Exit, Windows Vista, stage left

[Krummhorn]

Microsoft has just announced that it is unceremoniously dropping the Vista platform (yea!) and will replace it with Windows 7.

Apparently (durrr, we wonder why ) VISTA has not been too well received ... you don't want to hear my opinion on Vista ... ... I would have to ban myself from this site .. .

This article in the New York Times has the story. The story ran on the 29th of October.

[Art Rock]

I've been using Vista for about 6 months now, no problems whatsoever.

[methodistgirl]

I only have the windows xp with the vista look. I think the look is better
than having the whole thing. I've used windows 98 for years. This is my
first xp and it can give problems.
judy tooley

[Tûrwethiel]

Hi

I ended up with Vista when I purchased a cheap Dell laptop. No real problems other than working out where everything was and having to save work files as Word whatever so I could get into them again at the office.

Far too many pictures and fripperies for my taste, but that doesn't seem to have hindered performance. Then again, I only use Internet Explorer, Word and Notepad.

Cheers

Vicki

[JLS]

The flack Vista has gotten is not well-deserved, in my estimation. I work with computers for a living and have not seen a better iteration of the Windows platform outside of server level software. It is far more stable than XP, has better security features and is easier to use. Most of the bad press has been put out there by Apple with no real substance behind their vague claims of "Vista bad, Mac good". They capitalized on the driver issues Vista had in its early release to launch a very effective ad campaign that seems to have permeated social perception. Microsoft's brilliant response to drop Vista in favor of Windows 7 seems to me to be nothing more than a timely opportunity to sell yet another OS to the entire computer world just 2 years after their last release. Talk about taking advantage of the "damage" Apple has done. Now Microsoft gets to rake in the cash even sooner than they had anticipated. Genius.

...and if Microsoft makes Windows 7 more backwards compatible than Vista, they'll be seen as saviors!

[sunwaiter]

i just purchased a portable pc working with vista, the basic family edition. until now, no problem, but i don't have the net yet nor any heavy application of any kind.

i'll see in some months i guess.

[methodistgirl]

The only problem I have seen with computers were with these young
parents who will sit at a computer and ignore their kid who needed
the attention. Thank goodness our generation never had that problem
with our parents. I got too much attention. This young generation
that is new parents now need to pay more attention to the kids instead
of what is on the net unless this was a job somewhere and the kids
were in school somewhere.
judy tooley

[greatcyber]

After all the bad comments I have heard about Vista, I would NEVER give it a try. In fact, I am so sick of Microsoft that I will never buy another computer with it's OS. Next time, it's Apple for me. But then, that's a long way away as my new XPS is only a year old and it is one heck of a machine and I love it.

[Krummhorn]

Hi Stephen,

I too have heard of great reviews on the XPS - its excellent review appeared in our local newspapers a few months back.

My one experience with Vista was very frustrating, at best. I was trying to help a friend of mine clean up unwanted files. When selecting the "delete file" button, the response from Vista was "are you sure you want to delete this file?" (yes/no).

After selecting yes, another response "deleting this file may cause disruption of other programs - do you want to continue?" (yes/no).

Selecting yes [again] the machine prompts yet again "this file may be a shared file - do you wish to delete it?" (yes/no)

Selecting yes again, another prompt "this file may not be recoverable if deleted - do you wish to continue?" (yes/no)

Selecting yes once again, yet another prompt "what do you want to do with this file?" (delete/save). Selecting 'delete' then deleted the file. Waaaay too many checks and balances for my liking.

I also agree with JLS on the bad publicity ... but it did cause MS to get up off their behinds and develop a new OS. It's a fierce world out there in software land.

[greatcyber]

Master K,

So true, that at least now there will be another choice. When I did have a problem with my machine getting some malware on it, I was dealing with Dell. They took control of my computer to examine it and they also installed a program called Revo Uninstaller which is available free of charge on the net. It turned out to be one of the best things to ever happen to my computer. When you use the MS OS to delete software, files and registry entries get left behind and cause the kind of things that drive you crazy and slow down the machine. All the Vista questions you mentioned about deleting files would make anyone nuts, but this Revo uninstaller will find everything that got left behind. It also manages startup programs and is easy to navigate and one click does the trick for enabling or disabling apps at startup.

My computer is working marvelously now.

[JHC]

I have Vista home premium on my new computer and the only problems I had were operator ones I find it very good

[methodistgirl]

Since I have myself restored my Explorer and fixed my flash I'm back to it.
You won't get any videos for a while until if figure it our on Windows.
Foxfire and Netscape were giving me trouble freezing up so I uninstalled
Explorer 8 and went back to 7 things are running more smoothly. I've
even gave google a try. I can get things on google tube than on you tube.
Do any of you have trouble with Mozila foxfire? I did and with Netscape.
judy tooley

[Krummhorn]

. . . installed a program called Revo Uninstaller which is available free of charge on the net. It turned out to be one of the best things to ever happen to my computer. When you use the MS OS to delete software, files and registry entries get left behind and cause the kind of things that drive you crazy and slow down the machine.

My computer is working marvelously now.

Stephen,

Wondering if there is something like that Revo for Win XP? I seem to get lots of "leftover crumbs" from deleted cookies ... all those "acrxxxx.tmp" files - hundreds of them everyday. I am having to manually delete them - having an application that would perform that task routinely would be a wonderful addition to my Dell Dimension 2400.

. . . Do any of you have trouble with Mozila foxfire? I did and with Netscape. judy tooley

Hi Judy,

I abandoned IE just for the reasons that you are experiencing of late with Firefox. IE kept locking my system up so bad that I had to do the ugly power down in order to gain control again. Netscape was a nice browser, but gave me fits with bookmarks.

My son mentioned Firefox about a year ago - I've been running it ever since and have uninstalled IE7 completely. I wouldn't touch IE8 for all the rice in China (no offense to the Chinese meant). IE has waayyy too many security features that block this site and that site - Amazingly, Firefox has 3 times the security measures that IE will ever have and yet (for me, anyway) it works better and faster than IE.

I guess each machine behaves differently .. what works for one person is a death sentence for another. Happy that IE works for you

[methodistgirl]

The only problem with Windows IE 7 is that I can't download videos so
that I can share with you guys.
judy tooley

[greatcyber]

Krummhorn,

Here is the link for the unistaller http://www.revouninstaller.com/

It works for XP. CCleaner also will help find those little nasties that are left over. Once you get the registry cleaned up and rid of those un-needed entries and it finds and deletes any files no longer needed you wind up with a happy machine once again.

Judy, why don't you give Mozilla Firefox a try? It is WAY better than IE. Google it and read up on it. It's free, of course.