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Common Misperceptions About Windows Vista
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Vista has received a lot of negativity since its release (from myself included), but there are a few things that you should know about Microsoft’s newest OS before diving into it.
- First off, a lot of the issues surrounding it come from people who have upgraded their older machines from XP to Vista. This is my problem, as well; I bought a computer about a year ago with a Vista compatible sticker on it and, well, Vista doesn’t work very well with my laptop. I have had issues upgrading it and, for some reason, many Explorer crashes.
- To extend on the last point, if you plan on getting Vista, you are best suited to buy a new PC with it preloaded. Vista uses a lot memory, video included, and requires an up-to-date machine. So when buying that computer, make sure you have at least two gigs of RAM.
- Vista is way more secure than XP. Vista does a hell of a good job on protecting you against viruses and spyware right out of the gate. For the two months I used Vista I had no issues whatsoever with spyware.
- Aero>Luno. The new Aero look in Vista looks years ahead of the Luna look that Windows XP uses. It is a more consistent and easier on the eye, but like XP, it still isn’t perfect. One of the most annoying things with Vista is that it uses, like, ten different fonts throughout the system.
- For the most part, it’s worth the upgrade. Like I said, if you have a new computer, it’s worth using Vista over XP with its many new benefits — but it’s still not perfect. With SP1 around the corner it’s sure to get better in some areas. Like XP it might be until SP2 before all of the major issues are worked out.
2 Comments
Christoph
March 4th, 2008
at 8:39am
You made some very good points there Matt. As far as the venerial “Vista Compatible” logo… its my thought that M$ could have saved themselves face and saved alot of people headaches if they made the installation of Vista like so, if your system dont meet the minimum system requirements it will not install, period.
It could show a nice little screen clearly informing the user what piece(s) of hardware did not pass and what recommendations can be taken.
It is possible to do, and I couldnt see it working any different than http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/referrer/srtest which is a site that scans your pc’s hardware and lets you know if you meet minimum system specs before getting that hot new game.
Mike
March 4th, 2008
at 1:48pm
I’ve run Windows XP on many machines for years now without virus issues, spyware, etc…
The reason you get these things, 99% of the time, is the simple fact that you’ve visited those less-than-reputable sites shall we say (I’m being nice to those who use the OS as an excuse for their PC infections).
It’s a known fact that most viruses originate from pornography & gambling sites as well as those peer-to-peer programs so we can all do the math on that one. Your machine doesn’t crash because you do online banking or shop at Amazon…
Bottom line: Vista can be as secure as it is out of the box but if users can disable even one feature or dial it down to where they have more access and less inconvenience what good does it do. It’s about responsible computing and if you visit questionable sites and open emails you KNOW aren’t from anyone you’ve ever sent mail to you get what you deserve.
That’s not to say that some folks don’t get hammered by the garbage out there when visiting what they assume to be good sites. But, I’ve been in the IT field over 13 years and the main reason for all these breaches and problems is: INCONVENIENCE!! Everyone wants the freedom to use a computer but doesn’t want to maintain it or protect it in the manner it requires.
Let’s not kneel before the great and powerful Vista…it’s still just an OS and only does what the user tells it to do…it cannot protect them from themselves.
Not sure why anyone would defend Vista…it may have some nice bells & whistles–so what!! So will the next desktop OS and the next and the next.
Vista is Windows Millennium all over again…just requires more costly hardware to run it…
peace!!