Disappearing features
All I want to do is change my screen
properties... so why can't I find Display in the Settings?
Answer, because it's not in Windows Vista. Lots of other
things seem to have also gone missing in Windows dream operating
system. Want to uninstall a program through Add/Remove
Programs utility. Guess again.
It's not that these features aren't
available... somewhere. It's that in their infinite wisdom,
Microsoft decided that we'd grown tired of being able to find
things when we want them.
If you hired a maid service to come in and
clean your home and they would just move stuff around so that you
couldn't find it without telling you, how long would they stay in
your employ? "Where's my toothbrush? Oh, so you decided
it would work better if we now called it a dentifice and put it
behind the bookcase in the family room - good
thinking!" Did Microsoft actually pay someone to come
up with ideas where to hide it all?
It's a good thing that Microsoft has
included some pretty good help files, because I am betting you
will use them a lot during your first day of setting up and
configuring your computer. Remember those days when you
could just turn on your computer and start working?
Vista doesn't play well
Disappearing features are not the only
downside to Windows Vista. Vista doesn't like to play well
with others including other Microsoft products. Imagine loading up
your favorite software only to find that when you run the Help
files, you instead get a message from Microsoft about why it
doesn't work.
This is happening to a lot of programs
that have developed their applications using Microsoft's help file
creation software.
Microsoft no longer supports their own
product here and you get a popup telling you that the software is
outdated and blaming the developer of the software for not
building it with Vista in mind.
If you are like me, this will make you
pretty angry. First, after many years and broken promises as
to when they would come out with the next upgrade above XP, it was
not beyond reason to suggest that Vista might not roll out
either. What would make any software manufacturer decide
they should rewrite all their software because Microsoft might
deploy a new operating system someday?
Second, why not build in the ability to be
compatible with your own older products. This is considered
standard in the software development field.
Granted, this probably isn't a huge
problem for most people who are familiar with their old software
and never have to access the Help files, but just knowing you
can't is a bit disconcerting.
Vista log jams
In our opinion, Vista seems to have some
serious problems with stability. We haven't seen any actual
system crashes, but running programs doesn't always go as smoothly
as you might think.
Programs tend to crash a lot on Vista and
for no particular reason that the user can see. You just get
a message telling you that your program has encountered a problem
or has stopped operating and must close. It almost makes it
sound like the fault of the folks that wrote the
program.
In all fairness, it's not just other
software that this happens to. Microsoft's software also
often fails while running on Vista including Internet Explorer and
Microsoft Office.
Vista then gives you a popup box telling
you that Windows is looking for a solution with a nice little
progress bar going across your screen. Nobody seems to be
able to tell you where it's looking or if it is really looking at
all, but I tend to wonder what if anything it is telling
Microsoft. All things considered, chances are that the
reason these programs crash isn't so much the software as it is
that the software is running on Vista.
Summary
Vista took an awful lot longer to come out
than it should have, even according to Microsoft. That makes
one wonder how many problems they've had with it and whether they
just decided they finally needed to get it deployed, come what
may.
In the end, Windows Vista has many good
things going for it, but most are along the lines of bells and
whistles.
Yes, we like the faster startup and less
bogging down, but wonder if this couldn't have just been fixed in
XP.
Vista will probably end up being a fairly
decent operating system in a year when Microsoft finally manages
to work the bugs out. But in the meantime, Vista just
reminds you of that time you bought the really fancy first year
model car with all the buttons and cool gadgets, but then... well,
you remember!
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