "just a user" can't get the blasted thing to work right.

I've even had complaints from people who bought their new computer and didn't hook ANYTHING to it. They just used what's there. Sorry. They TRIED to use what's there.

Nope. Not for me. You hotshots go ahead and say how wonderful it is, but I';ve heard from people just like me.

There are some very savy computer people on this forum, I am not one of them.
I get by because I am retired, my wife passed away so I have lots of time. I can read and understand most of what I read and I ask questions which is all that is really necessary.
As far as that article about Vista being ME 11 and Dell going back to XP, that is really funny. Did you see where the dude who wrote it is from? Beijing China!
He says that Vista is very hard to pirate, maybe that is why he is so upset, people from that country are known for pirating software.
Dell is not the only computer company that is offering computers with XP.
My son is buying a new HP computer for his business and was asked if he wanted Vista ultima or XP pro. What does that prove? nothing more than he has a choice.
We all have our own opinons, mine is I like Vista very much and the only problem is the Venders will not get their heads out of their rears and release the drivers and software for Vista.

Like edbrady, I am just a regular everyday user- who is NOT a computer Geek. I work on one everyday, and do not consider myself as computer/technology challenged. However Vista would challenge anyone with its irresularities and inconcisistancies.

I purchased myself a brand new Dell Inspirion 1501 for my birthday two weeks ago- I received it on 4/13-For a week my computer shut down or locked up every single time I tried to do anything.

Frustrated as Hell I called Dell support, and was advised that the only way I could get XP put on my new laptop was to either completly remove everything off my hard drive, install XP , and then reinstall all of my programs- OR...Let the tech help me.

I was so livid at the time, that I told the tech that Dell could take the damn thing back- because all I was doing was troubleshooting to see if I could figure out why I was shutting down every five minutes-
The tech (In India) was very knowledgable (THANK GOD)...the culprit for shutting down my new computer? McAfee...

Apparently something Dell knows will cause the system to freeze up or shut down- However they push to sell you (in my case) a 3 year anti-virus package...

The tech removed McAfee off my computer, downloaded a free virus software to it (AVG), and told me to call Dell to get my three year McAfee services credited. Once McAfee was gone, it started working like clockwork.

Now- I have not yet added a printer- nor have I tried any out of the way applications- so I might be happy for no reason- but I feel a sense of joy since I am now able to at least navigate using this screwy operating system.

What I think SUX, is that as a consumer, I can not pick what I want- I was basically told that- We sell Vista, and you have no choice- Take it or leave it- I even argued with the sales person that I DID NOT want Vista- but he said it did not matter this is all that Dell sells with its new computers- I unfortunalely learned (when XP came out) the horrors of new operating systems.

If I had had a choice, Vista WOULD NOT have been a consideration for me. I understand that Dell is now offering a choice to XP now- I am definately going to be calling them regarding this as this would be my operating system of choice...

If all you people trashing Vista would run the operating system on a computer with compatible hardware and software you would not have all these problems. For those of you who bought a new computer with Vista already installed and having problems, I would suggest you remove the incompatible software and hardware that was preinstalled by the computer vendor (this includes their own incompatible junk they have installed on your hard drive, often in a hidden partition). I have installed and run Vista Premium 32 bit, Ultimate 32 bit and Ultimate 64 bit on my computer, with no problems whatsoever. Vista is far superior and faster than XP and is much more secure. Am I a defender and apologist for Microsoft? Not hardly. I don't like Microsoft because I think they are corporate bullies and they are highly monopolistic in everything they do. However, their software is the best in the world. Give credit where credit is due. Why is Dell offering XP on their computers again? It has nothing to do with the Vista software. Dell is losing market share to HP. If you want to buy an HP computer feel free to do so. Don't be upset when when you can't find drivers and you can't get the support you deserve. You get what you pay for. I don't like Dell either but that is the only computer I will buy. Why? Because of their support (including immediate replacement of defective hardware), which is the finest in the world.

The machines coming from Dell, HP, Compaq and others have Vista preloaded so try and read these posts before you start in on MS bashing. These machines have the Vista hardware and drivers preloaded, do you get this as it has nothing to do with people's old machines or hardware. You don't have to go to a museum to see there are a lot of people having problems with their NEW machines, so climb down off your soap box, you've played a tune nobody wants to hear.

I had Windows ME. I almost never bought another Microsoft product!! I had a state of the art HP desktop that cost over $2000!!It was the worst computer I ever owned. Unstable, crashed all the time, slow, Un-secure!! Terrible!!

Vista on a $700 laptop is very stable, fast, much more secure and has some really nice software integrated into the OS.

Have the people who have been complaining actually used Vista? I imported photos from my Cannon camera without the instalation disk. Then I made a movie with the photos in windows movie maker and burned my own dvd. It was awesome.

The UAC that some people are whining about is an awesome feature. The main weakness in Windows was the fact the user was logged in as the admin and any program could install itself. Now Windows is like apple and Linux and asks permission to have a program install!! Awesome!! Now malware can't just run or install on my PC. This is a major improvement and not an annoyance!

The GUI on Vista is really stunning. I like it better than the old aqua user interface on the mac.

Mac OS10 is great. I had an iBook before I got my new laptop. Security wise OSX is pretty tough. Apple uses the open source BSD/Unix code for the base of it OS with a proprietary mach microkernel. Mach is not so great but Unix is rock solid. If Windows would update their filesystem and keep up the trend they have started they may be able to finally compete with Linux and OSX in areas they have been superior for some time now.

Every new OS has issues, and every OS has its strenths and weaknesses. OSX is great if you like a one size fits all aroach. Linux is really very, very good and probably better than OSX and Vista in some ways but compatibility is a major achilees heal and until Linux has a bigger market share and is more compatible then it may be a serious contender. There are other ssues with Linux as well but I will not go into tat here. Vista is my choice of OS and I can use Linux, OSX or XP!!

People need to judge the OS on what is can do and how it runs on the proper hardware. Also complaining about compatibility really has nothing to d with the OS or Microsoft.

Robzilla

Seriously, why did you buy Vista ? What does it do that XP will not ? Xp runs games faster than Vista although that may change in the future as does all PC software. If Vista changes with SP1 why buy it now ? If it turns out that it doesn't do everything MS told us it would, how would anyone justify buying it ?
The advice of many seems clear, if you don't need Vista, don't buy it and I still can't see why anyone would need it. Notice I said need not want as there is a very big difference. Fact is MS has said it would never again wait longer than 5 years to bring another OS to retailers. If this is true, why not wait for the next version of Windows and it's SP1 ?

After reading all the garbage from the MS haters, I wasn't in a hurry to get Vista either. However, I recently went to a charity auction and got a great price on Vista Ultimate. I ran the Vista Advisor to see how my system would do with Vista and the only negative I got was re my Epson scanner (Epson says they are not going to do a driver for my model.)

Since I wanted to do a clean install, I disconnected my XP Pro C drive and installed Vista on a clean drive. I then reconnected my XP Pro drive and went into BIOS to change the boot drive order so that Vista would load on boot-up. If I want to go back to XP for any reason, all I have to do is reorder the boot drive order in BIOS.

The only trouble I've had so far is that Vista did not recognize my 56K modem and was unable to supply a driver for it. This didn't really effect me since I access the Internet with a cable modem. Still, I don't like looking at error messages. So, I slipped down to Fry's Electronics and bought a new $20 56K modem that Vista can use if ever necessary. End of error messages.

While my Vista operation is fairly new, I have to say the computer seems to run faster than it ever did with XP Pro. To my eye, websites on the Internet load much faster and regular programs such as Excel, Word and Quicken seem to load much faster also. Then, there's the EYE CANDY! As of this point, I think Vista is the best operating system MS has come out with to date.

As a few other people have pointed out in this thread, perhaps the people experiencing problems are trying to use Vista on a computer that doesn't come up to snuff. Put me on the pro Vista side!

Let me see,

Re Rob reply of...
1. You got Vista free
2. You still had to do some drive swapping work

And you like Vista...hmmmm...think about the picture you're painting.

1. Most people don't get their OS for free
2. Most people aren't gonna do that drive swapping work

Rob.

If you read my comment, you would realize I did NOT get Vista free. I did get a good deal on it (about half price) and I helped a charity benefit. If the bidding hadn't stopped, I was going to go to full price. Instead, I donated elsewhere.

Re my disk swapping, I wanted a clean installation rather than a crapola write over. That certainly isn't a big deal for all the techies here. I think the majority of readers here would elect to go the same route.

I did point out a hardware problem (Vista didn't like my old modem.)

Yes, once again, I think it's the best OS that Microsoft has come out with to date. I put off the installation for about a month because of all the MS haters and scare stories here. I wanted a clean installation anyway, but another reason for it was the ease of going back to XP if it didn't work out. With the price of hard drives so low these days, it makes sense to go with two if you can afford it.

You and many others run into the same issues. I tried to load Vista Ultimate on a new laptop that even had the Vista Ready logo and it loaded, but I was never able to find a working wireless network driver for it and eventually gave up and went back to WinXP.

Maybe Vista will come of age but like you said, 5 years+ in the making and what they've released is definitely NOT worth the money, the headache, nor the increased hardware requirements.

Whatever happened to software being faster over time, rather than slower -- did Microsoft forget this key element of optimization. The argument "but Vista does more" is just NOT valid, what does it do more that has such an increase in steep hardware requirements?? The GUI?? Come on, MacPro OSX has had a much nice GUI for a long time without huge graphics/hardware requirements -- so why can't Microsoft do the same?

The answer is, because they don't have to -- they got the market share and everyone will just have to live with it and deal with it. See where the lack of competition leads the consumer...to limited options. Fortunately most consumers have said NO to Vista and this is the only hope of instigating change at Microsoft.

Now, back to my MacPro where life is simple, clean, and free of code bloat -- it just works.

Rob

Can you tell me why Dell is uninstalling Windows Vista from their computers? They've decided to go back to Windows XP and introduce Linux.

Get ready to buy a new dell cause they are making Dell units with full versions of Ubuntu available to the public very soon if not right now. I think soon is more likely as the anouncement by dell was made early this week.

Link to confirm this:
http://direct2dell.com/one2one/archive/2007/05/01/13147.aspx

Cheers

Dell will stop putting out computers with XP on them by the end of the year, because microsoft won't allow the big companies to use XP on new computers after that. By then, hopefully, Dell will be putting Ubuntu on most of their computers by then and MS can begin kissing their own posteriors goodbye.

As far as I am concerned I applaud the introduction of Windows Vista. I find it a huge improvement on XP Pro; it functions well on my computer. I appreciate the additional safety features built into the new operating system. In addition I use Windows Live OneCare, and nothing else; no need to add any other protective anti-spyware.

Marinus