I've installed it on an external HD of mine. Haven't had much use for it, but it's nifty. Clean design, similar to Vista but nicer. Seems pretty good.
Oh, I'd like to go on record here and say that I hate all the people complaining about Vista. At least give the thing a try, but most people tend to go with the reviews which honestly haven't hit home. Whenever I ask someone what they dislike about Vista they say "Well...it's like, it asks you 8 times if you're SURE you wanna do something".
Well, it does that once with certain programs, but it takes about 5 seconds to turn off as well.
You hate people that complain about Vista???
That's like saying you hate peole that complain about the crime rate in SA!!
Have you seen how much memory is used by vista just to run itself??? Oh and let's not talk a bout compatibillity problems. Ive run both vista and im currently on windows 7 and windows 7 wich is still a BETA version is alot smoother, more user friendly, uses less of your available hardware, it actually thinks for you(good for people with very little pc knowledge). Installs faster, updates faster, boots up faster, shuts down faster. Its better!!!!
Just because you can't find anything wrong with vista doesn't mean it hasn't got faults and flaws.
http://articles.techrepublic.com.com...1-6170816.html
With most new software releases, there's usually something missing or different from the previous version that annoys at least one user. You can eliminate some annoyances with a few simple changes. Others you have to live with.
During the past year of working with Windows Vista, I have run into several features and changes that get on my nerves. Based on that experience, I've come up with my list of top 10 annoyances in Windows Vista.
#1: No more Boot.ini
Customizing the boot menu was much simpler in Windows XP. If you ran multiple operating systems, all you had to do was open the Boot.ini and make your changes. For example, you might change the names of the installed operating systems to make them more recognizable.
It's much more complicated in Windows Vista. You no longer edit the Boot.ini file. Instead, you use a program called bcedit, which is not user-friendly, even for experienced users. A quick glance at this program and you will likely not want to see it again.
#2: Buried display settings
Why change something for the sake of change? That was my thought when I went to modify my display settings for the first time in Vista. It used to be that changing display settings was as simple as a right-click on the desktop.
There is now an added level of complexity. You still right-click on the desktop, but when you select Personalize, a new window appears with a slew of Appearance and Personalization options. You have to scroll all the way to the bottom of the window to find the Display Settings option.
As you start using Vista, you'll see that this is not the only instance where it seems there are unnecessary changes.
#3: Control Panel clutter
The Control Panel in Windows Vista, shown in Figure A, is cluttered and more difficult to maneuver. It seems to take more clicks to reach your destination. Going back to Windows XP, I now appreciate the simplicity of its Control Panel.
Figure A
It takes several clicks in the Control Panel to reach your destination in Vista.
You can eliminate this annoyance by switching back to the old style Control Panel. When you open the Control Panel, select the Classic View option.
#4: Shutdown options
Performing a shutdown in Windows Vista is overly complicated. There are at least nine shutdown choices on the Start Menu—from Switch User to Hibernate to Sleep. Power users will have no problem choosing the appropriate option. However, try explaining how to shut down a laptop or desktop to new users when they're facing nine choices. This is where the real annoyance comes into play.
#5: Application support (or lack thereof)
One of the biggest mistakes you can make is assuming that the applications you run under Windows XP will run under Windows Vista. In fact, there's a good chance that they will not. This is a big reason why I haven't upgraded my working computer to Windows Vista. I've had problems with Paint Shop Pro, McAfee Virus Scan, AutoCAD, and Adobe applications. For testing purposes, I tried installing Office 2000, but it didn't work. And my line of business apps also won't run properly.
Not being able to perform necessary tasks because an application doesn't run right under Vista is frustrating. In all fairness, it is the responsibility of the software vendors to provide support for Vista—not vice versa. However, it is still an annoyance.
#6: Aero hardware requirements
Windows Vista's new Aero user interface is absolutely beautiful—if you have the hardware to support it. Aero Glass is the high-end interface that's available only with the right video card. To enable Aero Glass, your computer must be equipped with a 3D video card that supports DirectX 9 and has a Longhorn Display Driver Model (LDDM) driver. If you don't have that, you're out of luck and must fork out even more money to upgrade your hardware. Also, remember that this feature is not available in the Home Basic edition.
#7: Too many flavors
Having too many options to choose from annoys and confuses many people. Purchasing an operating system used to be simple because your choices were so limited. You could choose between this or that. With Windows XP, we saw four versions of the operating system. Now, with Windows Vista, things get even more complicated. The latest release of the Microsoft Windows family comes in five versions: Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, Enterprise, and Ultimate.
So which one do you choose? It all depends on what you plan to use it for or what type of environment you work in. You need to do some research and find out what Vista features you need (or want). This will definitely help to narrow down your choices. Who knew choosing an operating system was so much work?
#8: UAC prompts
The new Vista feature that people are grumbling about the most is User Account Control, or UAC. Each time you attempt to perform a task that requires administrative rights, a window appears prompting you for permission (Figure B). In other words, you tell Vista you want to perform a task, but it needs to ask for your permission before doing so. Although the intention is good (it prevents unauthorized changes to your computer), the window that continuously pops up is annoying.
Figure B
Windows Vista constantly prompts for permission to perform tasks.
If you can live with the constant prompting for permission, hats off to you. Otherwise, you can eliminate this annoyance by disabling UAC through User Accounts And Family Safety within the Control Panel.
#9: Budget breaker
If you don't like rising prices, you will certainly be annoyed when you go to purchase Windows Vista. Although you can buy Vista for as low as $100, all you're getting for this price is Windows Vista Home Basic. This version is so basic that most people will not want it. It does not even support the Aero interface (see annoyance #5: Aero hardware requirements). As a result, most people will move to at least Windows Vista Home Premium, which costs $239 retail for the full package. The price only goes up—topping off at a whopping $399 for the full package of Windows Vista Ultimate.
#10: Usability issues
Finally, this one relates back to some of the previous annoyances I have discussed. Windows Vista has managed to make what used to be simple tasks too complex. Tasks that should take one-step now take four or five steps. I am a fan of simplicity and this is something Windows Vista lacks.
Eat - Sleep - Overclock - Repeat
Oops forgot to put something at the end..
To each their own.
If you like vista then that's your choice.
That's what I love about the free world...The choice is yours!!
Last edited by The Joker; 12-02-2009 at 11:23 PM.
Eat - Sleep - Overclock - Repeat
I don't really have time right now to respond to each point, but I'll do a more detailed response later.
To take a few quick points, however, "If you can live with the constant prompting for permission, hats off to you. Otherwise, you can eliminate this annoyance by disabling UAC through User Accounts And Family Safety within the Control Panel."
It's actually incredibly easy to turn it off. Any PC is going to need some customization.
Jumping around a bit, #4, I don't run into it at all. I mean, I can read reviews about how that happens, but I just don't have it. I click one button from the start menu to shut down, it's...I really don't have a problem with it, nothing else to say, and I've been using Vista since launch.
#5, again, didn't ever have that. I even got Diablo 2 to work on Vista, as well as XP programs like Photoshop CS2, Flash CS2, and everything else. I constantly hear about the incompatibility of Vista, but I just don't see it. And let's not forget, it's not like at the release of XP things weren't compatible. If anything Vista takes it on pretty well.
And of course it uses more memory. That's the same as complaining about new computer games being too hardware demanding. It's not like at the release of Windows 9 or whatever you're going to need 12mb RAM because it's so efficient. 1 GB ram will be completely obsolete, it's just inevitable. Every OS is going to use more and more memory, and I'm betting Windows 7 is just about even with Vista. Memory demand is not going down, no matter who complains. There's just no way to expect the next OS to be less demanding.
I'll do a full response tomorrow, but what I am saying is what people complain about with Vista is simply not true. At least for me it's not. It's a great Operating System which has been severely overlooked, in my opinion.
But that's your opinion mate
If you like windows vista then its cool cause you seem to know to get around these problems. There are people out there that don't know how to work around the issues..Remember not everyone is as computer focused as we are.
If I had to let my mom use vista..she would get really upset with all the little pop ups and "are you sure you wanna allow this blah blah" not to mention the fact that some of her hardware isn't vista compatible(try explaining this to your mom and see how far you get) and some of her beloved games didn't work on vista. That's why she still uses Xp and she loves it..its easy and user friendly, everything Vista isn't
As far as performance goes..I own a really really good gaming pc and it runs better on windows 7. Im not saying that cause I prefer windows 7, im saying it cause ive owned windows vista and there is a performance difference!!
We spend thousands on computer hardware to play games and work as fast and fluent as possible, definirly not to have the OS suck more than 21% of our ram and other hardware just to run itself.
My brother in law is a senior system developer blah blah architect god(can't remember his exact title) The guy is probably the most intellegent person I have ever met(he earns the salary to prove that lol) and he says vista was a failure and that 70% of all major companies still prefer windows xp over vista.
Even Microsoft has admitted that Xp has been its most successful Os ever!!
Eat - Sleep - Overclock - Repeat
My 2c.
My friend got it the day it was released and we tested it out on his pc, we loaded CoD4 and 5 both worked, but we had a small sound problem, but we fixed that in dxdaig.
He has since loaded his normal pc stuff on it and has had no complaints of yet.
I glad to see that 7 uses less RAM than vista, I just dont like this series of security questions it asks when you want to share something on a LAN etc.
One of the only problems I have with it was that PB does not support Windows 7 So it kept kicking my from Call of Duty 4 when playing online but someone on the SGS forums managed to fix it. Very stable.
Link: http://games.saix.net/cgi-bin/sgsbb/...windows+7;st=0For those of you who have windows 7 installed and keep
getting kicked by punkbuster from COD4 for "unknown windows API". I have a remedy for the problem.
start - run - services.msc
go down to PnkbstrA services
right click - properties
on the 2nd tab "Log on" you will see its set to local system account
beneath that is an empty check box "allow service to interact with desktop"
check that box, click apply.
now do the same for PnkbstrB service.
restart your system and give it a test.
It worked for me. was getting kicked every 20 seconds, and now
i havent had a single kick yet.