Windows Vista -Beta

Plantwiz · June 2006

I've had IE7 for a while and have started to like it (once I got my link bar back

).

Now I finally have my Beta Copy of Vista.....What up it the fluff??, if I wanted a MAC I'd own one...sheeze.

Aside from the fluffy interface, and turning about everything off and getting use to how slow it runs on an AMD 3200+ w/ 2.5GB ram and an GeForce 6600 w/ 256MB ram....it could be a nice move forward for MS.

As I'm digging around and such I'll most likely appreciate much of the advanced features, but I just hate the cosemtic crap. Pizzazz for speed and efficiency of programs and spend time on security. I'm sure I'm in the majority on the 'fluffy' interface as they wouldn't have likely put so much time on it it their focus groups hadn't indicated they wanted it.

Still, if I wanted that stuff I'd own a MAC right now. I switched from Apple 13 years ago when I sold my Apple IIe and haven't looked back.

Anyone one else using the Beta version? What are your thoughts?

wildfire · June 2006

Yeah I got it running on my other machine, Its not to bad, I got it running with IE 7 beta, and Office 2007 Beta and MSN messanger Live beta. So pretty much everything on it is beta, I had some problems with some of the drivers etc that device signing thing has got worse! I had an External 400GB drive and it wouldnt pick it up, I found it it was refusing it cos it was unsafe???? once I finally figured out i got it working.

As you say they have gone for a real fluffy GUI, I like some of it, other bits are bloated junk, The clock and the taks bar clock, hmm. Some things run well, I tried sticking Half-life 2 for a benchmark, I couldnt get the steam thing to work with it, so tried Battlefield 2 as a benchmark, it worked well on full resolution.

Some networking features are good, the teaming of NIC cards on a desktop is a bit overkill but offers some good facilities.

I was also unable to get the IPv6 to work, so ~Im hoping they resolve this one, as by the time it comes out the transfer to IP6 should be starting, although I doubt it will reach home level for years to come.

I did notice some rendering issues with websites, the text on flash stuff etc seems a little blurry, I cant put a finger on whats wrong, but I just know its wrong.

Boot up is fairly fast, although I tried to get the machine to join my 2003 server with little joy, it was reporting an imcompatible active directory structure, but I dont have much time to play around with it.

Apart from some major bugs which may just be related to my particular config it seems good and is a long time coming. XP is getting a bit long in tooth now, and Microsoft seem to be releasing a good suite of software all at once for once.

FYI my system is

AMD FX53, 2GB DDR400, ATI X800XT PE, 2 X WD180GB RAID 0.

TechJunky · June 2006

I love the eye candy... Eye candy is what sells now adays. I think they did this one right. It gives you more of a MAC/Linux look. MS is finally getting with the times.

Plantwiz · June 2006

TechJunky wrote:

I love the eye candy... Eye candy is what sells now adays. I think they did this one right. It gives you more of a MAC/Linux look. MS is finally getting with the times.

That's where I disagree. If I wanted eye candy I'd own a MAC right now. I want to get work done in a timely fashion and don't want to sift through a bunch of flash to find what I want.

I want the OS to be stable. I want it relatively secure, but not so secure I can do anything without being asked "Do you want to do this?". I want my printers to function and as well as anything that was purchased 2000 or forward. Yep, that's about it. I don't care for the colors or the desktop backgrounds or music.

Too each her (or his) own I guess.

(of course, MACs are trying to become more like PCs all the time. Just join forces and be done with it

)

OFFICE 2007 BETA I'm VERY pleased with. Still getting used to it, but thus far I'm very happy with what they have improved!!

wildfire · June 2006

OFFICE 2007 BETA I'm VERY pleased with. Still getting used to it, but thus far I'm very happy with what they have improved!!

Except No Frontpage included this time. They decided to cut it for a web design suite!

I will stick to Dreamweaver I think

Plantwiz · June 2006

wildfire wrote:

OFFICE 2007 BETA I'm VERY pleased with. Still getting used to it, but thus far I'm very happy with what they have improved!!

Except No Frontpage included this time. They decided to cut it for a web design suite!

I will stick to Dreamweaver I think

You still get notepad, and Word

Frontpage wasn't that good anyway (IMNSHO).

mobri09 · June 2006

Not be rude, but I think Microsoft copies off everyone. I like Windows don't get me wrong, but Vista might be to much for me as well. Vista is such a knock off of Apple - interface wise.

Gabe7055 · June 2006

I was pleased with Windows XP SP2 and IE 7.0. I really don't feel this OS upgrade is necessary at this point in time. With Defender, IE 7.0, and Office 2007 all capable of working just fine on XP I really wish they would have just waited a couple years before this OS went live.

Oh well guess there's nothing we can do about it though, might as well just get used to it because soon every PC will be shipping with it.

Anyone know anything about Vista Server yet? like release date?

BF2Mad · June 2006

XP has been out for 5 years nearly 6 by the time Vista comes out

Microsoft have also said that SP2 is the last service pack for XP that will add new features, future service pack for XP will only be bug fixes. I think this is to push us to Vista.

Also from what I have herd the new version of DirectX will only run on Vista and also new Games (such as Halo 2 for PC) will require the new DirectX so will only work on Vista. Nice

Not sure about the server side I know 2003 R2 is out, and I am wondering if Microsoft will update their exams to that at some point.

I think 2003 R2 is going to be filling in some gaps as the next server release is not going to be for a while.

Gabe7055 · June 2006

Yes XP has been out for 5 years now but think about this, OSX has been out for 6 years now and is still going strong and although yes it's been updated threw the years the OS itself is at heart still the same.

I guess I just feel like if it is not broke don't fix it and we are now at point where I don't consider XP broke and now were having to go back to square one all over again /shurg

Plantwiz · June 2006

I agree Gabe7055, XP has been a pretty decent OS in the way of MS OSs. Things work, service calls are down with more people on XP then 98. Kicker, we still have clients who are happy with 95 & 98 so, getting them to upgrade to Vista is not real likely until all the other support stops...and it sounds like it is only a matter of time before fixes and programs will be the deciding factor for an upgrade.

Problem is, my Xerox print driver won't install under Vista and wouldn't install with XP 64-bit Xerox had no intention of writing a 64-bit driver for DocuPrint P8 (which is a great little home printer). I'm not much in the market for a new printer. My HP PSC500 which is older then my Xerox works fine. But I use and like my laser printer and will not be dropping $300+ on a new one anytime soon. So, I probably wouldn't use VIsta outside of my test lab if that problem doesn't resolve.

kovo · June 2006

I downloaded Vista and tried installing it but i keep getting the Blue screen error every time during install. Is this a hardware compatability error? I cant install Vista

Plantwiz · June 2006

kovo wrote:

I downloaded Vista and tried installing it but i keep getting the Blue screen error every time during install. Is this a hardware compatability error? I cant install Vista

Did you check your system against the requirements?

TeKniques · June 2006

Downloading it now. Going to install it tomorrow and mess around with it. I will report back what I think. However, I do agree that Windows XP is a great OS, but also agree that it is time for another one ... man .... 5 years sure did go by quick

Lee H · June 2006

Hi

Been using it for a couple of days now, attached it to our domain, installed adminpak, AD users and computers icons down left side disapear when clicked on, had to cold boot twice, runs a lot slower than my XP Pro, on the whole i like it a lot. The GUI is very aesthetic and has a lot of new features, the sidebar lasted 45 mins till i turned it off completely. Tried to play Counter Strike Source and even though it came on most of the scene was black. This OS will have to massivley improve if i am to rely on it as my sole operating system. I understand I will need some good hardware to get most out of performance but with my current PC i expect it to be average and it falls just short of this.

Lee H

evanderburg · June 2006

I have been using it on my laptop for about a week now. I do like the look of Areo Glass but I am annoyed by all the warnings I get when I change things in control panel. It might be ok if I got one for a single action but sometimes I get 2 or 3 when I change one attribute.

For some reason teh 64 bit edition did not work so I am running the 32 bit version. I have server 2003 running inside a virtual PC but Virtual PC 2004 is not an Aero Glass supported application so Aero Glass is disabled with I use it

So far there are not many gadgets available for the sidebar. I hope that Microsoft makes the gadget SDK available to everyone so that anyone can create a gadget. I remember back when I was beta testing Whistler, they had a link in the display applet to download more themes other than blue, olive, and solver but when the final product was released that link was gone and Microsoft never released new themes. We had to use Windows Blinds and other 3rd party apps for it.

I do like the new start bar with the windows explorer type view of all programs instead of the cascading menus.

geekie · June 2006

Anyone ordered a copy online? Just wondering how long it takes for delivery?

: ?

Plantwiz · June 2006

webleech wrote:

Anyone ordered a copy online? Just wondering how long it takes for delivery? : ?

No. It was easy enough to download overnight and hope it downloaded correctly by morning (which it did

). I probably would have tried it 3 or 4 times before ordering. Got lucky with the download.

Do you have a slow connection? Or just want to have a disk in hand?

geekie · June 2006

Do you have a slow connection? Or just want to have a disk in hand?

More of a lack of space on my HDD

Maybe I should do a clearup

JDMurray · June 2006

With the exception of sound, I have the Microsoft Windows Vista Beta 2 (Build 5270) running just fine as a VMWare image created using a Dell Optiplex GX280. It runs very slowly in VMWare, but it's stable (so far).

Plantwiz · June 2006

jdmurray wrote:

With the exception of sound, I have the Microsoft Windows Vista Beta 2 (Build 5270) running just fine as a VMWare image created using a Dell Optiplex GX280. It runs very slowly in VMWare, but it's stable (so far).

It runs slowly even as a clean install.

Maybe I'll go the VMWare route too. I don't really want to use it full time yet, but I want to continue to work with it. Good idea JD

Windows Vista -Beta

Comments