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Windows Why wont you use Vista?

Discussion in 'Software' started by Mother-Goose, 23 Jan 2008.

  1. allockse

    allockse The Cheesecake is a lie...

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    I had the RC2 build, then got Vista Ultimate through school. I love a lot of new features, such as the realtime taskbar icons, and the search being extremely powerful. It has a good clean feel to it, and for the most part I enjoyed it.

    The negatives however ended up out-weighing the positives for me. Instability and in some cases incompatibility with programs I work from. Signed drivers not being readily available. 64-Bit edition having no wireless adapter drivers (at the time)

    I will eventually switch back over, but with XP SP3 coming out, I don't imagine it will be anytime soon.
     
  2. culley

    culley What's a Dremel?

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    I've been running Vista for awhile now and have never had a problem with hardware just some peripherals and that's not Microsoft's fault. At work my boss and my manager both have said Vista is crap without ever trying it, It's the public perception caused by the hardware/peripherals manufacturers that didn't create drivers for all there back catalogue products.

    I blame media for the bad perception of Vista, I'm very pleased with it and would never want to switch back, it has way more features and works better aslong as you have a good system and why shouldn't you its 2008, RAM cost's as much as night out for pete's sake so do processors. Stop whining stop complaining.

    If you ever listen to Windows Weekly with Paul Theroet he says he can remember when XP came out, there were compatibility issues for while then it got better it's just that it took so long for Vista to come out people have forgotten.
     
  3. heir flick

    heir flick Minimodder

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    i think vista is just something we will all move onto eventually but not must have software that's why I'm still using xp
     
  4. Computer Gremlin

    Computer Gremlin What's a Dremel?

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    Vista does not support a large number of Dolby standards often found in high-end sound cards and it dislikes SPDIF output to external amplifiers. I would be unable to use my audio equipment. The interface is a horrendous and needs to be cleaned up with less shiny fluff decorating the screen.

    I don't play video games and hate being coddled by an overprotective operating system. Vague incompatibilities exist with many of the applications that I use on a regular basis. Windows XP already works great so bothering with Vista seems like a huge waste of time and resources.
     
  5. Seth

    Seth What's a Dremel?

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    ^ so very true. What I can't understand is this.. Why is it so hard to make a proper working sound driver for the stupid thing!

    I have installed vista on 2 different system now to give it another chance and each time my sound is completely screwed up one way or another.

    My second try around vista lasted a day on my pc before it was removed for an xp install yet again.

    Bottom line get a mac. I am tired of all this pc bs thats going on. pop up ads, virus's, things that take your system over to show you some new product.
    I have a windows machine to do one thing. run counter-strike source. its sad but true but it won't be getting vista.
     
  6. modgodtanvir

    modgodtanvir Prepare - for Mortal Bumbat!

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    I can just about achieve any visual enhancements that I would appreciate with a copy of WindowBlinds and Google Desktop. Vista is an improvement because as an operating system it is more stable and secure, though drivers do seem to be an issue...

    When I build a new rig I do intend to use Vista, and I suppose as long as I don't use any obscure branded parts, drivers shouldn't be a problem. People do always nitpick, but I do suppose Microsoft do know what they are doing and Vista does appear to be very user-friendly with lots of hand little features which could put a smile on any distraught XP user's face (or a frown). I wonder what Vienna (windows 7) will be like?

    I really don't know why, and I may be becoming inceasingly paranoid, but I do get the impression that the operating system is getting a little TOO complex, and I find myself constantly feeling like Big Brother is watching, with things like DRM protection and things like Punkbuster running all the time. Does anyone else get that impression?
     
  7. oasked

    oasked Stuck in (better) mud

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    I wondered about that too - its just Vista indexing your files. It goes away after a while (i.e. once the files are indexed), making searches instant. Now that I've been using Vista for a bit, it has gone away completely. :)
     
  8. culley

    culley What's a Dremel?

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    Yeah i feel your pain, but that's not Vista's fault!

    That's the people who make the hardware for not making a working driver!

    We need not get confused.
     
  9. RTT

    RTT #parp

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    because it isn't OS X

    but seriously - because it's broken, and because i don't need DX10. the two things they promised which were going to make it cool for me were the beefed up terminal and WinFS. they didn't deliver either. I used it for three or four months (somehow) and just couldn't live with it for any longer after that. UAC annoyed the tits off me*, the whole interface felt much slower, finding things was harder, it refused to work well with my hardware too. three complete re-installs did not fix a problem where by the entire OS was only usable on every other reboot of the system.

    As it turns out, a unix based system is better for my use anyway - whether that be OS X or Linux or whatever. If my mac exploded tomorrow, i'd be installing ubuntu on a PC

    I'm sure Vista is a great OS if you can get it to work, which obviously people do manage. I didn't and I wanted to like it - I was disappointed in it more than angry or annoyed. I do also acknowledge all of the good work they have done in making it a much more secure, modern OS compared to XP. I hope after a service pack or two it'll be a lot better.

    *I disabled UAC then promptly got hit by some spyware (my own fault) so i didn't want to run without UAC after that. but running UAC in itself is/was a deal breaker. it also didn't just flash up a black screen with the UAC dialog, it turned both my monitors off and then took 5 seconds to turn them back on. W - T - F.
     
  10. GoodBytes

    GoodBytes How many wifi's does it have?

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    @supertoad, same as XP.
    The difference is that in Vista, when you are not idle'ing it stop doing disk optimization and wtv else it is doing on the back for the most part.
    I Also setup Windows Defender, update, and Defrag to run at 4-5 am, when I know I am sleeping at that time. So it really doesn't bother me.

    For those who had issues with Vista related to hardware, I would like to say that drivers now are significantly better now then before, so you might want to check it out once more, or as soon as SP1 gets released if you feel you would be more motivated.

    @Jipa, WOW man did you pay 10$ your HDD or what! Mine with my case open is super quiet at load (for an HDD) [7200RPM 16MB of Buffer]. Even my old 10GB (yes 10!) that sounds like an electric saw when you turn it on, doesn't make that much noise!. I have a Western Digital SATA HDD, you should defiantly check one out.

    _____________________________________

    What I love in Vista, is that I work faster. First you have A LOT of customization feature if you run gpedit.msc (Vista Ultimate, Enterprise or Business editions only). Moreover the search bar in the start menu.
    I want to start my DVD player, I'll I need to type: DVD > Enter.
    I want to start Daemon Tools, I just type: da > Enter
    I want to run word: word > Enter
    Notepad: note > Enter
    firefox: fire > Enter
    and so on...

    I don't even need to wait to see all the results, its just instant. And I don't need anymore 20 shortcut icons everywhere on my desktop and quick launch bar, and I specially don't need to go search on my drive (using explorer). With that I rarely use the StartMenu Program list.

    Also the Game Folder is great, very convenient, same for the folder in your account name folder. (Downloads, Videos, Pictures, Save Games, etc...). And the per application volume control is also great No more volume "shock" (as it jumps in volume) when you switch games or decide to play music. These are some very few cool features of Vista that I love.

    In addition, they are many registry changes you can do to tweak Vista like you want. If you don't like searching for stuff in the registry (like me) You can find A LOT of freeware programs that allows you to change some Vista features that are found in the registry. Like Stardock LogonStudio, where you can change Vista logon background picture. (And unlike XP version it doesn't perform any hacks to the Welcome screen).

    One last thing I like, is when you move videos in Vista, you don't have the video that tries to catch up, as unlike XP Vista doesn't have 2 layers, 1 for multimedia item and the other for the GUI. everything is integrated. So now you can easily take screen shots of games and videos. Oh and the added "Skip", "Ignore", "Retry" buttons and "Apply to all other files" checkbox on dialog box's, so now when you empty the Temp dir, its much faster and convenient, and don't need to spend 20min to delete everything, as you always have to un-select a file on your Select All action.

    Oh and FINALLY, the delete dialog appears instantly (unlike XP), and you can disable the the delete dialog box (see properties panel of recycle bin)

    I think people should spend more time with Vista and start discovered its great features.
     
    Last edited: 23 Jan 2008
  11. koola

    koola Minimodder

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    QFT!
    Yeah, agree with the first part although a mac exploding :lol:
     
  12. GoodBytes

    GoodBytes How many wifi's does it have?

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    Check some tweak Vista program, (or look in the registry), you can disable the desktop flashing or monitor turn off thing.
    Microsoft calls it "Secure Desktop". The idea of that, if you have a malware program taht you run, it would not be able to send a "Left" then "Enter" keystroke for you, so preventing you from pressing "cancel", therefore damage your system.
     
  13. Tyinsar

    Tyinsar 6 screens 1 card since Nov 17 2007

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    To all those saying that this is just like when XP came out: you are correct - to a point. If you're assuming that it's only that the users eventually came around to seeing the benefits of XP then you're forgetting that the O.S. also had some maturing to do before it and the software and hardware markets came around. Therefor, for at least the first year XP offered little advantage to most users (or the advantages were balanced by disadvantages).

    Sadly things don't even have to be obscure or old for a manufacturer to drop driver support. I have a very nice USB TV tuner that has no driver support planned. :grr:
     
  14. Mother-Goose

    Mother-Goose 5 o'clock somewhere

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    I have just thought of two gripes with Vista, and it's only two:

    I can't seem to turn off all the "are you sure you want to do this" kinda prompts, thats UAC right? Even when I click the option in control panel, but I live with it mainly because I haven't had a single problem with spyware or viruses.

    The other thing that really winds me up is I can sort by file type in any view....is that right or am I being dim?
     
  15. antiHero

    antiHero ReliXmas time!

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    I run Vista at work for a month and love it. The only problem I have is the same as Mother-Goose with all those pop ups. Other than that ist great. Didnt switch yet bcouse of my system is slidely to slow IMO and i am broke all the time (Yes I actually do pay for all the software I use) and cant affort to chip out 300€ for an OS atm.
     
  16. GoodBytes

    GoodBytes How many wifi's does it have?

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    Yep that is UAC! Google for "disable UAC", on any method you perform (they are several ways to do it), you must restart your computer, else the effect won't be performed.

    That is why you never buy that brand again! Like me with my HP printer. I was just lucky to find Microsoft making the damn driver for HP.
    Those stupid companies think that you will actually go to the store and buy their newer and better product that is Vista compatible. I don't know who the **** they think they are, but I say they don't' deserve our money, and should be black Listed for ever.

    @antiHero, work at Microsoft, they have VERY VERY interesting deals for employees on their software.
     
  17. Woodstock

    Woodstock So Say We All

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    i use it as i had a free (legel) copy and thought id give to a go and its better then xp but not as good as a linux install
     
  18. Glider

    Glider /dev/null

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    HP is actually quite good on Linux... They offer good drivers and such... But I agree, they refuse to make software for my mouse on Vista... But then again, Vista handles the thumb button quite good.
     
  19. crazybob

    crazybob Voice of Reason

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    I'm quite content with XP, so I'll be sticking with it for now. I don't see any reason to waste a weekend reformatting a perfectly good computer - Vista is acceptable, not compelling. Besides, I think the new Explorer feels cluttered no matter how I customize it. The new start menu is the same way - it feels just a bit overwhelming. However, I haven't messed with customizing the start menu so I don't know how far that can be improved. I also really dislike the changes they've made to Control Panel and the settings dialogs; why can't Windows take a hint from Mac and KDE and make one enormous, well-organized settings page? In that respect, Vista is a downgrade from XP.

    To be honest, that's it for downsides. There are a few things I really like, as well. I like the new run dialog, the improved icon scaling, the better resource management, and the redone network stack. I also like some of the shiny. I don't like Aero, but I can't count that against Vista because Aero is at least better than Luna. Even running in 2000 mode, the visuals have been improved - icons and various other interface elements are more appealing.

    In short, I'll consider Vista next time I'm forced to reformat. I'll probably stick with XP because I'm used to it and while I have no serious complaints about Vista, I also don't find it terribly compelling. However, any computers I build for friends and family are getting Vista.
     
  20. Tyinsar

    Tyinsar 6 screens 1 card since Nov 17 2007

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    Plextor :grr:
     
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