Fed up with Vista

[gunslinger]

Most of the Vista systems I have worked on have been Dell or Acer both laptops and desktops. Mine is custom built. I went into my logs that I keep about repairs made and problems encountered. Along with the problems I stated above: Vista freezes for 20-30seconds at a time (just as john said), blue screen after microsoft update, data loss ofter update, corrupt files after system freeze, files wont copy or do copy then are corrupt, all desktop icons and start menu shortcuts missing ( had that one myself more than once). I have a list here that would take up most of this page. The only Xp issues that have come my way in the past 2-3 months have been spyware/virus, forgot password, and could not get Norton to uninstall. Big difference in problem types here.

 

[gunslinger]

Two Chris Pirillo videos that I like and I think you all might find of interest.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HELrxLdP85c

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Tfr7WSPXCg&feature=related

 

[dipper]

Whoops my apologies it was 2 different users with data loss.
Ignore this post.

I've been using Vista at work for a while now. Every month I have to burn CD's for three of our clients, basically a bunch of PDF's put onto CD. Easy enough right? When I copied the files from my AS/400 (through windows explorer) and put them on CD, it didn't put them on the CD but deleted them from my AS/400. I then spent 4 hours trying to get those reports back and needless to say used XP to burn the files once I did get them back. I'm not commenting on anything else about Vista but that could've been one reason for the data loss.

Trying to fit 6G onto 1 CD - I think that is your problem!

Hmmm you say here it is PDF's later you say it is "Call of Duty" demo.

You could at least keep your story straight!

 

[dipper]

Actually, *I* said I'd never met a happy Vista user, just the once, and I then said I haven't met you, or Bryce.

Actually you said:
"The most enthused I've heard have said "it doesn't cause me many problems, and it's not much slower than XP"

Have you heard the comments on this thread or are you blind when someone says they like Vista?

 

[gunslinger]

I 'm pretty sure you are confusing my story with thecoldone06, he was backing up pdf files and Vista nuked the data. I was uninstalling call of duty 4 demo when Vista decided I did'nt need my wedding videos , pics and my virtual machine anymore.
By the way, I don't think anyone on this website would try to fit 6 gigs of data on a CD, thats an insult to all of us.

 

[dipper]

I believe you when you say you've found one. I, simply, haven't seen it.

Try and install Vista from scratch on the machine and see what it is like.

 

[dipper]

Two Chris Pirillo videos that I like and I think you all might find of interest.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HELrxLdP85c

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Tfr7WSPXCg&feature=related

I'm partway through the 1st video (can't watch the whole lot as I'm off interstate shortly and have to pack - BTW I'm taking my Vista laptop with me!).

Chris is correct, he tested it on his main machine and it is not suitable for what he does on that machine so installed XP. He tested it on a laptop and he is happy with it on the laptop. (This is the similar for me, my main machine is XP, one of my laptops is Vista).

This is what I have been saying all along - there are applications and uses for which Vista is fine. This is what you seem to be ignoring.

 

[JohnR]

Try and install Vista from scratch on the machine and see what it is like.

Uh, where did you get the impression that I hadn't?

 

[Blues]

I been trying to stay out of this but damn you people are disappointing me. Vista is not perfect I have had some issues but haven't worked with this too much. I think dipper is makin himself look bad mixing who is saying what becuase he doesn't seem to be quoting people correctly. I run XP becuase it works and is less trouble I would consider running Vista but I don't have any reason to.

 

[gunslinger]

Exactly Blues, XP works and is far less trouble than Vista. There is nothing you can do in Vista that can't be done in XP and on a more stable system, so why would I recommend anyone upgrade?

 

[JJsMom]

I guess I will add my 2 cents. I have been following this thread and I must say, I have a dell computer that came Vista Ready. Anyway I recently invested in Vista just so that I could get to know it a bit. I like it for the most part but it is a memory hog. I don't put any important documents on it because I am on an exploration mission. I just switch out hard drives (XP or Vista). Like all MS products I used in the pass, eventually they stabilize. Applications and software are very limited with Vista so I am waiting to see what comes next. BTW I have a friend that has it and he loves it. Different strokes for different folks I guess. Like many of you said, there really was no need for my to get Vista other than wanting to be prepared when I get a customer that has it.

 

[gunslinger]

I'll still run vista inside my virtual machine so that i'll have the ability to work on it when I need to, but I think its far too unstable for a primary OS at this point. When I first installed Vista all seemed well other than the fact my printer stopped working. I expected to have to update some drivers. After finding Vista drivers for my video card and printer everything worked but the printer was buggy it would work at times, sometimes not and it said my ink levels were low even with new ink cartridges. Other than this it seemed ok, until I started installing software and putting music, movies, photos ect. on it. The more I installed the worse things got.

 

[Blues]

Instead of a virtual Vista instal I would try a dual boot with XP and Vista as I haven't had any problems setting that up granted the user did fubar his Vista install and not consult me so I had to set it up a 2nd time.

 

[gunslinger]

I did try a dual boot with XP and Vista. The xp partition messed up the Vista partition twice, so I started using it on a VM.

 

[gunslinger]

Does anyone know when SP1 is comming out?

 

[greggh]

Does anyone know when SP1 is comming out?

Vista SP1 is scheduled to be released in the first quarter of 2008.

Supposedly it will be out in mid febuary.

 

[dipper]

As I mentioned above I am currently in Sydney for a computer security seminar. There were 7 speakers at the seminar (Australian and Americans who are mostly MS MVPs, or run their own business etc) and the audience was mainly techs and consultants involved in MS Small Business Server and Windows Server solutions.

The question came up to the panel about whether they would deploy Vista. Six out of 7 said they would (this even suprised me!) and that current issues are mainly to do with 3rd party apps and drivers!

The question was also put to the audience and most people responded that they would have no issues deploying Vista. A few complained about performance issues but where mainly told to disable Aero or some of the other graphical "features".

There will hopefully be a video available online shortly. When it is released I will let you know.

 

[XT18]

I got vista as it came with my new computer didint have any problems with it at all seems very stable on my machine i use to have some problems when i installed it on my older p4 machine alot of bugs but it seems like vista is bad with older hardware so for those with a lil older hardware shouldent waist time with vista as it aint going to work right.

 

[gunslinger]

As far as installing 3rd party apps and drivers being the only reason Vista is buggy: maybe you are right, maybe if I just installed Vista and MS office all would be great. How many people are going to do that? So I can't install my photoshop, foxit reader, 7-zip, Ashampoo burning studio, Firefox, AVG, VLC player or my printer software. If I do Vista gets buggy? Thats all 3rd party apps and drivers and they all work perfectly on XP.
Like I said before, all these problems can't just be the 3rd party apps. but maybe some are, at any rate its going to take time for the software companies to make Vista stable apps. and drivers, and even more time for Microsoft to make a service pack for it. Maybe 6-8 months into next year Vista will be more usable and I might even give it another shot. I for one am not going to put my life on hold until Vista works. I should not have to wrap my life around my OS.

As a side note, I think its kind of funny that only Microsoft software works well with Vista........but maybe thats by design.

 

[Blues]

The problem is honestly not as much with Vista as it is with the 3rd party applications and drivers. This issue still falls back on MS to some degree as I believe with as easy a time these 3rd party companies had with XP MS must have made some complicated changes in Vista. I just buy what suits the needs of myself or the end user. The best thing for the money right now as far as OEM goes is MS Windows XP MCE 2005 $115 or somewhere around that. XP Pro if you really need it and well Home I just don't like so is basicly XP Pro or XP MCE 2005. If I do a Vista machine I would be using Ultimate or Business as they each provide downgrade license and offer the best and most useful features. Home Premium would be good if I hadn't found some reported problems online wish I could recall them and share them.