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Taking Vista for a Spin

Mentalist

Mentalist

Administrator
Staff member
Ok, so I am now up and running with Vista Ultimate RTM. The final gold release from Microsoft.

Vista is to XP as XP was to Win 98.


The first thing you notice about Vista is that it looks totally beautiful and runs smoother and faster than XP. Aero really is a joy to behold and the functionality of the whole experience is through the roof. Everything is polished and new.

So far I've had no compatibility problems at all and installing Vista went without a hitch and was faster than a normal install of XP even, despite being 2.49GB to XP's 550mb.

I've only had a limited time with it so far but I do actually love it. Yes it's true. I have been a Windows enthusiast for a looooong time but Vista is the shizzle. It just is. I will never use XP as a home user again. I have been playing with some of the advanced features of Vista and one of the ones I've had a decent crack at is Voice Recognition. You can now totally control your computer through Vista Voice Recognition and it actually works and is very intuitive. A Microsoft product that works and is intuitive as well?! Say it isn't so!

Vista Media Center is another leap from Media Center XP 2005 and is crammed with a host of new features that I have only had a brief look at. I'd take some screenies but you can't print screen from within MEdia Center and I'm too lazy to setup a screengrab prog. Of course none of this would matter at all if Vista was badly optimized in any way. And well, it's not. Despite the huge graphical leap from XP; Aero runs quickly and smoothly. Security is also insane on Vista but I'll leave that for another topic.

The Sidebar is excellent as well with a host of cool gadgets like RSS feeds as well as tons more to download from M$. Sidebars and widgets and the like have been around for an age but being third-party apps have always been a hit to performance. With Vista it's all intergrated, so it all runs incredibly well. Start-up times are also very quick.


There is way too much to Vista to talk about here.

Over the next few days I will be testing the limits of Vista and delving into more of the advanced features and testing compatibility with the huge amount of tools I run.


For now here are some screenshots I've taken:

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RSS News Feeds direct to your desktop.

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Windows Photo Galley is a huge upgrade from The Window and Fax viewer from XP. No longer will it just navigate pictures. If it comes across a video it will play it like this episode of Smallville here!

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And with a click of the Windows+TAB keys it goes into Flip 3D mode allowing you to quickly and easily navigate all open windows.


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Browisng the old Natalie gallery in Vista. You have to see how it deals with pictures and video for yourself. It's just pimp.


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Umm.. A TURTLE!

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Bitchslapping Vista in the totally awesome Chess Titans that is one of a host of new and updtated games for Vista along with the old classics like Hearts, Solitaire and Minesweeper that have all been given a new coat of paint.


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A lame attempt to take a screenshot of the minimize animation when you minimize a page. Doesn't really do it justice. It kinda morphs downwards. Looks kick ass.




That's it so far. I was going to post thumbs of the true 1280x960 pictures but Photobucket sized them down like the piece of shit it is and I can't be bothered to upload them to Imageshack.


More to come soon.
 
I'm not.

My Windows ME machine defines me. I'm a dinosar afraid of change. Even if the computer pisses me off so much that I want to put it through a, well, window.
 
Mentalist said:
Wndows ME is the worst release of Windows ever released. Even Microsoft have disowned it.
Click to expand...

Oh, yes, its a POJ. I'm failing to understand how it can loose an internet connection thats always on. The clock on my window's screen sometimes stops, yet, when I restart the correct time comes back (and I've disabled the ability for automatic updates, so it must be checking the time somewhere else). Among other things.

But, I've had bad experiences with previous upgrades. I've had hard drives litterally burn up, nothing works, etc etc. I'm not technically proficient enough to troubleshoot, and quite franky I don't have the patience.

I've been seriously considering re-formating and installing a Linx OS, since I've got a new notebook and have been primaily using that lately But I got tired of lugging the notebook and all the assorted cords up and down stairs every time I want to get on, so I started using the old POS again. But I don't know how to get drivers (all the drivers are on the "restore" disks that came with the computer, and they restore *everything* at the same time, including Window's ME). With a four (more? when did ME come out - I had it installed on the computer before it had been released for retail sale) year old computer, I'm not sure most of the drivers can be found anymore. And, as I said, I'm not good at that kind of shit. And I'm not spending a couple hundred dollars to have some zit-covered punk at Best Buy who's voice hasn't even changed yet scowl at me when I bring this dusty POS in and explain all of this.
 
Wow. I'm excited - bitch thing is I just found a distro of XP that I like. Ultimate XP from eXPerience... had my RAID drivers slipstreamed.

How is Vista on driver sets? Am I going to have to bash my head looking for Vista specific third party shit or does Vista have all of that integrated?
 
Ishcabittle said:
Wow. I'm excited - bitch thing is I just found a distro of XP that I like. Ultimate XP from eXPerience... had my RAID drivers slipstreamed.

How is Vista on driver sets? Am I going to have to bash my head looking for Vista specific third party shit or does Vista have all of that integrated?
Click to expand...


It's pretty good but keep in mind that the reason that Vista has even left Microsoft yet is so that companies that make vital software and hardware can write specific drivers for Vista.


I am for instance running beta Nvidia drivers written specifically for Vista at the moment that work fine except they limit the Nvidia control panel options. Should be fixed soon though. There are bound to be issues like this for a while despite it being the "final" release. I will be curious to se how many updates are available on Launch day.

Another issue I've had is with Azureus. Everytime It started it would disable Windows Aero. I eventually realised that it was Java that was causing the problem. I have since moved onto the Java 6 series Beta and it works fine.




Also, if anyone wants a screenshot of something specific give us a shout.
 
Integrated widgets, great photo storing capabilities, good video output, the ability to see all open windows at one time, morphing minimize...

I've see these things before.

Oh, that's right, Mac's OSX! I think I'll stick with my mac. It seems to be ahead of the game and M$ sure loves copying from competetors.
 
How's the new sound scheme? Heard they brought in Robert Fripp to do some soundscapes for the startup - perhaps the greatest musical mind of our time.

3-4 seconds worth of corporate whore... it had better boogie.
 
Conchaga said:
Integrated widgets, great photo storing capabilities, good video output, the ability to see all open windows at one time, morphing minimize...

I've see these things before.

Oh, that's right, Mac's OSX! I think I'll stick with my mac. It seems to be ahead of the game and M$ sure loves copying from competetors.
Click to expand...

Yes, there is no doubt that Vista has taken some cues from OSX. But to be fair, Mac is not guiltless when it comes to copying Microsoft either.

But that's not really important for the end user except it keeps getting us better products. Vista does surpass Tiger in a number of ways though and while I don't doubt that Leopard will be a worthy contender Vista is more than capable of holding it's own against OSX.

Vista is a vast upgrade over XP. It's not just about the new Aero enabled features (which are totally kickass and I've only shown a few of them in the screenshots) it's about the architecture as well. Vista is fast. It's secure and you can see the amount of time that has gone into making it highly intuitive and a logical experience.

Steve Jobs knows how to make things look gorgeous and sleek and Bill Gates knows how to code his little woollen socks off. Such is, such is.


Macs are often seen as being insanley secure. It's true for the most part due to it's UNIX base but not only because of that. It just happens to be that hackers don't really pay much attention to hacking OSX since of it's relativley small market share. And if they did Apple probably wouldn't be able to respond with the same security ability as Microsoft. Still, Vista is Windows and while we now have anti-malware, virus, phishing and advanced file protection out of the box with Vista I admit that I would prefer they were not neccesery in the first place. But yeah.. for all that Vista is to computing it's still Windows. :)

But as for this copying malarky: Well, Apple seized on a number of ideas that Microsoft developed and showcased back at PDC in 2003 and put them in Tiger since it knew it could get to market quicker than Microsoft. so in that respect there are elements of OSX that were actually claimed for Vista by Microsoft first. So while the comparisons with Vista and OSX are obvious it's not fair to call it one sided poaching on Microsofts part. There has been a fair share on both sides.


Look, bottom line is that Vista is a great OS. I wouldn't call it perfect and if you are totally married to your Mac then there is probably not a lot of reason for the average home user to change to Vista. OSX vs Vista is controversial in a number of ways. It does come down to personal preference in a number of areas and I don't believe that either of them are defnitive winners against the other. It's something you will have to decide for yourself. The choice is academic for me since I am a Windows guru and me likes da' Vista.

If you run XP though you will be wanting Vista. Trust me.
 
So, do you think it would install fine on an HP pavilion 525w (P4 2.4gh)? I am very unhappy with XP at this point.
 
^Yes it would run fine. If you have a half decent graphics card yopu can run Aero, if not you're stuck with standard which is minus all the cool translucency effects and the like. Buty just about every computer these days can handle Aero anyway. It's not high end stuff.
 


Watching Clone Wars. Note the thumbnail view you get of the windows open in the taskbar when you mouse over. Very useful.

My Sidebar is also telling me that the current terrorist threat is "Elevated."


Shocking...

But also snazzy.
 
You know what - now that I've been using both Windows and Mac all day every day - I'm really glad that Vista stole from OS X and vise versa... you know, whatever. Let's get a better end-user experience to the end-user, by whatever means, let's get better security, who cares where it came from, let's get more people able to use their computers without flipping about about stupid shit!

In short, Long Live Vista - Long Live Leopard.
 
I've not tried any of the Vista betas or the final release as yet, and I don't really plan to anytime soon. I've been doing too much computer work lately and need a breather for awhile. It does look nice, though.

How's all the DRM shit working out? That would be my main concern with upgrading.
 
Meh... I'm a mac and a pc user. So, when I finally get off my ass to go look at vista, I'm sure I'll be happy with the outcome.
 
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