Microsoft Windows Vista................. A Beta touted as an RTM

[Guest]

I am very disappointed with Vista's hardware compatibility. I have had the
unfortunate priviledge of installing quite a few Vista machines and the
outcome in most cases is a lesson in pain.

Anyway, I like many thousands on the WWW have the unfortunate "Finishing
Installation" lockup on about 20% OF MY "Vista Ready" machines whereas you
installation just about finishes, then locks up on the final step which leads
you to force shutdown as I have left it in that state for over 24 hours to no
avail. During the restart, unlike XP, Vista does not pick up where it left
off, instead it fails and rolls back to where you started or asks you to
re-install if a clean install was run. I have had this happen in about 30% of
the 40+ installs I personally have completed and I think it's appaling. As a
scary joke, I showed others that Windows ME installs more consistantly than
Vista. Interestingly ME can complete it's install on any of the machines
Vista fails on, XP and 2000 as well.

If you Google around, you'll see thousands of links with users having the
same problem. My opinion is both the driver sets and WinPE for Vista are not
ready for prime time. Microsoft should have swallowed hard and extended the
release date another 6 months instead of releasing the beta as if it was the
finished product ready for release. Even more disturbing is Microsoft doesn't
have a solution to this problem as users out there having these issue end up
abandoning Vista for your superior XP builds or sometimes getting lucky
removing the offending PCI-E video card or SATA drive, ironically users
including myself have better results on Vista with legacy AGP video and
IDE-based HD's. Just as a note I have switched and changed many hardware
pieces helping some complete install and some not. My point is that Vista
shouldn't be this much of a burden for users to install, in fact it should be
easier to install than XP, yet it's not by a long shot.

My question is "What's going on?" I have many clients interested in pursuing
Vista. While I could offer them Vista, I currently don't as I am insecure in
Vista's ability to install on computers and do not think it's wise risking my
career and reputation suggesting this product until the Vista DVD media build
is updated to fix these trivial issues. At this point any media versioned
"RTM" or current Retail does not work reliably which leads me to believe
Vista was rushed to release and the "RTM" versioned DVD is actually the
Release Candidate and not the "RTM" as labeled.

 

[Papa]

I am very disappointed with Vista's hardware compatibility. I have had the
unfortunate priviledge of installing quite a few Vista machines and the
outcome in most cases is a lesson in pain.

Anyway, I like many thousands on the WWW have the unfortunate "Finishing
Installation" lockup on about 20% OF MY "Vista Ready" machines whereas you
installation just about finishes, then locks up on the final step which
leads
you to force shutdown as I have left it in that state for over 24 hours to
no
avail. During the restart, unlike XP, Vista does not pick up where it left
off, instead it fails and rolls back to where you started or asks you to
re-install if a clean install was run. I have had this happen in about 30%
of
the 40+ installs I personally have completed and I think it's appaling. As
a
scary joke, I showed others that Windows ME installs more consistantly
than
Vista. Interestingly ME can complete it's install on any of the machines
Vista fails on, XP and 2000 as well.

If you Google around, you'll see thousands of links with users having the
same problem. My opinion is both the driver sets and WinPE for Vista are
not
ready for prime time. Microsoft should have swallowed hard and extended
the
release date another 6 months instead of releasing the beta as if it was
the
finished product ready for release. Even more disturbing is Microsoft
doesn't
have a solution to this problem as users out there having these issue end
up
abandoning Vista for your superior XP builds or sometimes getting lucky
removing the offending PCI-E video card or SATA drive, ironically users
including myself have better results on Vista with legacy AGP video and
IDE-based HD's. Just as a note I have switched and changed many hardware
pieces helping some complete install and some not. My point is that Vista
shouldn't be this much of a burden for users to install, in fact it should
be
easier to install than XP, yet it's not by a long shot.

My question is "What's going on?" I have many clients interested in
pursuing
Vista. While I could offer them Vista, I currently don't as I am insecure
in
Vista's ability to install on computers and do not think it's wise risking
my
career and reputation suggesting this product until the Vista DVD media
build
is updated to fix these trivial issues. At this point any media versioned
"RTM" or current Retail does not work reliably which leads me to believe
Vista was rushed to release and the "RTM" versioned DVD is actually the
Release Candidate and not the "RTM" as labeled.

I know where you are coming from. A major computer retailer here in central
Ohio tells me that they are going through the same turmoil. Vista is just
not a good match for some up-to-date brand new machines - and it is
definitely not a good match for a large number of machines that are two or
three years old.

Aside from that, the user interface is way too different from XP. Almost
every normal, everyday procedure is done in a slightly different way. That
just ruins office efficiency. I can visualize confused office staff members
calling up the IT department to ask "How do you do this?", "How do you do
that?". The real work is therefore delayed.

 

[Gordon Keenan]

Aside from that, the user interface is way too different from XP. Almost
every normal, everyday procedure is done in a slightly different way. That
just ruins office efficiency. I can visualize confused office staff
members calling up the IT department to ask "How do you do this?", "How do
you do that?". The real work is therefore delayed.

Has to be said that this is the statement that every IT support person is
now discussing.
I have been trying to find out when anyone will be giving serious thought to
installing Vista in the business and at the moment everyone is saying "Not
until XP is unavailable". I too am saying this to clients as well when they
ask if they should upgrade to Vista.

Don't get me wrong, I find the O.S. quite interesting but that's on a
personal note, but for making my life a support misery then I really will be
sticking to XP for all my clients for as long as I can.

 

[D. Spencer Hines]

Sounds Quite Intelligent & Sensible...

Well Stated.

DSH

Lux et Veritas et Libertas

Fortem Posce Animum

 

[Guest]

To each his own... I've installed Vista on several machines now and haven't
had many hardware problems at all. And to be fair, there are thousands of
people who have trouble getting XP set up. Why on earth would you be foolish
enough to believe that an installation would take 24hrs? Try checking for
hardware compatibility BEFORE you start an install!

 

[Guest]

To each his own... I've installed Vista on several machines now and haven't
had many hardware problems at all. And to be fair, there are thousands of
people who have trouble getting XP set up. Why on earth would you be foolish
enough to believe that an installation would take 24hrs? Try checking for
hardware compatibility BEFORE you start an install!

He was hoping it would complete so he left it for 24 hours.
I have personally read several post in these groups of upgrades taking 40+
hours

 

[Papa]

Good point, but in the business world the user doesn't always make upgrade
decisions.