Windows Vista Ultimate Hands On: A Diary

[pschmid]

Even a hacking-cough-let-me-go-to-sleep cold didn't deter Barry Gerber from picking up and playing with an Acer Ferrari 1000 laptop with release to manufacture versions of Windows Vista Ultimate and Office 2007 installed. He records his experience in this diary.

 

[quantumsheep]

Even a hacking-cough-let-me-go-to-sleep cold didn't deter Barry Gerber from picking up and playing with an Acer Ferrari 1000 laptop with release to manufacture versions of Windows Vista Ultimate and Office 2007 installed. He records his experience in this diary.

That link doesn't work :-\

 

[halbhh]

thanks pschmid

 

[grant8844]

the links works now

 

[jedifenner]

How can he do a thorough analysis of Vista if he reverts the OSes interface to classic view, rather than offer thoughts on the new tools/features in the default configuration?

I can appreciate that he might be an "old dog" and that learning new tricks maybe difficult for him, but he should really return Vista's interface features to their defaults before he offers continuing discussion on how much he likes or dislikes Vista. The layout and features of the start menu alone are FAR better than the classic (OLD) start menu.

I will check back in with his next entry, but I doubt I will continue reading his article if he continues trying to make Vista look/run like WinXP. Perhaps he should write a diary on how to use Windows XP instead...

And even though this post was slightly negative, I still wish him and everyone a HAPPY NEW YEARS and best of luck in the future!

 

[curelom]

I have to agree with jedifenner completely. How can you review an OS when you revert everything back to the old way?

Concerning some of your questions at the end of your article.

What's that Welcome Center Window that opens every time I start Vista?

You can turn this off with the checkbox clearly visable. I believe the welcome window is meant to make it easier to find what a first time user would want to do.

Where are the *@#*&% menus at the top of Windows Explorer windows?

This is a tricky one. The menu is there, but not displayed. To get the menu click your ALT key on the keyboard.

What are those tiny images of the real window when I hover over an icon for a window on the taskbar?

Um, it's a preview to help you know which window it is.

 

[grant8844]

After reading the article, I completely agree with jedifenner's comments

 

[Slobogob]

First, a lot of people that will use Windows Vista will use the classic interface. Second, the Interface is just that. An Interface. This diary isn´t all about the GUI but about Vista. That includes functionality and the old interface too.

If all you care about is the new interface, i suggest getting a screenshot of the clicked start button and staring at it until your desire is cured.

 

[curelom]

First, a lot of people that will use Windows Vista will use the classic interface.

Where'd you pull that information from? Gartner?

This diary isn´t all about the GUI but about Vista.

So far this diary is NOTHING about the GUI. There is more to a GUI then a screenshot of the menu, and the reviewer has changed a lot more then that back to the old way. A simple sentence saying that you can change back to the old way would suffice those who don't care about it, but others would certainly like to hear about the pitfalls and triumphs of the new interface.

 

[quantumsheep]

Is anyone going to fix that link???

 

[grant8844]

the link is working now but the article is a waste of time

 

[theclintstone]

I have only been able to play with the Beta 2 version of Vista, but one of the features I found nice was how well the desktop refreshed. While playing 2 videos I was able to move windows around the desktop, resize, and minimize without out the video in both windows ever skipping. They both stayed with in their window bounderies the entire time. A directx accelerated desktop is one of the few things that I have been looking forward to. The added security to me is just a new level of pain awaiting to be disabled.

 

[Slobogob]

Where'd you pull that information from? Gartner?

That wouldn´t do me any good as you aren´t interested in it anyway. :lol:

So far this diary is NOTHING about the GUI. There is more to a GUI then a screenshot of the menu, and the reviewer has changed a lot more then that back to the old way. A simple sentence saying that you can change back to the old way would suffice those who don't care about it, but others would certainly like to hear about the pitfalls and triumphs of the new interface.

I see. It´s a review now. That would change things and i would prefer to read a review. But, as it is, it´s not a review but a diary of a windows vista user. Nothing more. Heck, the word "review" doesn´t even come up once. Not even a single time. You obviously fail to understand that. It´s not about testing Vista like crazy but to use it. And as i see it, the author is doing that just fine.

 

[curelom]

That wouldn´t do me any good as you aren´t interested in it anyway. :lol:

You're right. I wouldn't :lol:

I see. It´s a review now. That would change things and i would prefer to read a review. But, as it is, it´s not a review but a diary of a windows vista user.

Right again. As it is, I find the diary worthless and I've already put more effort into comments then the article is worth.

 

[Busto963]

I see. It´s a review now. That would change things and i would prefer to read a review. But, as it is, it´s not a review but a diary of a windows vista user. Nothing more. Heck, the word "review" doesn´t even come up once. Not even a single time.

I think we are splitting hairs here. Most readers are surely looking at the piece with a mind to getting a feel of the product right? And I echo the opinion that this piece was less than satisfactory due to the insistance on running the GUI in classic mode.

Another observation is that it would have been more useful to have installed Vista on a "known system" to avoid commentary on features that did not work due to a switch that was not set.

 

[jmiddleton]

Microsoft doesn't reinvent the user interface just to make life miserable for old timers. The goal is to help us organize and find stuff in the 500Gb junk drawers we call hard drives. Likewise, the software is a lot more complex than it was back in '95 when the "classic" interface came along to frustrate those of us who were comfortable with the Windows 3.1/Office 6 way of doing things. Occasionally we really do need a better way of finding stuff - whether it is a software setting, an OS utility or a document we remember writing a couple of months ago. I give Microsoft credit for tackling this problem but I'm not ready to grade their effort - I don't have enough experience with the product. I do believe that those who are actually getting paid to evaluate Vista should take the time to learn the new interface. By all means curse the frustration of being on the steep edge of the learning curve - then, once you're over the hump, tell us if it was worth it. Did Microsoft really give us a better way of doing things or is it all marketing hype.

 

[elwaryn]

1. What's that Welcome Center Window that opens every time I start Vista?
While nice for new users, most won't want to see it every time. There is a check box at the bottom of the welcome center to turn it off, but the check box only appeared for me after I booted into my desktop a second time. Weird.

2. Where are the *@#*&% menus at the top of Windows Explorer windows?
Off by default, which is fine by me, to turn it on just click on organize in the upper-left, layout, menu bar.

3. Why does the Map Network Drive option only show up on the root window in Windows Explorer?
The buttons at the top of the explorer window are context sensitive. Where else do you want to be when mapping a network drive? Turn your menu back on and do it from wherever you want.

4. What are those tiny images of the real window when I hover over an icon for a window on the taskbar?
Part of the Aero Glass experience. To turn them off if you want right-click the taskbar and go to properties. Uncheck the show window previews option. Personally, I really like them.

 

[nhobo]

a very disappointing "review" - it was not at all critical or even in depth

with security flaws already exposed, massive hardware requirements and the controversy over gifting bloggers high-end laptops, this whitewash of VISTA brings a degree of suspicion to TH, which we have come to know as a reliable source of computer information

ultimately, VISTA boils down to forced migration, not for advanced features or capability, but for sale of yet another OS that does little but perpetuate the Microsoft monoply. thus free laptops to bloggers and rosey projections of 90 million new installations in 2007. how many will be simply because the consumer has no choice, as the OS will be supplied as part of a packaged system?

planned obsolence at it's finest ...

 

[wolfman140]

I agree with jmiddleton. People are getting crazy with piles and piles of gb hdd space. (Myself, not included...Going happily with 2 74gb hdds) So, if a new interface will help ease the organization of that, then more power to ya. However, don't make people pay $400 for better organization. Also...does anyone know if Vista is truly more stable than XP? I seriously don't have many quams with XP as it is very stable for me, but I do wish the occasional blue-screen I get when playing some games never happened ever. If Vista does answer such prayers, MAYBE I'll make the move to it fairly early.

 

[torque79]

I agree with jmiddleton. People are getting crazy with piles and piles of gb hdd space. (Myself, not included...Going happily with 2 74gb hdds) So, if a new interface will help ease the organization of that, then more power to ya. However, don't make people pay $400 for better organization. Also...does anyone know if Vista is truly more stable than XP? I seriously don't have many quams with XP as it is very stable for me, but I do wish the occasional blue-screen I get when playing some games never happened ever. If Vista does answer such prayers, MAYBE I'll make the move to it fairly early.

I'll disagree here, as I feel hard drive capacity is BELOW my requirements right NOW. I have an extremely clean system, as it is mostly used just for TV shows, movies, games and general internet usage. I don't have a massive e-mail box or a million doc files all over the place etc. Until Christmas (where my family doubled my hard drive space to over 1TB), I was constantly juggling files around, deleting things I did not really want to, etc to make space for new music/movies/tv shows. This is especially going to become a problem with making my future Hi-Def media electronic. a single Blue-ray movie would be around 30gb if it used the whole disk? that would be 10 movies on a 320gb hard drive, hardly adequate unless I compress the movie and lose quality I want to keep. Thankfully I'm in no hurry to move to Hi-def (yet). I like to stream my movies/tv shows/etc, and from any pc in my home.

I have a hard time understanding why anyone wants to keep growing their piles of media (dvd's, cd's, and now blue-ray/hddvd, etc) into oblivion, rather than storing it all electronically. My files are very well organized, and I'm a very lazy person. We're just talking about creating some basic folder structure here like D:\Movies, or D:\Music\rock, etc. I will (eventually) be curious to see how Vista can improve on this easy and quick organization I have established.

I'd also like to say that I would likely change all the settings to "classic" as well, so I could actually get where I need to go quickly. I think I will give Vista's interface a chance though, because I could not stand the way XP looked by default but I find Vista looks pretty good. I just find windows is making it harder to find system settings etc, by covering everything with wizards and pretty pictures which sometimes help, and often really get in the way.

 

[sunderlandj]

this "review" if you can call it that was atrocious, this article reeked of someone who clearly has no idea what windows vista is all about, first mistake switching to the classic interface, that was a joke, i think next time ill just stick with www.winsupersite.com for my vista reviews

 

[xxCHAOSxx]

not to get involved with the "was it a review or not debate" above, I have just a simple question to ask.

I have heard the M$ has locked out the antivirus vendors (cept for some news about Panda) and that has me concerned.

I like the current AV solution and (spyware solution) and feel that I should not have to worry about a new security suite that i know next to nothing about.

I am getting ready to build a new rig that can handle Vista Ultimate with the bells and whistles, but I want to learn more about the security suite as well as: can another AV and Spyware solution be installed?

Thanks...

btw i too hate the XP look and prefer the Classic view.. as they say.. if it aint broke.. dont fix it.. As we all know M$ has placed numerous ways to interact with the system and acheive the same results.

 

[ninjaquick]

First, a lot of people that will use Windows Vista will use the classic interface.

Where'd you pull that information from? Gartner?

This diary isn´t all about the GUI but about Vista.

So far this diary is NOTHING about the GUI. There is more to a GUI then a screenshot of the menu, and the reviewer has changed a lot more then that back to the old way. A simple sentence saying that you can change back to the old way would suffice those who don't care about it, but others would certainly like to hear about the pitfalls and triumphs of the new interface.

actually, over half the computer users i have encountered that were exposed to win95-2000 use classic over luna. Its simply what they are used to.

 

[ninjaquick]

And When doing a file transfer (round 25GB) from one HDD to another, vista took rougly 7-10 minutes on my rig while xp took almost an hour to do this same operation... hurray vista!
I also love the backwards compatibility of the OS, it actually has a setting that allows you to define what operating system you want to open a specifi file as, from win 95 - nt4.0 to vista.

 

[curelom]

I only know of about 3 or 4 people who use the classic look and feel. I know literally hundreds who do not. Antidoctal evidence is highly suspect, as well as my spelling