Windows Vista

cornwallis

Avoid this horrible operating system.I have just bought a Dell desktop with Vista installed.Microsoft have not yet worked out how Vista is meant to talk to a modem through a usb.My isp ,tiscali will not supply me with a router,and nobody at either dell or tiscali know what they are talking about as none of them have received the training necessary.In addition my printer isn't vista compatible either!!I think this would be a good campaign for Martin to start and shame these people into doing something about it.

superscaper

cornwallis wrote:

Avoid this horrible operating system.I have just bought a Dell desktop with Vista installed.Microsoft have not yet worked out how Vista is meant to talk to a modem through a usb.My isp ,tiscali will not supply me with a router,and nobody at either dell or tiscali know what they are talking about as none of them have received the training necessary.In addition my printer isn't vista compatible either!!I think this would be a good campaign for Martin to start and shame these people into doing something about it.

Can't really blame Microsoft for other manufacturer's not bringing out updated drivers for their products. Vista has been around absolutely ages for manufacturers to have more than enough time to develop and test their new drivers. This is nothing new, the same thing happens every single time a new OS comes out. The manufacturer's almost act as if the OS came out of nowhere and caught them off guard.

superscaper

Browntoa started a thread on here a while ago to list links to Vista drivers for different manufacturers.

wolfman

Hmm, I can understand your frustration but rather than complain about it, posting what modem and printer you have would be a start. There may be solutions out there.

It's all about drivers, and both sides can be blamed. Vista is very restrictive about drivers, but at the same time it's been around for ages (in pre-release form) so manufacturers have had plenty of time to create them.

cornwallis

Well I now have a desktop that is nothing more than a typewriter that cannot print.The look of the whole thing is gimmicky and not worth the money.The modem manufacturer is hoping for drivers to be released in April and my isp just lies to me.

cornwallis

Modem is a speedtouch 330 and I have an hp printer.I know that I can get limited capability for the printer by downloading the drivers-if only I could get on line.

pigeonpie

I don't have the link but google it (from wherever you can get online) - CNet (USA) has been running a lot from users about software and driver incompatibility. Most users there are suggesting a 6 month wait until it's all sorted, but that doesn't help you right now.
Have you spoken to HP?
What are Dell saying? A month or two ago they were selling PCs with XP with the ability to upgrade to Vista - ask for a supervisor in their tech support although you may have to ring back 15x before you get someone who can help.

superscaper

I do empathise, when I upgraded to XP the only thing that didn't work was my modem, and the manufacturer said they had no intention of releasing xp compatible drivers. But does that mean XP is a bad OS or that I shouldn't have upgraded? From what I've heard of Vista (and they've obviously put a lot into it for it to be the longest developed OS MS have done) there's a lot of advantages over XP, one I'm interested in especially is utilising the GPU on the desktop which I've always wondered why OSs until now didn't do.

toontastic

This may get your modem working http://www.driverheaven.net/windows-vista-forum/109033-adsl-speedtouch-330-a.html

cornwallis

I don't think the Dell call center I talked to have much idea about Vista.I asked them if I could install Xp instead and they could not answer the question.This product is full of holes and Microsoft and Dell know that.They should not be selling it unless it comes with some kind of warning.I have informed my local trading standards office about it and the letters of complaint will be in the post this afternoon.

toontastic

And also
http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=1170315&SiteID=17