DISQUS

Jack Bling · 2 years ago

This is sad, on all these forums there are people, claiming technical expertise, as well as extensive knowledge of vista. I have installed vista on literally thousands of PC's, under many varied hardware configurations. The only issues that i have encountered, outside of issues with SLI and early 8800 errors, that are consistent, and can reasonably be blamed on ms are as follows: issues with trustedinstaller.exe due to an auto update issue with media player, slow network transfer(as well as local disk transfers). As far as program compatibility, Vista supports every piece of software from 95 and up in compatibility mode.
Every other issue i have seen has been strictly 3rd party driver related. This was the same thing that happened with xp, its popular to bash MS, and as for you mac fans....grow a brain, its just a pc, no difference, just a much higher markup on parts, and a tiny bit of code to allow mac os, a weak OS full of security flaws no one cares to exploit. Put another dollar in steve jobs pocket, get your macbook, and when you power it up and get online, take a look at apples profit, profit = markup. You are not getting a good deal if the company is making huge profit. Dell sells PC's at a loss, they lose money on every system shipped and make it up in warranty sells.
Learn before spreading FUD, and in two years when you are still trying to squeeze the last bit of life from 32bit xp, you will be missing out on the key elements that make vista the power house it is, a la dx10, better memory management, not to mention a highly stable, highly recoverable OS.
Do yourselves a favor, when you encounter a problem, google it, learn instead of spreading ignorance. There are many wonderful guides online. I hope eventually people stop moaning about UAC, the whole purpose is to have one admin with multiple users(running limited accounts), if they need administrative access it can be temporarily granted using UAC.....if you are a single user of the system and have enough of a brain to spell UAC, TURN IT OFF.

StevenHodson · 2 years ago

I got hauled over the coals when I posted to the engadget post regarding Vista being a disappointmnet. One person even said I had no clue as to what I was doing. Since I first encountered this problem I have been checking forums, blog posts and regular searches. I have tried pretty well all the fixes that have been suggested and finished up by installing the RC of the service pack - to no avail.

Which is too bad because I do like Vista even with all its bloat and heaviness on eye candy.

Thanks for stopping by Jack and adding your 2 cents.

me · 2 years ago

"Put another dollar in steve jobs pocket, get your macbook, and when you power it up and get online, take a look at apples profit, profit = markup."

What about Microsoft's mark up? It's even worse. Like you said "You are not getting a good deal if the company is making huge profit."

jackbling · 2 years ago

anyone who pays the 500 some odd dollars for a retail vista copy needs to do some research, vista can be owned legitimately, in oem form, for under 140 dollars, for ultimate(which honestly is crazy overkill for average user, premium is as high as most should go, and you can find that for about 89 buks).

StevenHodson · 2 years ago

That might be the case if you live in the US, are online savvy and/or have a credit card. There are those of us that do not live in the US and as such we get jacked in the prices. Also for anyone who doesn't have a credit card 99% of the on-line shopping experience isn't available.

Arni · 2 years ago

And anyone who spouts such nonsense should pull his head our of his American ass, and do a bit of research of his own..... preferably some geography. There are other places outside of America, and I should count myself LUCKY to be able to get a legit Vista Ultimate for only $500.

I find comments like yours to be arrogant and stink of American superiority, but then again, I may just be overly sensitive about having to pay $700 to get a legit OS that's broken and doesn't work properly, and then having people tell me that I simply need to do "some research"

Lifetron · 1 year ago

"Vista supports every piece of software from 95 and up in compatibility mode."
That is just blatantly false. The compatibility issues are almost unbelievable in Vista, whether it's in "compatibility mode" or otherwise. Microsoft makes no such claim, in fact there is a seemingly infinite list of applications not compatible with Vista. Do your homework.

Lee · 2 years ago

This is one of the main reasons I dumped Vista pretty much from the outset. Microsoft needs to fix this blooper ASAP!

StevenHodson · 2 years ago

I will say this .. they sure did improve the copy and move between drives on the same machine. Prior to this copy and move between partions on the same drive were okay but between drives on the same machine was a pain in the ass.

Rich · 2 years ago

Honestly, Vista is the best thing to ever happen to Linux and MacOS.

I have a monster laptop for work - it's an HP nw9440 workstation with 4GB of RAM, 2.16 GHz dual core - because I do a significant amount of work with virtual machines in my job as a systems architect.

With XP it was blazingly fast and nice as any MS product can be. Under Vista with HPs most up to date drivers it is a painfully, pitifully slow, worthless piece of crap.

I thought about "upgrading" back to XP, but the entire situation just pissed me off. The largest software manufacturer in the world, with billions in resources and tens of thousands of employees managed to screw up their own frickin' flagship OS so bad as to render it basically unusable for real work.

So, with the permission of the boss, I have switched my core OS to Ubuntu 7.10 and couldn't be happier. I run a XP VM for the things that I can't run under Linux, but I have found that list to be vanishingly short since I usually remote into Windows boxes to work anyway.

I'm working on getting a MacBook Pro, but the boss might draw the line at that. In the meantime, I've removed all MS OS's from all of my home computers except the wife. She's holding out for a MacBook :^)

Alfa · 2 years ago

I have never had the problem you described... I have been using Vista Business for several months on a Pavilion laptop and never had problems copying files to an XP machine.

StevenHodson · 2 years ago

Well I tell you what since I installed Vista (clean install) I had nothing but problems as I described in the post. This evening I rolled back to XP and under the same circumstances it 40 seconds to move a file over the network to the other machine.

Wham Bam thank you madam - it was done.

40 seconds .. and Vista couldn't do even 39,000 days.

Tom W · 2 years ago

I do have 15+ solid years of experience in I.T. and much of it was spent working with MS-DOS and WIndows based PCs. Guess what. Today, all of my home computers (desktops and laptop) are Macs. People like "Jack Bling" will always be out there, trying to make themselves feel good about their loyalty to Microsoft-centric systems. But the fact is - Microsoft is rapidly heading down the proverbial toilet, while Apple has been on a meteoric rise.

Yes, current Mac hardware uses Intel processors and is essentially "the same" as any other PC hardware. The difference is, you get the superior OS X operating system bundled with it. It's not even legal to install OS X on anything that's not real Mac hardware. The two are supposed to be purchased as a hardware/software combo (which isn't SO different from what Microsoft already does anyway with these OEM Windows licenses you can't legally separate from whichever PC they came with).

If I buy a Dell, I get crappy phone support from India or Romania, and 45 minutes on hold just to do the "song and dance" of unplugging the PC, plugging it back in, telling the "tech" on the phone that yes, a green light does still come on when I press the power button, etc. etc. - before I can even RMA a bad monitor or something. With Apple, they're consistently top-rated for their level of customer service and satisfaction. Yes, I've had things go bad on my Macbook Pro. But it was handled in 10 minutes on the phone, and the repaired machine was shipped off, repaired, and returned in under 48 hours total! Apple even went above and beyond what was required, replacing a loose display hinge that wasn't covered as a "warranty" item to begin with.

And all in all, the Apple computers I've owned are ALL built to better standards than any other Windows PCs I've used, barring perhaps a "server class PC". The "fit and finish" is above-average, and attention was paid to all the details. (EG. Slot loading DVD drives on laptops so you have no annoying tray that slides out and can break off or get in your way on a cramped desk.)

Lastly, if I really feel the *need* for Windows (XP or Vista), the current Mac OS X version lets me dual-boot into either of them on my Mac anyway! So far, except for a few games though, I avoid doing that. OS X is just far more pleasant to use.

satisfiedcustomer/donthitme · 2 years ago

If you have 15+ years experience in the IT biz, why are you calling support hotlines for help? The problem for me is that with Mac I get a software/hardware combo. I want to have total control of what hardware is in my PC, not a couple of bundles to choose from. If I were to choose between a Dell and and Mac, I would probably go with the Mac. But the freedom of hardware control cant be beaten. And there is a lot of programs that are not released for Mac or are released late that I use, even obscure little things on the net that one can fall over that are for Windows only, Id hate to be limited becuase of vanity (the Mac design that seems to be a draw for many people).

The way I see it, WinXP was pretty much useless too when it was first released, people were ranting about how Win2K was superior. Microsoft will get the OS together at some point.

Better confess that I am running Vista on my desktop and my tablet PC with no problems (except for at few BSoD here and there, but I get those on XP aswell), and im very pleased with the OS overall.

Magpie_over_the_pond · 2 years ago

I have a question for Steven Hodson. Looking at your screen shots I noticed that the windows are Mac not Windows. Could you explain why it looks like you are trying to copy files with a Vista OS on a Mac computer.

StevenHodson · 2 years ago

ever hear of WindowBlinds by Stardock?

http://www.stardock.com/products/windowblinds/

Magpie_over_the_pond · 1 year ago

That explains that part and I appreciate the answer. But if you want to show screen shots keep it au natural since to be taken seriously it should not present confusing information.

I still have not run into the situation as you have described but at least it is something to be aware of.

Good work.

thekid · 1 year ago

lol funny i have had no prob with vista it is ok!!!

Digi Dave · 1 year ago

Here is a short blog concerning the error error0x800f0826 that crops up regularly with this update

f · 1 year ago

fuck off