Yes guys and girls, I just went Vista (beta2)! I got the DVD with Vista beta2 that came with PC Magazine (Dutch version) this month. I could have downloaded the sucker, but I decided to just buy the magazine and spare me the time of downloading, burning a DVD and then find out the DVD is corrupt or something. So what are my findings so far? In short: mixed feelings. Microsoft calls Windows Vista “a breakthrough computing experience”. Yeah, well, I think it’s a bit early to call it that. In fact Microsoft needs to start addressing some issues real quick or else I suspect that the saying “going postal” will be replaced by “going vista”. Not a good thing because we do not need more “computer rage” in this world. Anyway, here are my prelimenary findings setting up Vista to dual boot on my PC.
For starters the installation didn’t go as smooth as I expected (or hoped for).
I started by deleting my SUSE 10.1 partition and left it free (unformatted) for Vista. Then I rebooted an started from the DVD. Vista went through all the pre-install stages, but after the reboot it just refused to boot. Bugger! Instead it gave an error message: Windows did not start correctly. Ah Great! So my next attempt was to start XP, format the partititon and try to start the install from within XP. At first it looked like that was going to work, but the whole process just stopped when it was time to copy install files to the harddisk. Bugger again!
So, once again I restarted and booted from the DVD. For whatever reason the install completed all the way this time (in about 30-40 minutes) and I had the ability to add a user etc..
After that Vista was going to boot-up. Which it did, only to get stuck into a huge black screen with only a mouse cursor. WTF! Again nothing there…
Ok, so I am not a person that gives up that easy. So, having some experience with XP installations that have problems, I decided to do the old “boot in safe mode” trick. This boots Windows, in this case Vista, with a minimal set of drivers etc.. Unless you have some really bad problems with hardware etc. this is a sure way to boot and fix problems. If that doesn’t work you’ll be stuck with the recovery console, unless you have XP Home edition, because then, well you’re f*****.
Anyway: the safe mode for Vista came up and even at 800×600 it looked a hell lot nicer than XP in ‘safe mode’. Now, usually if XP boots in safe mode, then after that it will boot up normally. So I tried that without looking to much around in the safe mode version of Vista (however I think it looks a lot like the ‘Vista Wanker Mode’ ‘Vista basic mode’).
So once again: reboot (hmm, this is feeling a lot like Windows XP). And after what seemed like twenty minutes: low and behold – the Vista log-in screen! So here I went: into the deep.
The first thing I noticed – besides the fact that my Pentium 2.8ghz HT with 1gb of ram suddenly had the performance of a snail with a severe respiratory problem – was the complete lack of a “welcome to Windows” sound. Hmm.. Enjoy the silence I guess? Then windows started popping up like crazy. The Windows Welcome Center being one of the prominent onces. And Windows Security Center – warning me that my ‘computer might be at risk’. Uhmm, yeah I know: I just booted for the first friggin’ time. Also I got immediately confronted with the one thing that Microsoft really needs to change quick: the User Account Control (UAC, previously called User Account Protection). This bugger popped up a windows every 2 clicks or so into the system, asking me permission for program ‘so and so’ to continue. BUGGER OFF! This is the single most annoying feature I have ever seen. It’s like Microsoft isn’t even taking their users serious (hmm, I wonder why…). Why should I be annoyed with these messages every goddamned second? Please, leave me alone.
Ok, so what where the other things that I needed to do? Uhm well, for starters the lack of sound and performance where easily traced back to a lack of drivers: my soundcard (basis onboard) wasn’t installed and neither where some other pieces of hardware like my TV-card and modem. Ok, now to solve that I had to get online. Normally that would be as easy as right clicking on ‘My network places’, ‘properties’ etc.. and just adjusting the TCP/IP settings. Not with Vista. The control panel has completely changed and I do not like it. If you think will be on familiar grounds by turning on the option ‘classic view’ you’re even farther from home. I have never ever seen such a fucked up and completely messed up window/interface. Even on my 1280×1024 screen. My god. It has ten times as much icons then the original control panel? Just click on the image to the right and you see my point.
Who the hell came up with this? It makes things look as complicated as the controls of a friggin’ Boeing 747. And all I wanted to do is set my IP address. Now, next I had to figure out where the hell my TCP/IP settings went: ‘network map’? Network list? Oh, maybe ‘Network center’ ? It is as if Microsoft started to think: how can we confuse our users as much as possible…
Anyhow: after messing around another twenty minutes or so, going through all kinds of confusing questions and wizards, somehow I managed to get online. I downloaded a bunch of driver updates etc. and after that I did get sound and my modem and other hardware got installed. But still: the performance of a slug. So I installed the nVidia Vista beta drivers (again, reboot). After that things lightened up a bit and I could use the windows-tab key combination to start enjoying Aero.
So then I tried to get rid of that Security Center warning me about not having a virus-scanner. There are some beta version of software out there, and so I installed eTrust EZfor Vista. But damn it, Vista still complained my PC wasn’t protected. Yet another bug. I did manage to make he friggin’ User Acount Protection to STFU (hurray!!).
After playing around a bit with Media Player 11 and MSIE 7 (I will write about that later) the evening was almost over (11:30pm) and I fired up Windows Media Center.
Wrong: all I got from my PC was a “resolution not supported” message and then my monitor just went blank. Also the sound of my TV-tuner card came up at full blast with just static. And no way to shut that up, short of disableing the hardware (which I did).
To conclude: since I just have ‘worked’ with Vista for about a few hours and spend most of that time rebooting, I can’t pretend I’m a Vista expert. So I definately will need to get back on you with a more extensive report. However: so far I have mixed feelings about the “breakthrough computing experience” that Micrsosoft promises.
To be continued…