It’s no secret I was a bit disappointed with Windows Vista. It was an incredibly ambitious project that delivered a massive, under-the-hood update to Windows. Where it failed was that it was released just a bit too early. Too early means not enough polish on things that could have dramatically improved the first impression of the new OS.
Here is what I said back in 2006 prior to Vista’s launch:
What will happen if they ship Windows Vista if it comes out in 1Q2007? I predict it will be a disaster. Driver compatibility, rough edges in software working, weird and unpolished UI design, etc. The acronymn UAC will come to haunt Microsoft and they will rue the day they didn't wait just a few more months to get driver compatibility together.
Windows 7, by contrast, is all about polish. It fixes the mistakes made with Windows Vista.
Unfortunately, I still have to deal with Windows Vista. And now, even issues I hadn’t noticed before in Windows Vista become painfully obvious now that I’m used to Windows 7.
Below are 10 things that are driving me crazy about Windows Vista now that I’ve got Windows 7.
Reason #1: Nothing is ever responding
In Windows Vista, it seems like the OS is just waiting to declare a window isn’t responding. This is particularly obnoxious when it comes to network windows. The Windows 7 GUI is much more responsive and it’s far less likely to have that annoying “not responding” behavior occur.
Reason #2: The UAC
I still can’t believe Microsoft hasn’t updated UAC in Windows Vista so to make it less annoying. Every time I go back to a Windows Vista machine, it’s one of the first things that comes up. Prompts. Prompts. Prompts over the silliest of things.
On Windows 7, there’s a lot more control of these annoyances. Windows is still the “are you sure” OS but it’s a lot less annoying.
Programs like Tweak 7 make it easy to further refine this. For instance, the delay/darkening of the screen theoretically can add more security but it’s just annoying. On Windows 7, I can turn that off.
Reason #3: Basic Usability
In Windows Vista, if you want to change the resolution, you either use the video card’s built in add-on (seen at the top) or you have to jump through menus. It’s ridiculous.
in Windows 7, you can get to screen resolution quickly by default. A very nice touch.
Reason #4: The System Tray
I had no idea how annoying the system tray system of Windows Vista (and before) was until I started using Windows 7. Going back to Windows Vista is like going back to system tray hell.
No comparison. On Windows 7, it’s clean and nice.
Reason #5: Explorer Usability
Windows Vista (above) is just a lot less useful with explorer even though it seems more cluttered (to me anyway).
By contrast, Windows 7 (above) has common sense options up above and the navigation pane on the left is much more useful as well.
Reason #6: Customization – Vista sucks at it.
For reasons unknown, Microsoft insisted on putting lots of hard-coded colored images in the Vista UI.
Windows 7 still has the problem somewhat (baby blue) but it’s a lot easier for programs to customize a color than it is to deal with an image. So if you run a program like WindowBlinds that lets you customize Windows, Windows 7 makes life even better.
Reason #7: Cyan borders.
This goes with Microsoft’s love affair with various blue-like colors being baked in. Vista had cyan borders on the edges.
On Windows 7, the colors are neutral. I should also add that Aero doesn’t have that annoying reflection texture in it anymore.
Reason #8: Useless network object
How often are you going to want to sift through all the computers on your network? Windows 7 cleans up (it could still be better) the network experience.
Reason #9: Devices
This is something that seems obvious in hindsight but Windows Vista does not have it. A nice, simple screen for dealing with the real world stuff that people use.
Reason #10: Windows XP mode
Windows 7 Professional and Ultimate include “Windows XP mode”. For most people, it’s not a big deal. But it’s a handy tool that one would have thought Vista would have included for programs that had compatibility problems.
You can install things from within the environment and then they will run seamlessly on your desktop.
So if you have programs that don’t like Vista (or Windows 7) you can run them within Windows XP on the desktop. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work well with games very well.
But imagine how things might have gone with Windows Vista if it had had something like this.
There you have it…
Well look here, I just got handed a Windows 7 Professional DVD. Goodbye Windows Vista.
Runs out of puff?....
Or was too embarrassed by the results of the first one?
Nah, seriously, that may be due to hardware error/malfunction. If the WEI assessment runs through ok until the last hardware component's test, its producing an error could be indicating something iffy with that component... or Win 7's ability to communicate with it.
I hope not, and I can't think of another logical explanation, but I hope not.
It is the part of the WEI that tests the hard drive. It ran fine the first time. I got a 4.0 overall. Not the best but I'm happy. I've known I need to replce this drive for some time so no big deal.
I had a feeling it may have been something like that... a hardware component, possibly a HDD producing an error. There are programs that can/will attermpt to repair HDD errors, but if you've known for a while, you're probably better off just replacing it.
It's basically a compatibility feature found in XP. I think Vista/7 do something a bit differently? Not sure.
One of the big, big issues with older OSes is something called "dll hell." In the early days, when the system files weren't so bolted down, you could modify them - and every app in the world decided to do so. That created a lot of issues, especially when more than one application would overwrite the same file, or even replace a newer file with an older one.
It was, as the name indicates, hell for the user. A major source of a lot of bluescreens and crashes.
I think that folder is Microsoft's answer to the problem: Instead of overwriting the file, create a copy of it in the sxs folder and fool the software into thinking it was writing to a system file when it really wasn't.
Strange it should get so big, though.
The folder that usually gets big for me is "System Volume Information" which includes the "system restore" feature of Windows. Allows you to roll back the state of the OS and retrieve old versions of files.
@Jafo: Nah, complicated commands, like "net stop uxsms"
@starkers: I've tried the RTM, MS havent fixed any of the bugs that annoyed me.
When I said WindowBlinds runs like a dream I forgot to mention that it's terrible at skinning the DWM (i.e. Extended borders, like in explorer and Windows Media Player 11)
Windows Media Player 11? You must be using Vista.
I use both. I'm just using WMP11 as an example of a program that uses DWM effects.
Im using vista and the thing that annoys me and copy and pasting into a new directory. Half the time i paste accidently into a folder in the directory or even into a zip file. Theres like a tiny bit of space where you can paste something
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