Microsoft Vista

[fred950]

Anyone care to get a pool going to guess the date Microsoft will issue it's first Vistas patch?

[nacktman]

The second Tuesday of the week!
Oh, wait there's a bug in my Microsoft Vista calendar. http://oakhurstonline.com/icon/bonk.gif

[barenaked1]

Once they have met their initial sales quota.

[harveym]

It's a Microsoft product - you have to wait at least a year. Then after service pack 2 and 3 and 30 or 40 security updates you'll be forced to get Vista as there probably will be no backward compatibility with any other version of Windows.

[nacktman]

Actually, I have a friend who belly dances at the local RenFaire that is a Microsoft programer and she told me the first "patch" for VISTA is already ready for distribution and I can get it now.

[Unwired]

Patches to fix security vulnerabilities and other issues will probably be coming out on a near-continuous basis, based on how often new threats are discovered.

The first Service Pack is speculated to be released sometime in the 2nd half of this year (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/01/26/vista_sp1/). It remains to be seen how extensive it will be.



UW

[Atlanta Runner]

Unwired. You are my techo-hero! Thanks for the information.

[shomymojo]

Microsoft Vista crashed my computer...I bought the new Microsoft Vista Home Premium Upgrade...only $149 at walmart..I had already ran the pre-test on my less than a year old computer to see if it was compatible...Microsoft said it was safe to upgrade my current OS Windows XP to Vista...so i started my download...everything looked like it was going along just fine...and then about 20 minutes into the download..it just stopped the download and my computer crashed...I tried everything I knew to recover it...I had to take it down to my local computer store where my computer guru told me I was the 4th one this week he had to repair because of a Vista Upgrade problem...he managed to save my data ( I did have my computer backed up to an external hard drive just in case...so i wasn't in a complete panic...just pissed at Microsoft...and myself for falling for another Microsoft scam...so now my computer is back where it was on XP...Bill Gates has my $149...( Thanks Bill for another hosejob)...my computer store has my $45 service charge...oh well...we live and learn...in my case..I learn over and over everytime I run out and buy into the hype of another fantastic new OS from Microsoft...duh...silly me...let the buyer beware...is Microsoft from nigeria...I keep getting these e-mails...LOL

[DoctorSurferDude]

http://www.tarottools.com/apple_computer-01.jpg No crashing, no viruses, no patches, no worries...

[NakedGary]

Apple just announced a problem with its i-Pod's and compatibility with the Vista Operating system.

If XP is working for you there is no reason to change, upgrade, or spend hundreds for a few GUI bells and whistles which require more resources, RAM, CPU, Communications, Network, and Video bandwidth for the average home user.

Bloatware .. Do you really need it?

links to i-Pod compatibility problems with Vista. (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&q=iPod+compatibility+problems+with+Vista&spell=1)

BTW Dr. Surfer Dude, Forum user " Jason Lee" is always complaining of non compatibility with simple downloads or common windows downloads, spell checkers, and audio/video programs and codec’s not working on his apple or browser that are mentioned in the forums.

Apple is only 5-8% of world wide PC's out there. Many software programs are not coded for apple or available at common computer or warehouse stores. Apple use to be king at desktop publishing, video editing but not anymore. Apple hardware, firmware, and software is premium priced and OEM different enough to be not available on store shelves except at authorized apple and premium priced outlets. Most non technical or non computer nerds do say apple operating systems and graphical user interface is easier to operate and master for the average non computer types who just want to use and don’t want to be internal or operating system savvy like many windows PC owners are.

I understand that late or recent apple systems will run windows operating system and you can set up an apple to be a dual boot windows or Apple operating system machine, but havent heard how compatable or efficient windows software and operating systems run on those machines since apple went to intel based chipsets and CPU's.

[johny]

Really dont understand WHY you so like to have a problems. Do You really have a computers with 2 Terabait RAM and have no a better use of it? Or You think existing 4Gigabaits what is least minimums for Bil`s wunderkind is worth to have a no-named mytical "benefits"??
We have here in local dc++ some (allready!!) cracked versions of Vista (oh poor guy Bill), but as mine RAM is ONLY 1 Giga and frequency ONLY 4 GigaHertz I have no an idea I can get something good upgrading. And no worth to risk because daddy Bill have stated - DOWNGRADE IS COMPLETELY UNPOSSIBLE for any kind of "secreted source code" products made by him.

[usmc1]

All those comments above confirm for me my wisdom in habitually staying about 12 to 18 month behind the curl of new tech waves.

[kdsisa]

I think I'll give Vista a try once SP2 comes out. Maybe. It seems a bit of a resource hog, even if it is pretty. Also, Microsoft's courting of the "content providers," i.e RIAA and MPAA affiliated companies and others, has led them to include a lot of code focused on handling DRM instead of user productivity. An interesing read of the subject is available here (http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/%7Epgut001/pubs/vista_cost.html).

If Vista and the machines it runs on can handle real work, in addition to making sure no media company loses a penny, there might be celebration throughout the land. But I have a feeling that it will not be Vista, but "Vista + 1" that is the stable, favored OS. Windows 2000 needed work (including 4 service packs), then along came XP ("Windows 2000 + 1")and by SP2 XP is a very good OS.

As far as Apple goes, they have an OS that's very simple compared to the MS offering. I haven't had much trouble at all getting the various video codecs and chat software and browser plugins and so forth running on my old iBook. But Apple doesn't worry too much about maintaining code compatibility with software built to run on 20 year old hardware; MS does. Apple doesn't try to be all things to all people; MS does. Software installation and uninstallation on a Mac is dead simple, and just about everything written for the Mac is very nice to look at. Still, Apple will likely never have the market share commanded by Windows, nor do I think Apple wants it. Apple seems mostly interested in creating cool products for a loyal customer base and when they reach what they feel is the maximum market penetration for any product line, they branch into something new, like personal audio or phones. (If you haven't seen the iPhone demos on apple.com, you should check them out.)

Whatever you use, use it nude!

kdsisa

[Naturist Mark]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/35/Tux.svg/150px-Tux.svg.png (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux)
Better than Vista?

[Unwired]

Originally posted by DoctorSurferDude:
http://www.tarottools.com/apple_computer-01.jpg

I am in oneness with my Mac brother.

I didn't have to repost the image in my reply, but it's just so cool...

[Unwired]

I think another thing that people are overlooking is that Windows Vista is just now acquiring some enhancements that Mac OS X has had for years. The much touted "Aero", hardware-intensive GUI is only now catching up to the "Aqua" technology that OS X has had since 2001. Vista's "new-and-improved" Indexing Service/metadata searches are not new to OS X; it's already existed as "Spotlight" on the Mac and it works amazingly well. Not to mention that OS X is built on FreeBSD UNIX which is fundamentally more stable and secure...it seems that as usual, Microsoft is merely playing catch-up in terms of technology.

I was in a computer store the other day and saw my first in-person glimpse of Vista running on a desktop. I wanted to play around with it to see what it was like...but the mouse didn't work. http://oakhurstonline.com/icon/laugh.gif



UW

"I will never again use a non-sentient OS that is dumber than I am."

[harveym]

Took a quick look at Vista. Reminded me of a UNIX interface I used a few years ago. Still think that UNIX is the closest to an ideal OS - I include Linux as a flavor of UNIX.

I still think it should be spelled WinDoze!

[Bare in the Desert]

Originally posted by DoctorSurferDude:
http://www.tarottools.com/apple_computer-01.jpg No crashing, no viruses, no patches, no worries...

Couldn't have said it any better. Although I do have some problems with my Mac slowing down, but its only when Microsoft Office applications are running.

[brainyguy9999]

I've been in IT for 10 years and every IT guru I have talked to agrees with this: Wait at least 18 months after the commercial release before upgrading to Vista. Stick with XP Professional and only upgrade when you absolutely need some functionality that Vista has. If you do decide to upgrade to Vista, make sure you have good backups and plan for total file loss in case it goes bad and you have to reformat your hard drive and do a full install (which I recommend anyway).

As for me. I'm running XP Professional and won't consider Vista until at least June 2008.

Hope it helps.

Stay nude.

bg

[brainyguy9999]

Well, it looks like I successfully killed this thread too.

Now on to the shaving and erection threads to work my magic....


Stay nude.

bg

[kdsisa]

Here, I'll take the burden off of you this time. But I promise not to rescue the shaving and erection threads. http://oakhurstonline.com/icon/wiseguy.gif

kdsisa

[luvnaturism]

Originally posted by NakedGary:

BTW Dr. Surfer Dude, Forum user " Jason Lee" is always complaining of non compatibility with simple downloads or common windows downloads, spell checkers, and audio/video programs and codec’s not working on his apple or browser that are mentioned in the forums.


If Jason Lee is having all those problems he's probably running a very old version of the Mac OS. Spend enough time on the internet with any operating system and you'll occasionally find something that doesn't work for you, but I guarantee you that my Mac with OS X.4.8 has very few problems. If I can't open something it's usually because there's some plug-in that I have n't been interested enough to download.

But it is true that Mac OS 8 or 9, which are now years out of date, aren't going to cope well with all the new code that has gone online since those systems were developed. My friend who still runs Windows 98 isn't real happy with what he can do either.

[nifocinphx]

Probably says it all!

[OZJames]

NakedGary - QUOTE "If XP is working for you there is no reason to change, upgrade, or spend hundreds for a few GUI bells and whistles which require more resources, RAM, CPU, Communications, Network, and Video bandwidth for the average home user."

"IF IT AIN'T BROKE DON'T FIX IT"

About a year ago i bought a new 2.66ghz PIIII computer and installed Windows 98. Now I am not saying that w98 has no problems but that computer is the fastest computer I have ever seen. W98 running ona 2.66ghz machine makes it rocket.

I certainly won't be upgrading to Vista for a while yet - come to think of it is "upgrading" the right word.

http://oakhurstonline.com/icon/beam.gif <span class="ev_code_RED">JAMES</span> http://oakhurstonline.com/icon/beam.gif

[45 solo]

Originally posted by brainyguy9999:
I've been in IT for 10 years and every IT guru I have talked to agrees with this: Wait at least 18 months after the commercial release before upgrading to Vista. Stick with XP Professional and only upgrade when you absolutely need some functionality that Vista has. If you do decide to upgrade to Vista, make sure you have good backups and plan for total file loss in case it goes bad and you have to reformat your hard drive and do a full install (which I recommend anyway).

As for me. I'm running XP Professional and won't consider Vista until at least June 2008.

Hope it helps.

Stay nude.

bg
-------------------------------------------

Hi Brainey,

I'm running 2 computers, one that dual-boots with Linux and a boot-leg copy of 2000 Pro, The other one is running XP that's legal. Guess which one never gives me any trouble? By the way I don't think I like IE 7 and I know I don't like McAfee.

[krcNY]

Originally posted by OZJames:
NakedGary - QUOTE "If XP is working for you there is no reason to change, upgrade, or spend hundreds for a few GUI bells and whistles which require more resources, RAM, CPU, Communications, Network, and Video bandwidth for the average home user."

"IF IT AIN'T BROKE DON'T FIX IT"

About a year ago i bought a new 2.66ghz PIIII computer and installed Windows 98. Now I am not saying that w98 has no problems but that computer is the fastest computer I have ever seen. W98 running ona 2.66ghz machine makes it rocket.

I certainly won't be upgrading to Vista for a while yet - come to think of it is "upgrading" the right word.

http://oakhurstonline.com/icon/beam.gif <span class="ev_code_RED">JAMES</span> http://oakhurstonline.com/icon/beam.gif

I am still running 98SE on my computer as well. I find that I can no longer update my Adobe, and cannot use the new IE7, also I will no longer be receiving any more updates for 98. My son got a Digital Camera for Christmas, and I cannot even upload the Kodak info for his camera. I guess now I should just update to XP.

Not ready for Vista yet either. It took a while for XP to run smoothly, so as you all said, it will take just as long for Vista to run smoothly as well. http://oakhurstonline.com/icon/happy.gif

[walter05]

krcNY;

If you are still running 98, then your computer is probably very vulnerable to malicious code including spyware. I strongly recommend an update A.S.A.P.

I recommend a new PC with Windows/XP Professional Edition. It is probably not very expensive. If you put some good firewall, anti-spyware, etc. on it you should be fine.

You can go to http://security.symantec.com/sscv6/default.asp?producti...&langid=ie&venid=sym (http://security.symantec.com/sscv6/default.asp?productid=symhome&langid=ie&venid=sym). This will connect you to a free security check of your computer. Please do this A.S.A.P. to protect yourself and your family.

If you have any follow up questions and want to protect your privacy, please PM me.

[Edmontonnudist]

Bought a computer for the first time about 3 months ago . It came with vista . Vista is junk. I exchanged it with another unit with Vista and it also crashed. Took that unit back for credit and bought a model from last year with xp in it. XP works fine. As far as I am concerned Vista is destroyed by design. For more info on Vista go to badvista.org This site tells it all!

[Tampanude]

Anyone have a suggestion for Spam filters/blockers?

[LeoNJ]

Greetings,

I bought a new computer about a month ago with the Vista Home Premium on it. It has a few bells an whistles that I probly will not use. But thus far the computer is working just fine with no problems. Maybe it was the blessing that I gave it when I set it up but it is doing just fine and working well. I should also note that Circuit City con'ed me into paying for their service for them to set up the computer for a fee of course which I may have been able to do my self but at least with them setting it up they will make sure it was done right and the system is working fine so in the end the extra cost may have been worth it. I used the word con'ed because the sales person gave some lame reason for the cost of them setting up the computer. I gave in only because of my busy schedule it was actully worth it time wise for them to do it rather then me. Because I now from experience from setting up and resetting up my old computer w/ W98 on it is very time consumming project to do and as mentioned at least they made sure the computer was working properly before bringing it home.

So for right now it works fine and I am please with it thus far. It will probly be another 9 years before I go and buy another computer. Our old computer with the orginal Windows 98 on it with a P2 350 processor is still going strong and working well. I should also note that I reformatted the hard dirve at least twice in the last nine years and upgraded the orginal hard drive from a 10 gig to an 80 gig with an 8 meg cache wich I thinked helped. The orginal HD is still in the computer but acting as back up drive and storing stuff that I would not want to loose if the may drive died on me. Which brings me to ask if anyone out there may have a serial number I could use to reinstall the W/98 because I would like to do another reformat on the computer to clear out any garbage that is there that has not been removed by other means.


LeoNJ

[nudenwv]

i too got a new computer loaded with vista home premier. when i first got it i couldn't use the instant message i set up with yahoo. sometimes it would work and other times (when i wanted it to) wouldn't. i launch messenger from the home page of yahoo. seems to work better that way. don't know if it's yahoo or the system? as long as i have the resources i need i'm happy.

[johny]

Hope never it will be needed for me to use it, but if someone is interested, full working, qualitative, tested and re-checked ideally cracked version of Vista is available on - http://.............. [URL/Site address edited by CFF Moderator NakedGary 1-14-2008]

However it takes about 2,9 Gigabaits.
F.... . .. demands a registration.
Registration demands a recomendation.
The recommendation You may get from me.
It works even so well that Bill Gates company are accepting its real and sending updates.

[Rabid_Clam]

We had MS DOS for years, and that worked for what we needed. THen the GUI came in with Win 95. THat was the greatest upgrade to date. But it had limitations that were ironed out in '98. '98 had limitations that were ironed out in '98 SE. That was a truly great system.

But then the hackers and virus makers got loose and began to do their child pranks that did much damage to everyone. There is always one in every group that just won't go with the flow, and they didn't.

So the fix was to the NT system. Well, NT was not very friendly software and expecially hardware wise. So an experiment came, and it was Meliniuum. Wow, was that a wash job! I bought it but never installed it. Thank goodness I never did! THe only good thing about Meliniuum was that you could roll it back to what ever opsystem you had previously.

I sold the Meliniuum copy, the bona fide Microsoft CD, on E-bay. Some poor sucker bought it and woe to him.

Then Windows 2000 came out. It had fixed the bugs in Meliniuum and still had the NTFS file system. It was software and hardware friendly and did allot. But needed more so XP came out with that more. XP is really the best system out there right now. Vista is another Meliniuum but you can't roll it back. Is just a looser and Microsoft has made it so all new manufactured systems, Dell, Gateway, HP, or any other will have Vista on it. BAD MOVE!

Sales of new computers have dropped and sales of Vista did NOT make projected numbers. THe population is NOT happy with Vista and it is not the choice of anyone with a brain.

The main problems with Vista is it is not as backward compatable with existing software and hardware as previous platforms like XP and 2000 or even '98. Vista is resource hungry, VERY hungry and it requires a minimun of 1.5 gig memory, 2 gig is better and 3 gig is better yet. But then Vista also requires a bigger hard drive to store the basic system and all the goo it plants in there. THen the processor, a dual processor is best but even that is slow when Vista starts all the crap it does.

The only way to make Vista run at an acceptable speed is to disable all kinds of things it starts up. That way all the components are not taxed to the max with useless garbage eye candy and things can get done reasonably.

Video cards need to be swapped out go Vista capable component as well as even printers and scanners.

You may be in for a big HUGE surprise by upgrading to any version of Vista where you may have to spend a ton of money to get a much slower and less productive operating system that has lots of eye candy whose sole purpose in existance is to line Bill Gate's pockets with that green stuff.

C'mon Bill, make something for us that works, backwards, today and tomorrow with everything we now have. We will upgrade components when we are ready but we do NOT like to be forced to do this.

[brainyguy9999]

Anyone have a suggestion for Spam filters/blockers?

I use Yahoo mail and their spam filter/blocker is pretty good. A few get through, but most of them are appropriately put into the spam folder.

Stay nude.

bg

[bfriends]

[QUOTE=Rabid_Clam;170170]
You may be in for a big HUGE surprise by upgrading to any version of Vista where you may have to spend a ton of money to get a much slower and less productive operating system that has lots of eye candy whose sole purpose in existance is to line Bill Gate's pockets with that green stuff.
QUOTE]

Hi!

Well I just purchased a HP Vista computer setup last week. There are differences from XP, but the differences really seem rather minimal to me. Based on some of the horror comments from several of you, I am glad I did not try to install a Vista system on my last HP computer running XP. I am on this computer now and am not having any earth shaking problems for running most programs. I did have to upgrade to the Vista upgrades for a few of my older software programs brought forward to this computer.

I have a wireless/network hub setup for internet and printer access for both of my computers. My notebook is still running XP. My Lexmark X9350 printer is connected directly to the hub running in it's network configuration. This required my getting a Vista edition of drivers to get the printer working again over the network for both the Vista and XP computers.

The biggest problem came for file sharing activation over the network between the Vista and XP computers. The network NAME has to be the SAME on both (or all) computers on this home network. The name change is accomplished differently on the Visa and the XP systems. After I did all this, I could not get the Vista computer to find the files on the network for the notebook computer. I finally resolved the problem by using the WINDOWS FIREWALL on both computers - I kept using my old virus checking software though. Other firewalls block the ports needed for the file transfers between both computers! :)

P.S.

For the several who claim that Apple systems have little to no problems. Think twice. I was going to get an Apple Imax and run Vista on it. However after referring to the various Apple related blogs, I noted that many people were having problems with Imaxes overheating!!?? They are having additional problems with notebooks and some Imaxes seizing up except for wireless keyboard and mouse control. This requires multiple reboots to resolve the problem until the next occurrance. We have had people here who have had their iphones seize up so much, they had to go to the Apple store to get them going again.

I bought their AirPort Extreme to use as my network hub. Its performance is far from stellar. It seems very much slower than my old D-link hub. Since I have been using the AirPort Extreme, I periodically find that the hub looses the network connection to the printer, and my computer connection to the internet. It certainly was not worth the $179. It's poor performance, along with the Apple blog reporting, made me decide that I was not going to pay premium prices for Apple equipment. They have some novel visual program control features, but for excessive prices!! :disappointed:

Each person has to determine what systems have the most features they desire. However, there are definite problems with either Apple or Microsoft. shocked

[harveym]

I'm running XP on one of my machines - I refuse to switch to Vista. The only reason I am running XP is for compatibility with some software I have to use. My favorite system is Solaris which can be downloaded free of charge from www.sun.com. It includes most of the utilities that anyone would need and office software such as OpenOffice are free too. Unlike MS products it is a mature operating system.

[smoothdnbelow]

I've been using Vista since it's first release and I've encountered no problems at all. The only exception being prior to installation I had to remove a program due to incompatibility. Since I really didn't use it that often I had no problem removing it. Don't believe everything you here negative about this operating system. In my opinion it's better and faster than Windows XP.

[FishyDave]

I 'do' computers for a living and so far I've encountered Vista 'professionally' only once. They've created loads of compatibility issues with old hardware and software, but that's inevitable when they take a major step forward.

My biggest issue with Vista is that it's not a big enough step to warrant the inconvenience. In fact, all we seem to have over XP is a bit of eye candy, (apparently) a whole bunch of DRM code that's there for the benefit of big corporations rather than the user, and some security enhancements that probably make life a lot more difficult for the user than they do for the determined and knowledgeable malware author.

I had murder trying to do a simple XP application install on Vista, and I'm now recommending that our customers don't try to run any of my software under the new OS. Most of my stuff will run under any true 32 bit version of Windows, which means anything from Win95 onwards, but I won't recommend Vista to run any of it.

The best comment I saw on it was on b3ta.com - an image that hit their front page. I don't have it to hand, but if you've seen the box that Vista comes in then you'll appreciate it just from the slogan: "Windows Vista - This time we haven't just cut corners, we've rounded them off."

But there will come a time when most software expects you to have Vista, XP support starts to dwindle, and we'll all be expected to 'upgrade.' Let's hope XP's evil progeny has its act together by then.

[Pilot]

I agree. Dont upgrade from XP, for no reason at all. If you are using XP and it works great for you, dont go out and buy Vista just because its the newest thing. A lot of things that were easy to do with XP, are hard to find or just more cumbersome to do on Vista.

XP was a definite improvement over 98/ME. Vista, well I cant really find any advantage yet

[rone]

I'm a solaris fan, myself. Best deal in a unix OS, IMO. And among the easiest to learn, too. ymmv.

I'm running XP on one of my machines - I refuse to switch to Vista. The only reason I am running XP is for compatibility with some software I have to use. My favorite system is Solaris which can be downloaded free of charge from www.sun.com. It includes most of the utilities that anyone would need and office software such as OpenOffice are free too. Unlike MS products it is a mature operating system.

[Al Bundy]

I noticed today that Microsoft Update wants to install Vista Service Pack 1 on my laptop. Seems like I read somewhere that this update caused a major problem on someones computer. Do not recall if it was this forum or another media. Has anyone downloaded this Service Pack and if so, have you experienced any problems?

[WNYjoe24]

I bought a new machine last Christmas which shipped from the factory with Vista on it. It seems as if Vista is fine if the machine was built for it. Based on what I am hearing & seeing, I would not try to do an upgrade to Vista.
What do I dislike?
-incompatibility to software. But that happens when any new OS comes out.
-more challenging networking at home.
What do I like? Ability to revert back to any of at least a dozen restore points.

Of course, if they had more compatibility, this would be a non-issue.
As far as Service Pack #1, TWICE it has tried to auto-install on me and created problems. DON't do it.

Joe

[marc_naturist]

i installed the service pack on mine and the wife her computer and we don't have any problem with it.

[lordshipmayhem]

No, bloatware is something I do NOT need.

Right at the moment, I've got an elderly Pentium III running Mandriva 2007 Linux, dual booting with WinXP (which I last booted into... I forget, one year? Two?). Installing Linux was fairly easy, even for an accountant like me - I like to tinker, but I'm far from the BOFH's skill level - and I've been running this OS without too much in the way of problems for about five years, upgrading the OS easily, frequently and painlessly.

I have used Vista boxen, and find them to be impossibly sluggish and with a security system that is insane and misdirected ("You have chosen to take a baseball bat to the motherboard. Cancel or allow?"), a Digital Rights Mismanagement system determined to ensure that my writings and financial data belongs to Microsoft, and Windows Genuine Advantage that just knows I'm an unreformed pirate prepared to steal Microsoft's (cue Gollum) "preciousssss" intellectual property given half a chance.

Its replacement is sitting on the floor behind me: a Dual-Core with Vista Home Basic. The Cunning Plan:
1) swap out the slave drive that has my Home directory on it onto New Computer
2) Install Linux before Vista even has a chance to boot.

Should fly like the wind, without all that Vista bloat.

[Mosquito_Bait]

A lightning strike took out my old computer with Windows XP. My replacement computer has Vista. The following are some of the things that I've noticed:

1. XP Windows Explorer had a slide show mode in which the file icons appeared across the bottom of the window and a large preview pane displayed any image file that was selected. Vista seems to lack this feature.

2. The version of Internet Explorer that came with XP had a "Search this Page" option that would allow you to search the displayed web page for a specified text string. If the version of Internet Explorer that came with Vista has this feature, I have been unable to find it.

3. I can no longer use my scanner because there is no driver available that is supported by Vista.

Another annoying feature of my new computer is that it has a DVD drive but no CD drive. When I bought it, I assumed that the DVD drive would be able to read CDs; however, this is not the case. I'll blame HP for this, not Microsoft. Fortunately, stored in the attic was an external CD drive that I had bought for use with a previous computer.

Regarding the performance of my new machine, it is much faster. This is in part due to having a more powerful CPU. It is also due to the high level of contamination of the registry of my old computer. Even if the lightning strike hadn't occurred, I probably still would have had to replace it within a few months. My old computer was quite fast when it was new but it had become painfully slow in its old age probably due to registry problems.

[Naturist Mark]

Another annoying feature of my new computer is that it has a DVD drive but no CD drive. When I bought it, I assumed that the DVD drive would be able to read CDs; however, this is not the case. I'll blame HP for this, not Microsoft. Fortunately, stored in the attic was an external CD drive that I had bought for use with a previous computer.

There is something messed up with your device drivers. There is not a DVD drive made that can't read CDs.

-Mark

[Mosquito_Bait]

There is something messed up with your device drivers. There is not a DVD drive made that can't read CDs.

-Mark

Thank you! I'll look into that.

One other annoying trait of my new computer is that it has a power saving sleep mode that periodically malfunctions. Sometimes it wakes up without finding the mouse or the monitor with the result that I have to cut the power and reboot. I'm not sure if this is a Microsoft Vista problem or an HP problem.

[NBD]

A lightning strike took out my old computer with Windows XP. My replacement computer has Vista. The following are some of the things that I've noticed:

1. XP Windows Explorer had a slide show mode in which the file icons appeared across the bottom of the window and a large preview pane displayed any image file that was selected. Vista seems to lack this feature.

I'm not sure if you are confusing Windows Explorer with Internet Explorer... The Vista Windows Explorer isn't much different than the XP version (as I have both running on two different machines. Vista version is much more graphical. Maybe you had Thumbnails displayed in XP, which are replaced by choices of icon size from Medium to Extra Large. Actually Vista Windows Explorer has a cool preview pane at the bottom...any file you click on will show properties of the file and a small image of the file content.

2. The version of Internet Explorer that came with XP had a "Search this Page" option that would allow you to search the displayed web page for a specified text string. If the version of Internet Explorer that came with Vista has this feature, I have been unable to find it.

Internet Explorer is periodically updated by Microsoft, so I am guessing you had not updated it on the old machine for a while. IE 7 that comes with Vista has removed a number of the icons that used to exist in earlier versions from the icon bar and consolidated items under pull-down icons for Page and Tools. The Search This Page feature could always be found under the Edit pull down menus at the top of IE. There are a lot of functions that can be done quicker by keystrokes than by clicking menus. The search is one of these. If you do Ctrl F (for Find) the search window will open. This is fairly universal in Windows programs. When you look at the pull down menus at the top of any program, look for the keyboard alternates at the right of the menu choices where they are available.

3. I can no longer use my scanner because there is no driver available that is supported by Vista.

This is a frustrating aspect of Vista. This version really stepped up programmed obsolescence of both software programs and hardware.

Another annoying feature of my new computer is that it has a DVD drive but no CD drive. When I bought it, I assumed that the DVD drive would be able to read CDs; however, this is not the case. I'll blame HP for this, not Microsoft. Fortunately, stored in the attic was an external CD drive that I had bought for use with a previous computer.

I agree with Naturist Mark, there appears to be something messed up with the device drivers, as whatever "cd sized" disk player - be it a DVD player, or a DVD read/writable, will play CDs. I am surprised that this is an issue on a new computer. Contact support for your computer manufacturer.

Regarding the performance of my new machine, it is much faster. This is in part due to having a more powerful CPU. It is also due to the high level of contamination of the registry of my old computer. Even if the lightning strike hadn't occurred, I probably still would have had to replace it within a few months. My old computer was quite fast when it was new but it had become painfully slow in its old age probably due to registry problems.

The registry is part of planned obsolescence I am convinced. The longer you use a machine, the more it gets "hosed" to the point that you get frustrated enough by programs that malfunction or slow speed that you decide to buy a new computer. For example, on the XP computer my Microsoft Office suite has decided that it isn't installed for the current user...I am the only user... My XP machine is at that point yours was before the fatal lightning strike and the two basic options are to reformat the drive and reinstall Windows to start over, or just retire the machine. I don't relish the "unproductive" time either option will take.

Good luck in resolving your issues...

[lordshipmayhem]

The registry is part of planned obsolescence I am convinced. The longer you use a machine, the more it gets "hosed" to the point that you get frustrated enough by programs that malfunction or slow speed that you decide to buy a new computer. For example, on the XP computer my Microsoft Office suite has decided that it isn't installed for the current user...I am the only user...

I am convinced the registry is part of unplanned obsolescence: in other words, it wasn't a great idea to start with, and the only reason I think that they are keeping the concept is that the only workable alternative anyone's come up with is too "unix-like" for Microsoft, and would basically be an admission that "maybe the *nixes aren't that bad". Considering that GNU/Linux is eating Microsoft's lunch in the server, supercomputer and laptot markets and is a *nix, and OS X is starting to make inroads into the high-end home PC/laptop market and is a *nix, that's not exactly a safe admission for them to make. (Yes, there's the backwards-compatibility issue, but if you make your OS a *nix, suddenly you make the applications people use on your OS portable to the point where they really don't need to pay you loadsadough for your operating system - they can download one of the Linux or BSD distros for free-as-in-beer, free-as-in-speech, and there goes Microsoft's financial model sinking slowly in the sunset.)

I wish you luck with your registry issues, and regarding Microsoft Office - give OpenOffice.org a try. It opens Word, Excel and Powerpoint documents, sometimes with better fidelity than MSOffice, sometimes on files that MS Office threw its hands up at thinking them hopelessly corrupted. Plus, it'll default save as Open Document Format, something not even (AFAIK) Office 2007 can do yet.

[Al Bundy]

Mosquito Bait, when I updated to IE 7 on my XP desktop, I also lost use of my HP scanner. I contacted HP and they directed me to a site (do not remember the site url) that corrected the problem. I also lost use of my greeting card software after this update. Since the company was no longer in existence I played around with it until I discovered a back door into the sofware that allows me to continue using it.

[Mosquito_Bait]

All,

Thank you for the advice regarding Vista. I did find that the "Find on this Page" option is indeed still available under the Edit menu in Internet Explorer. The Filmstrip option for displaying files in Windows Explorer is indeed missing. There are several options for different size icons and there is also a feature called "Slide Show"; however, I still miss Filmstrip. I haven't yet sorted out the issue of the driver for my DVD/CD. I believe the issue of a driver for my scanner is a lost cause as the manufacturer's website shows Vista compatible drivers available for the newer models but not my older model.

- Mosquito Bait

[Edmontonnudist]

5 words!

V.iruses
I.ntruders
S.pyware
T.rojans
A.dware

Crashed 2 new computers equiped with VISTA. Got refunds on both. Ended up buying a unit at a 'discount store' equiped with XP. No problems since.

I like to call it MICROS**T

[EricNY]

I run Vista and I installed Service Pack 1

My machine runs fantastic. Not one problem, and no complaints.

[lordshipmayhem]

I like to call it MICROS**T

I prefer Micro$oft, or M$ for short.

"In a world without walls and fences, who needs Windows and Gates?"

I keep getting told that Linux is too hard for me, that as I'm an accountant and not a sysadmin type I should stick to Windows.

I hate to tell them this, but I've been using Linux for over 6 years now. I really don't have a clue what "they" are talking about. The only thing it doesn't have that I need: tax preparation software.

GNU/Linux does what I want, and unlike Windows it doesn't do anything I personally don't tell it to do. No activation issues, no DRM, no bloat, no viruses, no spyware, no blue screen o' death, no forking out load$adough to upgrade to the latest version, no endless rebooting on installation of a new or updated application, lots of extremely useful and user-friendly free (both "free as in beer" and "free as in speech") applications in each distribution's central repository - most distributions are using "click to install" software management software. I own my data, it's not locked into proprietary formats, I can use a variety of different applications to access it. It runs on comparatively ancient equipment - it flies on systems built to the heavyweight specs that Vista calls for. If needed (or if you want to test drive the operating system), there are lightweight versions that will run off of a CD drive with no installation required, complete with a selection of useful applications like OpenOffice.org and FireFox. If I run into a problem, there is a huge community willing to help even newbies with my comparatively limited level of experience get the answers we need.

You couldn't pay me enough to go back to XP. I've been at clients where I've had to wade through Vista... you can keep that, I don't want it. ("You have reached a sad conclusion. Cancel or allow?")

[baardenkalebe]

You take the words out of my mouth