The Vista Experience: Making Life Easier -- Wrong

[syfon]

I decided to take the plunge and move to Vista. So, after acquiring a Vista Ultimate 32-bit, installing, I was on my way. On my way to a road of problems, issues, and utter confusion. Allow me to explain why the "Windows Vista makes life easier," as it so states in the Installation window, is a lie.

I have been using Windows Vista now for, ehhh, about two hours, give or take. Within these two hours I have ecountered the following errors...

■Installation issue (Failed to load file/s, caused a complete reinstallation)
■Blue Screen of Death
■Illegal Operation
■Illegal Operation (2)
■Blue Screen of Death (2)
■Windows Launch Error (Opening Mozilla Firefox)
■Windows Launch Error (Opening the 'Personalize' option)

It goes on...and just now I had a monitor refrsh randomly occur and a system hang up.


I'm not to sure what to do about all of this. Windows Updates don't seem to change too much stuff; albeit they do though. I haven't tried to play any games as of yet but I am forcertain that if I was to run an application that it would crash.

The only reason I'm keeping Vista is for the DirectX 10 functionality. other than that it's strictly of no use. So, are there updates I'm missing, things I can install...anything I can do to prevent these issues? *ey ey ey* This is becoming a headache.

 

[Scotteq]

Installing Vista just because you want DX10 is a bad idea.


Installing Vista on an older computer is a bad idea.


Installing Vista on a newer comuter without running the Upgrade Advisor is a bad idea. http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/buyorupgrade/upgradeadvisor.mspx You should run this, and fix the issues it returns prior to the upgrade.



Your choices at this point are to troubleshoot the incompatible devices and drivers that are causing problems, or back up all of your data, format the HDD, and do a fresh install of XP.

If you choose to troubleshoot: Computer/System Properties/Performance/Advanced Tools In there you will find the Event Log and the Reliability and Performance monitor. These will tell you what is failing.

 

[munkus]

You don't really say if you're using the upgrade version over XP, a clean install, old or new hardware, what your system specs are, etc. It's not very easy for us to offer suggestions (though Scotteq has a great start above) without this info.

 

[syfon]

Thanks for the reply. I tinkered with the OS a bit last night, downloaded quite a few things, one of which you listed. I also installed World In Conflict, I'll give it a whirl and see what it's like. I'll be playing under a DX9 based card, so we'll see if there's really a large impact on performance.

After all these updates (which was a LOT) it's vastly more stable and running more or less in the same ways XP was for me. It is somewhat slower when loading applications; but nothing of any real concern.

Looking back when I did a fresh XP install not to long ago versus this fresh install of Vista; I would have to gauge that the XP install was much worse off. This is due to the fact that a lot of my hardware (USB ports, VGA drivers, Network drivers etc etc) was not recognized. But after SP1 & SP2 that all changes in XP. So I'm under the assumption that once SP1 arrives for Vista that several issues will be fixed. But we shall see.

I'm not going to switch back to XP just yet; as it takes much longer to install and is a lengthy process (more lengthy than the Vista install coincidently). So I'm crossing my fingers and hoping my games won't crash when I load them up within the next ten minutes or so...

 

[munkus]

The list of Vista hotfixes so far is quite long. Here's a nifty site you might want to check to make sure you have them all installed.
http://aaron-kelley.net/downloads/hotfix/#auto

And I totally agree about XP pre-SP1/SP2. Remember when you couldn't format drives over 127Gb? Ah...the memories...

Funny thing is, MS seems to have to relearn their lessons after each OS launch. You'd think Vista RTM would be at least as stable as XP SP2, but alas...

 

[syfon]

Well I played a little Counter Strike Source today before I went out dirt bike riding. No crashes, no real performance hits (well none that I could tell). Downloaded a few more things and updates. Seems to be fairly stable at the moment. Every once in awhile I'll get a system stall or something; but I got those in XP as well so I'm not flippin' out on that.

I would still say though, that Vista, OUT OF THE BOX, should have been much much better. I remember last night I just simply walked out of the room in utter frustration and went to chat with my old man. He asked what was going on, and I said, "Two BSODs already...5 reboots...it's scary using that thing." He's like, yeah, thank god our company won't be moving to Vista for at least two years. I laughed in response.

But it's true, Vista should be better out of the box. Even when you're installing the OS Windows has those little memos that pop up (like in XP when it talks about file sharing or whatever) and it states how it's designed to make life more enjoyable because you do more in less time. I ended up doing less things in more time. ey ey ey.

After these updates though, I feel the mood has, 'changed' if you will. I like the OS now. It's stable, fast enough for me, offers more oos and ahhs than XP does. i think I'm going to stick with it for now.

My $0.02 is this: Vista should have been out of the box what it is right now.

 

[syfon]

Hmm seems as though after I install some applications that the shortcuts do not appear on the desktop. No idea why...

 

[Scotteq]

Some games want to be run from the CD. Bioshock, NWN2, The Witcher (fun game BTW)....