Windows Vista - What Do We Really Think?

After using Windows Vista over the last few months, we really think Microsoft's going to have a hard sell here. We cannot imagine those currently using Windows XP rushing out to upgrade to Windows Vista. In fact, if we didn't have to keep up-to-date with Windows for our business, we probably wouldn't be excited at all about the upgrade. Compare this to a few years ago when we liked the beta of Windows XP so much we used it instead of Windows 98/ME. The XP Beta was that much better than anything that had come before it.

But, Vista is different. For one thing it replaces an operating system, that, despite its flaws, still performs well. We like Windows XP and were it not necessary for us to keep current with Windows, we would continue using Windows XP.

Why? Windows Vista doesn't have any of those "gotta have" features like Windows XP did. Just the fact that XP was many times more stable than its predecessors and was based on the NT kernel - instead of the 9x kernel was a huge reason for consumers to upgrade.

What about Vista though? It's more secure, but we're not sure that the majority of Windows users are going to want to trade convenience and ease-of-use of Windows XP for the extra security of Vista. Vista comes overloaded with "security" features; but it's not clear whether this is being done for users or for Microsoft itself. Microsoft has been the whipping-boy of  security experts for years - so it seems to us that this change from user-friendliness and convenience to sometimes overblown and definitely-not-user-friend security features (some like UAC - User Account Control are absolutely annoying) is being done to improve the image of Microsoft and not for the benefit of its users.

Microsoft, long a target of anti-trust lawsuits, packs Vista with a lot of Microsoft software like Windows Defender. Windows Defender is an anti-spyware suite that started as Microsoft Anti-spyware. Windows Defender is so watered-down and so useless we never recommended it to begin with. You're still going to need a decent anti-spyware program like SpySweeper or Spyware Doctor plus another anti-spyware program to assist you in recognizing adware/spyware and keeping it off your Vista machine. Microsoft seems to go easy on known spyware and adware developers if those particular developers happen to be big advertisers on Microsoft's MSN network. FunWebProducts, for example, is not detected by Windows Defender, but is detected by Computer Associate's Pest Patrol, Spyware Doctor (PC Tools), SpySweeper (Webroot), Spybot Search & Destroy (free from Safer Networking) and many other main stream anti-spyware programs. While the FunWebProducts suite is not spyware it is adware and a browser and search engine hijacker and manipulator. In addition, it's a software bundle that contains (as of this writing) 14 dubious programs - that when installed all start with Windows. Definitely not a good thing to have. It's our opinion that Windows Defender is soft on FunWebProducts because its parent company IAC (Ask.com) is a huge advertiser on MSN. Coincidence? Maybe; but we doubt it.

The best feature of Vista isn't even really a feature - it's a "look". The "Aeroglass" GUI is indeed cool, but it's not necessary. Yes, Vista looks cool - it sort of looks like Apple computers. Hmmm, why did it take Microsoft so long just to catch up with Apple? Why is Microsoft copying Apple? It seems to us that Microsoft should be leading the way not following others. But "Aeroglass" appears to be "borrowed" from Apple. When you come to think of it, the idea for Windows itself is borrowed from Apple.

Vista's Aeroglass GUI - click to see full size image.

We don't foresee many people that will be willing to fork over $100.00 or so just to make their computer look cool. Besides, the minimum requirements for Vista are not so minimum and we think they're understated. It's seems that Microsoft is trying to boost the hardware and new PC market too.

Here's what we think are the 'real' minimum requirements you'll need to run Vista and have the least problems with it and get the most out of it:

1. At least a 1.8gHz Pentium IV processor
2. At least 1 gigabyte of RAM; 2 gigabytes of RAM is strongly recommended.
3. At least a 128MB high-end graphics card (or 256MB mid-range card)
4. At least a 160GB hard drive (Vista itself will require 30GB to install and run properly)
5. A broadband Internet connection

While some of you might have computers running Windows XP which meet these requirements, most of you don't. And we can tell you from our experience - you'll not get much out of Vista if you try running it with the "minimum" requirements as listed by Microsoft. Microsoft understated the requirements for running Windows XP which resulted in computer manufacturers releasing a plethora of models that shipped with 128MB of RAM - which in our opinion was never enough to run Windows XP properly. We always suggested a minimum of 512. So, we have literally hundreds of thousands of XP users still chugging along on the machines they bought when XP first came out - running 128MB of RAM and experiencing the normal problems which always result from low memory issues - crashing and freezing programs, poor performance, and annoying error messages.

What other new features does Vista have that we like (besides the "cool" graphics)? We like the scrolling menu (see above) which will keep the start menu/all programs menu from sprawling across the entire screen. Vista includes much improved backup and drive imaging features but these are not nearly so good as Norton Ghost (yes, Ghost is one Norton program we actually like - probably because they bought it from someone else). We wouldn't rely on Windows Vista's built-in backup feature with our data but that's up to each individual user. But, at least it comes with a backup feature that is much easier to access and use than any other Windows backup feature included with any previous version of Windows.

And, Vista's Search Feature is outstanding. Must faster than Windows XP's rather clunky and oh!-so-slow search feature. Microsoft is finally getting the search thing right. But, if you're using Windows XP you can get the same fast search results by installing Google Search (free) or MSN Search (be careful with MSN search though - if you install it be sure you don't allow it to set your home page to MSN, your default search engine to MSN and don't install the MSN toolbar either :)).

We'll be honest here. When we do these reports for you, we really don't like leaving Windows XP to boot into Vista. We're not impressed. And if we didn't have to upgrade when Vista is ready next year, we probably wouldn't. Now that's the first time we've ever said that about an MS operating system since they came out with the biggest dud of all: Windows ME.

But, we'll be fair. We're still months and months away from the final version of Windows Vista and a lot can change in that time. We have heard rumors that Microsoft is planning on rewriting up to 60% of the code for Vista. This, of course, could bring about huge changes in Vista. We'll have to wait and see.

Just for now though, we think Microsoft is going to have a hard sell here. We don't see many satisfied Windows XP users flocking to the store to buy Windows Vista upgrade and spending $100.00 or more on eye-candy and better security at the expense of convenience (and a great deal more annoyance). Microsoft will sell millions of copies of Vista even if no current XP users upgraded because all new computers built after Vista is released will, of course, have Vista pre-installed.

In short, we're disappointed. As excited as we were with Windows XP and its betas, we are just that disappointed in Windows Vista at this point. Take that with a grain of salt: Vista is still in beta which means testing - and a lot could change between now and then. Stay tuned!