Well isn't this pretty...

[contink]

After some "fun" starts I've finally gotten Vista installed on a dual boot machine although right now I'm not entirely sure what all the fuss is about..

Here however is a quick review in case anyone is interested.

1. How to kill your installer.
Would you believe it's possible to actually disable your VGA controller completely and thus get.. erm.. yup.. no display at all.. can't shutdown, can't recover, can't repair using DVD.. reinstall time here we come.

2. Multiple monitors.
Yeah, ok, not a biggy for most but the whole "driver limitation" thing is a pain in the backside.. It seems like MS are going backwards instead of forwards.. At most I reckon you can get about 6 monitors on one machine and the resources required to run 2 or 3 (3 being my norm in the office) is pretty high. Sure it looks pretty but it's slow and a bit thick. In a nutshell for anyone who uses multimonitors that have worked in XP or win2k, Vista is an expensive upgrade waiting to happen.

3. Pop ups? I see what you mean.
I finally understood what people mean't about all the "are you sure?" pop-ups... You half expect it to come back with "Are you really sure?"... >... "But it could do something really bad.. I'd think about it for a while!"

4. Drivers can corrupt your hard drive
Vista didn't so much as crash but it sure did a lot of damage.. problems with vista installed drivers and the multi-monitors mean't I got a LOT of corrupt drive warnings.. Surely if the things are signed and tested they shouldn't be causing this kind of damage!

5. Where the heck is everything?
Why oh why do they insist on changing the format, layout and putting menus, functions, utilities, etc... in places that they never were before.. If makes the users job harder, gives the teacher/trainer who has to get everyone up to speed a headache and just knocks usability into a cocked hat...

6. "Microsoft Offers"
Erm... isn't this a bit cheeky... If I want to get offers from M$ I'll look and bookmark it myself thanks.. don't make it part of the start page and if you do, make it removable!

7. Start menu
What on earth happened to the tiering system... Now there's no indication that you're at any particular level or sub-level making it difficult to locate your position in the start menu heirachy..

... I could go on and granted some of it is just "well it's a new system" gripes.. but the hardware side of things and the ability to desensitise people to the security pop-ups is a bit of a faux pas...

Back to XP me thinks...

[webman]

All the joys of Vista.

Back to Linux me thinks... 8)

[Geoff]

I'm confused of your use of the word 'back' webman....

[webman]

Yes, quite right Geoff... 'Onwards and up' more appropriate

[john]

I like Vista, its shiny and nice.

[webman]

Would be nice if it actually worked once in a while though... 8)

[Dos_Box]

I like Vista, its shiny and nice.

So's the sun, but you wouldn't like to get too close to it!

[john]

Would be nice if it actually worked once in a while though... 8)

I tell ya all those that don't get on with Vista need re-training, it works brilliantly for me.

[john]

I like Vista, its shiny and nice.

So's the sun, but you wouldn't like to get too close to it!

Sun..... whats that, i live in a dark hot room with lots of computers and have a darkend room at home that I then live in, so don't see much of this sun you mention

[webman]

I and many others will disagree with you on the re-training being the primary problem with Fister

[m25man]

I only use it because somebody has to tell everyone else how awful it is!
I find myself having to RDP into an xp or 2003 machine to do most of my support tasks...

It's easier to dual boot a Mac with XP on it than mess around trying to work with Vista all day long...

[Southwell]

Im stuck with it on my personal laptop as Nvidia don't do XP drivers for my graphics card!!
I tried to install my antivirus and the system corrupted lol. At least my PC and work laptop are XP.

[Jake]

I wouldnt use it for the school network I must admit, but I do have it installed on this machine at work, and I also use it at home on my gaming machine.

[StewartKnight]

Anybody who tells you that they are not having problems with Vista, isn't really "using" vista!

[localzuk]

I've been told that due to capita being slow with SIMS and the general cost of upgrading (not in terms of licenses, as our School agreement covers it, but in terms of time, effort, training and buying educational software that works on it) we likely won't ever upgrade to Vista, but whatever its successor is...

Sounds good to me, except XP support will have ended by then won't it?