Top 10 Reasons People Hate Windows Vista

Posted on January 6th, 2009 by Brian Nelson 38 Comments »

Recently, I wrote an article regarding the idea of Skipping Windows Vista.

Since then, what was once one of many possible ideas has built momentum toward becoming the plan dictated by conventional wisdom.

While this bandwagon may have already gained too many passengers and too much speed to stop now, one can’t help but wonder exactly what the problem is with Vista. Ask around and you will get the same answer over and over.

"People hate Vista."

As someone who continues to analyze the question of Vista in the context of the value of doing a workstation OS migration along with a server OS migration (XP to Vista and Server 03 to 08), I know that the success of any project is often determined by the reactions of users. So, what is it exactly, that people hate about Vista. Here are the Top 10 things people hate about Microsoft’s Windows Vista.

Top 10 Things People Hate About Vista

1. We Fear Change

A great deal of the griping about Vista comes from the simple fact that it is different. Users complained bitterly about “losing” files which were simply placed in a different location. Let’s face it, putting anything and everything inside My Documents was starting to wear out its welcome, and while power users may have been well aware that My Documents was under the Documents and Settings folder, not everyone really ever grasped that. The new file locations make sense once you are willing to learn something new.

2. User Account Control (UAC)

The biggest single problem with the image of Vista has been the User Account Control. It may also cause the greatest leap forward in computer security and software quality since the invention of the PC. The truth is that for years now, some vendors have thrown together drivers and programs without much thought to writing good software. The theory was to just get something working and then ship it out the door.

For better or worse, Microsoft had gotten Windows XP to the point where virtually worthless code could still function without adversely affecting too many users or systems. However, there were significant security issues with this model. Virtually every program or driver required Admin privileges to be installed, and with various hooks and processes reaching deep into the core of the OS, stability and security issues were constantly arising.

Unfortunately, the UAC carried the design flaw of asking “Are You Sure,” over and over to the user who eventually gave up reading any of the boxes. Even worse, the UAC grabbed full control of the computer and forced users to interact with it. Users never like to be forced to do anything, even if it is for their own good.

3. Slower Not Faster

Chalk this one up to a corporate blunder. Microsoft was trying to be the good guy to the vendors and companies it works with. Unfortunately, this made it the bad guy to the users of the Vista OS. Systems running anything near the minimum specifications for Vista did see a pretty big performance hit. Still users with more powerful systems complain that XP is faster. Sure it is. It does less. That isn’t rocket science.

However, I think everyone agrees that it is time for Microsoft to spend a little more time optimizing its code, and a little less time “integrating” every new technology into the OS so it can’t be required to remove it.

4. Hogs Memory

When Vista first came out, it was common practice among IT savvy people of all levels to monitor a system’s memory usage. If memory usage spiked up with the installation of a new program, one could assume that program was not well coded and wasted system resources.

However, Vista had a new memory management paradigm. The idea was, why not use all of the memory that is there. Free memory is wasted memory — was the mantra. In fact, this is a great idea and can substantially improve performance. The problem is that people didn’t understand that there was a new memory model in effect, so it looked like Vista was “hogging” all of that memory. This plus #4 equaled more than a few people screaming about bloat and inefficiency.

5. Constant Hard Drive Activity

Whether it’s the constantly blinking hard drive light, or actually being able to hear a high speed drive spin up, it doesn’t take long to notice that Vista is constantly accessing your hard disk. It takes even less time to jump to the conclusion that Vista is too big and inefficient to load itself and run programs without making tremendous use of the swap file and other disk based storage.

In reality, this activity is a byproduct of the new memory model which attempts to always take advantage of all available memory. In order to do this, the OS has to load something into memory to fill the space. It also has to take something out of memory and put it back on the hard drive when a new program or process starts that needs to use some of that “full” memory. If you aren’t aware of what is going on, it does seem like the hard drive is being used too often.

6. Drivers, Drivers, Drivers

If anything did more damage to Vista in user’s minds than the UAC, it was the seemingly nightmarish lack of drivers for various hardware. Microsoft took the blame for this one, when in reality the hardware vendors were to blame.

Vista was never a secret, nor was its new, improved, more stable driver model. Vendors literally had years to build drivers for Vista, but drivers don’t make money, or buzz, or press, so they were ignored until it was too late. The vendors, of course, quickly took to blaming Vista for “breaking” their drivers.

7. Games

There can be debate among reasonable men, the extent to which Microsoft should be held accountable for its operating system’s ability to play video games. With a half-dozen gaming consoles, including Microsoft’s own Xbox, one might consider that it isn’t Vista’s job to play high-end games. The Gamers of the world politely (and not so politely) disagree.

Any true power gamer has long since replaced several components of any computer system from the vendor, even so-called gaming systems. Spend five minutes on any gaming forum and you’ll see posts ranging from over-clocking hardware, to upgrades that require a soldering iron. Over the years, these communities have learned to stretch their gaming power to the limits without breaking XP. That experience, of course, is missing on Vista. Tricks that once produced additional power, now produce crashes.

8. Can’t See The Improvements

Many of Vista’s improvements are under the hood. Better security, improved stability, tighter driver models, better memory usage, automatic hard drive defragmenting, an I/O model that allows for lower priorities for “behind the scenes” tasks — are all leaps forward in OS architecture. But, none of them are really visible to Joe User who has to wonder what they paid extra for when their PC came loaded with Vista.

9. Forced Upgrade

No manufacturer can be expected to sell last year’s model forever, but when Microsoft announced that it would no longer allow people to purchase Windows XP, it seemed like the company was bullying users into using a product that they didn’t want. The problem was exacerbated when Microsoft let loose Service Pack 3 which solidified the idea in many user’s head that XP was still a “current” operating system and the only reason Microsoft wouldn’t let them buy it was dollars.

What many people fail to understand is just how long after a product stops selling that Microsoft must support it. The cut-off for XP was more about starting the clock ticking down on XP support, than about forcing users to buy Vista.

10. Windows XP Was a Really Good OS

Much of Vista’s criticism comes in the form of “XP is better. Whether this is true or not, it shows that users have come to both understand, and respect Windows XP. Over the years, various patches, updates and three service packs have turned it into a solid workhorse that can be counted on by home users and corporations alike who with millions of installed systems, are not surprisingly reluctant to undertake the huge task of replacing that systems.

Windows XP was not universally loved when it was first released either. As a computer consultant at the time, I can remember the multitude of complaints and criticisms then as well. The difference was that Windows XP replaced Windows 95/98 which was never a very good operating system. The migration to XP came with the idea that at least it wasn’t Windows 95. This time, it’s different. People look at Windows XP and see a perfectly good if dated operating system.

Windows 7 is apparently coming as fast as Microsoft can get it here, but as early looks have shown, Windows 7 is the next version of Vista, not the next version of XP. In the end, it seems Vista will be Microsoft’s OS of the future, it just might have a new name.

Tags: Microsoft, Operating Systems, UAC, Windows, Windows OS, Windows Vista, Windows XP

38 Responses to “Top 10 Reasons People Hate Windows Vista”

Faris Mlaeb Says:

January 8th, 2009 at 11:15 am

YES.
Another thing.. Why Microsoft Change the standerd like
I usually access Add/Remove Program using RUN command and I type appwiz.cpl
this is senice Windows ME
Why MS change this.. and Also almost everything that you know its location has been changed,,,
Now as a new system is installed in your maanger PC and when the manager request something to do on his vista.. you may need to take a longer time to do it that will make your Manager think that you are a bad IT..
These 2 thing I really hate

THanks
Paul Harding Says:

January 8th, 2009 at 11:25 am

I agree with Faris Mlaeb – it now takes a long time to write two (completely) different sets of instructions for users to do even simple things, and it is amazing how pointlessly different the interface can be between XP and Vista. Try writing instructions to an end user to do something and then rewrite them for Vista. Vista’s methods are often longer (more clicks) and have worthless changes that could so easily have remained the same. if MS realised we are all happy XP users, then build on that, they’d have got the right approach.
Vanessa Peoples Says:

January 8th, 2009 at 11:48 am

I agree with these Top ten reasons why people hate Vista. In my work world I am the help desk for the district office IT department at the community colleges. For some of these reasons listed we have postponed releasing Vista to our clients (District staff and employees) based on a few high end users that we tested. I would conclude in this environment that our top 3 reasons for postponing deployment are:
1) #6-Drivers, Drivers, Drivers
2) #2 User Account Control
3) #1 We fear change

I personally like the Vista, changes and challeges are good! Our biggest challenges in the educational spectar are resources and users ability to accept changes.
Danny Moragne Says:

January 8th, 2009 at 7:35 pm

Sounds to me like the author wants to put all the blame for Vista’s bad rep on the end user and/or the hardware vendors disincentive for writing new Vista drivers (for existing hardware), while exonerating Microsoft of any part in this operating systems unpopularity.

While many of the “10 reasons” DO represent end-user resistance to change, AND a misunderstanding of Microsoft’s reasons for instituting them in Vista, I don’t share his enthusiasm for ALL the changes from XP

To begin with, Microsoft failed miserably, from the get-go, in explaining just what these changes would be, and WHY they made sense. Maybe, just maybe, if they had been more up-front about the performance “hits” the changes would cause, AND the high end hardware it would require for even a minimally acceptable “user experience”, people may not have experienced such disillusionment with this new OS

And, maybe, we end-users have been spoiled by the rapid advances in the IT industry, to expect each new advance in technology to bring improvements in speed, utility, and intuitiveness of function. But in truth, Vista, for whatever reason, provides little or none of these.

Yes, it is a more secure system than XP could ever be, and more stable too. And, yes, some of the changes in the user interface make more sense – once the users makes the time to learn more about them.

Many of us invested some amount of time (from moderate to considerable), to learn to use the XP tools effeciently and effectively. And although the placement of the various controls and files in Vista may be more intuitive and make more sense, for such a complex system, the learning curve is not negligible.

But, at the end of the day, NONE of the improvements in security, stability, the smart use of available resources, OR the sensible re-arangements of the user interface are any good if the tool looses much of its utility. And after all is said and done, the computer, with all it’s hardware and software, is just that – a TOOL to get things done.

XP had (and still has) many drawbacks, but we didn’t have to spend an inordinate amount of time re-learning to find where all it’s controls were moved, or waiting on it to complete routine tasks. And we could (usually) count on XP to help us complete the tasks at hand, with minimal frustration. THAT, more than anything else, is what’s wrong with Vista.
Roach Master Says:

January 11th, 2009 at 5:42 pm

Unlike many, I love Vista. Vista Ultimate is the best OS to come on the scene in a long time. The problem is most users these days consider themselfs “power user” or as “Computer savy” …. so when they are not able to google a solution for their issue, they blame the OS and Microsoft. Also the marketing campain by the computer industries costume jewerly maker MAC and its multi million dollor ad campain has added to falicy’s associated with vista. Cudo’s goes to apple for a great ad campain to seduce users with shiny packaging. Windows 7 has me excited, so far it runs great.
Brian Nelson Says:

January 13th, 2009 at 10:04 am

Thanks for the comments.

Faris – One can debate whether the Vista method for certain tasks is an improvement or not. However, not changing something just because people are used to it, is a recipe for stale software. Palm stuck by the don’t change it theory for too long and have a paid a steep price for it.

Paul – Again, whether Vista is better or not can be debated, but the two sets of documentation are unavoidable. This could be said of every upgrade of every program. Office 2007 requires completely different documentation than earlier Office documentation. It would even take two sets of docs to handle two versions of Mac OS.

Vanessa – The drivers thing is coming along but you are correct that any sizable environment is likely to have at least one critical piece of hardware that cannot yet be supported by Vista.

Danny – You may have misunderstood my intention with the article. I meant to quantify why people hate Vista, not why they SHOULD or should not hate Vista. The hardware vendors DID do a terrible job of supplying drivers. Drivers are the responsibility of hardware vendors, not Microsoft. Unfortunately, Microsoft has come through on this front before, and I think many hardware vendors simply didn’t want to dedicate the resources to this effort.

I believe my point #8 speaks to what you are saying about WHY people should upgrade. There is no killer application, no giant performance boost, and no real user perceptible value in the upgrade. 3D-graphics? Why do I need that? — So, agreed.

In regards to the time and effort spent learning XP the answer is that it is irrelevant. If your company rolls out a new accounting system, you have to learn the new system even if you spent a long time learning the old system. If the new system is better, then you have to expect that the extra effort pays off over the long term. Again, while debating whether or not Vista improves things is valid, simply being against something being done another way because you already know the old way, is just resistance to change (point #1).

Finally, I do NOT think that Microsoft is not culpable in Vista’s many problems, both real and perceived. I think significant blunders were made, not the least of which was that Vista was ready for beta when it shipped, not for release. SP1 is what Vista should have been when it shipped. Furthermore, the user interface on the UAC is atrocious. It was obviously not reviewed by anyone with expertise in that arena since it violates virtually all the universally accepted “Dont’s” of interface design.

Of all 10 of my points, I believe that the only ones that are possibly just user ignorance are #4 and #5. Even then, Microsoft failed miserably in communicating what was going on and why such that users drew the wrong conclusions. All the other points are valid complaints.

Roach – I agree that Vista Premium and Ultimate CAN be the best OS in a long time. Unfortunately, between minimum system requirements that are too low (ask any computer pro how much memory your computer should have for Vista and you will universally hear “4 GB” while MS minimum is just 1 GB) and problems that can be caused by hardware and software that aren’t that old, it CAN also be a pretty lame OS.

In my experience 90% of the users who like Vista got it on a brand new computer. Since they don’t have any of these problems, they can focus on the good and ignore or get used to the one or two things that occur for them.
Kevin Says:

January 13th, 2009 at 11:17 am

I spent the last year or so getting all of my environment “working” with Vista. I finally took the plunge and started deploying Vista on any new workstations coming in. I must say that at this point I wouldn’t even dream of going back to XP. People truly need to stop being manipulated by the press and take a good hard look at Vista. As an Administrator I find Vista’s GP infinitely superior to XP. This is invaluable on a network that is constantly being challenged by 3rd party software downloads, unauthorized ActiveX installations and Spyware infections. Vista allows you to “lock” the OS down as tightly as you want too in ways that XP never did. It’s time to wake up and smell the coffee about Vista. Do the legwork to get your infrastructure compatible with Vista and stop crying about “change”.
Best Reasons to Hate Windows Vista | ArcticLlama Says:

January 16th, 2009 at 9:21 am

[...] Recently, I got to write a fun article for the folks at Train Signal Training about the Top 10 Reasons People Hate Windows Vista. [...]
Fintan Says:

February 21st, 2009 at 7:47 pm

Reasons to hate Vista?

1 Drivers, Drivers drivers. – Has to be the number one bugbear.

2 The name – every joker wants to add ‘hasta la’ at the front of it. How can you take it seriously after that.

3 The colour scheme: that blue is cold and icy and has no depth or warmth -manages to make Windows Media Player, which is shiny and new in XP, look drab and flat. Yes I suppose you can customise it but it takes up so much time.

4. Don’t forget the memory. Seems every time a new version of Windows comes out it needs more HD space and more RAM.

5. Not so much we fear change, more ‘Buddy can you spare some change?’
In these tough financial times companies and individuals simply cannot afford to keep replacing their OS every couple of years with all the associated additional costs for compatible hardware, software and retraining.

6. The WOW starts when? After all the hype it is a big letdown. Yes, most users won’t see the ‘improvements’ under the hood and will just see the eyecandy.

7. User Account Control and ‘This action needs elevating.’ Now you can’t install your ‘old’ programs without all these new incomprehensible error messages and restrictions. Had to use Google, on an XP machine, to find the answers. In the end my Office 2003 did work but my Mcafee didn’t!
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April 25th, 2009 at 9:29 am

[...] and releasing a Version 2.0 was the better strategic route, but Microsoft no doubt hopes to put the bad taste left in people’s mouth by Vista behind it and move forward with the shiny unsullied Windows brand name. Will that move pay [...]
E Doody Says:

April 27th, 2009 at 6:36 am

Am I wrong in thinking that a Training company/consultant would fail to see what the “Vista Experience” is like for the average user and only see it as another training “opportunity”. Let me put it like this,

1. For the business user it stinks. Vast expense for upgrade of equipment, software and training and even then many applications will no longer run. And what exactly are the benefits the business user gets out of this?
2. For the “average” home user. A UAC which is so annoying anyone with any sense will just switch the thing off and live with the consequences. Simple things like copying files, wireless networking are so slow or unreliable a frontal lobotomy seems a good idea and don’t even get me started on playing old games.
3. For the “savvy” home user. Windows Explorer now reduced to a totally useless and very, VERY annoying shell (excuse the pun) of what it used to be – and it was never brilliant in the first place. Administrators aren’t allowed to administer anymore (yes I know that is a security “feature”) and instead of feeling enpowered to use YOUR OWN COMPUTER you feel like a slave to the O/S. “Please Sir, can I delete a file?”.
4. For everyone. Microsoft seem to written Vista to get Firefox to hang frequently and their own alternative (IE) isn’t too good either. A pretty interface (if its not Home Basic) which eats resources and masks an underlying mess. Changes to terminology, menus, tools, folder locations made for no good reason other than to give the impression of change.

I am not a computer illiterate, I have been in Personal Computing (Windows based) for over 15 years. However Microsoft’s insistence on doing things “their way” or not at all (ever tried storing documents outside of the User folder?) and their inability to recognise the computer as belonging to me and not to them has pushed me too far. I will NOT under any circumstances procure computer equipment where it is compulsorilly pre-installed with Vista and yes I am responsible for doing this for my company. My own equipment is reverted to XP and when that is no longer an option then Linux here I come.

There are thousands, maybe millions of disgruntled Vista users and if you believe that is all down to user “ignorance” of Vista or Microsoft taking the blame for other companies failings then I am astounded.
Brian Nelson Says:

April 29th, 2009 at 9:33 am

Both consultants and training companies can see when software isn’t right. Training companies (but not consultants) have an obligation to provide training regardless of their feelings about any product.

In writing this article, it was my intention to take an honest straightforward look at Vista and why people ended up disliking it. There are a million bash-Vista or bash-Microsoft articles out there and we weren’t looking to rehash them.

1. You are correct that the front end of Vista shows little compelling reason to upgrade for business. For large organizations, Vista does have improvements that can help on large networks, enterprises that do a lot of automated things, and especially businesses that put significant effort into locking down and standardizing their desktops. Again, these are not so helpful for small and medium sized businesses. And, I believe the slow or non-existent adoption of Vista in the business world bears out your contention that the reason to move simply wasn’t there.

2. I agree that UAC was horribly implemented. I think it may be the worst user interface design I’ve seen. Something like Comodo Defense+ comes a lot closer to getting this right. But, the latest scorn over the Cornficker virus, plus the continuous bash of Windows as “unsecure” all add up to proof that something has to change. It is much easier to just leave the door of your house open, but that means anyone can come in. Locking the door means that your TV will be there when you come back home, but with the inconvenience of having to carry keys with you everywhere you go. Do a Google search for Windows 7’s version of UAC which is much more user friendly. Do you find a bunch of kudos for making the software easier to use, or do you find a bunch of articles pointing out that it is less secure? One wonders what exactly would be acceptable?

3. Windows Explorer has always been mostly useless. I’ve been using Xplorer2 for as long as I can remember. But, the fact is that 90% of non-IT users don’t use explorer. Don’t forget that the folders thing was copied from Macintosh because it was so “user friendly” and amazing, and why can’t Microsoft do something like that. Drag and drop big icons is how the masses want their file management to be.

4. I’ve run Firefox forever without any trouble. Ironically Firefox itself is a giant resource hog, especially memory. That was supposed to be one of the key improvements in version 3.

As far as changes, it always comes down to trying to make something better but upsetting the people who already know how to do it the old way. Frankly, there is no way to know what is best until it ships and the masses try it out. I think the ribbon interface in the new Office products is a huge improvement, but others complain about not being able to do what they have always done.

I find it interesting that you say Microsoft insists on doing things their way. I’ve always thought that about Apple. Microsoft lets you install any hardware or software you want and configure it however you want.

I’m not sure what difficulty you have putting documents outside the user folder. Most high end PCs I’ve seen have a Data drive and a OS drive. The OS drive has the user folder, the Data drive has all the documents. Since most apps will remember where you last stored documents it should be easy to use any folder you want.

I hardly believe that all of Vista’s shortcomings are user ignorance. The drivers thing was not user ignorance, though it seems unfair that Microsoft is supposed to do the job of every hardware manufacturer by writing their drivers for them. I think the UAC was terribly implemented. And there are others.

However, SOME of the issues were user ignorance, or just plain resistance to change. You support computers in the business arena I’m sure that every time you upgrade just about anything you get complaints from users no matter how big the improvement is because they were already used to the old way. It’s just the nature of the beast.

Thanks for you comments. It is clear that you have made some thoughtful analysis. Perhaps Windows 7 will be more to your liking. If not, I hear that Ubuntu is a pretty sweet deal these days. I look forward to dual-booting my system.

Brian
EEDoody Says:

May 11th, 2009 at 9:06 am

Brian,

Thanks for the very considered response. I really wasn’t intending to take a swipe at you. I have now had enough experience of Vista to know it isn’t for me either professionally or at home. With the ability to “downgrade” to XP for business users I really don’t see any advantage in using Vista at work – I’ll see how Windows 7 goes and take it from there.

At home I like being in charge of MY computer and Vista seems intent on usurping this at every opportunity. If it is one thing which really sums it up for me it is the ridiculous machinations necessary to Save files to custom folders every time you use the “Browse” option when saving files (to answer your point, this is most prevalent when the custom folders differ from app to app). Sorry, Microsoft, I don’t want every single file I save or create stored in a humungous Users folder, particularly when I’ve partitioned my disk to keep my data away from the OS on the C drive. And as for the Search (which eats up processor and as far as I can tell is little to no quicker than the “old search”) and new attributes (where the file modification date is nowhere to be seen! whilst the all new * rating for every media file prominent everywhere), sometimes words fail me. I know these are all Explorer problems and may, for all I know, be configurable but it irks me beyond belief that the default options are so useless and the useful stuff is buried away somewhere.

Thanks again for taking the time to answer my previous email. I’ve already got my dual boot and beginning to discover that Linux isn’t just for computer geeks!
Jimbo Says:

June 20th, 2009 at 3:28 pm

I agree with Danny. The reason for having a computer is based on its usefulness as a tool, communication, or entertainment device. Microsoft’s penchant for moving all the commands around with every new version is infuriating, and makes me want to sneak into Bill Gate’s garage and move all the controls around on his car, you know, accelerator on the steering wheel, steer with the feet, etc. I’d tell him that change is good, and that he’s a stick-in-the-mud for not liking it. Also infuriating is the removal of the highly useful features like netmeeting, which allowed folks to share desktops. I mean, why remove useful functionality. And funny how netmeeting is not compatible with Meeting Space. Same thing with the old photoed.exe, which was a great program that they unceremoniously removed without so much as a please or thank you. One would think that Microsoft is run by idiots.

But it turns out that they’re not idiots. They’re good business people. Investors love them because the continually come out with new products that exclude the old ones and force users to waste resources on endless upgrades. Office 2007 is a nice example, with the new docx format that can only be read by the newer MS Office software. This is called planned obsolescence, and is what killed GM, and it will just as surely kill Microsoft in the end. One can only hope that open standards for productivity software become a reality in the future, or that UNIX operating systems take over. For now, we are all forced to have Microsoft compatibility because that’s what everybody else uses. No matter what anybody else says, Microsoft is a monopoly, is only interested in squeezing revenue out of their users, and is not interested in helping anybody except inasmuch as it helps them (make more money). They are themselves afraid of change, in the sense that rather than actually reinvent and improve their systems and then move on to new innovative software, they keep releasing the same old tools with just enough modification to force the computer using community to buy their latest incremental “improvement.” This kind of idiocy is the product of monopolies.

I, for one, have plenty of interesting challenges in my life, and don’t need others randomly introducing stupid changes into their products for no discernable benefit, and in some cases, clearly evidient detriment. I find the “blame the user” tone of the article insulting. I don’t think most users are “shivering and afraid” of change, just annoyed and frustrated at needless changes introduced into their computers for little apparent reason. I can only hope that the rest of the world wakes up and begins to critically evaluate the parasitic effect that Microsoft has on our economy and individual users. I feel sure that the day will come when there will be no Microsoft.
xenover Says:

June 21st, 2009 at 5:31 am

None of these are true.
UAC can be disabled,automatic updates can be turned off and for slow computer, get a new one, vista isn’ t made for your sh*tty crap, gtfo with ur 512 mb ram and 2 gHz pentium 4
Jimbo Says:

June 29th, 2009 at 10:45 am

xenover –

Sure, you can disable UAC, but why would you, because then you wouldn’t have it. No problem with automatic updates, but regarding slow computer, I have a reasonable dual processor with 4 GB memory. Besides, I said nothing about slow computers, but now that you bring it up, if Vista is slower than XP on the same machine, it’s slower, period.

In contrast to your insightful and enlightened analysis, I find most of the points made above to be true. Microsoft is about making money. As an investor, I love it. As a user, well, not so much. Perhaps you should gtfo with your uninformed opinions, and go learn something! Cool IM abbreviations for profanity may make you feel good, but they make you look foolish to the rest of us.

c u l8r aliG8r!
Zulekka Says:

July 11th, 2009 at 9:52 am

I don’t like Vista. It’s not about learning curve. It’s about not beinga ble to do things that I could do in XP. I have to make tables often. Vista did not allow me to delet columms or rows, merge columns or rows, add several rows at a time etc. I felt as though I had taken several steps backward. I feel frustrated and cheated.

Zulekka
Brian Says:

July 13th, 2009 at 4:35 pm

EEDoody and Jimbo,
I couldn’t agree with you more that it is MY computer and I despise all the things done in a hidden (at least attempted to be hidden) manner on MY system. My current pet peeve is all of the services and programs added to my startup. The only thing that makes it worse is the way they try and keep you from getting rid of them.

Hey, I just got my next article topic!

***************************************

Zulekka,

I don’t believe that Vista makes tables. Perhaps you are talking about Office 2007?

Brian
Jorge Says:

July 29th, 2009 at 1:39 pm

Vista is the WORST OS I’ve ever worked with. Period. It stinks, sucks, annoys the hell out of me. Bill Gates should be castrated
Neerav Says:

August 2nd, 2009 at 2:36 pm

I REALLY hate Vista……I agree with the majority here that Vista stinks. I am not even sure if Windows 7, which will come out this Fall, will be any better. Why is Microsoft screwing up so much?
Brian Says:

August 4th, 2009 at 5:20 pm

Jorge,
And this is why I thought it might be time for a more even-handed look at why people hate Windows Vista :)

Neerav,
I’m not sure if you remember what it was like right before Microsoft released Vista. Analysts, both the technology kind and stock analysts, had grown impatient with the repeated delays in shipping Vista. Ironically, when it was released, the conventional wisdom was that XP wasn’t good enough. It’s security wasn’t good enough, it wasn’t a good enough OS to compete on the Internet, and so on. In the end, SP 2 was the stable OS that everyone had been waiting for.

Microsoft has always been a big easy target. It gets little credit for what it gets right and heaps of blame for what it doesn’t. That’s the burden of being #1 for so long.

Whether Microsoft does it good enough or not on any theoretical scale is immaterial. Until someone else can do any better, Microsoft’s version is the best there is, and that is good enough.

As an aside I read somewhere (unfortunately, I don’t remember where) that Microsoft has always developed for the bigger, more lucrative business market and then trimmed those products back for the retail consumer. The author’s point was that customers have been making due with “business lite” versions for years. Again, until someone offers something more competitive, it is all just moot speculation.
Mike Says:

October 7th, 2009 at 2:35 pm

This is an old thread, but I had to comment here…

I was OK with Vista on my Sony Core 2 Duo laptop with 2gb RAM and 200 gb hd. It was a little annoying that everything was in a different location (control panel, etc.), but that was not a big deal to me. I had always thought the MS Windows haters were hating just to be fashionable, but I started to hate along with them when I got my Windows Mobile phone. I hated that OS (WM6). I also hate Vista now, and I have a real reason:

To make a very long story short, after I upgraded to Vista Service Pack 1, Vista crapped out and my laptop would no longer boot. Booting in safe mode revealed that the system was failing after loading a file called crcdisk.sys. After weeks upon weeks off research, and trying countless fixes (hardware and software) I came to the conclusion that Vista itself is the problem. I gave up on Vista, went out to buy XP Home, and now my laptop is humming quickly and smoothly.

Google the term “crcdisk Vista” (no quotes) and you’ll find tons of people with the same problem. Microsoft has no published fix for this. My theory is that Microsoft screwed up the code, could not easily fix it (or simply wanted to sell it for $199), then worked like hell to get Windows 7 released. Look how fast Windows 7 was made ready for the market (should release this month), as compare with Vista.

Does anyone agree with my theory?
James Says:

October 19th, 2009 at 4:52 am

I love Vista! XP gave me the BSOD ALL the time but I can count on one hand the number of times that Vista has crashed or got hung up. The Vista interface is much more aesthetically pleasing, and I never noticed any loss of performance changing from XP. I disabled UAC very quickly and never thought about it again. I do agree that Vista accesses the hard drive more frequently and that can get annoying, but the absence of crashes more than makes up for that small issue. I have a copy of Windows 7, but am reluctant to install it because I’m so pleased with Vista.
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John Says:

October 31st, 2009 at 12:58 pm

I switched to Ubuntu Linux at home…

If at all possible, I will never turn to Windows again.

It was easier and WAY less stressful to learn how to use Linux rather than trying to re-learn a Windows OS that was already ingrained into my head.

Not only that, but Microsoft still updates ever when you turn auto updates off. This in itself is a security risk and a VIOLATION OF PRIVACY! To me, it seams that as soon as Vista was out and talk of Windows 7 was starting up – The XP machine I had online started having more issues…I keep all antivirus stuff up to date and haven’t had a problem for many years. Now I reinstall XP and within a week or so it’s having issues again….sounds fishy doesn’t it? It sure does when I haven’t done anything different than all the other times I have reinstalled XP….eventually it runs slow but never crashes like it does now.

With Ubuntu Server you get:

* a FREE Operating system that is light years faster than any Windows OS + it’s secure!

* FREE ‘MS Office’ type package called OpenOffice –

* Comes with most things that windows comes with.

* HUGE online communities that help solve any problem you may have (no waiting on the phone for MS customer service BS).

* Command line interface allows a user to automate processes. For instance, you could write a small script to receive an email or txt msg when someone logs onto your PC. You could run a web server to share files around the house (or even password protect it and access your files remotely). You could unzip 1,000 zip files without having to do them one at a time…

*Linux is compatible with most hardware out there. It is still possible to run windows type programs on a linux machine.

*Linux has been proven for years and years to be the most stable and reliable Operating System that has ever existed….

So why are you still even talking about Windows? It’s a rip off. A scam. It’s a JOKE! Why did windows ever have security issues in the first place? Because they don’t know what they are doing. Why does Windows run slower now? NO, Not because it does more, it’s because they code so shitty to begin with that they need all this extra crap to keep the system stable and it ends up hogging your resources.

I enjoy seeing my CPU at a grand total of 1-3% when I am using my normal applications. If you run windows Task Manager it says 0% CPU….but it doesn’t include the 60% that the OS uses to begin with.

Windows is a joke, make the change to linux now!!!

Download your FREE Ubuntu Linux Operating system to replace windows here: http://www.ubuntu.com/GetUbuntu/download

If you need help getting started email me cjohnweb@gmail.com
Brian Nelson Says:

November 4th, 2009 at 1:03 pm

Mike,
Not even Microsoft deliberately breaks something and then won’t fix it. “Tons of people” is a very relative term, especially when talking about company the size of MS who measures its impacts in tens of millions before they’re even talking about half a percent. The newest service pack might have a fix, but it is also possible that there is a hardware / BIOS / vendor issue here.

James,
Don’t get me wrong, I know PLENTY of people who liked Vista just fine once they got used to using it. However, do remember that something like disabling UAC is a task that while easily accomplished by the techie types, is baffling to non-techies.

Not to mention if a large part of Vista’s value proposition was better security, and the UAC was a large part of that improved security, then disabling it undercuts the reason to upgrade.

John,
Ah yes, the dream of ever techie ever burned by MS in one way or another. To give them the finger and never look back. Unfortunately, the solution is not as elegant as you may think. Remember, the very big difference between those who are technically savvy and those who are not. Ask yourself this: are all of your aunts and uncles capable of running Ubuntu?

More specifically, you may be romanticizing things a bit. How many things did you have to download / install / troubleshoot after you had finished the main installation? Ever see the Mac commercials that mocked Windows for having to get drivers before you could download pictures from a camera? What would those commercials look like if Apple competed against Ubuntu? What is trivial for you is incompressible to a much greater part of the population.

Drivers? One of the big beefs against Vista was that it wouldn’t work with what people have. How many devices have no driver for them in Ubuntu? Not just “current” devices, but printers from 1998, scanners from 2001, and the first Zip drives? Don’t forget about those old sound cards and video cards either.

Software? Let’s face it Word Processing and spreadsheets are about to become to current computers what the calculator app was to computers from two decades ago, free and disposable. Heck, you don’t even have to install anything, just use Google Docs, Zoho Office, or someday, MS Office Web Apps. Realistically, Word, et. al. aren’t the value proposition on computers any more. What about CRM applications (including multi-user, multi-office, support)? Photoshop/Illustrator/Dreamweaver? Even Google Chrome, browser of the open-source faithful, has limited and much delayed Linux compatibility.

Support? A big crowd of dedicated developers is great, but when a million dollars a day hinges on the answer, waiting for some guy to get back to you on a forum is not an option.

Enterprise tools? Ubuntu is a great alternative for individual users. I think you’ll get a much different attitude from those who have to support 10,000+ desktops.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m about to install Ubuntu on my recently decommissioned XP laptop.

I’ve cursed Microsoft more than my fair share of times, but nothing else is ready for prime time yet, which is why Vista’s failure did not result in a mass migration to Apple, Ubuntu, or anyone else. I long for the day when someone steps up to the plate and creates a real alternative. Until then, I’m glad you are enjoying Ubuntu, but in an open and competitive arena like technology, to suggest some sort of conspiracy by the Man, just isn’t very likely.

Brian
Darlene (Dee) Bishop Says:

November 10th, 2009 at 3:40 pm

The thing I hate the most about Vista is that it won’t save my settings! I have to go in almost every day and reset things that I told it to save. Irritating!!
Dirk Says:

November 24th, 2009 at 2:42 pm

Dear,
3.1, 95, XP, 2000, NT, 7 whatever…
It is and will remain a monopoly that is slowy dying.
Swap over to LINUX and get rit off thing that do not work.
Simone W Says:

December 24th, 2009 at 2:51 pm

I also dislike the constant updates! FOR WHAT? It just goes slower. I cannot play games on my comuter with out norton having a “viral breakdown” every five minutes. It really isn’t enjoyable, I liked XP better. And With the old Microsoft programs I could go “windows” “My Computer” ect. to pick apart the problems my computer was having, now its trying to do that for me, but it gets caught up in it’s own little computing circles, and by the end of the whole ordeal I still have the same problems and a few more my computer created while thrying to fix itself. Thank you Windows, but no thankyou.
mike Says:

January 14th, 2010 at 12:45 am

I found XP faster when next to nothing was installed on it. But over 2-3 months I would eventually install a lot more programs, games, everything, and XP would get bogged down. Then add a virus or two, and soon it was slow as peanut butter in winter and I would have to format the computer every 4 months. But for the average joe user, they never install much, they don’t do much more than email or chat, and so Xp’s “fast” interface seemed better than Vista security prompts etc. But with Vista I found it took care of me despite how much I installed or updated or asked it to do, and I only formatted once in year–but even then I didn’t have to. But I guess most Vista users never get that far since they usually switch back to Xp.
Michael Says:

January 15th, 2010 at 8:48 am

I totally agree with everyone on this! We should be reimbursed for out time and aggravation.
Alberto Says:

February 25th, 2010 at 3:35 pm

Windows Vista is awfu!! Its slow as heck and it constantly “thinking” it came preinstalled in our high end dell business pc’s. It is a sad operating system. XP was much faster, Linux is way faster on the same machines. This article is trying to put the blame on the end user. As a system administrator I tell you its not me; its microsoft!
Mike Says:

April 21st, 2010 at 8:21 am

What a load of bull*hit!

The number one reason I hate Vista so much is the completely and utterly useless search function.
It doesn’t even let me decide myself what to search for (*either* file names or file contents), and I can’t use wildcards in the search.
And often it doesn’t find anything, even though it’s there, or else it finds completely unrelated stuff.
I have tried all kinds off possible settings, including disabling indexed search (but also indexing “everything”), but nothing works.

The number two hate reason is it doesn’t remember any settings on how to view maps (e.g. with file date, file size etc.)
It always assumes I want no detailed file info whatsoever.
Also, when I delete files it takes forever to put them into the trash can, and sometimes the files remains as “ghost files”,
i.e. invisible but preventing new files to be saved with the same name etc.

And can someone please explain to me how Windows Defender works?
How can I change the settings myself?

There are a zillion more reasons I hate it, and I would rather eat dog poop fermented in puke than ever again buying something from Microsoft.
In my opinion there should be a federal law against Microsoft operating as a software company!
Brian Nelson Says:

April 22nd, 2010 at 8:01 am

Mike,
You are blessed with the gift of vivid imagery my friend. Not that I want to force any dietary choices on you :) but the search works really well in Windows 7, as long as you don’t follow someone’s misguided advice to turn off indexing.

Brian
Nick Says:

June 17th, 2010 at 5:46 pm

I looked at ALL of those problems that you wrote about, and I have NONE of those problems on my Toshiba A135 laptop, I’m running 32 bit Vista Home Premium. It’s on a 1.6 GHz, Intel Celeron processor, with 2 Gb of ram, and the Vista partition is 14.9 Gb, where the Windows 7 evaluation copy partition, is 59.7 Gb, Vista is faster. My games work fine on Vista, UAC is over-reactive, so what, is it that big of a deal to click Allow for stuff? Just turn it off in msconfig… I don’t know what you’re talking about with memory hog, because this laptop used to have 1 GB of ram, and it ran Vista just fine without any problems. I do admit it takes up a bit more of hard drive space, but if your computer had something like a 20 Gb hard drive why would you upgrade it to Vista? XP works fine but not as smooth or fast as Vista.

Btw I installed Windows Vista and didn’t have to install one driver at all, Aero was already on working fine, sound, wifi, touch pad, keyboard, it all works flawlessly.
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