Question Asked: What Are The Five Best And Worst Things About Vista?

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Aug 13th, 2008

Great question. I’m assuming you’re someone who’s considering upgrading to Vista in the near future, and are scared of doing it.  I was in the same boat, until back in August when I decided to buy a new computer, and got one that happened to have Vista on it.

Don’t worry, it’s not as bad as you’ve read.  Think back to when you upgraded from Windows ME or Windows 2000, to Windows XP.  It was the same thing, people were afraid of change, afraid that the upgrade would wipe their hard drive and delete years worth of stuff.  Leave that worrying to the PC experts.

But, in order to answer your question, I’m going to have answer it as someone with technical knowledge.  The list I create will probably be different than a list that say my mom would create.  For example, things that I think are a bad feature, my mom might like.  Anyway, onto the list:

Five Best Things About Vista:

  1. The instant search – When you click the Start button, there’s a search box right there.  You can start typing the name of a document, file, or application, and get instant search results right there, without having to do anything special.  I wish Windows XP had this, for when I’m at work.
  2. Live Thumbnails – When you put your mouse over an application that’s running, but minimized, you can get a live preview of what’s going on in that window.  Hardly a useful feature, but it’s pretty cool, especially when watching TV on your PC, and you have to minimize it for something, but want to still get a tiny preview.
  3. Windows Media Center – A simple connection to a cable outlet, and voila, you’ve got TV on your PC.  I use this all the time when I’m at the computer.  Mainly because I can’t work without some form of background noise.  Any channel that you get on cable, you’ll get on your PC.  However, I don’t know if it works with HD or not, I’ve never tried. (It should be noted that your PC needs to have a TV Capture card in order to use the live TV/DVR features.  If you don’t have one, they’re pretty cheap these days.)
  4. Windows Flip 3D – If you use the Aero theme, and often change between applications a lot, you’ll get to see the super cool Flip 3D.  It’s based on the live preview bit, and shows you a large view of each application you’ve got open, and lets you flip through them with either your keyboard left/right keys, or your mouse.
  5. Security – While Vista isn’t 100% secure (what computer is?), it’s taken great strides and improvements over Windows XP in a number of areas.  While that may be great for people concerned with security, and those that know how to override it to do simple things (like sharing music libraries, maybe?), it can be a bit tricky for people like… well, my mom.

Five Worst Things About Vista:

  1. User Permissions settings – I’m set as an administrator on my machine, which means I should be able to run any application I choose, and install any application I choose.  But, some applications are still troublesome.  Also the, “Are you sure you want to run this program” prompts get really tiring.
  2. Drive compatibility – I didn’t have much trouble (not as much as some people have, according to what I’ve read), but I did have to buy a new printer because my old one wouldn’t work on Vista.  My iPod, cell phone (Blackberry), and other devices have had no issues, though.
  3. The Windows Sidebar – I realize you can disable this feature without very much trouble.  While I like having the weather and sports scores right on my desktop, the widgets (and application itself) use too much RAM, and slow down most computers that are sold with barely enough RAM to power Vista.  If you’ve upgraded RAM to 6 or more gigs (I have 32), you can run most things without issue.  If not, kill the sidebar to free up a bunch of RAM.
  4. The Aero Theme vs. the Basic theme – I like(d) the Aero theme, until recently.  Some of the older applications I run switch the system automatically to the basic theme, without prompting.  Vista simply says “An application you’ve opened isn’t compatible with the current theme.  Windows has switched to the basic theme.”  I don’t understand why, but it doesn’t matter.  I perminantly switched to the basic theme, which is less system intense anyway.
  5. The change to where things are – A lot of things have been moved around as far as controls and navigation, not to mention looking completely different.  My biggest pet peeve was that the “Add and Remove Programs” option in the Control Panel is gone.  Now you have to go to “Programs and Features” to uninstall an application. The first time I used Vista, I also used quite a bit of profanity.

Overall, Vista’s not nearly as bad as people have made it out to be. It’s got its quirks, as any new operating system does, but you’ll adjust.  My only recommendation is that if you’re going with Vista, upgrade your RAM.  I know Dell sells “Vista Ready” computers with 1 Gig of RAM, which is not enough.  If you plan on doing anything intense with the computer (video editing, graphic design, photo management, etc.) you need at least 4 gigs of RAM, and should probably immediately go with the 64-bit version of Vista, so you don’t have to upgrade down the road.  By default, Windows Vista only supprts up to 4 Gigs of RAM on a 32-bit operating system.  If you want more than 4 Gigs, you need to wipe your hard drive, and install the 64-bit version of Vista (Which means you have to go buy it for a few hundred bucks.)  Buying the PC with 64-bit Vista will save you that money down the road, when you want more RAM. And trust me, you will want more RAM.

Hope that answers your question.  If you’ve got more specific questions about the differences between 32-bit and 64-bit Vista, or why you need more RAM, feel free to Ask.

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One Response to “What Are The Five Best And Worst Things About Vista?”

  1. David Says:
    February 23rd, 2009 at 10:01 am

    Mate, you have THIRTY-TWO GIGS of ram. Don’t think you need to worry about anything using too much.

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