What I actually enjoyed about Vista
Say what you will, but I personally liked the 10 months or so that I ran Windows Vista on my main home PC. Deciding whether to ditch XP for Vista has come across many PC users minds. What makes it ever more difficult is the fact that everywhere you read, people post outlandish statements about compatibility issues, driver problems, OS issues, etc.
My driver problems were down to one device and one device only - my HP 4200C flatbed scanner. I had no expectations that it would be supported though. After all, it was purchased probably back in 1999. My venture into Vista almost didn’t happen though as nVIDIA simply refused to support the nForce2 motherboard chipsets. After a bit of digging around on the web I was able find some drivers that were released by a 3rd party for the nForce2 chipset - and it worked. In fact, they worked great. I only ran Vista for 10 months or so though because the system I was using it on has several years of age on it and the hardware is starting to fall behind it seems as far as being “capable.”
Vista took a while to get used to. I didn’t care at all for the UAC (which is something else that is highly debated back and forth on various sites). In fact, I disabled it. I myself have no need for hand-holding when I’m using my PC. I’ve always protected myself with anti-virus and firewall software. If I had to visit a “questionable” web site I could always do it within a VM. The Start menu itself took a bit of getting used to. It was just very different from how previous incarnations of it worked. What was really great about the Vista Start menu was the built-in Search function. Forget about straining to remember where you saved that last document or where you downloaded a particular file to. Type in the name and it comes right up - and fast at that. It was faster for me to start typing in the name of the program that I wanted to run compared to browsing through the Program groups. Speaking of the Program Groups, it’s a very refreshing change. You don’t find yourself having to drag your mouse all over the screen as it displays everything right in one spot. I ran across a utility for Windows XP that replaces the Start menu with one that is similar to Vista. I tried it just for grins but it wasn’t worth keeping. The built-in search on it only worked for your Program groups - not all local files.
Another really great feature in Vista is within Explorer/My Computer/etc where the OS doesn’t halt or wait for drives to become available before display the other drives. This is most common with CD/DVD drives when it can sometimes take several seconds for Explorer to open up simply because it was waiting for the one drive to respond. Vista, displays all your drivers and then refreshes the ones that weren’t initially ready when you opened it up.
Even though my system had some age on it, Windows Vista actually started up faster than XP does (boot to Desktop). Apparently steps were taken to improve on that bit. Where I experienced the biggest slow-down was when I’d play an occasional game. My dated hardware could no longer handle such a beast.
The GUI is excellent. Point blank. This of course is only an opinion but whever says the GUI in Vista is horrible or worst than XP, should really think about getting their eyes examined. Vista’s GUI is nothing short of an overhaul. The 3D task switching was nifty, but in reality who would use that all the time? I like fancy & pretty effects as much as the next person but after about 10 minutes of playing with it I probably only used it a handful of times after - Alt+Tab is fine.
Software Compatibility. Here’s one of the two biggest problem areas. And who’s to blame? If you ask me, it isn’t Microsoft. Vista has been out for over a year now. You can no longer point fingers at Microsoft. Those fingers need to be turned to the developers of your aging application that simply don’t like Vista. I’d say a years time is plenty to get compatibility issues resolved on any application. So, instead of screaming at Microsoft over apps that simply refuse to run or have quirks, the developers of said apps need to be hussled. Some developers may choose not to fix their issues. That’s fine. But that still doesn’t make it Vista’s fault for the app not running.
Driver Compatibility: Here’s the other major hurdle. I know about driver issues with Vista first hand. As I said earlier, I had problems with both my nForce2 chipset AND my HP scanner. I was a little peeved at first when I read from HP’s web site that they wouldn’t release driver updates for my scanner for Vista. After really thinking about how old that scanner was though, I got over it. My motherboard was a different story. It seemed to be that the choice from nVIDIA to NOT release nForce2 drivers for Vista was a monetary decision at best. Yeah, lets not let people with nForce2 motherboards runs Vista that way they’ll end up buying new hardware. Right. I lucked out though and was able to get my hands on some 3rd party drivers. There will be hardware out there that WILL NOT work. It is inevitable. It’s going to happen. It’s part of the cycle. Who’s fault is it? I’ll give you a hint - not Microsoft’s. Did hardware makers have enough time to prep new drivers for hardware they actually wanted to support in Vista? I’m sure that’s a resounding YES. Vista now is VERY good getting drivers for your hardware that is supported. The integrated web search for a new driver really works. A refreshing change from XP because it seems like that never did do anything useful.
I’ve really just skimmed the surface here but I wanted to get some points across about Windows Vista. Whether you run it on your PC is ultimately not up to me. If you got anything useful out of reading this I’m glad. As a last note, you can bet your bottom dollar that once I do upgrade my home PC I’m moving back to Windows Vista. 