Difficulties and Suggestions about Vista

[Guest]

This post is not neant to criticize, after all this is a beta. However,
before I take Vista off my machine, I wanted to pass along what I found
difficult about the current state of the OS. These comments are more intended
for Microsoft staff than general members of the group.

1. User account control: In it's current iteration, I believe this will be
turned off immediately by most users. Especially vexing is the repeated
questions about programs that load at startup; for example, logitech keyboard
and mouse drivers and ezarmor security. This caused the time to boot to a
usable OS to hit an astronomical 4-5 minutes!

2. Windows firewall was still blocking programs after it had been turned
off. It apparently blocked me from uploading to Flikr, even though I had
turned it off.

3. The Poker gadget caused lots of problems, including an error message
about Windows having trouble with the gadget that showed up on every shutdown.

4. I hate the fact that I can't alternately boot to a Win XP drive on
startup. Might be my fault for not carefully setting up the dual boot. The
whole dual boot thing seems to need work.

5. The default programs setup is a joke. Nobody will bve able to figure out
how to use this and all it will do is get people complaining to the DOJ.

6. More wireless network card drivers should be included with the OS. Just a
suggestion if it can be worked out with the manufacturers. I did find it
amusing that the Microsoft network card (MN-710) could only be gotten from an
update AFTER the machine was online.

7. Cntl-Alt-Del does not always function and programs that are told to
shutdown do not always do so. Hey...it's a beta.

8. The Firefox plugin finder, while trying to install a Flash extension,
killed the OS resulting in a reboot.

9. Various other small problems resulted in restart after restart.

10. I had lots of problems with my wireless mouse and keyboard (Loditech
DiNovo and MX1000). The problems began at install, where I had to break out
an old wired mouse and keyboard. After installation, the OS still failed to
recognize the mouse and I had to switch to an MX900.

My general impression is that Vista looks nice and makes some improvements
over XP, but it still needs a lot of work. The new security features are
mostly irritating in their current implementation. The new explorer is very
nice and easy to navigate. I'm looking forward to the next beta or RC.

One final comment: there are rumors about different versionbs and pricing,
and I think there are too many versions and that the rumored price of
Ultimate will turn customers off.


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http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/co...dbf&dg=microsoft.public.windows.vista.general

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

Please forward to MS via the feedback link. This is not a managed newsgroup
and there is little likelihood that your thoughts will reach MS here.

 

[Zack Uribe]

Everyone is entitled to their opinions....thanks for sharing yours.

1) Yes, UAC as default is tricky at best. Even when "toned down"/disabled I
have run into MANY annoyances. Particularly deleting files from an earlier
Windows Installation.
2) I have not run into that, but not saying you are wrong.
3) I have not had any problems with the Poker game in x86..well accept that
I lost to often..just like real poker.
4) I expect install/upgrade/dual boot, etc will undergo major changes from
here on out. This build was feature complete, not necessarily feature
correct. ;-)
5) Have not looked athe default program setup...isn't it the same thing that
they had to add to XP due to (one of the many) monopoly settlements?
6) Actually this is determined by the manufacturer of the hardware. When I
worked at a major player in the digital webcam market we had LONG
discussions wether having our driver ship with Windows was worth the legal
contract needed to sign to be included on the disk. Another issue is timing,
if you don't have a driver available when they freeze the disk, you and your
customers are out of luck. I expect there will be tons more by the time
Vista ships(if the driver model does not change)
7) Have not run into that issue.
8) Sounds like your app(Firefox) was able to get farther into the OS than it
was supposed to. It is a tough line, if they follow the rules, they often
get stuck by UAC or other security issues(kinda like having to install apps
as admin)
9) I have never had a reboot issue during basic Windows tasks. I have had
Oblivion freeze 3 times in over 40 hours of gameplay.
10) I am luckily using a Microsoft Mouse-Keyboard combo..but since it is
recognized as a standard USB HID device (or HID compliant consumer control
device) it has no special drivers to cause trouble.

I have not heard any other pricing suggestions besides similar to Xp with
Ultimate(being an amazing bundle of stuff) being much higher. Ultimate is
not meant for the average consumer...it is meant for the techno who buys a
new machine every year or so, or upgrades every component every couple of
months.