Microsoft promised the world with Windows Vista, from a better file system, to enhanced performance and security, but consistently failed to deliver across all bases. Microsoft’s flagship Windows Vista operating system aimed at the computers of consumers, businesses and governments alike is disappointing its users and causing headaches for developers.
First, let’s review the benefits Microsoft boasted of and how they check out in the actual operating system:
- Claim: Windows Vista is more secure than Windows XP. Fact: Windows Vista is affected by the same viruses and spyware that infect Windows XP computers.
- Claim: Windows Vista has better media features than Windows XP. Fact: Windows Vista’s media center is the only real improvement over Windows Media Center 2005 (which is a version of Windows XP), but many users prefer other media center software that can run on Windows XP (i.e. SageTV) and Windows Media Player 11 works on both Windows XP and Windows Vista.
- Claim: Windows Vista’s graphics provide large improvements over Windows XP for 3D gaming. Fact: DirectX 10 has some rendering improvements, but they have not been largely implemented by gaming developers. In the games they have been implemented, there is only subtle noticeable changes. New video cards that have the capability must be purchased in order to realize those changes.
Now for anyone who has read the ominous end user license agreement that comes shrinkwrapped with Windows Vista is aware how incideous it is, but for those who are not, let me give some examples about how Vista can invade your privacy, compromise your security and complicate your life.
- Windows Vista can lock you out of your own computer for supposed DRM (digital rights management) violations. That means if they think you’re pirating software or movies you lose access to your computer. Sounds OK for people who have nothing to worry about, right? The problem is Vista can get a little excited about what is and is not legit. I’ve had clients locked out of their DVD drives after playing a Netflix movie.
- Windows Vista allows Microsoft to strictly limit the number of reinstallations before they lock you out of the license. That means if you get hit by viruses too many times, or have bad luck with your hard drive or maybe just want to have a clean install now and then you may get locked out of the ability to use the operating system.
- Windows Vista’s user interface, “Aero”, is very slow and demanding of a computer’s resources, causing it to use more energy, run hotter and slower than it should. It can shorten the life of older computers because of the heat damage and make new computers crawl along slowly if they don’t have the latest and greatest hardware. Why should an average user need a heavy duty 3D card to run the Aero interface efficiently?
- Windows Vista does not handle power management properly on many computers. That means if you suspend or hibernate your system and Vista (or your hardware) do not support Windows Vista’s power management implementation you can lose data, the computer can fail to resume or other problems can occur.
- Windows Vista’s updating functionality is broken for many installations right out of the box. For thousands of users Vista fails to update and gets stuck rebooting at “step 3 of 3″ causing major frustration. This can damage data on your hard drive and even force reinstallation if it isn’t handled carefully. Unfortuantely that usually means having to have an expert take a look and paying money for the service. While I am always glad to help my clients, I’m very disappointed Microsoft could not have this staple feature properly implemented in the production release.
After reading this article you may have the impression that I’m an advocate of Windows XP. My view is that Windows XP is very flawed, but at this point it is a much better choice than Windows Vista for just about everyone. The fact is while both releases of Windows have major problems, Windows XP’s shortcomings are less significant than Windows Vista’s showstoppers. Vista may be another release of Windows that is best forgetton. While I’m on the topic of forgotten Windows releases, does anyone remember Windows Me? 
