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============== Vista: First Impressions
After much gnashing of teeth, I was selected to perform the test install of Windows Vista for VCC. So, here is the good, bad and ugly for the experience:
Good: By far the best-looking interface yet. It really is a huge leap forward in looks. If you enable all the visual gizmos it has a transparent look that makes the screen look deep rather than the flat screen you are used to.
In addition, once you get used to them, Microsoft has moved many items into more logical places, so that managing much of the operating system is easier, quicker and more intuitive than before. And it is fast. Somehow it manages the tasks so that when you click on most things the response is nearly instantaneous.
There are some interesting and useful toys added to Vista. My favorite is ReadyBoost. If you have a USB drive, you can allocate a portion of it to be used by the system. Vista will then save system files to the flash drive and use them for booting and restarting programs rather than accessing the hard drive. USB drives are much faster than hard drives, so this speeds things up considerably. Ideally you'd like to allocate as much memory on the USB drive as you have in the system, so you'll probably want a 4 gig USB drive -- and you need a better-quality drive as well. Pay attention to the refresh rate. The faster the better -- and some slower drives won't work at all, so avoid the $10 close-outs. With a 4 gig drive you can give the operating system 2 gigs and use the other 2 gigs for yourself. If you need to use the flash drive to move files, you can disconnect it without harming your session. Vista will just go back to using the slower hard drives. There are new hard drives coming that are combo flash and hard drives to speed things up. Vista uses ReadyBoost for these drives as well.
Vista also has a gadget bar, by default on the right side of the screen, where you can add lots of little tools. It comes installed with a clock, calendar and scrolling news. You can delete any of these and add tons of other gadgets as well. I have one that monitors my mail server so I'll know the minute it goes down, another that tells me how fast my Internet connection is and a third that has the Run command box so I can type in a program and have it start up. I can get to the same thing by clicking on the Start button (it's a graphic and doesn't say "Start" any more), but it's faster on the desktop.
Bad: Microsoft has improved security in Vista. I suppose this is good, but installing programs and adjusting things to the way you like to work is hugely more difficult than it used to be. Almost every time you want to install or make changes you are presented with a bunch of little windows that say, "Are you really sure you want to do this dangerous and not-recommended thing?" Yeah, like I really want to run Windows with no programs installed.
All new operating systems have their frustrations. You have to learn new ways of doing things and familiar tools are moved to new locations you have to find and relearn. But Vista has deliberately tucked some of the stuff I frequently use into nearly inaccessible locations -- in the name of security. I like to add programs I use frequently to the "Send To" list so that I can right click on a data file and open it with the program of my choice. So, I went to the Users folder (replaced the Documents & Settings folder on XP) and attempted to click on the Send To folder. "Access denied." I couldn't play with permissions to get into it, either. A check on the Internet got me in. I had to insert a cryptic address into Internet Explorer and it let me in. Now, how in the world is that an improvement? And I still don't know how to make a program start up when the computer turns on. There is a control to eliminate and restore startup programs, but no way to add a new program to the list. There undoubtedly is a way, but not having it in the startup dialog box is just not acceptable.
Ugly: Some programs simply won't work with Vista. The security checks Microsoft has built in simply prevent many programs from being installed no matter what you do. Other programs will install but not until you jump through more hoops than any human should have to endure. And we are still learning how to defeat the security procedures to make programs run correctly. We have customers who are ordering computers with XP rather than Vista because their mission-critical software won't run on Vista. The developers of software are working non-stop to get things working properly, but apparently it isn't all that easy.
Some companies are using the Vista problems to force users to upgrade before they'd otherwise do so. Intuit, for example, has no intention of making QuickBooks 2004 work with Vista and 2005 has some ugly work-arounds that won't be fixed, either. This means that you need either 2006 or 2007 to make it work. At $200 a copy for QuickBooks, lots of companies that run 5 copies of QuickBooks are loathe to shell out $1,000 every year or two for accounting software. Rick and I really don't want to buy three copies of 2007. 2004 does everything we want. There is no functional advantage to upgrading other than making it work with Vista.
You need lots of RAM. Two gigs is the minimum we recommend. Unfortunately the maximum you can install is about 3 gig. The address space that your video card and other hardware use has to be mapped into the 4 gig address space that 32-bit operating systems can address, so in a typical installation you have a maximum of 3.12 gigs of available RAM. For some applications, that won't be enough. There is a workaround that will allow you to have more RAM, but it slows everything down. If you have an application that needs more than 3 gig of RAM, you probably will have to switch to the 64 bit Windows Vista -- if your application will run in 64 bits. Unfortunately, not much runs in 64 bits yet.
============== Rick's Rant: Trials and Tribulations of a new Windows
To VISTA: or not to VISTA: That is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune by staying with my current OS,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles and upgrade, And by opposing end them.
I couldn't have said it better myself. Here we go again with another major change in our universe. Microsoft Corp. has released yet another version of its Windows operating system. Touted as the biggest and the best yet! Well, certainly the biggest as now it won't fit on an ordinary CD anymore but needs a DVD to hold its bulk. Not only that, but you will probably also need a hardware upgrade to enjoy peak performance of your precious PC. Oh, happy day for VCC, VISTA County Computers. That's right! We're changing our name in honor of Microsoft for all the money we will make turning everyone toward Windows VISTA. I've already ordered lots of RAM, bigger hard drives and plenty of dual core processors to handle the load of the most bloated software of all time. Not only has everyone in Redmond given up trying to write efficient code, but every other software vendor has, too! I recently installed QuickBooks 2007 on my father's computer, and it slowed it to a crawl. It upgraded an 18Mb data file and turned it instantly into 36MB. The memory consumed by the program was 118,000k. That's the equivalent of a whole 128MB RAM chip for one stupid program. I had to go in and turn off almost every builtin function to get the computer to run properly. This is the nature of the software beast. It is always hungry and is never satisfied. It needs an ever increasing supply of resources to feed its need. Don't make it angry, just keep trotting down to VISTA County Computers with fistfuls of dollars, and we will help you keep your software happy. The good news is hardware is continuing its trend of getting better, faster, smaller and cheaper. So for the sacrifice of skipping a few dozen trips to McDonald's you can purchase an AMD 5200+ X2 CPU for $249 and might actually see an increase in performance despite all the new software. So come on down and get VISTA'D Up! I'll be happy to help.
On another VISTA note: We have been cranking out a lot of new PCs lately, and mostly the experience has been without incident, except for a CIPCUG member known as "Trapper." I installed Office 2003, and every time you opened Outlook it asked you to agree to the licensing terms. That alone was a nuisance, but every time you clicked on new e-mail it came up also. We finally had to uninstall the program and reinstall it with "run as administrator privileges" to make it go away. This is Microsoft's own software.
Can you imagine what's going to happen with all the other stuff? We can't wait. Lots of business for us figuring out everything. But still, it might be wise to visit some of the Web sites of your favorite programs just to check on compatibility issues. I called our Symantec reps and had to be referred to their software engineers to find out if pcANYWHERE will run on VISTA. It won't, and no one at the company knows when it will.
I finally found a small list of supported software. I'm sure they'll catch up soon as all their engineers in India are getting lots of overtime rupees. We still haven't installed our copies of Office 2007 yet so I'll have to report on that later. It seems Microsoft keeps coming out with stuff that I don't really need so it's hard to get too worked up about it.
Last of the VISTA notes - well, almost! I ordered a bunch of copies of VISTA and when they came into the office I noticed they were 64 bit. For those of you who don't know, 64 bit operating systems are available and the hardware will support them but there is really no software to run on it. If all you need is Windows and Office you're there but that's about it. So upon realizing my blunder I immediately called my distributor to return/exchange the unopened product. When I ordered it, there was nothing in the description to differentiate it from the more popular 32 bit versions unless you clicked on the details link. Deceptive at best. I was informed that as of yesterday they changed their policy because Microsoft will not allow any returns of OEM product. I just flushed $500 down the storm drain. I called almost anyone who would listen, spent many hours and sent bunches of emails. Microsoft would not even return my e-mails. Ask our editor what I wanted to really title my article and write about this month. However, I received a very stern no. Censorship rules the day at the TOE. Finally I contacted Microsoft Returns and for $30 each I can send each one back and exchange it as an end user. So much for dealer support from Microsoft. Let's just end it saying I'm having a hard time deciding who I like better, Microsoft or Intuit.
Nonetheless, CIPCUG is upgrading its SIG PC to VISTA. VISTA County Computers is supplying the copy of VISTA Business, and we will be upgrading the hardware as well. If any of the membership is interested I will do the hardware and software upgrade as a SIG on March 27 at 6 p.m. (yes, I know that's an early start, but we may need it). I think we can get it all done in one shot and, who knows, you might even walk away felling brave enough to try it yourself.
============== CIPCUG Notice
You don't have to be a member of CIPCUG to subscribe to this E-letter, but we do make a short notice of upcoming events.
This Saturday, March 24, CyberDefender will be here to demonstrate their free spyware and virus removal tools.
April 28: Smart Computing will be here to talk about their excellent magazine, give away free subscriptions and talk about computing.
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