My thoughts on Vista

[Scott Glasgow]

I'm not all that hip on SideBar, but I can see how others would be. I was
surprised that you can drag items off of the sidebar onto the desktop where
ever you want....so perhaps with some killer sidebar apps, it could be
great.

I'd have to agree about the clock. Much better. I really like the Sidebar
feature. I downloaded the Desktop Sidebar for XP and used it a lot. Very
valuable feature. You can have your RSS feeds, clock, stocks, moon phases,
whatever on there. It's great.

Dustin Harper

I forgot to say you can drag your sidebar gadgets anywhere on the
desktop.....forgot who posted that they wished they could place a gadget
anywhere on the desktop...although they might have meant on the taskbar
area which Andre already replied to, which I agree...it would be way too
small. Besides, since the original poster mentioned the clock, I actually
like the clock in Vista as in compared to XP.

[deleted]

 

[Guest]

This is what I'd like to know, is there any way to get the operation of the
toolbars from the classic through to XP in Vista? It's really annoying how
the location of the functions have been moved to different directories and
subfiles. Is it just me or is it just easier when everything was contained in
it's original location?

I tell you, I wish I had gone for XP rather than Vista when purchasing this
computer... and don't get me started on the address bar being above the
toolbar.

 

[Guest]

What I would like is that nifty up option that you find in XP. I hate having
to scrounge around my folders to find the individual file I want to open out
of or save to because Vista has saved my previous used address.

My comments are inline below:

- "Which window is the active one?" Windows are all the same color. There is
no way to specify different colours for the active and inactive windows.

[WillowTree:Rob] There is a slight change in color, but I agree that a more
noticeable change would be nice, however, I have had no problem knowing
which is active because of the Minimize/Close icons do change color (active
with color or inactive no color).

- "Where's my program?" The first thing that I did after installing Vista
was to install the Office 2007 beta. Once the installation completed I
clicked the Start button (ball?) but didn't see anything new. So I clicked
All Programs... Not in that list either? After about 20 minutes I realized
that I had to scroll the program list. There is no way that this new Start
button is going to work for most people. The text in the list is tiny and
there STILL isn't enough room for all my programs. Move the "My Computer",
"Network", etc. list to the left side of the menu and let the right side get
big enough to hold more programs... and let the groups pop open to show more
lists.

[WillowTree:Rob] I agree that the scrolling menu is foreign and I cannot
find an option to make the menu fly-out rather than scrollable. That would
be a good option (if there is a way, please let me know ;-).

- There is ***NO*** shutdown button. Click start and you get a STANDBY
button and a LOCK this computer button. There is a tiny little button next
to these to get to the Shutdown, but I'm constantly missing it. I will
***NEVER*** lock my PC, nor use Standby. There is no way to modify these
buttons to the more useful Shutdown and Hibernate functions.

[WillowTree:Rob] Actually there is a Restart, Shutdown, etc option on the
start menu. Click the Arrow to the right of the Power Button/Lock Button.
You will see all the options. I really like this feature personally. You
can configure what the Power Button does in the Power Options in Control
Panel, just change the When I Push The Power Button option to Shutdown...

- New device detection. All you are told by Windows is that something was
found - NO indication at all if it's a Network device, soundcard,
mouse...etc. I've got a few items in my Device Mangler with the wrong
drivers installed because I didn't know what I was looking for.

[WillowTree:Rob] I didn't experience this. I found the install process
rocked. After logging in for the first time I went to Device Manager and
chose to update the devices that were not installed. I didn't have the
driver disk so I chose the Check Internet option and bang it found all the
drivers I needed. This ROCKED!!!!

- Aero... the new "glassy" interface. What is the point? First of all, being
able to see through the few pixels around the border of the window isn't
helpful at all. To make matters worse, everything under your window is
blurred beyond recognition. Also, the placement of the Minimize, Maximize
and Close buttons is just plain ugly. Looks like someone goofed. No border
above and a thick chunk of border below. They are also all different sizes
as well. UGLY.

[WillowTree:Rob] I have to TOTALLY disagree with you on this. This ROCKS!!!
You can see just enough to know what is under (it is not intended to read
your news paper through...). This and the new thumbnails when hovering over
the taskbar are awesome GUI enhancements.

- How many Network icons do we need in the Control Panel??? Network Center,
iSCSI, Firewall, Network Map, Network List, Network File & Printer
sharing... Why can't these all be within a SINGLE Network icon?

[WillowTree:Rob] I like things broken up so I can go directly to what I am
looking for rather than digging through interface after interface looking
for something. Not sure where you are coming from here... Also, if you
want one Icon, which to the new style and stay away from the classic view...

- Drive Mapping... How is it done? I don't have a menu bar on any of my
Explorer windows. Right clicking on a network resource doesn't give me the
Map Network Drive option.

[WillowTree:Rob] That is a good questions. I know I have seen it in there,
but you would think you could right click the folder and say map drive...

- The User Account Control is annoying. I can understand why it's there, but
the Windows Help doesn't tell you how to disable it.

[WillowTree:Rob] I agree, the user management needs some work still, built
then this is B2.

- You can't specify where you want your Gadgets. Gadgets have to be
installed on a bar, and they are top/left justified. Move them down and they
will just slide back up. On my XP system I have a nice clock that runs in
the bottom right corner of my desktop. There is no way to put the Vista
clock gadget into the lower right corner of my desktop.

[WillowTree:Rob] I had no problem placing my gadgets as far as stacking
order. My only complaint is that the right pain where gadgets are only
shows the vertical line on hover. I would like it to just be there...


....and some of the things I like about Vista...

- Gadgets. Definately an improvement from XP. They just need to get rid of
the requirement of installing them onto a "bar". I want to decide where to
put my gadgets, not have Windows stack them up in a pile.

[WillowTree:Rob] This would be nice.

- Operation seems smoother and more responsive than XP.

[WillowTree:Rob] I agree!

- Media Center has improved a bit. I don't have any TV tuners, so I can't
tell if recording has improved or if multiple sources are supported.

[WillowTree:Rob] I have not used these features yet.


....all in all, I don't see enough improvement to go through the trouble of
working through the poor user interface changes. I'd suggest that folks
stick with XP until Vista has been out a year or two.

[WillowTree:Rob] I love Vista. I have decided (we will see if I live to
regret this) to install it on my primary system (my laptop). I cannot
imagine going back to XP and Office 2k3. If Beta 3 is this stable I plan to
dog-food it throughout our organization (MS, let me know if there is an
official channel for this).

[WillowTree:Rob] All in all I really like the system, here are some of my
favorite improvements:

1) Thumbs when hovering over Taskbar items
2) The new "Personal Folders" implementation (My Docs, Downloads, etc)
3) The way the address bar works, it is a dynamic menu, even when connecting
to a networked non-Vista system (\\system\share)
4) IE 7 Plus and Media Player 11 also rock!

Heck, I even like the little image at the top of the start menu... ;-)

Things I don't like (not already mentioned above):

1) I would like to make the desktop icons smaller

Best Regards,

Robert J Collins MCSE, MCSE+I
Chairman, CEO, and President
WillowTree Software, Inc.
http://www.willowtreesoftware.com/
Cell: 208.353.6211
Fax: 208.672.1931

Well... I've had a chance to play with build 5384.4. Thought I'd share my
thoughts on the next incarnation of Windows.

I've been using PC's since the CP/M days. I've used OS/2. Tried BEOS and
Linux. I've done desktop support and have been a programmer. Suffices to
say that I've used MANY different computers and many different operating
systems.

The system I'm using is an Opteron 165 (dual core @ 1.8Ghz) based system
with the nVidia nForce4 chipset. 1 gig of memory and an eVGA 7600GT PCIe
video card.

Here's my list of issues that I have with Vista. It's not a complete list,
but enough to let you know what to watch for when you switch to Vista.

- "Which window is the active one?" Windows are all the same color. There
is no way to specify different colours for the active and inactive
windows.

- "Where's my program?" The first thing that I did after installing Vista
was to install the Office 2007 beta. Once the installation completed I
clicked the Start button (ball?) but didn't see anything new. So I clicked
All Programs... Not in that list either? After about 20 minutes I
realized that I had to scroll the program list. There is no way that this
new Start button is going to work for most people. The text in the list is
tiny and there STILL isn't enough room for all my programs. Move the "My
Computer", "Network", etc. list to the left side of the menu and let the
right side get big enough to hold more programs... and let the groups pop
open to show more lists.

- There is ***NO*** shutdown button. Click start and you get a STANDBY
button and a LOCK this computer button. There is a tiny little button next
to these to get to the Shutdown, but I'm constantly missing it. I will
***NEVER*** lock my PC, nor use Standby. There is no way to modify these
buttons to the more useful Shutdown and Hibernate functions.

- New device detection. All you are told by Windows is that something was
found - NO indication at all if it's a Network device, soundcard,
mouse...etc. I've got a few items in my Device Mangler with the wrong
drivers installed because I didn't know what I was looking for.

- Aero... the new "glassy" interface. What is the point? First of all,
being able to see through the few pixels around the border of the window
isn't helpful at all. To make matters worse, everything under your window
is blurred beyond recognition. Also, the placement of the Minimize,
Maximize and Close buttons is just plain ugly. Looks like someone goofed.
No border above and a thick chunk of border below. They are also all
different sizes as well. UGLY.

- How many Network icons do we need in the Control Panel??? Network
Center, iSCSI, Firewall, Network Map, Network List, Network File & Printer
sharing... Why can't these all be within a SINGLE Network icon?

- Drive Mapping... How is it done? I don't have a menu bar on any of my
Explorer windows. Right clicking on a network resource doesn't give me the
Map Network Drive option.

- The User Account Control is annoying. I can understand why it's there,
but the Windows Help doesn't tell you how to disable it.

- You can't specify where you want your Gadgets. Gadgets have to be
installed on a bar, and they are top/left justified. Move them down and
they will just slide back up. On my XP system I have a nice clock that
runs in the bottom right corner of my desktop. There is no way to put the
Vista clock gadget into the lower right corner of my desktop.


...and some of the things I like about Vista...

- Gadgets. Definately an improvement from XP. They just need to get rid of
the requirement of installing them onto a "bar". I want to decide where to
put my gadgets, not have Windows stack them up in a pile.

- Operation seems smoother and more responsive than XP.

- Media Center has improved a bit. I don't have any TV tuners, so I can't
tell if recording has improved or if multiple sources are supported.


...all in all, I don't see enough improvement to go through the trouble of
working through the poor user interface changes. I'd suggest that folks
stick with XP until Vista has been out a year or two.

 

[Leythos]

What I would like is that nifty up option that you find in XP. I hate having
to scrounge around my folders to find the individual file I want to open out
of or save to because Vista has saved my previous used address.

XP already does this - and if you like the additional method that vista
provides you can download it for XP from MS directly.

 

[Debra Lichtenwalner]

I like the gadgets on the right, but in playing around with them I have
discovered that if you right click on the gadgets you can select move and
then move them anywhere on your desktop they do not have to stay to the
right. I do not know though if they will stay where you put them once you
close down and then restart, or if it only holds the "move" for the duration
of that period you are using the computer.

What I would like is that nifty up option that you find in XP. I hate having
to scrounge around my folders to find the individual file I want to open out
of or save to because Vista has saved my previous used address.

My comments are inline below:

- "Which window is the active one?" Windows are all the same color. There is
no way to specify different colours for the active and inactive windows.

[WillowTree:Rob] There is a slight change in color, but I agree that a more
noticeable change would be nice, however, I have had no problem knowing
which is active because of the Minimize/Close icons do change color (active
with color or inactive no color).

- "Where's my program?" The first thing that I did after installing Vista
was to install the Office 2007 beta. Once the installation completed I
clicked the Start button (ball?) but didn't see anything new. So I clicked
All Programs... Not in that list either? After about 20 minutes I realized
that I had to scroll the program list. There is no way that this new Start
button is going to work for most people. The text in the list is tiny and
there STILL isn't enough room for all my programs. Move the "My Computer",
"Network", etc. list to the left side of the menu and let the right side get
big enough to hold more programs... and let the groups pop open to show more
lists.

[WillowTree:Rob] I agree that the scrolling menu is foreign and I cannot
find an option to make the menu fly-out rather than scrollable. That would
be a good option (if there is a way, please let me know ;-).

- There is ***NO*** shutdown button. Click start and you get a STANDBY
button and a LOCK this computer button. There is a tiny little button next
to these to get to the Shutdown, but I'm constantly missing it. I will
***NEVER*** lock my PC, nor use Standby. There is no way to modify these
buttons to the more useful Shutdown and Hibernate functions.

[WillowTree:Rob] Actually there is a Restart, Shutdown, etc option on the
start menu. Click the Arrow to the right of the Power Button/Lock Button.
You will see all the options. I really like this feature personally. You
can configure what the Power Button does in the Power Options in Control
Panel, just change the When I Push The Power Button option to Shutdown...

- New device detection. All you are told by Windows is that something was
found - NO indication at all if it's a Network device, soundcard,
mouse...etc. I've got a few items in my Device Mangler with the wrong
drivers installed because I didn't know what I was looking for.

[WillowTree:Rob] I didn't experience this. I found the install process
rocked. After logging in for the first time I went to Device Manager and
chose to update the devices that were not installed. I didn't have the
driver disk so I chose the Check Internet option and bang it found all the
drivers I needed. This ROCKED!!!!

- Aero... the new "glassy" interface. What is the point? First of all, being
able to see through the few pixels around the border of the window isn't
helpful at all. To make matters worse, everything under your window is
blurred beyond recognition. Also, the placement of the Minimize, Maximize
and Close buttons is just plain ugly. Looks like someone goofed. No border
above and a thick chunk of border below. They are also all different sizes
as well. UGLY.

[WillowTree:Rob] I have to TOTALLY disagree with you on this. This ROCKS!!!
You can see just enough to know what is under (it is not intended to read
your news paper through...). This and the new thumbnails when hovering over
the taskbar are awesome GUI enhancements.

- How many Network icons do we need in the Control Panel??? Network Center,
iSCSI, Firewall, Network Map, Network List, Network File & Printer
sharing... Why can't these all be within a SINGLE Network icon?

[WillowTree:Rob] I like things broken up so I can go directly to what I am
looking for rather than digging through interface after interface looking
for something. Not sure where you are coming from here... Also, if you
want one Icon, which to the new style and stay away from the classic view...

- Drive Mapping... How is it done? I don't have a menu bar on any of my
Explorer windows. Right clicking on a network resource doesn't give me the
Map Network Drive option.

[WillowTree:Rob] That is a good questions. I know I have seen it in there,
but you would think you could right click the folder and say map drive...

- The User Account Control is annoying. I can understand why it's there, but
the Windows Help doesn't tell you how to disable it.

[WillowTree:Rob] I agree, the user management needs some work still, built
then this is B2.

- You can't specify where you want your Gadgets. Gadgets have to be
installed on a bar, and they are top/left justified. Move them down and they
will just slide back up. On my XP system I have a nice clock that runs in
the bottom right corner of my desktop. There is no way to put the Vista
clock gadget into the lower right corner of my desktop.

[WillowTree:Rob] I had no problem placing my gadgets as far as stacking
order. My only complaint is that the right pain where gadgets are only
shows the vertical line on hover. I would like it to just be there...


....and some of the things I like about Vista...

- Gadgets. Definately an improvement from XP. They just need to get rid of
the requirement of installing them onto a "bar". I want to decide where to
put my gadgets, not have Windows stack them up in a pile.

[WillowTree:Rob] This would be nice.

- Operation seems smoother and more responsive than XP.

[WillowTree:Rob] I agree!

- Media Center has improved a bit. I don't have any TV tuners, so I can't
tell if recording has improved or if multiple sources are supported.

[WillowTree:Rob] I have not used these features yet.


....all in all, I don't see enough improvement to go through the trouble of
working through the poor user interface changes. I'd suggest that folks
stick with XP until Vista has been out a year or two.

[WillowTree:Rob] I love Vista. I have decided (we will see if I live to
regret this) to install it on my primary system (my laptop). I cannot
imagine going back to XP and Office 2k3. If Beta 3 is this stable I plan to
dog-food it throughout our organization (MS, let me know if there is an
official channel for this).

[WillowTree:Rob] All in all I really like the system, here are some of my
favorite improvements:

1) Thumbs when hovering over Taskbar items
2) The new "Personal Folders" implementation (My Docs, Downloads, etc)
3) The way the address bar works, it is a dynamic menu, even when connecting
to a networked non-Vista system (\\system\share)
4) IE 7 Plus and Media Player 11 also rock!

Heck, I even like the little image at the top of the start menu... ;-)

Things I don't like (not already mentioned above):

1) I would like to make the desktop icons smaller

Best Regards,

Robert J Collins MCSE, MCSE+I
Chairman, CEO, and President
WillowTree Software, Inc.
http://www.willowtreesoftware.com/
Cell: 208.353.6211
Fax: 208.672.1931

Well... I've had a chance to play with build 5384.4. Thought I'd share my
thoughts on the next incarnation of Windows.

I've been using PC's since the CP/M days. I've used OS/2. Tried BEOS and
Linux. I've done desktop support and have been a programmer. Suffices to
say that I've used MANY different computers and many different operating
systems.

The system I'm using is an Opteron 165 (dual core @ 1.8Ghz) based system
with the nVidia nForce4 chipset. 1 gig of memory and an eVGA 7600GT PCIe
video card.

Here's my list of issues that I have with Vista. It's not a complete list,
but enough to let you know what to watch for when you switch to Vista.

- "Which window is the active one?" Windows are all the same color. There
is no way to specify different colours for the active and inactive
windows.

- "Where's my program?" The first thing that I did after installing Vista
was to install the Office 2007 beta. Once the installation completed I
clicked the Start button (ball?) but didn't see anything new. So I clicked
All Programs... Not in that list either? After about 20 minutes I
realized that I had to scroll the program list. There is no way that this
new Start button is going to work for most people. The text in the list is
tiny and there STILL isn't enough room for all my programs. Move the "My
Computer", "Network", etc. list to the left side of the menu and let the
right side get big enough to hold more programs... and let the groups pop
open to show more lists.

- There is ***NO*** shutdown button. Click start and you get a STANDBY
button and a LOCK this computer button. There is a tiny little button next
to these to get to the Shutdown, but I'm constantly missing it. I will
***NEVER*** lock my PC, nor use Standby. There is no way to modify these
buttons to the more useful Shutdown and Hibernate functions.

- New device detection. All you are told by Windows is that something was
found - NO indication at all if it's a Network device, soundcard,
mouse...etc. I've got a few items in my Device Mangler with the wrong
drivers installed because I didn't know what I was looking for.

- Aero... the new "glassy" interface. What is the point? First of all,
being able to see through the few pixels around the border of the window
isn't helpful at all. To make matters worse, everything under your window
is blurred beyond recognition. Also, the placement of the Minimize,
Maximize and Close buttons is just plain ugly. Looks like someone goofed.
No border above and a thick chunk of border below. They are also all
different sizes as well. UGLY.

- How many Network icons do we need in the Control Panel??? Network
Center, iSCSI, Firewall, Network Map, Network List, Network File & Printer
sharing... Why can't these all be within a SINGLE Network icon?

- Drive Mapping... How is it done? I don't have a menu bar on any of my
Explorer windows. Right clicking on a network resource doesn't give me the
Map Network Drive option.

- The User Account Control is annoying. I can understand why it's there,
but the Windows Help doesn't tell you how to disable it.

- You can't specify where you want your Gadgets. Gadgets have to be
installed on a bar, and they are top/left justified. Move them down and
they will just slide back up. On my XP system I have a nice clock that
runs in the bottom right corner of my desktop. There is no way to put the
Vista clock gadget into the lower right corner of my desktop.


...and some of the things I like about Vista...

- Gadgets. Definately an improvement from XP. They just need to get rid of
the requirement of installing them onto a "bar". I want to decide where to
put my gadgets, not have Windows stack them up in a pile.

- Operation seems smoother and more responsive than XP.

- Media Center has improved a bit. I don't have any TV tuners, so I can't
tell if recording has improved or if multiple sources are supported.


...all in all, I don't see enough improvement to go through the trouble of
working through the poor user interface changes. I'd suggest that folks
stick with XP until Vista has been out a year or two.

 

[Dave Cox]

[WillowTree:Rob] I agree that the scrolling menu is foreign and I
cannot

Use the classic start menu (right click the start button select
properties)


You have the option to use the Classic view your use to or the new
Aero desktop.


You can put Gadgets where ever you want just drag them to your desktop
they do not need to stay in the sidebar



The poor user interface is strickly an opinion and that is very valid
for him, I personally love the new interface.
But, I definately agree if your not use to change, willing to learn a
new OS or wanting to upgrade existing hardware....Now is not the time
for you to upgrade.

You can......Personalization (right click desktop) select windows color
and appearance|advanced|item|scroll to Icon then select desired size.

Hope this helps
Dave


--
Want to waste your breath?

Join my Plonk club and hang out with other memebers like:

Adam Albright
Doris Day
Ray

 

[Dave Cox]

You can......Personalization (right click desktop) select windows
color and appearance|advanced|item|scroll to Icon then select
desired size.

Oops that is Open classic appearance properties for more color
options. NOT Select windows color and appearance

Sorry I was in classic view when I made the first post lol

--
Want to waste your breath?

Join my Plonk club and hang out with other memebers like:

Adam Albright
Doris Day
Ray

 

[Richard Urban]

You would have really been thrown through a loop when cars initially
switched from manual transmissions to the original semi-automatics.
Everything was different.

It is called change. Don't be afraid of it. Embrace it and learn it. If you
have trouble with this just imagine the problems you would have if you
wanted to switch to Linsux.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!

This is what I'd like to know, is there any way to get the operation of
the
toolbars from the classic through to XP in Vista? It's really annoying how
the location of the functions have been moved to different directories and
subfiles. Is it just me or is it just easier when everything was contained
in
it's original location?

I tell you, I wish I had gone for XP rather than Vista when purchasing
this
computer... and don't get me started on the address bar being above the
toolbar.

Contextual menus is available anywhere in Explorer, certain areas such as
the toolbar does not support context menus though.
--
--
Andre
Windows Connected | http://www.windowsconnected.com
Extended64 | http://www.extended64.com
Blog | http://www.extended64.com/blogs/andre
http://spaces.msn.com/members/adacosta

Andre Da Costa [Extended64] wrote:

* Open an Explorer window > click Organize > Layout > click "Classic
Menus" > click Tools > Map Network Drive...

That's hardly intuitive, and the new Explorer just doesn't seem right
with
the "Classic Menu" enabled. I'd be interested to know if enabling this
menu will also enable the right-click functions too, as this was very
useful in earlier o/s.

 

[Retired]

Richard, I agree that change is to be expected and has to be dealt with, but
you loose credibility when you mock some other OS ("Linsux"). Why do that?
Linux was not even mentioned in this thread.

Regards

 

[ordinarysoft]

Hi,

Don't use Classic style, use start menu replacement -
http://www.vistastartmenu.com

It's almost like classic style but much useful.

 

[Franksta]

In Windows Explorer, you can press the "alt" button and that should give you
same options as pre-Vista. Does that help? once you get used to the way that
it works now, it's actually quite a bit faster. I generally don't use
Explorer anymore, just use the start menu search feature to find what I
want. I only use explorer now if I need to compare multiple files and other
activities that require multiple files at once.

Hope that helps.

What I would like is that nifty up option that you find in XP. I hate
having
to scrounge around my folders to find the individual file I want to open
out
of or save to because Vista has saved my previous used address.

My comments are inline below:

- "Which window is the active one?" Windows are all the same color. There
is
no way to specify different colours for the active and inactive windows.

[WillowTree:Rob] There is a slight change in color, but I agree that a
more
noticeable change would be nice, however, I have had no problem knowing
which is active because of the Minimize/Close icons do change color
(active
with color or inactive no color).

- "Where's my program?" The first thing that I did after installing Vista
was to install the Office 2007 beta. Once the installation completed I
clicked the Start button (ball?) but didn't see anything new. So I
clicked
All Programs... Not in that list either? After about 20 minutes I
realized
that I had to scroll the program list. There is no way that this new
Start
button is going to work for most people. The text in the list is tiny and
there STILL isn't enough room for all my programs. Move the "My
Computer",
"Network", etc. list to the left side of the menu and let the right side
get
big enough to hold more programs... and let the groups pop open to show
more
lists.

[WillowTree:Rob] I agree that the scrolling menu is foreign and I cannot
find an option to make the menu fly-out rather than scrollable. That
would
be a good option (if there is a way, please let me know ;-).

- There is ***NO*** shutdown button. Click start and you get a STANDBY
button and a LOCK this computer button. There is a tiny little button
next
to these to get to the Shutdown, but I'm constantly missing it. I will
***NEVER*** lock my PC, nor use Standby. There is no way to modify these
buttons to the more useful Shutdown and Hibernate functions.

[WillowTree:Rob] Actually there is a Restart, Shutdown, etc option on the
start menu. Click the Arrow to the right of the Power Button/Lock
Button.
You will see all the options. I really like this feature personally.
You
can configure what the Power Button does in the Power Options in Control
Panel, just change the When I Push The Power Button option to Shutdown...

- New device detection. All you are told by Windows is that something was
found - NO indication at all if it's a Network device, soundcard,
mouse...etc. I've got a few items in my Device Mangler with the wrong
drivers installed because I didn't know what I was looking for.

[WillowTree:Rob] I didn't experience this. I found the install process
rocked. After logging in for the first time I went to Device Manager and
chose to update the devices that were not installed. I didn't have the
driver disk so I chose the Check Internet option and bang it found all
the
drivers I needed. This ROCKED!!!!

- Aero... the new "glassy" interface. What is the point? First of all,
being
able to see through the few pixels around the border of the window isn't
helpful at all. To make matters worse, everything under your window is
blurred beyond recognition. Also, the placement of the Minimize, Maximize
and Close buttons is just plain ugly. Looks like someone goofed. No
border
above and a thick chunk of border below. They are also all different
sizes
as well. UGLY.

[WillowTree:Rob] I have to TOTALLY disagree with you on this. This
ROCKS!!!
You can see just enough to know what is under (it is not intended to read
your news paper through...). This and the new thumbnails when hovering
over
the taskbar are awesome GUI enhancements.

- How many Network icons do we need in the Control Panel??? Network
Center,
iSCSI, Firewall, Network Map, Network List, Network File & Printer
sharing... Why can't these all be within a SINGLE Network icon?

[WillowTree:Rob] I like things broken up so I can go directly to what I
am
looking for rather than digging through interface after interface looking
for something. Not sure where you are coming from here... Also, if you
want one Icon, which to the new style and stay away from the classic
view...

- Drive Mapping... How is it done? I don't have a menu bar on any of my
Explorer windows. Right clicking on a network resource doesn't give me
the
Map Network Drive option.

[WillowTree:Rob] That is a good questions. I know I have seen it in
there,
but you would think you could right click the folder and say map drive...

- The User Account Control is annoying. I can understand why it's there,
but
the Windows Help doesn't tell you how to disable it.

[WillowTree:Rob] I agree, the user management needs some work still,
built
then this is B2.

- You can't specify where you want your Gadgets. Gadgets have to be
installed on a bar, and they are top/left justified. Move them down and
they
will just slide back up. On my XP system I have a nice clock that runs in
the bottom right corner of my desktop. There is no way to put the Vista
clock gadget into the lower right corner of my desktop.

[WillowTree:Rob] I had no problem placing my gadgets as far as stacking
order. My only complaint is that the right pain where gadgets are only
shows the vertical line on hover. I would like it to just be there...


....and some of the things I like about Vista...

- Gadgets. Definately an improvement from XP. They just need to get rid
of
the requirement of installing them onto a "bar". I want to decide where
to
put my gadgets, not have Windows stack them up in a pile.

[WillowTree:Rob] This would be nice.

- Operation seems smoother and more responsive than XP.

[WillowTree:Rob] I agree!

- Media Center has improved a bit. I don't have any TV tuners, so I can't
tell if recording has improved or if multiple sources are supported.

[WillowTree:Rob] I have not used these features yet.


....all in all, I don't see enough improvement to go through the trouble
of
working through the poor user interface changes. I'd suggest that folks
stick with XP until Vista has been out a year or two.

[WillowTree:Rob] I love Vista. I have decided (we will see if I live to
regret this) to install it on my primary system (my laptop). I cannot
imagine going back to XP and Office 2k3. If Beta 3 is this stable I plan
to
dog-food it throughout our organization (MS, let me know if there is an
official channel for this).

[WillowTree:Rob] All in all I really like the system, here are some of my
favorite improvements:

1) Thumbs when hovering over Taskbar items
2) The new "Personal Folders" implementation (My Docs, Downloads, etc)
3) The way the address bar works, it is a dynamic menu, even when
connecting
to a networked non-Vista system (\\system\share)
4) IE 7 Plus and Media Player 11 also rock!

Heck, I even like the little image at the top of the start menu... ;-)

Things I don't like (not already mentioned above):

1) I would like to make the desktop icons smaller

Best Regards,

Robert J Collins MCSE, MCSE+I
Chairman, CEO, and President
WillowTree Software, Inc.
http://www.willowtreesoftware.com/
Cell: 208.353.6211
Fax: 208.672.1931

Well... I've had a chance to play with build 5384.4. Thought I'd share
my
thoughts on the next incarnation of Windows.

I've been using PC's since the CP/M days. I've used OS/2. Tried BEOS
and
Linux. I've done desktop support and have been a programmer. Suffices
to
say that I've used MANY different computers and many different
operating
systems.

The system I'm using is an Opteron 165 (dual core @ 1.8Ghz) based
system
with the nVidia nForce4 chipset. 1 gig of memory and an eVGA 7600GT
PCIe
video card.

Here's my list of issues that I have with Vista. It's not a complete
list,
but enough to let you know what to watch for when you switch to Vista.

- "Which window is the active one?" Windows are all the same color.
There
is no way to specify different colours for the active and inactive
windows.

- "Where's my program?" The first thing that I did after installing
Vista
was to install the Office 2007 beta. Once the installation completed I
clicked the Start button (ball?) but didn't see anything new. So I
clicked
All Programs... Not in that list either? After about 20 minutes I
realized that I had to scroll the program list. There is no way that
this
new Start button is going to work for most people. The text in the list
is
tiny and there STILL isn't enough room for all my programs. Move the
"My
Computer", "Network", etc. list to the left side of the menu and let
the
right side get big enough to hold more programs... and let the groups
pop
open to show more lists.

- There is ***NO*** shutdown button. Click start and you get a STANDBY
button and a LOCK this computer button. There is a tiny little button
next
to these to get to the Shutdown, but I'm constantly missing it. I will
***NEVER*** lock my PC, nor use Standby. There is no way to modify
these
buttons to the more useful Shutdown and Hibernate functions.

- New device detection. All you are told by Windows is that something
was
found - NO indication at all if it's a Network device, soundcard,
mouse...etc. I've got a few items in my Device Mangler with the wrong
drivers installed because I didn't know what I was looking for.

- Aero... the new "glassy" interface. What is the point? First of all,
being able to see through the few pixels around the border of the
window
isn't helpful at all. To make matters worse, everything under your
window
is blurred beyond recognition. Also, the placement of the Minimize,
Maximize and Close buttons is just plain ugly. Looks like someone
goofed.
No border above and a thick chunk of border below. They are also all
different sizes as well. UGLY.

- How many Network icons do we need in the Control Panel??? Network
Center, iSCSI, Firewall, Network Map, Network List, Network File &
Printer
sharing... Why can't these all be within a SINGLE Network icon?

- Drive Mapping... How is it done? I don't have a menu bar on any of my
Explorer windows. Right clicking on a network resource doesn't give me
the
Map Network Drive option.

- The User Account Control is annoying. I can understand why it's
there,
but the Windows Help doesn't tell you how to disable it.

- You can't specify where you want your Gadgets. Gadgets have to be
installed on a bar, and they are top/left justified. Move them down and
they will just slide back up. On my XP system I have a nice clock that
runs in the bottom right corner of my desktop. There is no way to put
the
Vista clock gadget into the lower right corner of my desktop.


...and some of the things I like about Vista...

- Gadgets. Definately an improvement from XP. They just need to get rid
of
the requirement of installing them onto a "bar". I want to decide where
to
put my gadgets, not have Windows stack them up in a pile.

- Operation seems smoother and more responsive than XP.

- Media Center has improved a bit. I don't have any TV tuners, so I
can't
tell if recording has improved or if multiple sources are supported.


...all in all, I don't see enough improvement to go through the trouble
of
working through the poor user interface changes. I'd suggest that folks
stick with XP until Vista has been out a year or two.

 

[Rock]

I see you are spamming in here now.

 

[Former captain of the Enterprise]

the information is useful

please stop netcoping

 

[Roy Coorne]

the information is useful

please stop netcoping
Netcopping?

 

[Former captain of the Enterprise]

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Netcop

 

[Rock]

the information is useful

please stop netcoping

He's a spammer. He has been posting this to anyone in the XP newsgroups who
asks any question about the Start menu in XP. He never offers any
assistance on any topic other than to solicit someone to buy his product.
That is spamming. I will call it and label it as it is.

This newsgroup and the other MS newsgroups are for helping people with their
issues; it's not about promoting your own products.

 

[Former captain of the Enterprise]

I am sure he is not a spammer...

he is a nice and helpful guy...

I know this from personal experience..

I sent him once a comment on a typo on his web page,
and he sent me a serial key for free for his product...as a gesture of
kindness.

I appreciated that, since I did not expect that.

he also has a free version...

Now this seems to me like a nice guy.. go pick on someone else...

its ok to talk about his product.. its not that he will get rich as much as
bill gates with it,
and it might help people who don't like the vista start menu, and I must
assure you that there are many
that absolutely hate the way the vista start menu is, and don't like the
classic either...

giving them an option is not spam, having in mind that he also has a free
version!

so stop being a netcop.. lol

 

[Rock]

I am sure he is not a spammer...

he is a nice and helpful guy...

I know this from personal experience..

I sent him once a comment on a typo on his web page,
and he sent me a serial key for free for his product...as a gesture of
kindness.

I appreciated that, since I did not expect that.

he also has a free version...

Now this seems to me like a nice guy.. go pick on someone else...

its ok to talk about his product.. its not that he will get rich as much
as bill gates with it,
and it might help people who don't like the vista start menu, and I must
assure you that there are many
that absolutely hate the way the vista start menu is, and don't like the
classic either...

giving them an option is not spam, having in mind that he also has a free
version!

so stop being a netcop.. lol

If the product only came in a free version I might see it differently, but
that's not the case. If he spent time helping out, answering a variety of
questions and only occasionally recommended his product in appropriate cases
I might see it differently.

But he doesn't. He offers no assistance other than to refer others to his
website where he can potentially get a sale. Whether he replied to you or
not or gave you a freebie (does marketing come to mind? ) doesn't change
this fact. He is soliciting for his own benefit, to increase traffic to his
site, in the hopes of a sale. If that weren't his intention then there
would be no pay version.

I have never seen him offer any assistance on any topic other than to post a
link to his product. In the threads he replies to he never tries to help
the OP with their issue, even if it can be solved, he never gives the OP any
options, his only response is a link to his product.

I see this as spamming.

If you object to what you characterize as being a "netcop" (and I don't see
it that way) then you might want to take your own advice, eh?

 

[mikeyhsd]

would you point us to the news announcement from MS promoting you to be NEWS MASTER.
I do not ever remember seeing one.
so bug off.



(e-mail address removed)

I am sure he is not a spammer...

he is a nice and helpful guy...

I know this from personal experience..

I sent him once a comment on a typo on his web page,
and he sent me a serial key for free for his product...as a gesture of
kindness.

I appreciated that, since I did not expect that.

he also has a free version...

Now this seems to me like a nice guy.. go pick on someone else...

its ok to talk about his product.. its not that he will get rich as much
as bill gates with it,
and it might help people who don't like the vista start menu, and I must
assure you that there are many
that absolutely hate the way the vista start menu is, and don't like the
classic either...

giving them an option is not spam, having in mind that he also has a free
version!

so stop being a netcop.. lol

If the product only came in a free version I might see it differently, but
that's not the case. If he spent time helping out, answering a variety of
questions and only occasionally recommended his product in appropriate cases
I might see it differently.

But he doesn't. He offers no assistance other than to refer others to his
website where he can potentially get a sale. Whether he replied to you or
not or gave you a freebie (does marketing come to mind? ) doesn't change
this fact. He is soliciting for his own benefit, to increase traffic to his
site, in the hopes of a sale. If that weren't his intention then there
would be no pay version.

I have never seen him offer any assistance on any topic other than to post a
link to his product. In the threads he replies to he never tries to help
the OP with their issue, even if it can be solved, he never gives the OP any
options, his only response is a link to his product.

I see this as spamming.

If you object to what you characterize as being a "netcop" (and I don't see
it that way) then you might want to take your own advice, eh?

 

[Adam Albright]

would you point us to the news announcement from MS promoting you to be NEWS MASTER.
I do not ever remember seeing one.
so bug off.

Tell us your mommy's email address so we can contact her directly
every time you act like a spoiled little brat, so she can change your
diapers or whatever else is causing you to bawl.