I work in IT and I'm being seen as a heretic with my collegues for saying that I'm actually liking Vista. The "cool"/cynical view with most IT support staff I know is

"anything MS do must by definition be awful and doomed to fail as only then can the true shining light of Linux emerge to lead us all into Nirvanna and the IT geeks can then dominate the world Mwhaa ha ha! (evil laugh)"

...but in reality, I'd say Vista is 'OK'. Looks much prettier generally then XP. Works pretty reliably. It's also implemented some nice fixes to issues which I found really irritating in XP. Most importantly, it lets me get on and use the actual software on the PC and not worry about the OS itself, which I always end up doing whenever I run Linux for a while - but maybe because I know too much about how Linux works to just use it and leave the OS in peace. In that respect, Vista leaves me in semi-ignorant bliss, (theme based pun intended)

Anyhow, I'm happy enough to feel that Vista will be great once the release version comes out rather than the beta version...er what?....what do you mean this *is* the release version?

Seriously - the OS itself seems no worse than any other initial OS release version and better than most (Mac OS X I found to be a nightmare of half finished design and implementation in it's first release version for instance). The only gripe I have isn't really with Vista but with the drivers from some manufacturers, which seem to be slow meeting the grade. e.g. The nVidia graphics driver has caused me some issues and I had to give up a 10+ year old Wacom graphics tablet as they've no plans to do a Vista driver for it ever.

Well I got it after all: VISTA

Have to say it is a, Love it, Hate it, relationship.
Like how it looks. but don't like some of the new layout

and that stupid DeskScapes, Like it but, have to put a wallpaper on before Turning off the PC.. or I play hell trying to do ANY thing Freezes, goes to a solid Blue Wallpaper.
I think that it is Conflicting with DreamScapes.
but like i said If I put a Wallpaper on before turning off the PC it runs Smooth for the most part.

oh and what is up with all the extra Processes I had 42 after installing Vista with no programs installed.

and Task Manager Is a HOG consuming 23% to 47% of CPU XP Pro NEVER went over 12% and I was B itch ing about XP Pro with 22 Processes running with all my programs installed.

I have my taskbar to AutoHide and every now n' then it Flickers up and down...


Did find out something today
that's if you have Music with a picture of the album and it is named Folder.jpg and have your Music folder open and your WMP open you can click and drag the FOLDER.jpg over to WMP picture of that album it will make all the .mp3 In your music folder that picture
COOL found it by accident when WMP did not put the Albim picture up quick enough for me so I draged it over to it and I was like, what the hell happen to all my .MP3's i got like 12 extra Pictures OH that is cool it's the MP3's

wish I did a dualboot BUT NNNOOO

so far only 1 or 2 programs will not install NO GAMES YET.
and Microsoft said my Canon scanner WILL NOT WORK and NeroMIX too, but i will see about the scanner but got Nero 7 now Canon Needs to get on the ball and make a driver for it..


Just so others can Know I got my PC win windows XP came out in 2ooo 11/15 and it handles VISTA Ultimate good and I only got 1GB of ram 1600MGhz Intel Pentium 4
and an ATI 9550 256MB video card with C:160GB Hard Drive(Master)and D:80GB (Slave)

and I still can install 2GB more ram then it will go faster and upgrade to 512MB video card ...

all on a Sh@#ty HP ..

still Hate it
but
Still Love it...

Oh cripes....

Now I have visions of a crowd-scene from LOTR..... a squillion Orcs all resplendent in their propeller hats....

i'm running a new hp pavillion dv9224tx, 240gb hrddrive, 2 gb memory, with nvidia geforce go 7600 graphics. right now i'm up to 78 poblems either microsoft, hp, nor nvidia have solutions for. this os is the worst to come out since me os!the video hardware crashes every day along with windows explorer, windows fx makes the text on a drop down menu disappear,can not use incredimail. microsoft recommended a performance and relibility download for me and when i downloaded it nvidia said it didn't apply to my computer!i hate this os! ie7 doesn't work properly, dream scenes crashes every day, norton live update also does not update automatically.

I've been using Vista exclusively for over a year, and off and on for a year before that and I think it is really good. I won't deny issues, but every O/S I have used has issues, whether from Microsoft or not. There are things I don''t like about Vista, like the lack of a toolbar in Explorer windows. But you can always get a third party app that has that sort of thing in it. Nvidia driver issues were a real pain for quite some time but they have gotten more stable over the last 6 months or so and now I don't have a lot of problems except with old games, like Q 3 & 4 based FPS.

As with any new Windows version the hardware and memory requirements, and I mean real-world not the la-la land in which the people that write the official specs live, are much larger than for XP.

The user account control thing a major pain and likely has prompted many to simply disable it entirely. But this version of Windows is aimed at the people to whom a computer is an appliance instead of a hobby, or as I often refer, their desktop hotrod they tinker with all the time. A category in which I fit.

Having said all of that there are without question some bugs and ill-advised features that havve made it less than it could have been in both performance and general usability. Many of these are, or will be addressed in SP-1 as always seems to be the case.

Personally I love Windows Vista Home Premium. I love the way it looks, the way it works and the way it allows me to play. I do wish I could figure out how to make my games work with it however. And I really wish someone would clue me in as to how making all the cool new icons and whatnot appear when I download a theme. I can install the themes just fine but they never look like they do in the sample images I see. I just can't work out how to make those things appear as well.

Anyway, I really enjoy Windows Vista and I hope they keep improving it and adding cool things to do in the next incarnation!

Herbin' Cowboy

My computer has failed to boot properly in 3 of the 5 days that I have had my new computer. Shortly, after the boot process begins the process stops at a blank screen and a short time later it asks if I want to attempt to recover. Has anyone else had problems booting with Windows Vista?

bit_smart

john, you'd like it if you'd make blinds for it! vista rocks!

I've had a play with Vista and quite simply it does not offer me anything that I want. During the run up to launch Microsoft completely failed to convince me that this was worth having. The bottom line was that they needed to convince me that I needed to get rid of XP and upgrade to Vista and they failed miserably. With my XP system I don't experience crashes, my software works, my hardware works and I can customize my desktop to look like whatever I want it to, thanks to Object Desktop and various other programs. I can even get it to look like Vista, if I want!!!!!

What was Vista offering me that I had not got already? Transparency and a few pieces of crap that I don't need. Please don't tell me that Vista offers better security, shell enhancements and network improvements. That's the hype but in reality is it any better than I already have plus I've seen different.

And upgrade from XP to Vista for what? A lot of my hard earned cash and a lot of software and hardware headaches. Plus the cost of another GB of Ram to run it sensibly.

Forget it, they can keep it for now.

In my opinion Vista was released 12 months too early and needed a lot more thought and work before being unleashed on the public. Yes, I know new OS's all have their teething problems - look at Windows 2000 and XP - they had theirs and I would have thought that Microsoft would have learnt a few lessons...........but they didn't.

Just look at the 'look' of Vista. Do you really think that this is something special? Is this the best that Microsoft could do? Stardock must be laughing their heads off, rubbing their hands waiting for the cash to roll in. Yes, there are improvements but my 10 year old could come up with better graphics. If Microsoft had their 'head on' they should have got some of the best skinners in from the community and paid them a handsome salary and put them to work on something special. But no, they came up with a second rate looking system which is barely better looking than XP.

And what about those promises made to Ultimate users?

I am sure that I will change at some stage but not until it gives me something that I need or want. Gone are the days when I will upgrade to the latest stuff for the sake of having the latest stuff. Perhaps I might be forced to upgrade XP at some stage when support dwindles but this is some time off.

On a positive Vista note, the beta testing of SP1 is underway and I understand there has been some very positive feedback especially on performance issues.

I firmly believe that the Vista system is a good system - and will eventually turn out to be a big improvement to XP - but it was 'half baked' when it came onto the market and still should be cooking in the oven now.

That's me done     

Rhapsody works on Vista fine for me

I am sorry you are having issues with it..

My Vista Experience (tm) has been spectacular since I built my new machine.  Of course, there were/are some hiccups, but overall, all my software works, and all my hardware works.  I've only had a couple random crashes, and they were not really anything notable.  For an 'everyday' user, the OS is great (not worth upgrading from XP for tho).  For a slightly technical user, they'll just hear the 'bad stuff' about the OS, so they wont want to upgrade.  The technical users is where the love/hate relationship really develops... I know about the problems, but I also know about the advantages and improvements;  As a result, I've stuck with it for awhile now, with Ultimate on my desktop, and Home Premium (and Ubuntu) on my laptop.  I think the quality of Vista will become apparent in the future, as hardware improves, and service packs for the OS are released.

Try buying a a 300 dollar soundcard and it not work.