[Vista] What "Exactly" have you found "right" with Vista in Microsoft help

Re: [Vista] What "Exactly" have you found "right" with Vista

Sun, 01 Jun 2008 11:05:34 EDT

mike31mets : Same here. Reason I became a Met fan as a kid. Quite the career he had though. Just hope he goes in to the hall of fame as a Met.

Re: [Vista] What "Exactly" have you found "right" with Vista

Sun, 01 Jun 2008 10:53:30 EDT

howie :

said by mike31mets :

sorry, copied and pasted my original post.

Sorry, I didn't realize you had... My apologies!

[EDIT] BTW, Sorry to see Mike retire. Was one of my favorite Mets. :(
--
N.Y. Giants - Super Bowl XLII Champions

Re: [Vista] What "Exactly" have you found "right" with Vista

Sun, 01 Jun 2008 10:52:39 EDT

mike31mets : sorry, copied and pasted my original post.

Re: [Vista] What "Exactly" have you found "right" with Vista

Sat, 31 May 2008 11:50:50 EDT

howie :

said by mike31mets :

What are some features that you like about Vista?

ummmmmmmmmmm... isn't that what this thread is about?
--
N.Y. Giants - Super Bowl XLII Champions

Re: [Vista] What "Exactly" have you found "right" with Vista

Sat, 31 May 2008 10:47:26 EDT

mike31mets : I wasnt aware this thread existed until I created one myself and was pointed here. So.....

I use Vista every day now since January. It's been a great change. What are some features that you like about Vista? Please do not turn this into a thread where Vista is bashed or turn this into a Mac/PC thread somehow.

I'll start. I like how when I copy folders which have similar file names it'll give you the option to replace the file, to not replace, OR a new option of copying the file with a new name which usually ends in (2).

I also like how if I rename a folder to the name of another folder in the same area, Vista will ask me if I want to merge the two folders or rename it something else. Previously you would just get an error message that did not let you make that folder name change.

I also like how in Disk Management you can Shrink Volume on the hard drive. it's a step forward in what you can do with Disk Management which previously required a Partition manager.

Re: [Vista] What "Exactly" have you found "right" with Vista

Sun, 11 May 2008 21:12:08 EDT

howie :

said by Konceptz :

No more F6 disks!!!

That's one of the best new features! ;-)
--
N.Y. Giants - Super Bowl XLII Champions

Re: [Vista] What "Exactly" have you found "right" with Vista

Sun, 11 May 2008 20:05:17 EDT

Konceptz : lets see,

on the same system it was faster then XP64 ever was (i'm running vista ultimate x64 with SP1)

Better memory management
Better Multitasking capabilities
Looks better
Smoother interface
Aero
DX10
Native support raid/sata, no more F6 disks!!!
--
Last Result:
Download Speed: 21657 kbps (2707.1 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 1946 kbps (243.3 KB/sec transfer rate)

Re: [Vista] What "Exactly" have you found "right" with Vista

Sun, 11 May 2008 15:49:11 EDT

scelli : Excellent...thanks for the assistance!

Re: [Vista] What "Exactly" have you found "right" with Vista

Sun, 11 May 2008 13:15:19 EDT

howie :

said by scelli :

My current data values for BagMRU Size are different than those in your own posted screen shot. Does this make a difference in whether I can apply the registration fix you outline? Can the value be changed from 5000 to 20000 manually?

See my screen shot and TIA!

Sure, just double click the BagMRU Size in the righthand window and change the decimal value to 20000.
The point is moot, though, as that reg fix changes it for you. :-)
--
N.Y. Giants - Super Bowl XLII Champions

Re: [Vista] What "Exactly" have you found "right" with Vista

Sun, 11 May 2008 13:05:50 EDT

howie : Oh yeah... I forgot!
The SegoeUI Font! :-)
--
N.Y. Giants - Super Bowl XLII Champions

Re: [Vista] What "Exactly" have you found "right" with Vista

Sun, 11 May 2008 12:55:06 EDT

Jean_22 : I love it too.The new GUI takes some time but once you master it.... My friend used to be a hater, but I converted him in 2 days when he got his laptop =D.

Re: [Vista] What "Exactly" have you found "right" with Vista

Sun, 11 May 2008 01:36:48 EDT

scelli : My current data values for BagMRU Size are different than those in your own posted screen shot. Does this make a difference in whether I can apply the registration fix you outline? Can the value be changed from 5000 to 20000 manually?

See my screen shot and TIA!

Re: [Vista] What "Exactly" have you found "right" with Vista

Sat, 10 May 2008 15:42:33 EDT

MattE :

said by me2000 :

Instant search is a GODSEND! Whenever I have to use xp now, I always have a hard time finding something because I'm so used to easily typing in what program I want to run and pressing enter.

You can download Windows Desktop Search for XP. Same thing and works great.

said by me2000 :

I really don't know how people can stay with xp. xp seems so inferior to Vista now that I've been using it for over a year.

I just don't understand this whole Vista is the new Windows ME. The ignorance is just astounding and I would bet anything that these people haven't even *tried* Vista.

Vista pre-SP1 had a TON of problems, but it does look like MS has stepped up and fixed a lot of them. Vista pre-SP1 and post-SP1 are completely different beasts and completely different experiences. I'm really looking forward to SP2 so they can spend time fixing all the little nuances since they had a boatload of major stuff to fix in SP1.

Overall I'm really happy with Vista SP1 so far. My laptop is still running XP, but if my experience with my desktop continues to be positive, I'll likely migrate my laptop too.

Re: [Vista] What "Exactly" have you found "right" with Vista

Sat, 10 May 2008 14:27:55 EDT

me2000 : Pretty much everything.

All the issues I did have were fixed in SP1.

Aero is great.

Instant search is a GODSEND! Whenever I have to use xp now, I always have a hard time finding something because I'm so used to easily typing in what program I want to run and pressing enter.

It's SO stable, I haven't really had any issues at all.

Sidebar is pretty cool.

--

I really don't know how people can stay with xp. xp seems so inferior to Vista now that I've been using it for over a year.

I work for the computer service center at my university (we run scans, fix computers, etc) and most of the problem computers are xp and they're always DOG slow. Vista laptops that come in aren't usually that bad and they're still relatively fast.

I just don't understand this whole Vista is the new Windows ME. The ignorance is just astounding and I would bet anything that these people haven't even *tried* Vista.

Re: OT: Forgetful Folder Fix

Sat, 10 May 2008 09:26:24 EDT

howie : Yes, you should have copied/pasted all the bold text in my previous post before saving/merging. Thanks, Matt.

[EDIT] Just click the "copy to clipboard" on the attached code and then paste into Notepad.

Re: OT: Forgetful Folder Fix

Sat, 10 May 2008 06:52:33 EDT

MattE :

said by tahoejeff :

thanks howie, that has been one of the few annoyances. now maybe you can help me figure out why it didn't work? here's what i pasted to the reg file. attached is the error.

[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\BagMRU]
[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Bags]

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell]
"BagMRU Size"=dword:00004e20

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Bags\AllFolders\Shell]
"FolderType"="NotSpecified"

Add the following at the top, make sure to include a blank line immediately after:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

Re: OT: Forgetful Folder Fix

Sat, 10 May 2008 02:51:16 EDT

tahoejeff : thanks howie, that has been one of the few annoyances. now maybe you can help me figure out why it didn't work? here's what i pasted to the reg file. attached is the error.

[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\BagMRU]
[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Bags]

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell]
"BagMRU Size"=dword:00004e20

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Bags\AllFolders\Shell]
"FolderType"="NotSpecified"
--
The Geek Shall Inherit the Earth

Re: [Vista] What "Exactly" have you found "right" with Vista

Sat, 10 May 2008 00:56:18 EDT

OCP : The hard drive cache of Quake 3 made it start up faster than XP. Even though I was forced to run it in XP "mode".

Slightly better security built in. UAC, Defender, etc.

64 bit OS. The future, not the present for Microsoft.

Aero is OK. The performance penalty is much less than hyped.

I could actually beat the chess game when it worked. Unlike GNU chess. I'm not good at chess.

Vista with Media Center is neat. I didn't get to test it out too much.

I had lots of problems with Vista. The same exact hardware ran XP/Linux fine. That's not what you wanna hear though. I think most of my problems were nVidia's fault?

OT: Forgetful Folder Fix

Fri, 09 May 2008 07:04:40 EDT

howie : Here is the Vista folder fix. Just copy/paste the BOLD text below into Notepad and save to your desktop as folder.reg. Double-click the reg file and merge it into your registry.

Note: This will reset all your folders but subsequently, after you set each one to it's own view, the settings should stick.

Note 2: This also prevents Vista from automatically setting folders to what it thinks they should be and allows you to set them up as you want them.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\BagMRU]
[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Bags]

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell]
"BagMRU Size"=dword:00004e20

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Bags\AllFolders\Shell]
"FolderType"="NotSpecified"
--
N.Y. Giants - Super Bowl XLII Champions

Re: [Vista] What "Exactly" have you found "right" with Vista

Fri, 09 May 2008 06:59:18 EDT

howie :

said by Kanebrake :

thanks Howie ... I was wonder how to fix that!!

You're welcome! I know this is an issue experienced by many.
--
N.Y. Giants - Super Bowl XLII Champions

Re: [Vista] What "Exactly" have you found "right" with Vista

Fri, 09 May 2008 06:48:07 EDT

Kanebrake : thanks Howie ... I was wonder how to fix that!!

Re: [Vista] What "Exactly" have you found "right" with Vista

Fri, 09 May 2008 03:40:04 EDT

Snakeoil : I liked Vista from the 1st time I installed it. I built my PC and made sure to buy all Vista certified parts.
Sure I had a few video games that wouldn't work at first. But unlike other people, I blamed Nvidia for the lack of drivers, and not windows. Nvidia seemed to have started late with Vista drivers, but they soon caught up.

I don't have SP1 installed yet.
--
Say no to the IRS.. Yes to the Fair Tax! This beer is for: 464th bat. 98th div. Combat engineers. Hillside Ave schenectady NY.

Re: [Vista] What "Exactly" have you found "right" with Vista

Fri, 09 May 2008 00:58:43 EDT

HEDP : Unlike Mac OS X, I can keep gadgets up and running on the desktop without the need to change hidden preference files to do the same thing. The gadgets are displayed in a clean manner on my screen without bugging me or my work.

There is also a wide selection of gadgets.

I also like how it handles windows updates and driver updates.

Re: [Vista] What "Exactly" have you found "right" with Vista

Thu, 08 May 2008 20:43:08 EDT

DownTheShore :

said by Wily_One :

That's always been the case. But if you're saying explorer.exe crashes a lot in Vista, that is certainly not something that's "right" in Vista.

When my XP computer restarted Windows Explorer, I normally lost some resident security programs, which required a complete restart, even though I didn't get the BSOD as I would have in WinME.

Third party software may be the cause, but that just reiterates the fallacy of Vista-ready and Vista-compatible labels affixed to such software.

Vista does load and stop much faster, compared to XP.

I like that I don't have to try to tweak the internet connection speeds.

My problem is, when I went from WinME to WinXP, it was like, "wow, why did I wait so long to switch?", but going from WinXP to Vista it's sort of like, "eh, what's the big deal?". It's just not as intuitive as XP.:huh:
--
Life is simply one damned thing after another.

Re: [Vista] What "Exactly" have you found "right" with Vista

Thu, 08 May 2008 20:40:24 EDT

tommy13v : Been running Windows Vista Ultimate for a while and haven't had any issues yet with what I do.

What I like the most is the speed improvement. I know others have said its slow but for my 2.2Ghz Intel it runs quickly.
--
Click to Call for Asterisk servers

Re: [Vista] What "Exactly" have you found "right" with Vista

Thu, 08 May 2008 19:31:02 EDT

anon : I have yet to see explorer crashes on Vista while I've seen tons of XP with explorer.exe crashes in shop. I will be pissed off if Vista crashes explorer alot. I would bet money on some third-party software crashing his explorer.exe.

Re: [Vista] What "Exactly" have you found "right" with Vista

Thu, 08 May 2008 18:42:13 EDT

joako : I guess Aero is ok. It looks pretty and doesn't slow down the machine.

The startup and shutdown sounds are nice and not as dramatic as in Windows XP.
--
09:F9:11:02:9D:74:E3:5B:D8:41:56:C5:63:56:88:C0

Re: [Vista] What "Exactly" have you found "right" with Vista

Thu, 08 May 2008 18:20:24 EDT

odreian615 : Everything so far so great only bad thing is that my old Creative webcam won't work and I had to find my 6 month old Lexmark printer driver for Vista from a site outside of Lexmark
/one more issue I think I can resolve on my own and is not really Vista fault is getting my Nvidia card detect my TV

Re: [Vista] What "Exactly" have you found "right" with Vista

Thu, 08 May 2008 18:10:13 EDT

howie : I know one nagging issue that was driving me crazy was the habit of folders to change their views randomly by themselves. I was able to fix this by resetting my folders and then increase the BagMRU Size to 20000 instead of the default 5000 in the registry. That was the only nagging issue I couldn't seem to fix but now it's fine and all my folders remember how I set them up. :-)
--
N.Y. Giants - Super Bowl XLII Champions

Re: [Vista] What "Exactly" have you found "right" with Vista

Thu, 08 May 2008 16:53:10 EDT

Wily_One :

said by DownTheShore :

When Windows Explorer crashes (which happens too frequently), it restarts itself.

That's always been the case. But if you're saying explorer.exe crashes a lot in Vista, that is certainly not something that's "right" in Vista.

Re: [Vista] What "Exactly" have you found "right" with Vista

Thu, 08 May 2008 15:56:06 EDT

BillRoland : Since migrating our offices to it I have seen a DRAMATIC decrease in support calls.
--
"Don't steal. The government hates competition."

Re: [Vista] What "Exactly" have you found "right" with Vista

Thu, 08 May 2008 15:23:32 EDT

wb6uqu :

said by weaseled386 :

WHAT I HATE ABOUT IT: No HyperTerm. I'm not forced to download a 3rd party term software that I use multiple times daily. I guess I'm in the bottom 5% of Windows users who acutally used HyperTerm (also for telneting into old BBS'!).

Hyperterminal for Vista available from Hilgraeve:

»www.hilgraeve.com/htpe/index.html

Ray

Re: [Vista] What "Exactly" have you found "right" with Vista

Thu, 08 May 2008 14:46:05 EDT

howie : Yes, that's pretty cool. I personally prefer some of the other DreamScene backgrounds, though. :-)
--
N.Y. Giants - Super Bowl XLII Champions

Re: [Vista] What "Exactly" have you found "right" with Vista

Thu, 08 May 2008 14:38:19 EDT

MattE :

said by howie :

The Start Orb! ;-)

Seriously, though, I'm running Vista Ultimate SP1 x86 and Vista Business SP1 x86 and there are no issues whatsoever (besides a modest slowdown in my USB speeds after SP1). I love the Aero GUI and everything is running fast and smooth. I retired XP just the other day and I'm now running Vista exclusively.

Have you seen the dreamscape animated Orb? It's my current background and it's sexay!

»www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoIXket_···=related

Re: [Vista] What "Exactly" have you found "right" with Vista

Thu, 08 May 2008 12:26:54 EDT

howie : The Start Orb! ;-)

Seriously, though, I'm running Vista Ultimate SP1 x86 and Vista Business SP1 x86 and there are no issues whatsoever (besides a modest slowdown in my USB speeds after SP1). I love the Aero GUI and everything is running fast and smooth. I retired XP just the other day and I'm now running Vista exclusively.

Re: [Vista] What "Exactly" have you found "right" with Vista

Thu, 08 May 2008 12:20:03 EDT

DownTheShore : When Windows Explorer crashes (which happens too frequently), it restarts itself.
--
Life is simply one damned thing after another.

Re: [Vista] What "Exactly" have you found "right" with Vista

Thu, 08 May 2008 12:16:09 EDT

VidsGuy : Security :D Stability :D Speed :D
--
He who dies with the most toys wins !!!

Re: [Vista] What "Exactly" have you found "right" with Vista

Thu, 08 May 2008 12:06:15 EDT

Ryan : Well the biggest reason is how windows now ends tasks or processes. If a program hangs end task it and it closes instantly. No waiting 2 min or going back into task manager and hit end task again or end task to the end taks, instead it just works.

AERO and also the new way of navigating through directories similar to gnome. You can click which subdirectory you would want to go back to while exploring.

The new event viewer and the ability to organize everything

The new firewall which includes outbound features. Also there is an advanced firewall control which finally lets you control every single rule through mmc. LOVE THIS FEATURE!

OUU almost forgot a big one

NO MORE WEB BASED WINDOWS UPDATES!!!!!!!!!!! Instead its done from the windows update app.

Stable, the few issues that I did see were gone with the release of sp1. I have done multiple installs for other people on various hardware (clean installs) and besides a few driver issues here and there their computers have been running stable and they are very happy.

Re: [Vista] What "Exactly" have you found "right" with Vista

Thu, 08 May 2008 11:51:56 EDT

anon : All spot-on reasons listed above, but for me it is security. Vista lets you run in a limited user account in ways simply not possible with XP. Users who refuse to migrate simply don't realize their boxen's potential by upgrading!

Re: [Vista] What "Exactly" have you found "right" with Vista

Thu, 08 May 2008 11:12:29 EDT

SierraRob : I am running 64-bit Vista Business SP1 on my month-old quad-core machine with 4Gb RAM. After disabling UAC and some of the resource-hogging background system protection stuff (since I do frequent backups anyway), I find it to be better than XP, and very responsive and stable (no system crashes yet).

One of the things that impresses me about it is that system standby WORKS - this is the first machine I've owned that I feel comfortable putting on standby instead of shutting down. Every computer I've had before this one (with XP, 2000, etc.) would wake from standby with the WiFi connection not working, or the sound not working, or some such annoyance. I think this is due to the fact that Vista's new device driver model (especially under 64-bit OS) forces the driver writers to actually deal with things like standby mode rather than just ignore them. (Probably a major reason why many hardware vendors were still struggling to release Vista drivers even when Vista was released.)

I would not install Vista on any machine more than a year or two old, though, and definitely not on a single-core machine. Vista needs multiple CPUs to really shine.

Re: [Vista] What "Exactly" have you found "right" with Vista

Thu, 08 May 2008 10:53:06 EDT

MattE :

said by Dogblinkers :

I like vista and to be fair with my last post " What Exactly did you find wrong with vista", I have found new operating systems force the hardware manufacturers to increase speed and performance of their hardware. What have you found "right" with vista?

After switching back from XP to Vista 32 (instead of Vista x64), I've not had a single problem and I am actually enjoying Vista. I think a huge part of my disappointment with Vista compatibility was simply 64-bit software incompatibilities. Vista, once booted and allowed to "do it's thing" (caching perhaps?), is much faster than XP. It doesn't seem like it at first, but once you perform an action, the second time that action is performed, it's damn near instantaneous. I didn't really notice this until recently. I think this may be why most benchmarks show Vista as slower. It *IS* the first time you open an app, or look at a huge directory ... but if you repeat that action, it's instant. I don't think benchmarks take this into account.

I've gone so far as to upgrade from Vista Business to Vista Ultimate (since I've got tons of free licenses for each) and I'm digging the Media Center functionality/integration with my XBox 360 and the Dreamscene MPEG backgrounds. I love the sidebar w/ my XM Radio plugin. WMP would always time the session out every 2-3 hours and I'd have to log back in.

The combination of SP1 and 32-bit software has made Vista rather enjoyable. It probably helps I dumped my Athlon 64 system for a Core 2 Duo E6750 system right before the upgrade also.

I still don't care for the Network Sharing Center, especially the VPN disconnect functionality as I have several different VPN connections I use simultaneously throughout the day, but that's really my only complaint.

Re: [Vista] What "Exactly" have you found "right" with Vista

Thu, 08 May 2008 10:20:39 EDT

james1 : I really like the start menu quick search. I can type the first three letters of the program I want to run and then hit enter and it runs, depending on if there are similar.

I'm not a fan of some of the folder views, especially when an irrelevant one is assigned to a folder. Sometimes I have to go through a bunch of work just to do something simple like sort by file size. You can disable it, sure, but it's enabled by default.

Re: [Vista] What "Exactly" have you found "right" with Vista

Thu, 08 May 2008 10:17:05 EDT

Chillin : - Stable
- Folder Views
- Search
- Stable
- Aero
- Stable
- Media Center
- Real Stable

- My GF loves the blue loading circle... lol.
--
Graphic Disorder

Re: [Vista] What "Exactly" have you found "right" with Vista

Thu, 08 May 2008 10:04:30 EDT

Alcohol : Heres my top 5.

- Ability to sound control different programs (No more windows sounds = Win)

- Aero

- Windows sidebar

- New folder view

- Dreamscene
--
I found the key to success but somebody changed the lock.

Re: [Vista] What "Exactly" have you found "right" with Vista

Thu, 08 May 2008 09:33:16 EDT

dellsweig :

Actually - I like it allot - for what it is... I have 10 machines in my house - 6 Vista (all flavors) 2 XP and 2 Linux. I will be upgraded one of the XP's to Vista this weekend and the last is my work laptop. The only reason for XP on that is the Nortel VPN client does not work in Vista and I need that to connect. Oh yeah - I run a XP VM on my Vista desktop for accessing work.....

If you are looking for a consumer grade OS - Vista is what you are looking for. It is relativly stable, well supported and seamlessly runs all the home user apps.

If you are looking for a server or performance - Linux cannot be beat.

2 markets - 2 OS's

Re: [Vista] What "Exactly" have you found "right" with Vista

Thu, 08 May 2008 09:27:14 EDT

rmrper : Improved Media Center experience on a fresh install. Getting Media Center and my Xbox360 extender, as well as the WMP11 media sharing was just much simpler. On XP SP2 Media Center, I had to go through some funky installation order so my ATI HDTV card would work without having a 2nd NTSC tuner installed. Then, of course, I had to get an MPEG2 codec, and install .NET and various Windows Updates for it to all work. Vista set everything up on install but one driver for my HDTV card. I told it to check Windows Update for a driver from Device Manager, and it found it and I was on my way. Then, I turn on my 360 and Vista says "New Extender Found. Do you want to set it up?" Follow the prompts and I'm done in 5 minutes.

Additionally, it is nice that Windows Movie Maker can now edit the dvr-ms files from Media Center. I can quickly edit out commercials and save a WMV file for my wife to watch on her laptop, as she travels frequently.

Re: [Vista] What "Exactly" have you found "right" with Vista

Thu, 08 May 2008 09:14:14 EDT

Snowcat : I have just had it for a week, but one neat thing I noticed is that my router shows up in the network settings, something that I wouldn't see in XP. I can even click a link that goes to the configuration page of the router.

Re: [Vista] What "Exactly" have you found "right" with Vista

Thu, 08 May 2008 08:31:25 EDT

weaseled386 : I love Vista, but I'm unable to run it on my Dell D620. I bought Vista Ultimate, installed it and shortly thereafter my laptop started overheating & shutting down. However, I have a thread over in the Road Warrior forum about how abusive I am to my systems...

What actually attracted me to Vista, as lame as it may sound, is the bubbles screen saver!!! However, when I tried to run it my laptop's cooling fan would ramp up three speeds, and shut down. It got better after disabling Aero, but still died when trying to watch a DVD. So I said mess on it and went back to XP Pro.

This isn't a Vista issue!!! As stated above, I've beat this laptop into the ground. Leaving it running in a locked car in the hot Florida sun, working underground in dark hot & damp telco sites and even dropping it.

I did just purchase a Dell XPS M1530 with all the bells & whistles. I bought the cheapest version of Vista I could get on it so I can upgrade with the copy of Ultimate I already own. Waiting on this build I've turned into the most NON-patient person. I'm checking the build status 15 times a day, etc.

My favorite aspect of it is the user interface. In a close second is networking.

WHAT I HATE ABOUT IT: No HyperTerm. I'm not forced to download a 3rd party term software that I use multiple times daily. I guess I'm in the bottom 5% of Windows users who acutally used HyperTerm (also for telneting into old BBS'!).

Re: [Vista] What "Exactly" have you found "right" with Vista

Thu, 08 May 2008 08:17:40 EDT

PeteC2 :

Dogblinkers, an interesting observation, but to be honest, to me, it appears a bit "backwards", no offense meant!

Vista did not "force" hardware development...that is an ever-ongoing process quite regardless of the software developers! Rather Vista is taking advantage of the reality of what today's more powerful processors bring to the table.

Intel and AMD (as was Motorola, and other manufacturers in the past) will always be looking for ways to increase the capabilities of their processors...Seagate, Western Digital, etc., will always be looking to improve the capacity and seek times of their hard drives...Nvidia, AMD, Intel, et al, will forever be looking to extend the boundaries of graphics processors...and on it goes...because if they stop? The competition won't, and they will go out of business! Technology never stands still! Try going out and buying a 25" console, black and white t.v. without a remote, and a mechanical tuner... :o

What I find interesting in regards to what is "right" about Vista, is that it truly is in the eyes of the user!

For example, to me, the automated, let Vista do the "housekeeping" defragging, is a good feature! Why on earth do I want, or need to monkey around with defragging? IMHO, the hallmark of a sophisticated OS is that the end user need not concern his/her self with mundane background operations...and yet...there are certainly a number of users who feel (not rightly or wrongly, their opinion, after all!) that not being in intimate, direct control of the defragging process gives them less "control" over the OS operation!

I also absolutely like the Aero interface...it is a pleasant, evolutionary graphics improvement...but again, some folks decry the extra resources that a spiffier appearance does take...this is an "issue" with each succeeding OS, and legit enough. Some folks like a very graphic interface, some want every last bit of performance, and dislike anything that "frivolously" uses any resources.

The other thing that I think Vista "got right", and again, this is dependent on what hardware/software that you are running, is that it is every bit as stable as XP, of course, the exception being if you do have an app or hardware device that was not Vista compatible or yet had Vista drivers...and despite the complaints, Vista came out of the box with a much longer compatibility list than any previous OS, including XP. Certainly I suspect that my good response with Vista has quite a bit to do with the fact that I bought a computer that was designed to work with Vista in the first place. Probably, as with XP before it, the older the system, and hardware/software, the more likely that something might not "play nice"...

Also, "Superfetch" really does work pretty much as advertised...processes that one uses most frequently, do come up quite quickly. Along that note: I like that Vista actually puts available memory to good use! One of what I believe to be one of the mis-understandings of Vista, is that just because much of your ram is being constantly used...that is not a bad thing, as Vista is good at releasing it to other tasks as called upon! What is the point of having 2- 4 gb (or more) ram, if it is just sitting idle much of the time?
--
...something is happening here but you don't know what it is...do you, Mr. Jones?

Re: [Vista] What "Exactly" have you found "right" with Vista

Thu, 08 May 2008 07:54:21 EDT

Skeedatl : To me it's the little things. Zone copying and better drag and drop of elements between applications. Being a regular OS X user, I missed having that functionality in XP but Vista does it very well.

Another thing I liked about OS X that XP didn't have was good wallpaper fitment. You had only tile, stretch and actual size. Vista you can fit the wallpaper to the screen height or width without having to edit the pic and resize for good fit like I did with XP.

Another OS X tool I missed in XP was a good screen capture tool. I ended up having to use 3rd party tools. But with Vista, it's built in with snipping tool and it works great.

Fax and scan for me is a good replacement to the now dead Winfax Pro.

Lots of handy widgets, particularly RDC.

Windows Search and Shadow Copy

On the majority of my machines, it boots and shuts down faster than XP did.

More secure in default configuration.

The mobility tool is a handy consolidation of stuff I check regularly.

But my fave is Vista Media Center, IMO FAR superior to MCE 2005. It's very stable, fast and the transparent interface awesome looking. Network sharing and integration with WHS is flawless. And unlike TiVo, no friggin banner ads on every screen or recording of infomercials. Plus it's free.

Re: [Vista] What "Exactly" have you found "right" with Vista

Thu, 08 May 2008 05:22:29 EDT

Pole883 : Vista..........I'm lovin' it!

Re: [Vista] What "Exactly" have you found "right" with Vista

Wed, 07 May 2008 22:48:13 EDT

takeahike : It's real stable, great search, great graphics and animations, allows for much more fun and 'involvement' with the computing experience, some good shortcut tricks!
--
"Windows is for boys, Linux is for men, OSX is for adolescents." Attributed

Re: [Vista] What "Exactly" have you found "right" with Vista

Wed, 07 May 2008 22:43:28 EDT

djrobx : The installation DVD. Both the install process and recovery tools are light years better than XP.

I do like Aero and the elegant fading animations when you minimize and maximize.

Better handling of duplicate files when doing copy operations through the gui.

Searching on the start menu is great.

Control Panel organization is better (except when you enter networking, ugh).

Vista Media Center's new plugin API has potential (c'mon My Movies, release that Vista version...)
--
Laser eye surgery rocks! I love frickin' laser beams.

Re: [Vista] What "Exactly" have you found "right" with Vista

Wed, 07 May 2008 22:33:18 EDT

DOStradamus : I'm a proponent of 2k8 Server (Windows Vista's sibling "Server" product), to be the best desktop OS I've ever run, and I have run several (not just from MS as my NIC might imply)

2k8 Server was released with SP1 already installed (its Windows 6.0A), and MS nicely packaged all that I see as "bad" in Vista as an optional package for me - "User Desktop Experience", which, of course, I didn't install.

Vista w/SP1 may surprise a lot of you... Microsoft has released some of its *best* OS (and other) versions either as upgrades or "very next versions" of some of their worst releases:
Windown98 -> Windows98SE
MS-DOS 4 -> MS-DOS 5
..and, VS 2005 finally gave us VS6 users something to upgrade to.

2k8 Server, IMHO, runs just as fast as 2k3.

If Vista SP1 isn't the "Next 98SE", SP2 should be. Hang in there. Things will speed up.

-NK

Re: [Vista] What "Exactly" have you found "right" with Vista

Wed, 07 May 2008 22:32:32 EDT

Keizer : After doing a clean install of Vista, with SP1, my biggest complaints are gone. Games are running awesome on Vista, USB 2 speeds are right in the ball park, and lets face it, it's a really good looking OS if you have the hardware to back it up.

Re: [Vista] What "Exactly" have you found "right" with Vista

Wed, 07 May 2008 22:29:57 EDT

H2OuUp2 : Didn't like it at first, but....

NO crashes EVER (ymmv).

Re: [Vista] What "Exactly" have you found "right" with Vista

Wed, 07 May 2008 20:38:35 EDT

gsm : everything now I am a big fan of vista. so much so that I bought 3 copies of it. Home pre upgrade anytime upgrade to ult and a retail box of ult :D + the wfp so I somehow ended with 5 copies of vista :D

[Vista] What "Exactly" have you found "right" with Vista

Wed, 07 May 2008 20:30:19 EDT

anon : I like vista and to be fair with my last post " What Exactly did you find wrong with vista", I have found new operating systems force the hardware manufacturers to increase speed and performance of their hardware. What have you found "right" with vista?