[Noel258366]

OK, this is a rather long rant, but bear with me. I can't take it anymore.

"To err is human ... to really mess things up, you need Windows Vista."

OK. That's a little harsh. But I've certainly had that experience more than I'd like.

This is something that every fellow geek -- and of course, many non-geeks -- out there can relate to.

I feel your pain, you all who've fought with the so-called 'improved' Vista. I've had some issues with the long-time standby Windows XP operating system, but nothing like the near-mind-meltdown I've frequently had with Microsoft's latest attempt to upgrade their computing platform. It lends credence to the maxim, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it ... or at least make a real improvement."

My latest episode with the Vistake happened yesterday, and absolutely made me so frustrated I came closer to becoming a total Microsoft abstainer.

I'm not a techno-phobe, and try to use machines to the highest level of productivity (and, of course, fun.) Although I take care of my computer, try to follow instructions, properly adjust settings, etc., I frequently can't even finish simple, non-complicated tasks I have to do without Vista's seemingly purposeful interference.

So this is my sort of rant, and editorial.

Other computer users at work, musicians, photographers , etc., may have opinions on how stress-free Vista is, but here are mine:

Vista is not a musician's, artist's, or photographer/videographer's friend. Vista is every nerd's nightmare. I've woke up in a cold sweat dreaming about the pretty colors, but mean attitude of this thing. And I know my tecchie stuff, how far you can push a technology and tricks to use programs to do a lot between elementary actions and some pretty wild stuff. But I lost time and money yesterday even trying to make a simple business contract with MS Word.

But enough about me. These typical examples would drive ANYONE crazy, and from what I've read and heard, it has. And we have to pay for the priviledge of suffering Vista's wrath of techno mayhem.

It's time for Microsoft to either fix this new operating system, or let folks like Google develop their browser, and/or new operating system (if rumors are true that's they're making one) without interfering. Microsoft CAN do it -- I just don't know what's the holdup. I would pay for it if Google had an OS, but they're smart enough to give it away for free.

Time for me to look for a new mate like Linux or Ubuntu. But that's by duress.

At the risk of sounding more crass, Vista sucks. Not because, for example, it doesn't try with its artificial intelligence. Rather, because it does too much.

I can't tell you how many times I have lost emails, files, music, pictures, documents, etc. with Vista doing things I don't want, or trying to think for me.

I almost threw my very expensive laptop out the window today because of this. Arrgh!

Another example. Yesterday was a Canadian Music Week party at the Drake Hotel here in Toronto, and I had to burn a CD of some of my new album to give the DJs and industry people.

Instead of just allowing me to "BURN CD", Microsoft decides to walk me through a whole list of stuff that I don't want ... and then doesn't burn the CD, no matter how much I try to avoid the A.I. system.

Wait -- it gets worse.

No matter what CD burn program you download, it automatically kicks you back to the same Windows program!

All it should do is BURN THE CD ... period. And the Speech Recognition feature, while ambitious, never seems to shut off, even when you remove the mic. So it accepts commands to do wierd stuff, even from ambient noises. I like artificial intelligence when it facilitates stuff, but doesn't take over. But I DO NOT like a robotic system seeming to choose to do stuff that I don't want!

( By the way, please visit my robot at http://jexdon.blogspot.com -- but I digress ...).

Then Vista goes to work, seemingly acting in a world of its own. Crashing if you sometimes double-click too fast. Hiding important files. Often not allowing third-party software to run. And other such craziness.

And, of course, the mother of all Vista trademarks: The System Crash. Sigh ....

I don't know. Sometimes, I need a hug, having begged and plead for Vista to open and print a resume, and fighting to open simple word processors, including MS's own. And what's with automatically changing the keyboard language in the middle of typing?

These are some of the main reasons why Microsoft is rapidly losing the battle (actually, lost it, search-engine-wise, so far) to Google.

Google at least tries to make stuff user-friendly and intuitive. Although Google Chrome (which I use) needs a lot of work, I know Google can fix it with enough people saying what they don't like about the browser.

But what's worse about Vista is that Microsoft doesn't even allow you to purchase your laptop with OS XP. You don't have a choice. If you want to 'upgrade' to XP (which is older), you have to buy it!

I've been late to my appointments, and had to pay an internet cafe to hurredly do something I desperately needed, all because of this.

Those are just a few of the problems I've had. So I made, just for fun, T-shirt-ready posters on this same post on Facebook (Noel Pierre, Toronto, ON network). Had to laugh off the stress!

Anyone have any other horror stories about Vista? Please share!

This post has been edited by Noel258366: 13 March 2009 - 04:23 PM

[gr277]

Sorry Noel258366....but I don't know what you are talking about...

I have been using Vista Premium for 2 years and I have never had a single problem with it. It is the most stable, reliable and user friendly OS I have ever come across.

I can not say that for XP which I used for about 5 years. I would NEVER go back to XP.

[pcuserwinvista]

I, too, have had no problems with Vista. All your problems sound like user error.

The only PC I have running with XP is my netbook, as it only has a 4GB SSD.

[davidoc]

pcuserwinvista, on Mar 13 2009, 06:25 PM, said:

I, too, have had no problems with Vista. All your problems sound like user error.

The only PC I have running with XP is my netbook, as it only has a 4GB SSD.

To be honest...I have been running vista home premium for 12 months now and I have not had one single problem...I love everything about vista.

[Noel258366]

pcuserwinvista, on Mar 13 2009, 07:25 PM, said:

I, too, have had no problems with Vista. All your problems sound like user error.

The only PC I have running with XP is my netbook, as it only has a 4GB SSD.

Hmm, perhaps you're right, to an extent. But it's odd how some things happen without no prompting from me, i.e. the keyboard changing languages, crashing occasionally, etc.

It could be a hardware issue, granted. But I do have software that have problems running, even tho it's a laptop with 3G of RAM, 250G of harddrive space, and several other features that were supposed to ensure smooth running.

I also had to completely system restore twice, and I have no so-called weird programs. This never happened with XP.

Oh well. LOL I've heard other people experience the same and other problems, but I've also heard people who love it.

Another thing I thought was, additional security programs gave me problems, and I know of businesses (and my mother's office) who had problems running Vista with their pre-existing security setup.

But I'm nothing if not a trooper. So I might think it's a little mean now LOL, but I'll work to improve performance where I can. Maybe read more mags on the issue.

[pat cooke]

As a committed geek I have always regretted the inevitable continued distancing of the user from the system but that is a necessary evil in the interests of the "average" end user. Other than that I have had few complaints with Vista and if you take the trouble to familiarise yourself with its features and their operation you should have few problems.

[osuwildlifer]

Sounds like there might be major systemic problems or possibly user error to me as well. But, that's only a hunch because the rant above doesn't really get into specific details.

If you have specific problems that you would like our often unbelievably knowledgeable members to help with, please create posts (one for each issue please, to keep us all at least partially sane) in the Windows Vista Support section.

Hope your experience with Vista gets better! I for one have been trying to break things for fun since Windows 3.11, and I find Vista to be an enjoyable, straight-forward, solid, and capable OS. Granted, it's a major change from XP, but after getting comfortable with Vista, I could never go back to using an older generation OS such as XP as my default.



<Sidebar> If you're a fan of tinkering with new things, you should give Windows 7 a try! It's quite similar to Vista in looks and style, but has many improvements "under the hood." </sidebar>

[iceycooler9]

for me vista has its good and bad days, one day windows explorer browser will open in 3-5 secs (although dolphin in linux is instant), and then the next day i will launch a game and get a BSOD



odd, Vista and KDE4 seem to be in the same boat with the public, but i seemed to manage to be satisfied with the kde4 boat while my windows vista boat has sank.The windows ME motto "the many possibilities" well that applies for vista, god knows what it does.



if you continue to struggle with vista i recommend Ubuntu but also mandriva, they are both having new releases around the corner (23rd april ubuntu 29th april mandriva) you should check them both, they are both linux, just the "philosophy" is a bit different, you can even see it by the website design.



http://www.ubuntu.com/



http://www.mandriva.com/

This post has been edited by alienware2: 14 March 2009 - 04:41 AM

[Damien]

I dont get how people have all these issues with Vista. I have had very few issues with it. If I had, its always been something I messed up and did, or it it was something else, it was always easily rectified. Kind of like a "Oh, duh. that would do it....." type of thing.

I love Vista and would never go back to another version of Windows as my OS. I would only upgrade to Seven when it comes out.

[thuydung88]

I've had a wee "e" machiness notebook running on Windows Vista Home Basic since christmas - but whenever I try to update anything or download firefox for example - I always get the message " uable to install updates as you are not connected to the internet"
Well I am connected to the internet! I've tried everything I've been told to do & getting really frustrated now! My son has the same laptop, the same ISP & the same edition of Vista & he can update his spyware & anti virus so why can't I?
Any advice "PLEASE!!!"

[.Jamie]

The majority of people who use Vista have had a pleasant experience. The problems happen to a minority. Although it seems everyone is having problems, it's really not the case. Ignorance is the cause of most of vista's 'problems.' People seem to expect that Vista was going to come out perfect, when no Operating System before, or after, it has done so. The same happened to XP, and some of the problems are still not fixed after about 8 years. The only operating system(s) close to perfect on release, are those that have been released for specific hardware. Such as OS X. I'm not saying they have been perfect on release, but they generally have fewer problems to linux and windows, both of which are built for use with a lot of hardware possibilities. (In the case of linux, this only applies to some distros, as many computers manufacturers make their own build for use with their hardware.)

[pcuserwinvista]

thuydung88, on Mar 18 2009, 07:38 PM, said:

I've had a wee "e" machiness notebook running on Windows Vista Home Basic since christmas - but whenever I try to update anything or download firefox for example - I always get the message " uable to install updates as you are not connected to the internet"
Well I am connected to the internet! I've tried everything I've been told to do & getting really frustrated now! My son has the same laptop, the same ISP & the same edition of Vista & he can update his spyware & anti virus so why can't I?
Any advice "PLEASE!!!"

Sounds like your network card drivers are buggy.

[Soldier1st]

At first i had some problems with vista but as time went on vista got better for me and now vista is really good.it sounds like you have incompatible drivers/programs.

[BluesCruzer]

dr.skipper, on Mar 19 2009, 05:05 PM, said:

vista is junk, plain and simple. round of applause for bill what a douche. way to ruin microsoft office. youd think that by simply buying vista you would have the luxury of even Word but oh no, you have to waste even more time finding keys and authentication passes. xp was enough of a waste of time. microsoft has driven me up the wall too many times. its time to get a mac. enuf said

I actually use open office , http://www.google.co...0aN_MeIrDbKZOlw , many others find this a great substitute for Office/Word .
There is a lot to be said about the problem existing between the keyboard and the chair , especially when it's a problem for as many years as you state .

Quote

its time to get a mac. enuf said

Or you could invent-code your very own Operating System !

[crashdummy35]

Vista Ultimate 64 bit. I've always said "I'm an XP man living in a Vista world," but I've had very few problems with Vista that an update didn't fix. Seriously. Dual booting with Windows 7 build 7000 makes me wonder what's so much better about W7 other than the "super bar?"

BUT...my UAC is off and I used a command line to create an absolute Administrator account like my XP account...so my experience may be different than yours.

This post has been edited by crashdummy35: 26 March 2009 - 09:10 PM

[neo158]

I've always found the main problems people have with Vista stem from them trying to install the software they used 7 years ago, on XP then wondering why it doesn't work and blaming Vista.

This post has been edited by neo158: 28 March 2009 - 03:12 PM

[angeloelibz24]

pcuserwinvista, on Mar 13 2009, 07:25 PM, said:

I, too, have had no problems with Vista. All your problems sound like user error.

Same here. I haven't encountered any Vista problem (well, there are some actually, but not specifically Vista since I've also encountered them in XP, as well as 7). They do really sound like user errors. If you want to use a new OS like Mac OS X 10.5, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and probably the latest version of Linux, you have to be open-minded on everything you encounter in the OS. Just complaining and not simply finding ways to make things simple will get you nowhere.

Quote

The System Crash

It ain't really the "mother of all Vista trademarks". It goes to show that your PC is not fully-capable of handling Vista. Vista is a resource hog -- you can already tell that by its ridiculously high and strict system requirements. If you want better Vista experience, go get a better and more stable PC.

This post has been edited by angeloelibz24: 29 March 2009 - 06:01 AM

[unown]

angeloelibz24, on Mar 29 2009, 06:44 AM, said:

pcuserwinvista, on Mar 13 2009, 07:25 PM, said:

I, too, have had no problems with Vista. All your problems sound like user error.

Same here. I haven't encountered any Vista problem (well, there are some actually, but not specifically Vista since I've also encountered them in XP, as well as 7). They do really sound like user errors. If you want to use a new OS like Mac OS X 10.5, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and probably the latest version of Linux, you have to be open-minded on everything you encounter in the OS. Just complaining and not simply finding ways to make things simple will get you nowhere.

Quote

The System Crash

It ain't really the "mother of all Vista trademarks". It goes to show that your PC is not fully-capable of handling Vista. Vista is a resource hog -- you can already tell that by its ridiculously high and strict system requirements. If you want better Vista experience, go get a better and more stable PC.

hmm... i guess so
i've been using vista for almost a year now.
sometimes it gives me problem too
but i really enjoy it
for every problem, there should be a way to make it clear, am i right?

for example, yesterday my registry was corrupted (the OS says that "a program has made change to registry, cannot load user profile service" kind like that) then i did some research, and it ended i had to modify the registry. it's a fun work, if i can say. however, my vista now is running again 'like crazy' and i still love it very much.

ah, and i don't want to go back to XP, hehehe

[whs37]

I would say: "Grow up".

[Allan©]

neo158, on Mar 28 2009, 11:10 AM, said:

I've always found the main problems people have with Vista stem from them trying to install the software they used 7 years ago, on XP then wondering why it doesn't work and blaming Vista.

I have had a Windows Vista computer since Feb 10, 2007 - yes, only a few days after it's release. Since I got my desktop in April 2008, I've had one and only one Bluescreen, and that was because I was attempting to kill the machine, by seeing how many times in a row I could plug in and unplug a USB device and I think I sent a short circuit that said "we're gonna shut down before you muck us up Mister Allan. BSOD and Hardware fault.". I rebooted, and haven't had a lick of problems ... According to Sysinfo and Duration between dates ... I've had Windows installed for 124 days, 0 hours, 5 minutes and 45 seconds ... which, for me, is good ... I used to reinstall XP the last day of EVERY month. I got to the point, where I made a copy of the system, and would reimage the drive ... it would take 3 hours, but was worth it.