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First impressions with Vista

October 11, 2006

In one of my offices I have a test-bed computer, which is currently loaded with Microsoft Windows Vista RC-1.  Naturally by the time we got round to loading RC-1 Microsoft has released RC-2, which is supposedly the final, nearly-complete, “We really mean it this time” release candidate for their new operating system.  Now the RC-2 download has been closed, which is Microsoft’s way of snatching away the pretty thing and sneering; “Psych!”

There are little graphic changes just to mess with conventions.  For example, have a look at the new “folder” icon at right.  What was the purpose of redesigning the “folder” icon? 

By most reports, however, there isn’t a ton of difference between RC-1 and RC-2; mostly stability tweaks.  Here are my impressions to date:

  • Microsoft programmers and designers have better eyesight than I do.  I’ve had to knock down the resolution and tweak the interface in a number of ways so I could see what the hell I was doing.

  • I was delighted to see that user profiles are now kept in a folder called “users” on the root drive.  This makes for much shorter paths, which is a plus given that Windows will allow you to create a path that is too long for it to manage.
  • It broke one of my favorite applications, XnView.  Installing the new version seemed to fix it
  • When you go to install anything (or anything tries to install itself) a very Linux-esque dialogue box comes up with some very clear wording to the effect that a) “I trust this application, please install it”, or b) “I don’t know this application, please cancel the installation.”  Then you have to put in an Administrative password to continue with installation if you select the first option.  This little change alone will vastly improve the security of Vista.
    (I would show you a screen-shot of that dialog, but neither XnView or the new Windows screen-capture applet were able to capture it.  Pressing ‘Print Screen’ wouldn’t capture it, either.  It steals focus from all other applications, and no other business gets done until you give it an answer.)
    I have not tried installing SQL or any large Java apps yet like OpenOffice, but will report back when I do.

  • Everything is “photographic” including the silly “Gadgets” sidebar full of useless crap taking up a large portion of your screen.  The interface really wants to compete with the content for your attention.  News flash, Microsoft, I use a computer to work with content!  Damn, I don’t think they’re listening.
  • Pursuant to that, their “Aero” glass, whatever 3-D whoop-de-do interface (which will now require 128mb minimum video ram) didn’t do anything but make it harder to spot the active window.  Luckily one of my standard tweaks is to border the active window with two pixels of 255+128+0 orange to make it stand out.
  • One thing is the same as always, though.  Good ‘ol ‘Notepad’ is still a crappy text editor.  No true wrap, no line numbers, no tabs, no macros – unchanged since Windows 3.0.  Fortunately Notepad++ seems as happy under Vista as it is under XP.
  • The web browser ‘Internet Explorer 7’ appears as deeply woven into the operating system as ever, which is just as bad an idea as ever. There are even some extra ActiveX control permissions for non-admin users, which hardly brightens my day.  IE7 has some rudimentary tabbing functions, RSS-grabbicity, and multiple home pages inspired by Firefox, which is a good thing.

The machine is a Dell Optiplex 270 with 1gb RAM and a 128mb video card – nothing great but it runs OK and the installation on a blank hard drive was easy.  There are a few differences in where common things are, including the Computer Management console but nothing you won’t be able to figure out after a minute or two if you are used to administrating XP.

So far my summation is that Vista is trying really, really hard to impress you with what The Simpsons’ ‘Sideshow Bob’ would describe as “Bright lights and shiny things.”  And now that you’ve read my impressions, here are Information Week’s impressions on RC-2.

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