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Read it, comment, and share it with your friendsA happy Vista customer
I recently downloaded and installed Windows Vista through the MSDNAA at Cornell… yep, free Vista Business Edition because I’m an Electrical Engineering student. The installation took about an hour and after that it was goodbye Windows XP for good. Now I know I’m only talking about the first couple days experience with my new operating system here, but so far it has been a very good experience. Here are just a few things I like about my new OS:
- It is definitely faster than Windows XP. Sure, there was talk about the rumor mill before Vista’s launch that it would require a terabyte of RAM and slowly eat your processor, core by core, over the course of a few weeks, but I never really listened to any of that. My laptop has a 1.86 GHz Pentium M with 1 GB of RAM, and a 256 Mb graphics card, but what’s important is that Vista runs *faster* than XP. A lot of this has to do with the fact that aside from legacy compatibility, Vista is a new OS built from the ground up with a lot of optimizations that improve the user experience.
- It rips off Mac OSX in quite a few regards… and so what? I think they picked the right features to copy.
- The interface is beautiful. Whether you are using Aero Basic or Aero Glass, things are so much more attractive than what even XP was capable of… I know Microsoft hasn’t been known for design in the past, but maybe this will change people’s minds.
- The interface makes everything easier. Some examples:
This is the address bar when you are browsing folders in Vista. You can click on those boxes to navigate about, rather than using the archaic “back, forward, up” buttons that XP and other OS’s have.
Vista comes with a lot more views for the content in a folder, and much better abilities to preview that content before you open it. This is just one example of the many views available, and it’s probably my favorite.
Vista gives you a very nice preview of minimized windows when you hover over them.
The hardware icons actually show the free space available, and icons across the board are much more attractive.
The cascade is very cool. Just click the window you want and that one will come up focused.
- Gadgets are a go. I was happy with Yahoo! Widgets on Windows XP, but now that Vista has integrated “Gadgets” I figured I would keep things native. Here’s a screenshot of all the gadgets I have:
One cool thing about Gadgets is that there is a tray for them which I have along the right side of the desktop, and some of the gadgets change size depending on whether you have them docked in the tray or sitting on the desktop. For example, the weather Gadget shows the current day only when sitting in the tray, but expands and adds the 3-day forecast when sitting on the desktop. This was a totally unexpected surprise.
- The new fonts are nice. I compared them to Arial and noticed that these fonts are not “fat” or “wide” to increase legibility; they appear relatively small but they are more legible than the fonts I am used to working with. I’ve taken the liberty of enabling Calibri at this site for anyone else running Vista, because I just like it so much.
- Text smoothing is much better than what XP had. On XP I couldn’t run the highest resolution my laptop supports because the text just wasn’t crisp enough to read at small sizes. When I installed Vista it started at the highest resolution by default and I noticed after a while that I didn’t need to change it back. Vista does a far better job of anti-aliasing the text and keeping everything sharp.
There are a lot of other improvements that make Vista a really big improvement over XP, and that’s saying a lot because I liked XP. So far I’ve only had three negative issues:
- I had a heck of a time getting Firefox to work, because the 2.0.2 installer is broken and the installation for 2.0.0 and 2.0.1 is buggy. Vista was great with all my other programs that I had on XP, but Firefox just had to be problematic. I had to follow this information: Firefox Windows Issues to get Firefox working smoothly, and fortunately everything is fine now.
- With skinned programs (for example, Winamp), the app preview that shows up in the cascade and the minimized preview displays without the skin. Basically, Winamp Modern looks like Winamp Classic in all the previews. I think it’s pretty funny actually.
The new “Start” launcher (which now just has a Windows logo) is very nice but not well-suited for someone with a lot of programs, so I had to change itUpdate 8/25/07: I recently fell in love with the new Vista “Start” launcher… I realized that it’s much faster for me to search for the program I need (via the type-and-wait interface) than hover through a giant list trying to find it. You have to try it yourself to see how much more intuitive it is.badback to the XP style, which works fine for me.
That’s really all there is to it… no explosions, no gnashing of teeth. I’ve been telling people that upgrading to Vista is not a bad idea, and it’s a lot more stable than OS releases have been in the past. And that’s all I have to say about Vista. I might have an update in a few weeks to let everyone know if I’m still pleased, but until then I’ll just keep playing with Aero and all the new features I have.
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Responses to my articleI also downloaded Vista Business through the MSDNAA and have had a great experience with it. I think Microsoft is really starting to at least understand “the experience”. My only gripe with the OS is the new start menu format. I’m not completely sold on the new way of organizing programs but I think it’s just old habits.
Do I recommend that people rush out to upgrade? No, but it’s definitely not a bad decision either way.
I never bothered with having Windows on my laptop, as apparently XP installer is lacking proper drivers (I happily use Linux instead). If Vista fixes such compatibility issues, and I get a free copy from my University, then I might consider giving it a test run.
A nice review. Thanks for that.
A good review, ayou decided to look beyond the basics and like most rantings about Vista which have been there till now. And I agree, Vista indeed is a lot better than XP, Microsoft hasn’t been sitting around doing nothing in the past couple of years.
Did you notice that, through the MSDNAA program, Vista was available a couple days before its official release?
My favorite part about Vista (which I’m using now to post this comment) is the integrated speech recognition software. It’s so cool! I also really like the new Windows Calendar and the updated version of Windows Movie Maker (although, disappointingly, there weren’t many changes). The games are sweet, too, although they weren’t included by default with the Business edition (Control Panel -> Programs and Features -> Turn Windows features on or off).
Brian: It’s too bad about the start menu, because everything else is so intuitive, but at least they left the option to change it back to the XP style.
Tony: That’s a shame. Let me know if you manage to get Vista working.
David: No problem.
Dude: I’ve always thought that the majority of rantings about Vista were based on the beta or just written by people who didn’t actually have the OS!
kramtark: Thanks for mentioning the games, I enabled them and they are really good, though I miss Space Pinball a lot. I’ll have to try the calendar soon, it’s been a long time since I’ve had a decent calendar app.
This is actually the first positive review I have read or heard about the new windows Vista…
I think I will get it on my new laptop i’m looking to buy at the end of the year. Thanks for the review mate..
Oh yeah, just one tip I forgot to mention: don’t do a basic install, but if you can, try and do a new installation. It’s much cleaner that way.
Christian,
Thanks for your positive review of Vista. I haven’t upgraded — and am not sure that I will — but it was still interesting to read. I’ve been reading a lot of negative articles and reviews of VIsta. I’ll have to check out some more reviews, and see if I need it.
Still, even if it’s good, I have to wonder how successful this release will be. There’s a good analysis in an article called “Cracked Windows.” Basically — with all these choices we have now — it asks if the success of Vista is a sure-thing.
I’d have to say it’s not. This is the first release since broadband really became widespread. Web Apps are actually possible now. The Operating System seems a little less important. And, you can’t deny that Apple is rising.
We’ll see.
I LOVE Vista. It is far and away ahead of XP. I did not have to do any hardware upgrades either. That’s the common misconception with Vista.
And Vista made Calibri my new favorite font and I’ve been using it in my designs as well.
I’ve not had issues with FF.
The start menu doesn’t bother me as I launch all apps either from a quick start button or start->run.
It’s just better - hard to explain cuz there are so many little things that make a great experience
I’ll respect your honest review of vista. Although we should have had some of these upgrades years ago, it is nice to see some level of OS improvement from Microsoft.
Keep us updated on how the new OS is working out for you. Eventually we all have to upgrade so good vista news is appreciated.
(As for me, I’ll stick with XP and the bblean 1.16 shell for now. )
“Hapy” and “Vista” were never meant to go in the same title together.
Howard: I do have reasons for disagreeing with that article, and I might post them soon.
Andy: Yep.
Auron: I know what you mean, but the eye candy improvements had to wait for the OS team to rewrite all the underlying structure. Remember, operating systems aren’t all just look and feel.
Andre: You should know better than to knock it before you try it.
It’s that Apple fanboyism. Can’t help it.
Andre: So does happy and Vista go together though???
Hey Christian, a side note:
I have my details (name, email, website) remembered in the fields but for the life of me I cannot see my name and email (white on yellow). Major headache material.
Jermayn: White on yellow? How in the world is that possible? Could you send me a screenshot?
I dont know how it is possible but hears a link for a screenshot
http://germworks.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/02/yellow.jpg
Ok… browser, OS, etc.?
Firefox 2.0.0.2, Windows XP service pack 2.
What I think the problem is that somehow on my browser some fields become yellow (something to do with google i think???) and so seeing your style for the text is white (domo version) it is white on yellow but with domo turned off it is black on yellow.
Jermayn: Well, not to be harsh, but that’s poor plugin development on whoever invented your automatic form filler… if you are going to arbitrarily make all form fields yellow, you really ought to make the text black too. I designed my site in such a way so as to make everything legible… I can’t help it if Google toolbar or whatever messes that up
One of the problem for corporate versions (Upgrades -> Business, Enterprise) is requirements of Windows XP SP2 previously installed (SP2 only). But Windows XP SP2 Upgrade required only disk with other OEM/Retail Windows distribution or any Widows installed. Business and Enterprise Upgrade distribution is not bootable, and Ultimate Upgrade (via SA) is bootable but not inastallable via booting from DVD.
I don’t find any problems with Firefox 2.x.x or any other browsers.
I don’t say about Vista more faster than XP, but Vista have many improvements and return more performance in various tasks.
I have Vista installed on many PC on my work, and my notebook. I don’t love any Windows
but Vista is great solution for business desktop…
Lalex, I did not know that. Do you mean to say that there is no way to boot with the Business version? I would think they would come out with a bootable version eventually, but that’s surprising.
“so I had to change it bad to the XP style, which works fine for me” fix the typo please?
Glad to see that somebody out there actually is enjoying their Vista Upgrade. I just finished writing about my own experiences upgrading…only I had a slightly different perspective than that of this blog-entry
SampsonResume.com: I’ve Got the MS Vista Blues…
I only say that Windows Vista Business Upgrade CD and Windows Vista Enterprise Upgrade DVD is not bootable.
Jonathan: I’m sorry to hear about all that, though I would suggest that the real culprit here is Intel! Also, my Vista install came with a new Movie Maker and Mail program, the Mail program is a lot like Outlook and the Movie Maker is an update of what XP had. Do you not have those?
Lalex: Oh, ok, that makes sense. Upgrade CDs would never be bootable; that would allow an install without upgrading.
Christian,
I have the new movie maker, but it won’t run since it requires Shaders 2.0 - and my weak little 128mb Intel Video Card isn’t capable of Vista’s elite reservoir of goodies
Jonathan Sampson
www.SampsonVideos.com
Ah, I get it now. I think Vista might not even be using your Intel video memory… if the driver hasn’t been updated then it is just probably emulating video memory in RAM, which is poor. So then, you have a bad combination of Vista expecting too much, Intel not updating their drivers, and Movie Maker requiring something it shouldn’t. Sorry that things aren’t working for you
Well, I think the new Start menu is actually more convenient for someone with lots of installed applications, because of the integrated search function. On XP, it took me several seconds to find a program in all those cascading menus; on Vista, launching (say) Yahoo Messenger is as easy as typing Win - ya - Enter.
I had my first play with it on the weekend on a mates lappie. Did not spend to much time on it but from what I see it looks good and I cannot see too much problems with it. Although the real test will be when I use it everyday..
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