Microsoft Vista - The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly!

Bluebirds1975

Having recently upgraded to Vista I thought it may be a good idea to have a thread/sticky designated to peoples thoughts, reviews and tips and tricks on using Vista

Bluebirds1975

This is my view........

Vista visually is head and shoulders above XP. Aero 3D is a nice feature where you can pick between active windows. (Bare in mind you have to click a button next to the start button to activate)

Security wise Vista has User Access Control. This is a good and bad thing. On the good side it won't allow any changes to you computer unless you click a dialogue box to confirm. This should stop any malware installing with out you nowing. On the down side UAC stops you doing what you like to the computer. Things like editing the registry read/write access to folders. You have to give permissions for each and eveything you want to do. A nightmare to start with but once it has been done then there is nothing to worry about.

Boot time seem quicker than XP. Vista has WMP 11 and parental control which is good if you have kids. You can stop them accessing anything on the computer not just internet.

Compatibility wise I installed Vista on a 9 month old laptop which came with XP. Vista runs better and smoother than XP did.

I did run Vista Upgrade Advisor before I purhcased. You can check if you will have any issues here

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/buyorupgrade/upgradeadvisor.mspx?wt_svl=20409a&mg_id=20409b

When I ran the above it stated I would have issues with my printer and Norton. To be fair I wasn't going to reinstall Norton anyway due to the size of the program so opted for AVG 7.5. When I connect my printer which is 5 years old it obtained the driver straight away. The only problem I had was with the printer software (Status monitor etc)

Would I recommend you go and buy it? I paid £65 for an OEM version of premium home and think thats about all its worth. If I had gone and paid the retail price of £130+ then I would have been disappointed as it isn't that much different to XP

If you receive it free with a new PC I dont think many people will be disappointed.

My opinion for what it is worth - Vista is XP in a posh new suit, does pretty much the same but looks better

zulubabe

If you are with IScan you can forget about that working - IScan don't seem too bothered about this either.

gardiner_2

i have been told the same as ur saying bluebirds,thats how im going to wait a while before getting it

sco0ter

Been using Vista since RC1 and never had a problem with it. Managed to get my Vista upgrade for my ACER and it has installed and run excellent since day one. Because of 512MB ram aero doesnt work but not really bothered with it on the laptop.. Battery time is down 5 mins but speed and boot times are up. Never had a problem with bult in security software or anything else. An excellent piece of kit.

Having a thread like might be a bit pointless... There have been numerous threads about VISTA and it doesnt matter how much people say has changed under the bonnet people still only see whats in front of them and compare it to XP. Vista is a massive jump from XP but because people cant see it they will always assume that it is just XP with a different interface.

In some of the threads people have been shown links to numerous pages showing hundreds of changes but still give it the "XP with a new graphic interface" tag. They still go on about the "2GB ram and Duo Core CPU minimum" that is needed to run it when it has been shown it will do nicely with the minimum spec quoted. There is also the "driver incompatability" issues as well that people have. I have seen people moan over not getting hardware working when I have the same hardware and it works flawlessly. The problem is people blame Microsoft for this and turn against VISTA when it is in fact the manufacturers.

As stated in previous threads about driver support... If Vista drivers are not available then Windows Server 2003 or Windows 2000 drivers can workm with a manual install. The reason the upgrade advisor shows up as the hardware not working is to cover thier own backs as the drivers may not install with full features. My printer does not have vista drivers and upgrade advisor says its incompatible but it works. Its just all the addon software that wont work with it (scan program and edit software) but with great free alternatives that are available who cares.

BillScarab

I got Vista with a new PC earlier this year and I like it. I don't believe it is really worth buying to upgrade an old PC though, I would just wait until you replace your machine. The Aero interface is nice to show people but I don't actually find it useful. UAC can be a pain but you soon get used to it or it can be switched off, I leave it on to stop the kids doing anything they shouldn't. The parental controls also look good but I don't know how effective they are.

Overall I'm very happy with it, it seems pretty stable, looks good and runs most of the things I want it to. I've even installed some games that have worked fine as well.

The main annoyance is third party companies who haven't developed drivers (although personally I have had no driver problems) or updated software to be compatible with Vista. It's not like Microsoft sprung it on them by surprise.

toasterman

Just thought I'd throw my thoughts in on this one. I'm dual booting with Vista Ultimate at the moment. It's got good points, bad points, and points I can't be sure of without longer testing.


Good:
- Nice new shiny interface

- Transparency Aero whatnots is purty

- Is more secure than previous windows'.. I don't have a problem being prompted to say I definitely want to install something if it stops things installing itself. Nice to see they've finally gotten around to 'borrowing' this feature from OSX and Linux.

- Gadgets/Widgets toolbar is handy. It's nice to get the weather, a nicer clock, and have some post its always there for me to add stuff in I need to remember. They're all features from OSX and Linux, but its nice to see them nonetheless.

- obviously familiar enough to XP so people won't get lost

- seemed to install all the normal video codecs by default..and I prefer the layout of windows media player on vista.

- the Vista installation is so easy its unbelievable. Even from outside Windows, the software partitioner is one of the easiest I've ever seen. Certainly much clearer what you're doing than the OSX or Linux partition tools.

- if you're on the pc, don't have administrator rights - you can still run stuff as administrator on a per-program basis, without logging off and back on. Again, nice to see an OSX/Linux feature being incorporated.

- comes with better games than solitaire and minesweeper. The thing with the 3 houses which name I can't remember might be aimed at children, but it had me entertained for a while


Bad:
- when you install Vista, it creates its own bootloader - most operating systems do this, but some give you the option of booting to other operating systems on your pc. This is not a problem for most people, granted.

- it is far too new. The vast majority of Adobe's products aren't supported at all on Vista at the moment. It causes an issue for me as I do a lot of sound editing. A friend I know trying to use Avid video editing software on their Vista laptop had no luck at all. Apple seem to be skirting around whether iTunes definitely does or doesn't work on it.
I know there are articles on getting some software to work with vista, and hacks and workarounds.. but at the end of the day if you're using it for business use, and your "workaround" stops working (as people have reported some of the adobe ones doing), then what do you do then? You certainly can't complain to MS, or Adobe if neither said it would work to start with.

- you don't have any choice. Vista comes preinstalled on all cheap Dells, most new HPs, etc.... whether you want it or not... and given the list of software that isn't guaranteed to work with it at the moment is quite long, it does frustrate me you don't even have the option of xp.

- ram usage/idiot suppliers. My pc has 1gb of ram, but they're shipping this preinstalled on laptops with only 512mb. When I boot into Vista, with aero on, turn the sidebar off, and open msn messenger - according to ctrl-alt-delete, I'm using 474mb of ram. If you've got 512mb of ram to start with, and 32mb onboard graphics, you're down to 480mb before you boot windows.. then you start it up, open msn, and you have 6mb of ram left. It's just not going to work. This is more of a supplier problem than a microsoft problem though.

- Aero. It looks nice but it isn't supported by a heap of stuff. If you open Adobe Audition, you get a message telling you because Audition doesn't support Aero, it's been disabled. It won't come back til you shut Audition. It's nice to have a sexy new interface, but not if it defaults back to less-sexy everytime you open some software more than 3 months old. It's not just Adobe - I've installed only 3-4 bits of software so far, and it does it with Trillian too.

Shutdown times/rumours - some people will have you believe it shuts down in something like 2 seconds. This isn't true. By default, it goes into a kind of hibernation. Proper shutdown is about the same time it takes me to shut windows xp down. Either way, what do you really care how long it takes to switch off - most people just click shutdown and leave. It finishes on its own.



Unsure without further testing:
- it starts and shuts down quickly.... BUT if you remember back - when you first got your windows xp pc - before you installed loads of cr4p on it - that also started and shut down quickly. Give me a year with it and I'll tell you if its still fast.

- the thing where you get 3d versions of programs you are running. It looks nice, and runs very smoothly. I just don't understand who is going to bother using it. It's much quicker to alt-tab to switch windows.

- motion sickness. Maybe I was just tired, but I think the constant blurring, fading, and jumping about associated with the sleek new interface was giving me some form of motion sickness. The real test will be when I let a friend of mine have a go, who really does suffer from motion sickness...see if he has a problem with it.

Dan:)_7

i made a tips & hints thread.... i need to add more.... please comment on what sort of things you want!!

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=422195

Dan:)_7

also im currently building a vista website! will post link to all us techies soon!