Is Windows Vista Really That Bad?

As the release of Windows Vista approached, the reports about how neat it was quickly turned to reports about how messed up it was, or still is: dropped features, poor performance, compatibility problems, crashes, you name it. Most of that was overblown.

[Snoozer282]

I don't crash, have compatibility problems, no drop in performance and love its driver support. DirectX 10 on top of that means I've never been happier.

[Tempist]

Given that, there's still a lot of inconveniences that are wrought throughout the OS.

It's like the early days of XP, needing a lot of tweaking.

[Snoozer282]

One thing I did was turn off UAC. That must be said.

I am running it with 4gig ram, but at 30quid for 2 gig it's silly not to.

[gaffyh]

I think Vista is quite good, but you have to get used to it. Only thing I don't like is that MS went for looks over speed. The best thing is that windows update is integrated, and the aeroglass looks great if you have a good enough PC.

I did used to crash, but I found out that it was a Motherboard setting casuing the bsods. I've got 4gb ram in mine as well, and definitely you need to switch UAC off.

[JsonHenry]

I have been using WinVista Ultimate x64 edition for months now and have had no problems with anything at all.

[Snoozer282]

How can people disagree with my statement. It's a fact lol.

[hi-tower]

Yes!

[AceLuby]

Took a little while to get it up (the boot disc that is), but once I got it to install it took about an hour and automatically found my laptop's wireless card, ethernet, graphics, disc drive... and I didn't have to specify anything, it just worked.

I set up all my roommates w/ logins and now I don't worry about crashes, viruses, or really anything for that matter.

[Altis1]

Xp sucked when it came out as well. Its called growing pains. Vista is not that bad, you just need a beast of a machine to run it properly, just like when xp first came out.

[elitewh0re]

heh yeah, back when xp came out I vowed never to give up '98, now its the same for xp and vista.. :)

[juuken]

I'm sorry, but XP is probably the best thing Microsoft came up with. I won't touch Vista until the problem is fixed entirely. Certain programs won't work with Vista, error messages pop up for no reason at all...that's just annoying.

[Caxtus750]

Name the programs that do not work which you want...

Almost everything works on Vista even if it is not "officially" supported.

[juuken]

My uncle has Vista on his computer and laptop. He has told me on several occasions that certain programs don't work with Vista at all. I don't know all of the programs that he uses but I could ask him.

[foodbox]

@3.2

" I won't touch Vista until the problem is fixed entirely"

What **EXACTLY** are you saying is Vista's "problem"? The Mojave Experiement has clearly shown that most of Vista's problems are FUD.

Nothing more. Nothing less.

The days of anti-Vista FUD are long gone, and your BS is *t*i*r*e*d*.

Give it up.

[ravinash]

I think the big problem for vista is any machine you build to run Vista on so it can just run. If you put XP on it, then it'll just fly.
With all the problem to be sorted out, its just not worth it.

[juuken]

...Yes.

That's why I still have Windows XP.

And for the people who disagree, I can speak through my own experience with Vista. I used my uncle's laptop some time ago and the minute I turned it on, an error message popped up. Vista has too many error issues. You may say 'oh, well mine works fine', but that's you. As for me, I'll stick with Windows XP Media Edition until Microsoft fixes the problems.

[narked]

may i ask what problems you had? and what spec is the laptop ?

[Fox01]

I thought you hated Microsoft and only used Macs?

yes I read your bio some days ago, before you changed it.

[juuken]

I hate Microsoft but I don't have *that* kind of money to invest in a Mac yet. I will eventually in the future.

I can't exactly remember the specs and I sure as hell can't remember the error message I had since it was probably two weeks ago I used it but it popped up immediately when I started up the laptop.

Seriously, Vista is not worth it unless you want a major headache.

[foodbox]

@4.3

"unless you want a major headache"

Take your trolling to the open zone. You're talking out of your anus.

[juuken]

Yes, I'm talking out of my anus.

How about *you* head on over to the open zone?

My uncle has problems with Vista and he has told me about it before. I said that I don't want Vista until I'm sure they fixed the problem entirely.

It's sad to see that people like you would defend Microsoft no matter *what* they do. I said that Vista is a problem based on my experience and my uncle's experience with it. I would have no reason to lie about the issues surrounding Vista that needs to be addressed.

Please, settle down and give it a rest.

"What **EXACTLY** are you saying is Vista's "problem"? The Mojave Experiement has clearly shown that most of Vista's problems are FUD.

Nothing more. Nothing less.

The days of anti-Vista FUD are long gone, and your BS is *t*i*r*e*d*.

Give it up."

And I don't know what F.U.D you're referring to. Once again, I would have no reason to lie about my experiences with Vista and neither would my uncle.

You can't even spell "Experiment" right for that matter. Please refer to me what this Mojave Experiment is. I would like to hear about it and understand it a little more.

Stop making it sound as if Microsoft is such a perfect company and they can never go wrong. I don't act that way with Sony so I don't see why you're acting that way with Microsoft.

[narked]

my experience with vista on a laptop sucked. reason being processor wasnt strong enough, its not cause it wasnt dual core, but the mhz just werent enough for vista.

you might say ok why didnt u get xp? well i had xp but i bought the new os cause when buyin a new OS i said hey i wont buy the old model, ill get the new one cause they will increase its support.

when i installed vista on my home pc, it was immediatly smooth as butter, and with service pack one it just got better. I got a quad core here with 4gb ddr2.

i think it boils down to the system you have got mate.

compare it with two car engines. 200bhp, 600bhp

vista is the 600bhp, you wouldnt fit it in a body of a mini cooper.

thats basically my point. i wouldnt say vista is much better than xp, but it does have some improvements ye.

that said, if u want performance just get linux. nuff said

[karlostomy]

You really are being quite silly.

First of all, yes, VISTA had problems when it first launched.

BUT:

Your "Uncle" had problems with VISTA so you decide for all of us that VISTA sucks forevermore?
Lol. What about the tens of millions of VISTA users that (quietly) agree that VISTA is actually... err.. quite good and getting better all the time?

Maybe your "uncle" has problems with a virus, spyware, adware etc?
Is that the fault of the operating system or the fault of the ignorant user?
Did your "Uncle" install software which was not certified for VISTA?
Perhaps your uncle is technologically challenged?
It seems he is one of the vocal minority that has no problems LOUDLY complaining... does that run in your family?

Why doesn't your "uncle" get a mac if it's so bad?
No one is forcing him to use a PC/vista. He could exercise his rights as a consumer and not buy MS products.
Would anyone care? nu-uh!

At least we'd be spared the constant and relentless whinging from you (and, by proxy, your uncle) about what has inevitably become the world standard OS and which is improved on a daily basis (just like the initially horrible XP was).

*sighs*

[Kyur4ThePain]

Vista is in a public beta phase.

[foodbox]

Whatever. Nice troll.

Perhaps you should try using it. Take your garbage to the open zone.

[LeShin]

Hmmm....to answer the topic question...

Yes, yep, yeah, you betcha, of course, damn right, it is, definitely, is the pope religious?

ah, I think that covers it :)

[rawd]

It's not that bad, but there are better alternatives

[user858621]

its not bad... its a fckin disaster!!!

[red_ring_of_death]

just like the 360

[Montrealien]

said the generic fanboys.

[FAQS]

Q:
A:"Said the generic famboys"...and millions more of users of this dipsh!t OS, like myself!
...Says you, another GENERIC fanboy of MS!

[Montrealien]

You`re funny. Not my fault I have not had issues. Millions of others you say? prove it.

And I bet you I have a better Stardust score then you, add my PSN, this (MS fanboy) would love to school you. Name your poison.

Edit: actually forget about that, I forgot you where a fake account anonymous one, you guys aren`t gamers, just figments of our imagination..

[juuken]

Hey, hey guys, Montrealien is cool in my book. He's pretty neutral and he's not a bad person. x3

Yes Montrealien, I said that. AND WE STILL NEED TO CHAT MR.

[Pain]

M$ claiming they sold 100+ mill vista's for one is a lie like always form M$.

http://apcmag.com/xp_still_...
http://macdailynews.com/ind...

and M$ OS Anykind blows.

be Smart break your window's see the light go Mac. like the Millions upon Millions switching.

And if u one of them Mac's r over priced media thingys.... go get a job u cheap lazy basterd.and stop being a Geek and using linux..

Apple to make more $$$$$ then M$ ?...
http://www.businessweek.com...

[Montrealien]

We will ;P

[Jack Bauer]

i love vista....my PC is very low end... i mean it was like 500 bucks with a 19 inch lcd...and it runs it great!

[Boldy]

I don't have any problems except I can no longer run Windows Media Player unless I run it as an administrator, and whenever I run Windows Media Center I get the, "A necessary component of Windows Media Center is not available. Please restart Windows Media Center," and that's about it other than that it works fine for me.

[flexbox360]

windows vista sucks up too much memory. even when ur computer is idle with no programs installed, if u check the task manager u would see ram usage from 700mb up. however with windows xp the most ram usage ull see when the system is idle is about 200 or less. vista is a memory hog.

sidenote: i passed my A+ exams. im now Compria A+ certified. yaaaaay

[darkequitus]

This is pre-caching when it tries to anticipate ehat programs you will start based on your previous actions. The memory is free if it get the predicition wrong. You can't look at how vista manages the memory the same way as xp. The sam goes when I monitor Macosx Leopard mmory usage.

I run vista on my 24" iMac and Media centre PC. I removed itfrom my laptop 92 year old single core and orignally with xp) becauseit could not handle it. Haing 2 or more cpu cores makes one hell of a difference.

My media pc run a q660 and Radeon hd3870 with 4gb on corsair ram. yes people mention it runs game slower than XP. I have tried both on this system. unless I am frame rate counting (pointles if your getting a good experience anyeay), i can't tell the difference

[zonetrooper5]

Well I have Vista Home Premium and tbh I like it alot more than Windows XP, sure it has its problems but its still a great OS to use. The only problem I get is my internet cutting off randomly which I need to fix.

[NewSchoolGamer]

and I will slap you......hard

[strotee]

If one forgot XP/2000 ever existed, then yes, Vista is an excellent OS. Unfortunately, with the billions poured into R&D, beta testing, etc etc, one has to ask the ultimate question "Is that the best they could come up with?".

I fear we'll never see an OS as mature as XP from MS ever again. With their new plan of releasing an OS every 3-4 years, then it will go something like this:

Year 0: Release OS (RTM)
Year 1: Rush SP1 to give the illusion it's ready for mass deployment for corporations, etc.
Year 3: Beta/hype starts for new OS
Year 4: Release next OS (RTM)

What happens to the first OS? MS will likely slowly kill off support for it and it will never attain full maturity like XP. Come on MS, give Vista time to mature, drivers to get optimized, etc before putting all your effort into the next "big" thing.

p.s. Get rid of most of the bloat in Vista.

[foodbox]

There is no "bloat" in Vista. You're just spreading BS, know-nothing, made-up, knee-jerk FUD.

You dont know WTF you're talking about.

[strotee]

Sigh, you are an angry, angry child. I did a quick look through your post history and I stumbled upon this little nugget:

"I dont know *anyone* who didnt have to repair his PS2."

You just met one right here buddy. It's sad you have to insult people who don't get on their knees & slobber on Vista's knob. Admit it, Vista has problems; whether they will be resolved by MS will remain to be seen.

[OpiZA]

Honestly, i think it's fine. A few minor problems.

[ForROME]

Ive been using VISTA Ultimate for over a year now. Drivers in the first 4 months were a pain, past that, its much smoother and glossy looking, I love it.

[Montrealien]

Nope, Vista really is`nt that bad.

XP was seen as bad when it came out, 98 was better...

98, before SE came out was seen as that bad, 95 was better...

see where I`m going here?

And most windows problems in general are 12 inches from the screen anyways, Vista is Fine, XP was fine...uhh, I can`t say the same for the first edition of 98 though, lol

[Baka-akaB]

Is vista really that bad ? Well the question actually boils down to the answer of another question : Does vista brings you anything noteworthy?

And well no ...

People keeps talking about "growing pains" and how it just requires a machine good enough to run it .... but it doesnt matter , what does is what advantages do you even get when you actually get that machine ? close to none ....

You got a machine that can run vista efficiently ? Well obviously it would run xp even better . Vista handles memory better , but at the same time emcombers it , and weight on it so much that the difference is minimal . Vista is more stable on a few matters , but crash so miserably on others that all in all , yet again no gain (and loss of stability in some cases) .

Dont forget that xp can easily get vista's graphic interface , and all you got left is a directx 10 that's so far quite underused .

[narked]

it wont run xp better cause xp has a certain limit to that better of how fast it can run.

[Arriemo]

I found Vista to be much slower then XP if you run it with 1GB of ram with aero on. But if you run it with 3GB+ then it flies past XP. It is a ram hog, but in XP my 3.5GB of ram would be mostly unused and wasted.

I'd rather have Vista loading my most used programs into Ram so they load quicker then it doing nothing at all and wasting it. But thats only a small improvement; Vista doesn't offer enough of a upgrade for most people.

[BaMYouRDeaD]

My desktop runs on Windows XP, but my laptop runs on windows Vista. When I first got the laptop about 2 months ago and turned it on, it didn't detect my disk drive. I had to go into the registry myself and delete two files that were causing the problem. After that, I tried installing my games. Well, even though I have 3GB of ram on the laptop, an AMD dual core processor, and a nice ATI graphics card, I still experienced tremendous lag on WARCRAFT III! Well, as I suspected, it was Vista's over-flashy interface that was causing the problems. So, I disabled all the fancy, shiny things and guess what? Yes, that's right, Warcraft III, World of Warcraft, Oblivion, Counter Strike Source, and most of my other games worked flawlessly (except for the occasional WC3 crash because of compatibility issues.) BUT, Team Fortress 2, Portal, and a few other games STILL lagged even though they work fine on my desktop with only 1.5 GB of ram and an AMD Athlon XP 3200 Processor and an Nvidia 6600 graphics card with only 128mb of memory!

Well as it turns out, I checked how much memory vista was still using out of the 3GB and even when I had NO programs running, it still was actively using 1GB of it.

These problems , not to mention numerous crashes, errors, and lack of compatibility issues, all make me wish Microsoft would give a rat's ass about the operating systems they make.

[s1lens3]

I've had XP since launch, and 1 year later I get Vista and it always give me a lot of troubles, my main problems with the system is that internet explorer stop responding constantly, most old adobe programs don't run like they should even with aero disabled, slow transfer, slow in almost everything with 2GB DDR2.

The fricking UAC lately is making my life more miserable not letting me delete files and folder even when I am the system administrator and turning the thing of doesn't really turn it off. If i set things to not run at start up once, and they keep coming up a startup, its like nothing really is stable. Some gadgets, some days work, others don't.

The interface is totally changed, to change backgrounds you have to do 1 step more than in xp, in other things 2 or 3 steps more to get things done.

I would go back to XP, but having to buy it always stops me from going there.

[f789790]

And I am happy maxing out in DX9.

[titntin]

Its a resorce hog. Plain and simple.

With 32bit windows restricted to 4 gig memory, to lose 1 gig of that to an operating system thats bloated with features I'll never use, is a real kick in teeth.

I need all my RAM for working with. I run a lot of high end art, 3d and video packages, and vista runs then slower than any other OS. Thats when it runs it at all, and there are many it simply doesn't run properly at all.

All show - no go. Probably fine if you play a couple of games cruise the web and tinker with a phot or two, but for anyone trying to do some serious work, vista is a bl**dy nuiscence! :)

[DJ]

And when I read that the new Adobe Suite would be strictly be Vista compatible, i nearly had a heart attack. Do you know if that stance has been changed?

[JeepGamer]

Microsoft is trying to convince us that Vista really isn't that bad by taking people somewhere and letting them use an OS they call "Mojave" or something then when people say they like it the person is told it's actually Vista.

In other words Microsoft gets to perform an experiment they have total control over. They basically have Vista on a machine totally optimized and tricked out to look impressive, just like they would have for a public presentation to the press... And then they take it one step further by having people "off the street" that they tape and cherry pick the responses they like.

There's a reason the 'minimum requirements' for some computer games are actually higher on Vista. There's a reason Vista has gotten bad press.

[DJ]

It's simply a resource hog with no added benefits over XP Service Pack 2 and 3. It's why people are sticking with, or downgrading back to, Windows XP in the first place. There's also some wierd Security glitches that still haven't been ironed out. For the longest time, my friend could not install any programs (including internet security) without permission from his sister's account. The only solution was making every user on their computer an administrator. Wierd crap.

And I agree with 350Z. There's no telling how much of Microsoft's new ad campaign was staged or representative of how the average PC runs Windows Vista. And yes, they will cherry pick their responses; unless a third party does this 'test', it can't be trusted.

[BenzMoney]

"For the longest time, my friend could not install any programs (including internet security) without permission from his sister's account. The only solution was making every user on their computer an administrator. Wierd crap."

Obviously his sister was the computer's administrator, and since he was trying to install a new program he required an administrator's approval. This isn't weird at all. In fact, it's pretty obvious - that's what administrator vs. standard user accounts are MEANT for, afterall. Try working at a large company and installing a program on your computer without administrator access and see what happens.

The simple solution is exactly what your friend ended up doing. If everybody on the computer is meant to have equal access and ability to install stuff, then give them all administrator rights. Doesn't get much more simple than that.

[incogneato]

Vista is actually really really good. Only noobs repeating hearsay/old info or people with old computers hate it. The same people who lie or can't use it because of their old hardware also spread lies like "there's no benefits above XP" which is complete BS. I can list at least 100 great things about Vista that XP doesn't have.

Same thing happened when XP launched. Noobs crying, people with old hardware crying. Now the same people that refuse to move ahead are promoting XP. It's just hilarious.

[Baka-akaB]

yet you gave us sh/t besides your bloody opinion . Stop acting as if you ever used vista in a professional setting or knew sh*t

[Adriana Lima]

but I've been using it to play some dota
before that i switched to ubuntu.
hope vista gets better b/c my xps m1210 had 5 blue screen of deaths due to some software problems...
that's just sad.

[Reibooi]

It's not worse then XP it's simply different. I have never had compatibility problems I have never crash and the thing runs like a race horse. Indeed it does seem that alot of the negatives about Vista are overblown to a very large extent.

[TapiocaMilkTea]

Well, I do like using Vista since it looks better and there are some convenient features not found in XP. But then I'm still getting the "COM Surrogate stopped working" message even now after all those patches of upgrades. I know this is caused by other softwares installed by the user and that there are solutions, but do they really expect everyone to know how to tweak out their problems?

[MRMagoo123]

What the hell is that COM Surrogate stopped working thing i had that everytime i opened up any folder that had movies in or photos it was rediculas thats why i upgraded to xp and the fact nothing was compatible everything i tried running said there maybe compatibilty issues with this program why the hell do they put vista on a pc with programs that arent compatible with vista it makes no sense

[monkey602]

Yes. I hate it.

[xplosneer]

ONCE(in about a year and a half). Besides the fact that it takes 45% of my 3GB's of RAM by default, it runs very quick and is very nicely featured. I have used that search bar in the menu quite a lot.

[BenzMoney]

...and it was MS's fault. My new ACER laptop is running Vista x64, but comes preloaded with a bunch of ACER bloatware that is only compatible with 32 bit processing. I didn't know that, at the time (figuring that the company I bought the computer from would probably not install incompatible software) and tried opening one of those programs. The computer crashed to blue screen.

I've since uninstalled that program, and haven't had the blue screen issue again.

[Mr Fancy Pants]

for gaming Xp it's better than Vista because it requires lower specs but for everything else Vista it's better than Xp.

[dkgshiz]

Its really RAM hungry and is just pretty crappy overall. The only reason to use it is for Direct x 10.

[SkyGamer]

juuken, you are an idiot. Tech is cheap. I bought 4 gb ocz sli dual channel pc6400 ram for 65 bucks. Add in a 5600+ cpu amd X2 for 130. You clearly will not give anything even remotely associated with MS a try becuase you ALREADY hate it to begin with. I have been running X64 Ultimate on my laptop, Desktop and Office Machine and NO hiccups! My laptop does run a little slow in booting up but after that, no hitches. Yes there is a small learing curve over xp as I spent a small part in the morning trying to find where my pst file was in vista. As for certain programs won't run, yeah it's on a whole new code. I have found maybe 2 or 3 programs that won't run on Vista whatsoever. Overall I am impressed.

[Karebear]

http://it.slashdot.org/it/0...

Vista SP1 will not work if your dual booted unless you replace your bootloader, update, then switch back to your original bootloader somehow.

The fact that it checks this means that MS is not interested in consumer freedom to dual boot a system. Combine this with predatory practices and blatent theft of ideas in their past and I must say GOOD DAY to them.

I've said Good Day now bugger off :P :)

[s1lens3]

Can someone post a list of the really good features vista has over XP that really can give a boost of productivity?

[n00bzRtehgey]

Vista rules.

I tried that stupid negreo UBUNTU crap. What a joke that was. There isn't even any mouse smoothing. It's crap to control. No thanks.

[uckitsayitchbay]

i really liked vista before i went back to xp the problem i had with vista was it simply crashed on me like 2wice a day everyday in that log or whatever where you can check for solutions there were 183 blue screen errors and when i clicked to find a solution it never found one and yes i did try a format re-install and it did nothing so finally i did a format but thi time i stuck in a piarate xp disk.. i have a leagle vista OEM disk and i chose to go to a pirated xp media center edition.. finding all my drivers was a b!tch though

[wibble]

I used a pirate version of XP and decided to go legal and bought XP (64 Bit). I then installed it and couldn't get on the net because my ADSL modem didn't have 64 bit drivers. DOH!. I then went back to my pirated XP. Two years later they release Vista and I goes and buys me a new computer with Vista (64 Bit). The damn thing was very unstable and so I installed a pirated version of XP again.

So here I am back on XP. Maybe one day I'll dare to install Vista (64 bit) again. But I just dread how much crap and updates I'll have to download in order for it to work. GrRrr.

It's the same with games on the PC. You're fine when they first release them and then they start adding all the obligatory updates. So when you reinstall your OS you have to install several updates for each of your multiplayer games. Double GrrRRr

[ade909]

yup rubish i am using 2 gb ram and on task man its using 820 gb ram whle its doing nothing wat a load of crap

[MRMagoo123]

I got a new pc just after vista came out.My new pc had vista installed so i thought sweet ill give it a try but after about 5 months of nothing but problems i decided to UPGRADE to xp and havent looked back once everything i had from the dvd drive to all my pc games didnt work properly till i put in xp instead and now its all fine and works perfect.IMHO vista is crap and at least 5 of my friends that have used it think so to including a guy i know that works with pcs all day long so i think ill believe him over some MS fans

[Darkwolf]

Im using Vista Ultimate 64bit with a 2.4ghz processor,2g of ram and a 9500gs 512mb vid and i have no probs..it actually runs faster than what it did with 64bit xp..i do alot of rendering and decoding and it works great..

[VampHuntD]

Short Answer? yes, yes it is.

More info: I can't even get my Zune to run with Vista. The odd thing is that it ran fine, until I installed a vista patch for zune. Same with my brother based printer. Everything was great until after the patch from MS. Seems sort of stupid to me that patches break whatever was working. Wasn't it supposed to work the otehr way?

[mf_fm]

its not as bad as Window ME

but it is very close....

that's why it is called...

Window ME2 aka (Vista)

[LiamIRL82]

Have had no problems with Vista. User account control is annoying but you can turn it off. Other than that it's brilliant.

[Agent Orange]

yes, it is that bad...

[Shane Kim]

Yes it is.