| Articles | Photography | Free Software | Services | About Me | Forum | Links |
11/10/2006
I have just gotten a chance to take my first look at Vista, and while it has its high points, it has some low points as well.
Overall, so far I am unimpressed and I see no reason in the near future to actually put out the money to switch to
Vista when XP and other operating systems work better and take less resources. Before we get started, this test of
Vista was installed on an Athlon 64 3700+ with 3GB of RAM. So this is a pretty hefty machine that should run Vista.
The Install Process
The first thing I noticed about the install process is that it is completely new. Microsoft has
done away with the old dos-like interface and has moved to new GUI interface for setting up
the partitioning scheme and such. Overall, it was relatively easy to get going. After the initial
few minutes of configuring it all up initially, I was basically able to walk away from it
for a while, randomly checking on it while it installed. In typical Microsoft fashion, I was able
to go eat dinner, watch a little TV, learn a Mexican Hat Dance, then come back and it was almost
finished. Okay, maybe not that much, but it took about an hour on my machine. The install as far as I am
concerned takes way too long, as I am used to a 20 minute XP install and sometimes less than that when installing Linux.
The First Look
As I start it up for the first time, it makes me create a new user account, choose an avatar for my start menu
and logon screen, and choose my background. I guess they are going for the highly customizable thing.
Another new addition is the option to select your computers current location. It gives different security
depending on where you use the computer for Home, Work, or Public locations.
After you have gone through and chosen all those options, it does a performance test,
which takes forever. After you finally get to log in, it asks you again where your computer
will be located. Apparently it has a worse memory than me.
There are a few things that stand out to me right off the bat upon just glancing over it. The default new look is
pretty nice. Also there is a seemingly helpful welcome screen that comes up on startup that
is more of an irritation than anything. The new Aero theme that everybody has been spouting off how
great it is, while yes, it does look nice, I hardly think it is a worthy reason to upgrade. I can get
just as much done without the fancy glass look and the smooth minimize and maximize features on XP or 2000. Though
in its defense, it is vital to some of the new features of Vista as you will see later.
Also the start menu has been replaced with a clickable windows icon. Thanks Microsoft. Now when I have to
explain it to someone, instead of telling them to go to the start menu, I will have to explain to them that
there is a little windows icon thing. That is not confusing at all. Also, they have dropped the word my off of
everything. Instead of My Computer, My Documents, My Music, and etc it is now just Documents or Music. Also, the
documents folder no longer contains My Music and other subfolders. Those are now their own directories under
your user-names folder. While these are not necessarily bad changes, this is sure to confuse some users.
Windows Security Center
Also of note, the XP security pop-ups that were installed with Service Pack 2 have carried over to Vista and
it will immediately pop up and tell you that your computer is at risk. What a wonderful greeting to a new install. So to
remedy this problem, I get out my trusty copy of McAfee 8.0i Enterprise and attempt to install it. It installs up to 99%,
then crashes and tells me to reboot. Upon doing this, I find myself in an endless loop of boot and crash. It is amazing,
after only 10 minutes, I have managed to crash Vista and that was only by installing a well known anti-virus. I fear what
will happen when I start installing more obscure programs. Fortunately, it was easy to fix. 15 minutes and a system
restore later, I was back to where I started.
So, my antivirus software does not work and I am not going to go out and buy a copy of McAfee Home or Norton that
also probably will not work. Google to the rescue! After a few minutes of Google searching I found that Avast! Antivirus actually
works on Vista and has since at least build 5308. At least the little guys are on top of things. Did I mention that Avast is free?
At least if you spend a few hundred dollars on a new operating system, you will be able to protect it from viruses for free.
What Does and Does Not Work With The Windows Security Center?
The first thing I checked out upon installing Vista was the Windows Update. This always seems to be a vital part
of Windows and I was hoping that it would provide some updates to make Vista work better. As I soon found out,
it does not work at all. Apparently they have managed to break it since the last time I tried Vista
and now it gives Error Code 8024400A. This code means that I am connected through a Proxy Server on my network
according to the Microsoft help database. For the record, I set up my network and I know for a fact that it
has no proxy server on it. Unwilling to take the time to troubleshoot why it seems to think I have got a proxy server. I
moved on to the next part.
The Firewall section is the next on the list. This looks almost exactly the same as the one in XP. It is turned on by default,
but I do not see anything new added to it since XP. I guess they want us to cross our fingers and hope that it
does outgoing port blocking. Since I do not see any possible way of configuring it, it looks like that was another
important feature that got the shaft from this product. Maybe they will include it in the final version.
Next down the list is Windows Defender. The functionality and everything with this is beyond the scope of what
I want to cover right now, but for those unaware, this program is for preventing malicious software, Spyware, and other
bad things from haunting your computer. Also of note, this does not update either. Apparently it too thinks I am going
through a proxy server though it does not say as much.
