Windows Vista

I purchased a new Dell computer about 2 weeks ago for my job and it came with Windows Vista. Granted, had I wanted, I’m sure I could have ordered a system with Windows XP but I figured, “Hey, why not embrace the future instead of lingering in the past?” After all, Windows XP will eventually go by the wayside as with all the previous versions of Windows.

I’m usually hesitant about using a new OS when it’s still new in the market but when I first turned it on, the system wooed me with its Aero interface. Finally after six different versions of Windows, Microsoft has made one with an aesthetically pleasing graphical interface. In fact, it reminds me more of a Mac’s OS than anything else. Granted, Windows still hasn’t caught up to Mac in that regard, but they’re finally getting closer.

After the coolness of the Aero interface wore off, and I started using the system, the real fun began. The first thing I noticed is that Windows Explorer (the file explorer—not Internet Explorer) would crash every so often (so much for stability). Users in the Microsoft forums are all up in arms over the issue and apparently it’s caused by unknown file types from certain applications. I have noticed that mine always seems to crash when I go to a directory with Adobe Illustrator files. You would think that after 12 years of development, Microsoft’s file explorer could display a simple file list without crashing.

Because Microsoft recognizes their faults now days, they have a built-in manager for Vista that tells you how many problems it actually does have. It’s quite nice seeing as you can keep track of all the crashes, freezes, and other problems Vista has. Perhaps Microsoft built this to save users from writing down each problem they have with Vista. ;) The screen shot below is taken from my actual computer. To see the full list, click on the image.

That was the first bump. The second got even better. I have dozens of QuickTime files that I use regularly on my system for video work. Imagine my surprise when the latest version of QuickTime wouldn’t play a single quicktime movie file. Quicktime would open, but when I opened a quicktime movie in Quicktime, it would freeze the entire system for about 2 minutes before Vista would come back and say, “buffer overrun.” Lot’s of fun. As of this writing, Apple knows Vista is a little funny from users’ feedback, but no solution has yet been published. Microsoft admits compatibility issues, but, of course, that’s Apple’s fault.

Since last week I have installed dozens of applications that I own and used on Windows XP. I could honestly say that a third of them either don’t work or are crippled with Vista. Compatibility is a big issue with Vista. It’s still too new and third party application developers haven’t had time to rewrite their programs to work with it. So I sit here and patiently wait for new versions of various programs to come out. I have been using Windows since version 3.1 and I must say that this is the first time I’ve had such a problem with compatibility with programs written for the previous version. Vista is none too forgiving.

Besides the compatibility issues, I have an annoyance to report. It seems like every action I take on my computer, it wants me to confirm it. Every program I open, every time I install something, every time I open admin preferences, Vista wants me to “Allow” or “Cancel” the action. It gets extremely annoying, taking me twice as long to do things as I now have to tell Vista every time that “YES!!! I want to open this file or otherwise I wouldn’t be clicking on it!!” In fact, Apple made a commercial accentuating this annoying new ‘security feature.’

To those who are considering upgrading to Vista: wait. Wait until you have no other choice or at least until the software programs you use have been updated to work with Vista and Microsoft takes care of all its bugs and internal program errors.

• Posted Tuesday April 17, 2007