Service Pack 3 hasn’t really had all the hype that SP2 had. SP2 was special in it’s own right by being one of the biggest update downloads available at the time. It tightened up the XP security massively and also provided some new features, such as the Windows Firewall and Security Center.

Service Pack Three - Overview 

Service Pack 3 consists mainly of security upgrades and patches. It also includes all of the Windows Updates to date, so this dramatically reduces the number of updates that have to be run after a clean install of XP.

The main SP3 overview and release notes can be downloaded directly from Microsoft in various formats, such as, PDF, docx and xps.

Microsoft SP3 Overview

Issues with SP3

Of course, there are always problems lurking in these huge updates. Many users have reported that their computers have acted strangely after installing this update. One common issue (that we encountered ourselves on one PC) is that after installing this update, we could no longer install other Windows Updates - this is not good for avid Windows Update users; however most updates can be downloaded from Microsoft’s website outside of Windows Update.

Other people have also experienced problems, for example their computer doing constant reboot cycles.

Conclusion - Our Opinion

I have to come to a conclusion on this which is very hard to do as it did affect one of our testing computers. From looking at the Microsoft release notes, it appears to be (on paper) an excellent update containing many security fixes and all previous updates. However, in reality this can sometimes be different. BUT on the brighter side, it does create a system restore point and backup most system files, so should you have a problem, you should be able to run a restore and use your computer again.

In my opinion, I feel that this is a must for XP users to install as security is one of the biggest problems facing PC users today. If you decide to install, I recommend that you wait until it appears in your Windows Update so that you can ensure that it is ready and fully supported for your PC - and of course to save you the time of downloading the huge 300megs of file!

Please feel free to leave your comments and share your update experience!

You may or may not be familiar with Spybot S&D(search and destroy). For those of you who don’t know, it is a spyware/adware/trojan cleaner - it does what it says “searches and destroys malware!”. This great freeware program now contains the small utility, File Shredder. You can add File Shredder to your installation by ticking the Add File Shredder box when installing Spybot.

Downloading and Using File/Secure Shredder

Spybot S&D and File Shredder can both be downloaded from Spybots’ website for free.

To open File Shredder, navigate to Start > All Programs > Spybot - Search & Destroy > File Shredder

You will then be presented with this beautifully simple, yet powerful application:

Instantly, you can see that this utility adopts all the usual Windows menus and buttons. The number of passes at the bottom indicates the number of times you want your file to be deleted/written over. We have chosen a sensible number 6, however depending on how much time you can spare and how confidential the files are you can choose anything from 1 - 35 passes!

From the File menu, you can mass-select the files that you want to be shredded. From the Templates menu, you can make it remove your files from the temp folder, cookies and cache files. This feature supports many of the leading browsers; such as Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and Opera.

When you’ve selected your files, simply click ‘Chop it away!‘ and watch your files disappear into hyperspace!

Conclusion

In my opinion, this utility (coupled with great spyware protection) is a must for anyone using Windows XP/Vista who is conscious of their privacy. Safer Networking have done it again, and produced a great freeware software application which we would normally have to pay for.

Feel free to leave your comments and I’ll try to answer any questions.

Source: BBC News

Power Defragmenter is by far the fastest and most reliable defragmenter we have come across. The latest version, (2.0.125 at the time of writing) includes many features. These include:

• Defragment a selection of files
• Defragment various folders
• Defragment disks…
• and PowerMode(TM) Disk Defragmentation

I will now take you through a simple tutorial so that you can get the most from Power Defragmenter and understand its features.

Firstly, you must obtain a copy of the program. Softpedia is always a good mirror, so you can get your copy here.

When downloaded, simply extract the .zip folder to a location of your choice. For this, I chose the desktop and named it “Defrag”.

You will notice that there are 3 files within the folder. You want to open the application called “Power Defragmenter GUI” - pretty self explanatory really!

This will display the following opening screen which looks a bit like an installer.

Click “Next” to take you to the mode selection screen.

From here, you have some options. I will explain each option in brief.

Defragment File(s)…

This allows you to select certain files on your Hard Drive that you feel need defragmenting. These are most likely the files that you work on regularly and are fragmented. Chose this option for a quick defrag of selected files.

Defragment Folder(s)…

This option lets you select various folders on your computer for Defragmenting. This could include the Windows folder and/or the Program Files folders that you work with regularly.

Defragment Disk…

This option is similar to the built-in Windows Defragmenter. This allows you to select a disk on your computer and defrag it. The difference between this and the Windows version is that this works much faster. This option is the quickest if you want to defragment your complete drive.

PowerMode(TM) Disk Defragmentation

This is for carrying out a complete defrag of your whole computer. This special, built in mode, carries out a thorough defrag of all your files. This mode will take slightly longer than the “Defragment Disk” mode, however this will give the best results.

For this walk-through we are going to use this setting (PowerMode(TM)).

So, of course, continuing with our tutorial, check the “PowerMode(TM) Disk Defragmentation” box and click the “Next” button.

You can now select the drive that you want to defragment. In this example, we only have one drive available (C:).

Select the drive and click “Defragment“.

The defragmentation process will now begin and look something like this.

This will keep going for a “goodish” time, depending on your Hard Drive size and the amount of files you have.

When the PowerDefrag process has finished, the Windows Defragmenter will also run and will look something like this:

Finally, when the process is complete, you will be presented with this happy dialogue box!:

Click “Ok” and Quit the application. The Defragmenting process is now complete!

You should notice from using this method that your defrag time is much faster on both Windows Vista and XP. Feel free to comment on this, and I will be happy to answer any questions.

Here is a typical example of a popup notification from the Vista Security Center:

To remove these popups, and review why they are appearing in the first place, click on the notification or follow these instructions to show the security center manually.

1. Go to Start
2. Control Panel
3. In “Classic View“, Click on “Security Center“
4. Now select “Change the way Security Center alerts me” from the options down the left hand side.

(At this point, check the status of each item to check why you are being notified and that you are sure you want to turn the notifications off.)

You will now be presented with the following dialogue box:

From here, click “Don’t notify me and don’t display the icon…”

You are now successfully free of the Vista Security Center popup notifications! Yay!…

This article is most useful for users that have the User Account Control (UAC) disabled, and wish to stop the notifications warning them that it is disabled. 

We look forward to reading your feedback. Every comment is taken into consideration.

If you are looking for the Panic Button download page, please hop over to here.

The Home of the IHATEVISTA Panic Button (sidebar gadget)

IHATEVISTA is proud to announce a free product called the “Panic Button” that will instantly relieve you of the stress caused by Vista. This simple tool lives quietly on your Vista Sidebar until you click the PANIC button.

When you start to feel the tension building, don’t let it get too late… quickly slam your mouse onto the IHATEVISTA Panic Button. This quick release of high energy, coupled with ear piercing sound will entirely relieve you of Vista stress.

The IHATEVISTA Panic Button is 100% free and is available for download from here and the WindowsLive Gallery.

The Latest Version (v1.0):

Welcome to the first release of the IHATEVISTA Panic Button.

Sometimes Vista can just become too much; and you just have to let out your stress. Luckily there is a tool that can save you! The IHATEVISTA Panic Button is a neat, compact, hassle free SideBar Gadget that lives happily on your desktop.

When you start to feel the tension building, don’t let it get too late… quickly slam your mouse on the Panic Button. This quick release of high energy, coupled with ear piercing sound will entirely relieve you of Vista stress.

Try it out for yourself. It only takes a few seconds to download on most modern connections, and will be installed and ready to use within moments.

Download IHATEVISTA Panic Button 1.0

Download from WindowsLive: Download

Direct Link from IHATEVISTA: Download

Please leave your feedback

We really want to know what you think of the Panic Button. Good or bad, please let us know. Please also state what you would like to see in future releases.

You can leave your feedback here.

http://www.ccleaner.com/download

When installing it, I untick all the options except Add open cleaner and check for updates as I do not want the Yahoo toolbar or a short cut on the desktop.
All you do then is right click the recycle bin and click open crap cleaner.

The first operation is to click on the cleaner icon in the left hand pane then click analyze and next click run cleaner.

Next operation is to click Applications  then  analyze and run cleaner.

Next in the left hand pane click Issues, click scan for issues,  then click Fix selected issues, if you have selected the default instillation it will ask you if you want to make a back up, (this is advisable because if anything goes wrong you can restore the deleted registry settings).
Then click Fix selected issues and click it again, then click Close.

 
Next click on Tools, this will bring up all the programs you have installed on your computer and if you highlight one of them you can then click Run uninstaller to get rid of it, or if you have uninstalled a program and it has left the program entry name just highlight it and click delete. 

And the last feature is StartUp, this is a handy feature as it allows you to select which programs run at start up and saves you typing msconfig in the run box and selecting startup so there is no need to reboot after you make changes.
All you do is highlight the program you want to stop loading at startup then click delete entry .
If you click Options in the left hand panel you can control which cookies it deletes and keeps, just highlight one and press the across arrow to stop it deleting that cookie.

Improvements/Changes

Here are just some of the improvements/changes that have been made in this version of Mint.

Graphics:
One of the more hidden changes are the graphics. I used to really like the visuals in Daryna, however I like them even more now! It seems to look just that bit more professional; along with the new highly configurable colour scheme.

Software Portal:
Another feature that I like is how the available software has increased. This makes Mint much easier to expand, using just the built in Software Portal.

Improved Documentation + Languages:
The Mint community have also included a massive 100+ page user guide, along with many international language translations for the O/S. Together these should open opportunities for people in other countries, speaking different languages to enjoy the freedom of Linux.

Performance Boost:
Elyssa also features performance upgrades. According to the Mint team, the “MintUpdate” utility has gone from using 100Mb of RAM down to an unbelievable 6megs! Firefox have also improved the memory usage between versions 2 and 3.

Conclusion:

All this together + many other exciting features make this Mint release a must have for anyone willing to give open-source Linux a go. With all these features now available, I really am starting to wonder about how much longer people will be paying for Operating Systems - especially how Mint can access your existing Windows file system.

Take a look at the official Elyssa release notes here.

From my personal opinion, I have experienced many (and some still on-going) problems with Vista, which have been a big cause of concern for me. You can read more about my story here.

However, it’s not all about me… us at IHATEVISTA are interested in knowing everyone’s opinions of Windows Vista, be it good or bad (rain or shine!).

Our aim is to create the biggest database containing the Windows Vista end-users opinions.

Leave your Opinions - and make yourself heard

So, now that I have you thinking, feel free to read through fellow members comments, and sign your own.

To save you wading through all the comments, right to the bottom of the page, here is a link that will take you directly to the comments box. Our only requirement before you may leave comments is that you create an account at our community. This has been implemented to cut down on the number of spam comments.

Previous Comments:

if you dont like vista DONT BUY IT!! u dumb asses

Are you sure your using Windows Vista?even with a fresh install without any 3rd party drivers vista still will crash, i don’t like vista and i didn’t buy it, just installed a test and now i know what its like ill stick with XP, you must be the dumb ass coz all people who know about computers say windows vista is crap

Maybe you would like to give us our money back then ?

Why in the world do I need perimission to deleted things on my own computer.

Hey ! mircosoft are you stupid are something ?

hate this piece of vista junk. i restored vista from recovery dvd and it restored it not on the harddrive (as one would excpect) but on my external usb backup drive without telling me. not to mention that add/remove programs is gone from control panel plus my microphone doesn’t work. and it keeps offering me to buy notron utilities every time i boot (there is no obvious way to shut this prompt off for good). i hope bill is having same experience. burn in hell, vista!

At first it seems to load faster than XP. Install just one program and that soon stops it.

Not even some of the latest microsoft software is compatible with vista (Virtual PC 2007, visual studio etc). XP never had these problems when it started. It only took some minor alterations to adapt NT software/drivers -> XP SW/drivers. Vista is way too demanding to write for.

Folders have been renamed and moved around all over the place. Docs and settings -> Users for instance. Then MS creates shortcuts with the original names for compatibility. Not only is the renaming pointless and redundant, the shortcuts are not good enough to fool some XP programs. So they don’t run unless they are recoded, making the shortcuts pointless too.

Vista basic is less customisable than XP. In XP, you at least had 3 colour schemes to choose from. With Vista basic you get grey, thats it. And the threshold for Aero is set way to high. For the rather trivial amount of acceleration Aero requires (transparency and a little 3D), a PC running an Ati Rage128 could run it.

Massive memory hog as has been said.

Everythings locked. You have to claim ownership of almost every folder.

Oh, the list goes on. It’s a totally pointless upgrade to XP. I don’t even think its anymore user friendly really. Some features are easier to use, but for the most part, important things are more obscured from view. The whole thing reminds me of Windoze Me.

I like to think if I buy a computer it’s mine and I would like to run it and have running on it anything that I want. Vista doesn’t let you do this.

You have been warned.

Dave

3. VISTA IS A HUGE MEMORY HOG! Yeah I have over 2gb of ram and a dual core pentium 2.85GHz so you would think I have a decently fast computer right? Actually no Vista uses 1.04 GB in idle state. Which is about have my ram.
My computer which once was a mighty machine is now a turtle.

Going right back to WindowsXP and NO Vista is NOT prettier.
It’s just plain Annoying.

On my brand new HP with all the bells and whistles, I’ve noticed that “sleep mode” is the same as “hold down the fuc%ing power button and retart the computer because it will not wake up mode”. The HP technical support people say “Oh, you’re having compatibility issues with 3rd party programs… just remove all 3rd party programs”. So I now have a new HP without any of my old programs (some of which Vista would not install to begin with, even though XP’s Compatibility Wizard worked just fine on), but I do have Office 2007, so I can type letters and make spreadsheets like a son of a b*tch with my awesome new computer… yea! Not only that, I still can’t get the computer to wake up from sleep mode and it will still randomly get the “blue screen of death”. If you currently use XP, KEEP USING IT!

if you dont like vista DONT BUY IT!! u dumb asses
 

Cheers
Tash
 

but thats what you get when you want your OS to work on multiple platforms

Its alright nothing special

..it took a long time, but it was satisfying.

I then gave closure to my action by beating the vista disk to death with a brick on a rope.

However, I did forget to cover the brick in petrol and light it before use… I will try harder next time.

Vista sucks itself!

Have new Dell Inspiron laptop and wanna get rid of Vista! Can I get it off there and replace it with XP?

Vista makes tons of little changes that make you relearn the os. Time consuming and unnecessary. Don’t buy this product.

I have been using vista for about 2 months now, i built onto an alienware machine, biggest mistake of my life!!! vista is a piece of sh*t!!!most of my games freeze and stop responding, there are not SLi solid driver for my 2 8800 GTX’s, its pointless, i want to use my PC not be a test guinny-pig for microsoft… really does such, but “JMan” as for your comments on permission, if you go into admin settings you can actually stop it from promting you every time but still.. XP owns…

I have had nothing but problems with it. First of all, it is an ABSOLUTE RAM HOG.

I can no longer access “volume control” to test functionality of microphones. The menus are gone, and when I finally found it, it came up as “audio mixer” and only had ONE sliderbar and no option to add another (for microphone, line in, etc.)

Oh, and remember that nifty program, sound recorder, where you could record up to 60 sec and play it back? Well, the NEW sound recorder will record your sounds, BUT WILL NOT ALLOW YOU TO PLAY THEM BACK. You have to open the file with windows media player or some other program to hear what you just recorded.

The start>programs bars that were so user friendly are GONE. They have been replaced by a complicated folder system that frustrates the heck out of my kid brother.

We have a wireless network, and every now and then those of us receiving the signal would right click the icon in lower right, hit repair, and within 20 sec we’d have renewed DNS and IP address and be good to go. In Vista, the only option is “Diagnose and repair.”

This option takes upwards of 5 minutes, spends a ton of time trying to identify a problem that we already know doesn’t exist, and then IF WE ARE LUCKY repairs the connection. And right click on desktop and hit “properties”… remember that? Easy way to change resolution, wallpaper, etc. Gone. Replaced by complicated menus leading you to the same thing after much effort.

Many, many, many of his old games fail to function. He is prompted with a “will you allow or decline this program?” basically every time he runs any program at any time. We can no longer figure out how to turn off the “your pc may be at risk” popup from the windows firewall, and it continually sets itself to on when we want it off.

Basically, Vista has a mind of its own. It locks us out of not only viruses, but all the programs we WANT to run. It is a complete and utter nightmare. I can’t even get to Nvidia properties to disable threaded optimization to speed up his nwn. Not to mention this thing’s EULA basically signs over everything to Bill Gates, who I am now completely convinced is the earthly incarnation of Satan.

Monopolysoft does it again. Thank goodness I bought a computer before the huge Micro$oft team started mandating all pc’s with vista, ramping up system requirements to boost the sales of hardware companies that YOU JUST KNOW paid Microsoft special interest dollars.

And a lot of you say “the OS is young, and all these problems can be fixed with just a little tweaking.” You tell that to my ten year old brother. Why should we all need IT degrees to operate a computer?

I hate vista with every fiber of my being.
 

AERO, but nothing else!
 

 I’m selling Vista Microwaves, just insert your CD and enjoy…
 

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kailen
August 22, 2007, 3:52 am

 

i bought a new laptop with intel core 2 duo with 1.73ghz processor speed and 1gb ram. i thought this computer would be fast, but as soon as i received it the thing is way slower than my old desktop with a p4 2.8ghz processor, running xp. any idea if the new sony vaio laptop would be faster if i ran windows xp??
 

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Rick
August 22, 2007, 7:28 pm

 

Microsoft Corp. Headquarters 1-800-642-7676

Let’s all call and inundate their phones with complaints.
 

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Tuffty30
August 30, 2007, 8:17 pm

 

The nightmare that is Vista came pre-installed on my replacement laptop. Very little seems to work. I have gone from being an XP Ninja to a creature with as much IT knowledge as a slightly stupid carrot. EVERYTHING has changed. One giant leap backwards for IT kind! Is vista simple to uninstall? I’m on the look out for a cheap copy of XP. Any offers . . .
 

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Ernz the Ubuntu Fanboy
September 3, 2007, 12:44 am

 Hate Vista? Sick of XP? Give (Ubuntu) Linux a try. I did and I never looked back!

A lot of Windows users don’t understand that Ubuntu can do ALMOST everything that Windows XP/Vista can do, and it can to a lot more on top that Windows doesn’t even come close to AND it is COMPLETELY (Yes, really!) AND UTTERLY FREEEEEE!!!!

It’s not for everyone. It’s not Windows. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing! Give it a go, learn new thing, persevere. It could be the new OS for you.
 

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Jakie L P
September 3, 2007, 12:50 am
 Paid good money for Vista. Major networking issues. Ran the patches and hot fixes, nothing fixed it. I now also use Ubuntu. Vista is a massive pile of SH1T! Maybe one day it will be up for the job, but until then, seriously, fu{k Vista, Fu{k it good.
 

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vistamustdie
September 3, 2007, 12:57 am

 

hi i’m just really pissed off right now, because vista randomly reset all my system settings and deleted a bunch of files without a trace. I really feel like hitting my computer with a hammer..a few last words..FU*K VISTA!!!!
 

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BLUETOOTH
September 6, 2007, 7:27 pm

 

Bluetooth (simple as it is) dosen’t work at all !!!

I dont care who’s fault it is (manufacturer/windows), MS still has the responsibility to make sure there is tighter integration between 3rd party drivers and the system. I just don’t want to spend 3 hours troubleshooting shi* because I HAVE A LIFE !

Vista also has many, many random errors I could write a book about it. Everytime I look at Vista I want to throw up because it gives me a headache. Lucky I have an Apple laptop to use.

finally, FUK YOU VISTA !!!
 

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Ken
September 6, 2007, 7:43 pm

 Vista wants to do everything, but never does well in any one of the things it does. Eg. half asssed drivers, half asssed security, half asssed GUI fixes, half asssed compatibility, half assed @#$@#.

MS amazes me how really, really smart people can make really, really, really dumb products. And I beleive computers for the general population aren’t meant to be that way and we shouldn’t have to carry the burden of being able to run everything out there (that’s for the businesses and corportates).

You know what I mean guys!?

I’ve not only hated vista, but also starting to hate my computer in general because of vista.

So, like it or not, FUÇK the world of Windows !!!!!

 

 

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Colors
September 6, 2007, 8:10 pm
 WUT THE FUKC is up with the colors ???!!!

Baby Bluey windows/ Neon Green bars !!!!! HELLOOOO !!!!

FUKING colorblind nipple sucking designersAnd thats unchangeable on a vista basic machine. (You could install WindowsBlinds, but it makes Vista even slower !!)

JUST that PISSES ME OFF GOOD. Don’t even talk about other problems.

And when I get my new OS X computer, I am Fuking burning my windows machine.

 

 

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Nick
September 10, 2007, 3:56 am
 Yup, I hate Vista too. Enough to finally buy a Mac and give OS X a whirl. Sadly, I hate many things about OS X also, but *far*, *far* less than Vista.When I set up XP, I immediately turn off all the graphical options except mouse shadow and font smoothing. Try doing this in Vista and then check out Windows Explorer - the toolbar looks horrible.

Windows Explorer is the cornerstone of my computing and a big reason why I prefer XP to OS X. Then Microsoft went and skrewed the pooch in Vista - the folder tree looks awful and doesn’t display the hierarchy properly.
 

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Jonathan Coles
September 10, 2007, 3:29 pm
 Iam not in the computer industry and have never joined a forum before but Iam staggered by the poor quality of Vista. XP pre SP1 was not this bad. Only 60% of my software runs and the rest is beginning to fail day by day. This is a product that does not work and Microsoft need to recall or replace straight away - we have all paid good money for this and they are responsible. Iam downgrading to XP at my cost this week and look forward to getting on with some work after weeks of hell.
 

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linux for life

September 11, 2007, 7:15 am

 

i just got a asus g1s-1x laptop. vista is sucks up 1 gig of memmory when its fully booted. it slow as hell. my laptop runs linux and windows xp really fast . but if you like a pretty gui and dont care if thats all you get then go ahead and buy the peice of sh** vista.
 

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Stitch
September 11, 2007, 10:46 pm

 My Personal Review:

I have been using windows Vista for about 3 days now and I have to admit that I am going to be installing XP again

VERY soon.

Vista has kosted me (in those 3 days) about $1200 in software. How? By destroying my CD’s.

I would have a cd in my disk drive, and would TRY to explore the cd with windows explorer. This first of all takes

a hell of a long time, and mostly ends up freezing. After it froze it just kept trying to read the cd. I’d push the

eject button on the cd-drive, and it would open with the disk still spinning, scratching and destroying 3 cd’s so

far.

As far as the layout is concerned, yes, it looks nice, but it slows your system dramatically, even a high-end

system (I have a 4.9 rating). Also when installing software the computer tends to slow down and makes even mouse

movements choppy.

Internet speed seemed to have increased; downloads are faster and web pages load considerably well. However,

copying files over the network (especially large ones) or to another hard drive is a disaster. Sometimes I have to

wait 5 minutes just for Vista to calculate the required time for the copy operation.

The changes in the start menu for me tend to be a little annoying. The search feature at the bottom of the start

menu is definitely a nice and useful feature, however, if you cannot remember the name of the program you will have

to navigate through the menu, and since menu items do not open in stacks anymore, finding something can be a

hassle.

Another thing that bothers me is that some settings are difficult, or require many extra mouse-clicks to find. For

example: Changing the IP settings of a network connection in XP was a snap. Richt-click the connections taskbar

icon, select properties and there it is. In Vista however, you need to press the connections taskbar icon, click on

“Network and sharing center”, then in the window that opens you need to press “view status”, in the window that

opens then you need to press “properties” and then you finally get to the IP settings.

I also have a problem in Vista that some programs, which run fine on XP, do not seem to retain their settings (at

first). This problem I have so far encountered with aMSN and my Bluetooth software for my Bluetooth USB stick.

I am lucky enough to not really have had any driver problems so far, so I about that I have not much to say. I

believe most larger manufacturers now have Vista drivers available for their hardware, depending how old the

hardware is ofcourse.

Vistas security features like Windows Defender, Firewall and Automatic Updates are for standard users that are not

all to familiar or into computers probably welcomed features. However for me they are plain annoying. When opening

a program or changing some settings the “User Account Control” would pop-up asking me if I was sure I wanted to do

the following action…wel duuh! I did push on it didn’t I? Also, when windows update or the firewall or the

windows defender is turned of I would get this nagging text balloon every 10 minutes or so saying my computer was

at risk. Very annoying. True, you can turn all of this off, but it is just added work. Also, eventho I disabled the

security center I would still get that annpying text balloon. Appearently you need to enable the security center,

and then the option to turn off these text balloons would become visible. Then turn of the text balloons, and turn

of the security center. Why make it so difficult?

What bothers me most are not the interface changes, or that sometimes vista is slow. But what DOES bother me is

that Vista, which in itself already is horribly and unnecissarily expensive, that it is even costing me more by

destroying my cd’s, I just hope it does not destroy my cd-rom drives as well.

My conclusion: Although Vista does have some nice features and looks pretty good, these features are pretty much

just “Trash”, things you will rarely need or use, and the Aero just slows down your pc. Right now Vista is a big

no-no for me, however, maybe in the future it will become better.
 

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Darren
September 14, 2007, 10:14 pm
 Vista is just very over flashy distracting with nice little features that don’t mean much. To the average user nothing has changed everything has just become far more complicated. Why should I have to go the long way round to just hide and unhide folders?
 

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Jess hates Vista
September 15, 2007, 2:23 am

 We have a plethora of Windows OS’s on our several computers due to compatibility issues with favorite old programs or hardware that we still use frequently on one machine or the other. My husband has everything working smoothly, usually. But, tired of using one machine for this, another for that, and yet another for something else, I planned to streamline my work to one machine that could receive my photos, scanned images, and run a large reference library program and music presentation program–my new Acer Aspire 3680 and Vista Home (can anyone else moan with me?).

The trouble began immediately. I chalked it up to my fault…at first.

1. Vista does not recognize my camera (off brand), scanner (off brand, but software brand name), or printer (brand name). If camera is recognized, driver loaded from the included software is not recognized. Our other machines use them easily.

This is where I googled “I hate Vista” and “Vista Home sucks!”

2. Purchased Software is combatible with Vista. One program loaded almost completely but the data library was missing from a particular folder, even though it was there. Further, the program would only open if opened as administrator (I have never done that before), but even then it was useless because it did not recognize the data library.

3. Internet programs are combatible with Visa. I tried to download MSN messenger. When the bings and the error messages started flying, I ducked and abandoned the effort. At another site, I can’t get a chat room’s ActiveX allowed to download, no matter how low the security settings are set on the trusted site.

So here I sit, still doing work-arounds, my computer just a glorified word processor/spread sheet and internet surfboard.

EVERY new option is an ordeal that usually ends in failure. This is so not customer satisfaction. At least my craptop accesses the internet well for most functions. Overall, I have down-graded from my previous laptop which was 3 years old (It would have lasted longer, but no one told me a laptop is not to be used on your lap. Go figger.).

I figure these are my options: endure countless hours of pain and suffering as I continue to fight compatibility issues/settings/fixes, whatever; cut my losses, let my laptop envious husband have this headache and get an Apple; or have a Midnight Burning of the Evil Among Us or an Office Space machine smash. The very last sounds most satisfying.

 

 

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Don

September 20, 2007, 1:00 am

 

I never had so much difficulty deleting and managing files I can’t stand Vista and will go back to XP. I wasted so much time trying to get things to work its obsurd. I did a clean install on a new PC but like many people I had old data I wanted to keep

I suppose if you never had a PC before you might be ok with Vista
 

 

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Sandy

September 26, 2007, 8:34 am

 

I Am system administrator once’s i have mention my ip address in Vista o/s i am not able to make changes from my Ip address from DHCP in Vista o/s really it is head ache really VIsta it is have 24 erros in o/s but i think vista is one type of virsu

plz do not use Vista

when microsoft intorduce new version of these vista then u can go thru itsandy
 

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User
September 29, 2007, 8:33 pm
 I`ve been setting up wireles connections this week for 6 different portables that ar using Vista, and only the last one was without problems. Few of them di not recognise security, others did (all 6 situations were sith same security).

And ofcourse, the anoing questions (are you shore, do you realy, etc.)

And another thing is that it feels like someone is trying to force people to use Vista. I`ve got acer to install. Drivers disc did not include XP drivers. I was required to download. thats really anoing.

anyway, after this week, I officialy HATE WINDOWS VISTA, and DO NOT RECOMEND anyone to migrate. maby after a year there will be enough patches…..i hope….however I don`t understand how so many coders can make such a BUGWARE!?!?
 

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Jacquie b
September 30, 2007, 6:45 pm

 

i bought a new pc and could only get vista (yes niaive). I cannot open any attachments on my hotmail or download anthing from the net. I had 5 months of it and suddenly - bam - it went. Am at my wits ends because I cannot run my business effectively without. I hate vista
 

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RGSysMan
October 1, 2007, 2:20 pm

 

Well, as a Systems Manager, I felt I had to purchase and learn everything I could. I picked up a new laptop with Vista Premium pre-loaded. This is a major international name-brand. You know, one of the top three producers in the world. I was shocked at how poorly it performed. The laptop has lots of RAM, so that’s not the issue. Upgraded drivers, etc. Still had problems. All sounds play twice so it’s sounds like ther’s an echo. It nearly goes to sleep when moving from one big app to another. It takes a long time for it to finish whatever it’s doing in the background after I boot it up. Why would an OS use 500MB of RAM when it’s idle, with no apps running? Bad programming, that’s why. I eventually got so sick of it that I wiped the machine clean and installed XP. It runs SO much faster, and there’s never been any sort of problem when using XP. At some point, I reloaded Vista. (I still have to learn about it.) After re-installing, I started getting pop-ups that the registration key was invalid. Called Microsoft… They said that even though I was using the code that was printed on the MS label on the laptop, I’d have to buy a new copy! The laptop now has Windows XP once again, and it will stay that way. Luckily I’m the one who makes the final decisions about OS and application upgrades in my company. We will NEVER buy Windows Vista.
 

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C E Elston
October 6, 2007, 9:51 pm

 

What a fool I was to buy vista it is so difficult to use and runs so slowly!

My old 2.8gig athlon desktop flies in comparison!

At first I thought it was all the ACER bloatware that was crippling my new Laptop so uninstalled it all switched off the Sidebar put Graphics into basic bare minimum settings and it still runs so slow have 1Gig of DDr2 memory but the wretched Video card steals a chunk of that (128Meg) and Vista just won’t run on what’s left why don’t ACER and these companies test the performance of Vista before loading this crap Operating system on them or at least install Hardware and enough memory that can cope! I frequently get timeouts on key system tasks and unresponsive programs that cannot be cancelled in task manager! Or should I be cancelling hung programs another way now in Vista! How could Microsoft release an OS that is so untested and basically so flawed did they ignore all the comments from Beta Testers for the last 6 years?
 

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andrew
October 9, 2007, 1:47 pm

 

what a pile of cra.p vista is turning out to be!!!

i like to save and logically place a few key word documents on the desktop and keep them exactly where i put them. helps me get to key templates very quickly. this worked PERFECTLY with XP and earlier versions, but not with vista. (!!)

everytime i open one of the ‘desktop’ files (word docs) vista moves it to an open space on the desktop and places a temporary file in its place. that OK while i am not looking at the desktop, BUT when i then close the file, with or without making/saving changes, the temporary file disappears but the original file does not move back to proper place. so a gap appears in the files list on the desktop and my last file is out on a limb “over there” instead.

this is pants! i cannot logically order my desktop if it is going to bl**dy move around all the time. auto arrange is off, and the other ’sorting by type’ and other aligning things have been tried in every concievable combination and it still does not fix it.
 

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Paul
October 9, 2007, 7:13 pm

 The only WOW vista gone from me is “WOW this is a loada crap.”

“upgraded” to XP today
 

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Paul
October 9, 2007, 7:15 pm

 The only WOW vista got from me is “WOW this is a loada crap.”

“upgraded” to XP today

 

 

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Bob
October 11, 2007, 10:35 pm
 There is nothing wrong with vista
 

 

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Bob
October 11, 2007, 10:37 pm
 I have yet to have a single problem with it.
 

 

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MamaLana
October 12, 2007, 1:04 am
 I hate Vista! NONE of my old programs work, so now I have to have two laptops to do what I used to do with one. Piece of cr*p.
 

 

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australianguy
October 12, 2007, 9:49 am
 I have a very good pc (dual core,2.4ghz,1gb ram, geforce 7600gs), with vista home premium,

none of my old games work, fifefox takes one minute to start, the new aero interface looks like apple. i want to destroy several of the menus and also, hawky, how can we know that we bought a piece of shi.t until we observe it in action? one program works like it should, and it happens to be counter-strike. the problem with this is that the game is constantly interupted with security menus that ask questions that could be answered by a small child. I, truly, completely LOATHE vista.
 

 

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MRCanada
October 16, 2007, 1:12 am
 Vista is a disorganized mess. Items on the desktop may or may not be visible depending where you view from, deleted files may or may not go in the recycle bin (they may disappear permanently with no warning), files arbitrarily lock and can not be deleted or renamed (very frustrating when it happens on the desktop), almost everything seems to need to be updated or patched. Several time a day I get the message ‘this program has stopped running’, and the ‘go online to find a solution to this problem’ stopped working after 3 days. Many tasks that used to be easy and intuitive are now hidden deep within the control panel or elsewhere (audio input for example came defaulted to line in, so voice recognition, skype etc do not work, and you can no longer change it in the volume mixer). Some programs (openOffice for example) take much longer to open and save documents. If you run a download and install, vista will terminate the install and not cache the download if you don’t respond to the prompt after download. If you set two “open with” options for a file, vista creates its own names for each, and they can’t be edited. The start menu is an unmanageable mess that no longer supports drag and drop. Every file move in the start menu requires a security check!
 

 

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Kevin
October 17, 2007, 6:16 pm
 Vista is a piece of crap! I have gone back to XP on my Windows machine.
 

 

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flow700
October 18, 2007, 8:33 am
 Hello,Just a quick rant to say that I hate, I hate, I hate Vista. Bill G. must suffer the flying fist of Juda. … XP is good though … still, I might, for the first time, consider a Linux based OS … hmmmm
 

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Debbie
October 27, 2007, 2:10 pm
 After wasting a week trying to get my new ‘toys’ to work on vista (which was on my lap top when i got it) ie canon printer , camera eos, card reader and multimedia drive all i was told would work with vista, Thinking it was me!I kept going over and over And then I tryed them on my xp computer. And there they were just poped up in front of me, all my toys working . vista did not read any of the drivers even if i downloaded them from the websites insead of the disks . so thats when it all fell into place its not me its VISTAS I said to my hubsband some where there must be a ‘ I hate vistas site ‘ and here you are Thank you I have had many a problem that all makes sence now after reading your site and feel so much better for it.
 

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Winston
October 31, 2007, 4:57 pm

 

Vista DVD in teh blender!
 

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Leo
November 1, 2007, 8:07 pm

 I have been using Windows for the past two decades, since 3.1. Since then I have had the pleasure of experiencing alot of different OS types and distributions.

Windows VISTA, to be quite honest, should be shot, quartered, hung and then… shot again. What a slow troublesome experience it has been, since day one. It clearly doesn’t support the power-user experience and floods you with all these stupid ’security messages’. It makes me think of the doors in Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

Linux, here I come!

Linux, here I come!
 

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Park82November 5, 2007, 2:32 pm

 What were they thinking?

-Let’s make a os that completely slows down your machine – reducing productivity.

-Let’s bombard users with security warnings to make them scream!

-Let’s make it an absolute nightmare to find drivers for older hardware.

-Let’s make accessing simple info much, much harder!

-Lets make a os will do exactly what Microsoft wants it to do and nothing you want it to do.

-Let’s make a os that will eat up as much as possible of all available recourses.

Micro$oft is designing operating systems for mindless users, I am going to look into Linux, this is absurd.

 

 

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davidi75
November 8, 2007, 4:32 am
 I can understand driver issues, as its quite new, but its WAY WAY too slow on my brand new E7700 core2duo 2GB ram laptop.lets say we enter a command on the start button like MSTSC /v:computer /console. It will not remember it! how stupid, XP did hell windows 98 did

how about accessing a vpn, only to tell me “you need an active internet connection” mind you, this is while im writing this!

My HDD light may aswell be called a “VISTA INSTALLED” light, because it never stops.

lets copy some files over the network while playing an mp3, and watch it crawl.

lets buy double the computer to do half as much, so long as we have the pritty AERO to look at!
 

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Liam
November 11, 2007, 6:21 am
 Thankfully I have not purchased Vista, but all my friends who have used it, hate it, and have all gone back to XP. It’s a giant step backwards, a retarded operating system, for retarded users. It keeps asking you stuid questions, whilst at the same time completely failing to do a simple task you told it to do.
 

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Park82
November 14, 2007, 2:33 pm

 Hi check out Vista vs XP vs Ubuntu on youtube…

 

 

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Russ
November 19, 2007, 12:00 am
 I have just about used them all Sinclair, Amiga, Commodore, Amstrad ect and have used all the versions of Windows. Vista has the priviledge of being the only operating system that has frustrated me so much that I smashed my keyboard in temper. Its back to Xp for me.
 

 

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Gids
November 21, 2007, 7:35 pm
 If I had my way I’d throw BG out of one of his “windows” with his Vista OS cd stuck firmly where the sun doesn’t shine.I believe the term is to defenestrate him, courtesy of Facebook!

I wonder where my XP discs are?
 

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M@
November 23, 2007, 8:19 pm

 My mother’s computer recently crashed (hardware failure) and I had her purchase a new one from Dell, mainly because every Dell I have ever owned (a long list) has performed wonderfully and reliably (until waaay too old).

She purchased the Dell Inspiron 531, a very nice machine for the price. It however came with Vista. I had heard the news about Vista, but thought it mainly was coming from power users and would be fine for my mom.

How could a single man be any more wrong. Vista literally ruined her life for several weeks just trying to get her internet and camera working, then almost every piece of software she owned and used regularly for years on XP wouldn’t work, which shut down my parents business entirely.

I responded by wiping the drive and installing XP, only to discover that the hardware Dell had installed on the Inspiron 531b DOESN’T WORK WITH XP?!?!?!? What the !@#$ was Dell thinking?!

I still stand by Dell, and they have stepped in and are working with my mom to get her the same computer but with XP (shipping a new one at no extra cost) but their support lines are deadlocked when they are usually clear, and the only reason I can imagine is that they made the very, very poor business decision to support Microsoft.

Microsoft - you surprised the industry with XP, but you have completely destroyed all hopes and severely disrupted it with Vista. Screw you.

M@
 

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?
November 27, 2007, 12:14 am
 OH MY GOSH!!!.. STUPID VISTA DOESN’T EVEN HAVE AN UPDATED FLASH PLAYER OR WHAT!!?? I CAN’T WATCH ANYTHING FROM YOUTUBE!!!.. ITS FUNNY BECAUSE SOMETIME I GO AND IT WORKS! AND THEN A DAY LATER I WENT BACK AND IT DOESNT WORK!!!! NOT JUST THAT BUT DAMN.. THIS FAWKEN EXPENSIVE SHYET DOESNT EVEN HAVE OFFICE?!!! OR WHAT!!? I KNOW IT HAD WORD OR WHATEVER.. BUT I WANT OFFICE!!
 

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Jerry Springer
November 27, 2007, 1:37 pm

 

Vista is a piece of poo. I would rather use windows 95
 

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Andrew Horn
November 27, 2007, 1:39 pm

 

I have Vista. I hate it so much that I want to rip my head off
 

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Lightseeker
November 30, 2007, 6:59 am

 

?- You dumb ass!! No windows release had office included. If you want office, go buy it. Or download open office it’s free. That is if you manage to turn on your computer seems that you can’t even turn off caps lock. Ps. Vista suck big time.
 

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Ripster
December 3, 2007, 2:35 am

 

I just got a new PC with loaded with Vista, because that’s what Staples told me is the way it is. “OK” I thought naively “This’ll be like when I had to learn XP - a few new tricks, a few simple changes, no problem” Well, after two weeks of trying to unravel this damn thing, I have to say that Vista sucks like the black hole in the middle of the Milky Way. It takes an all nighter to figure how to do stuff that you could do in XP with one or two clicks. And oh, yeah, have you noticed that Office 2007 has been Vista-ized to keep you guessing how it works too? My next system is going to be a Mac. I hope Bill Gates burns in cyber-hell.
 

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KILL BILL
December 3, 2007, 6:27 pm

 Just got Acer laptop loaded with the trash known as Vista. My lovely wife got me an early xmas gift. I do design work and hoped Vista would be able run AutoCAD.

NO LUCK….unless I go BUY 2008 versions.

Well, maybe I can downgrade to XP.

The MS support staff has informed me ‘home premium’ version has no downgrade rights, so I can’t even get XP unless I buy it.

What a pile of crap.

Either I pay for all new software or buy a new OS.

VISTA SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

KILL BILL

 

 

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Maxxer
December 23, 2007, 10:25 pm
 

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katrina_quiming
December 26, 2007, 7:20 pm
 

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JBone
January 14, 2008, 8:10 pm
 

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ixtreme
January 27, 2008, 12:48 am
 

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aldokriel
February 24, 2008, 8:26 pm
 

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passivesquid
March 13, 2008, 12:17 am
 

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clarkson
March 17, 2008, 10:17 pm
 

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altec
March 19, 2008, 10:08 am
 

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ducaphil
March 25, 2008, 3:47 pm
 

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pc4lyfe
March 30, 2008, 7:26 pm
 

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pc4lyfe
March 30, 2008, 7:29 pm
 

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pc4lyfe
March 30, 2008, 10:14 pm
 

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lemonbone
April 5, 2008, 7:50 pm
 

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darthwalrus
April 14, 2008, 10:22 am
 

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lambayapufde
April 17, 2008, 7:57 am
 

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sparky
April 18, 2008, 7:03 pm
 

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N95_Rulez
April 24, 2008, 9:53 pm
 

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Paradimn
May 5, 2008, 4:25 am
 Plus, Vista “needs” 800Mo+ IN IDLE STATE ! (Yeah, because you really do need all those clocks on your desktop when you boot your computer, just like you need the Weather Forecast every time !).

Finally, I am a HUGE XP LOVER, but I bought this piece of sheit since PsychoSoft was nice enough to COMPLETELY DISCARD XP from DirectX 10 (and yes, I also love to game) so thank you DirectX 9.0c which doesn’t give you 100% of any recent games !

So, EVEN IF you’re a gamer, DON’T GET VISTA (DirectX 10 isn’t worth that much pain) just Stay on XP Pro SP2 (which saves you ~500Mo of RAM for your games and TONS of stability) !

That’s my advice from Geneva
 

Hey, MICROSOFT! I’ve got something to say. Suck it, just like your OS.
 

The only people that love Vista are:

1. Microsoft stock holders

2. Authors that love wrinting fiction about Vista
 

Windows Vista is apalling. I have more crashes and compatabilty issues than I can handle. This is after buying everthing new from router to printer to cables. What a waste of time and money. APPLE must be laughing, I know that I am not.
 

 

If only Vista would work with my mobile…. i would be happy. :sigh:
 

 

This works word processor is a real pain. My friends who still have xp have to convert my docs to word. I am unemployed and need to upload my resumes, because its a wps and not a doc. I cant upload my resume. is there a microsoft word doc program I can download free or a converter so I can make my wps into docs. thanks. Vista is not all its cracked up to be and all the hype was not worth it. there was nothing wrong with xp. if it aint broke dont fix it. you messed up microsoft.
 

 

Hi from Turkey, Same here, didnt come across with anybody likes Vista yet, people believe that who will use this vista must have no experience with computer, no codecs, no downloads, no personalisation nothing. just use it as it is. i fell like im on a 1991 Sega Games console, even Sega and commodore 64 was more fun to solve problems. Computer insults you like you are an idiot, you are not allowed to get out of the frame. While you want to do smth on it, you have 2 options than you have 3 options than you have 2 more options than it gooooes forever. So it makes you feel that you have to follow these stupid steps otherwise you cannot solve a f… codec problem. Mind online help? NOO!!!

i can do it dude just let me do it!!! no you have 2 options? Noooo!!! i wanna do it by my self!!! Now you have 2 options? damn Vista just leave me alone!!! No you have 3 options? I QUIT!! It is a biiig disadvantage to have Vista on Laptops lately for many reasonable causes. Battery life, Processor speed, Rams and soooo on. In otherways i saw people who thought they Turn off the computer from Start–>Shut down key, until i told them that they are just taking it to standby!!! Dough!!! So thats why sometimes i just feel like these burgers are swallowing our brains? Dude whats going on with people?
 

 

I would rather use DOS then ever use PISSTA. It completely f*cked my laptop, turning it into a Cirtified For Windows Vista “Craptop”.

*Slaps keyboard of “craptop” in despair*
 

 

Vista has a very good visual impact compare to the old OS. However, one program I hate the most “Internet Explorer”, still no improvement at all. Seconly, Vista isn’t actually too bad but use up too much space and ram. I hope they Microsoft can optimze the overall performance. And also improve performance on DX10.
 

 

o i get it

this a place 4 all u geeks wit no social life

to talk about the newest best systems that arent good enough 4 u

well i bet 1 million bucks u couldnt do any better
 

 

n hawky is rite u british bastards

n its not even 4 u its 4 americans DUH
 

 

u brits r some BSers

vista is VISCIOUS

in order 2 make this website u must have no damn lives u probably live in yo mommas basement
 

 

Ok, I must admit, i actually BOUGHT Vista ! Yeah, I made the mistake about 6 months ago and I was amased by the numerous “confirmation” windows appearing EVERY TIME I clicked on anything (yeah, like accessing my “System” Menu in the Configuration Pannel !!

It’s like have a policeman in your own home. It’s a big timewaster too. Today I had to make some simple CD inlay cards. It took all morning - I could have done it quicker with Letraset. I used Windows XP for years and hardly ever noticed it. Now I almost get tearful when I see it on other peoples machines. I want to change operating systems but apparently it’s doubtful that drivers exist for the motherboard in this new computer.

It seems to me that Vista is designed for airheads with low expectations, a lot of time on their hands and no desire to do anything other than catalogue their photos and organise music into categories.

I cannot understand how, having spent years developing XP until it works pretty well perfectly, they change everything and come up with this useless piece of crap. Well actually yes I can - a lot of my software has so many compatability issues that I’ll probably be forced into upgrading just about everything at more than the cost of the new computer.

I used to love working with computers. Vista makes me hate it.
 

 

I find that it runs very slow on my PC. Mind you I only get a rating of 3!

I love the aero interface, but it is just so slow… so I run it in classic.. which just looks like XP, so in my opinion defeats the object of having vista!
 

 

the one big problem i have with this is all the extras that slow down he compueter i timed my brand new laptop with vista vs. my old esktop with xp (both have comprable stats about) it takes the brand new laptop so much onger to star up hna my old crappy desk top… also because its on a laptop i have no floppy drive to make boot disks for my favorite games (im old school) like warcraft 2 ,full throttle, x wingvs tie fighter, ect. id realy rather just go back to window xp or 2000 or even 98.
 

 

I am switching to Ubuntu…I have had enough issues, crashes, to to mention to incompatibilities…Good luck to all of you using it. It should have never been released to the market.
 

 

There are just countless problems with this OS. It should be scrapped!
 

 

I understand. Microsoft has lost the ideal of fair and productive capitalism. Instead, it’s just “make money, even if I do screw millions of people in the proccess”

simply sucks. not user friendly, hate using it.
 

 

The business world has already laughed Vista out the door.

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