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Open Your Windows on a New VSTA |
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Written by Adam Whitlock
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Getting inside Microsoft's new Operating System
You can't avoid it, it's everywhere now! All the hype about Microsoft's new operating system, Windows Vista, left me wondering whether I should give it a try. After much contemplation I decided that I would go one better. I would do something I had been meaning to do for a while, a side by side comparison of Windows and Linux based around how incorporating them into your organisation may affect you and your staff. This however, is no easy task. Therefore in this issue I will be examining Vista and next time, Linux.
Starting out on this project I had my doubts about both sides. I had heard plenty of bad reviews of Vista (many of them focusing on program compatibility). On the other side of the fence I worked with Linux many years ago, and at that time it still needed a lot of attention. My goal was to erase everything I knew about these two rivaling computer powerhouses, so that I would be able to give an unbiased review of both.
Before we start I should give you some background information on the computer system I will be using. My computer is far from the latest in computer technology, but how many people do you know with the very latest in computer technology? Things move so fast these days that it is hard for anyone to keep pace. Also, I am using a preexisting PC because I don't know any person or company that would be willing to shell out around RMB 8,000 per PC just to change to operating systems.
So to give a simple overview for the less technically minded people, my PC would have been top of the line about 3 years ago. It is fast enough to complete even the most difficult office tasks with ease. It has been my daily computer for about 2 years, and has never let me down. I might add that it is faster than about 90% of the PC's I have seen here in any net cafe.
Installation
Microsoft spent almost 9 years developing the next generation of the world's most popular operating system, Windows. I spent about a week looking at the different Vista choices, there are four: Ultimate, Premium, Business, and Basic. After weighing the pros and cons of each, I chose Business. This was only because it had all the features of Ultimate without the multimedia add-ons. The installation process was long; it took almost 2 hours, from a cleanly formatted hard drive. The options when installing Vista are similar to XP; you can set your partition space, location, time-zone, language and all the familiar items you would expect to see whilst installing Windows. This makes it a relatively easy process.
Once installation is complete you are prompted to enter your user information and, of course, register with Microsoft. Then you are greeted by the welcome screen, which shows you a few useful links to new items and the Windows Experience Index window. The Windows Experience Index is an interesting new feature designed to let you and the Windows operating system know if your computer has enough power to run some of the more advanced features of Vista. My computer's rating was 2.0 out of a possible 5.0, a little lower than I thought it would be.
Desktop
Once I was able to view the desktop of Vista I was impressed by the visual style - it was clean and well organised. The glass feature of the windows looked cool - being able to see what was behind the windows while I worked on them was a feature I found very useful. Another function that grabs your eye is the sidebar. It shows a clock, calendar, news reader, and picture viewer, all useful tools to help with your daily work. It also has many other mini applications that you can add on, like weather reports, computer info, and an email interface. The sidebar was one of the first facets to get my attention, so I added all the mini applications that I thought would make getting information about things going on all over China much easier.
All in all the visual style and layout is impressive, intuitive and appealing. I liked how easy it was to find certain files. The new search feature is also great. It scans your hard drive making a list of all the files on your computer, so that when you want to find something you just type in the name and it finds it for you, in mere seconds. I know it can be frustrating trawling through file after file, wasting time which you could be using to great effect, looking for that one document you just cannot seem to find - so this was the ideal solution.
"The visual style and layout is impressive, intuitive and appealing"
Drivers
Anyone who owns a computer should know about drivers, these are the software that controls your hardware. Dealing with these is a necessary step when first configuring your computer during a new installation. Unfortunately I found it very difficult to get Vista supported drivers from the manufacturers of most of my hardware. I realise that most of my hardware is not brand new, but I thought support for Vista drivers would be better than it is.
The easiest to find were video drivers, ATI had all the necessary software on their website. Installing the new drivers was easy and Vista added a feature that would automatically uninstall the old drivers before installing the new ones, a very useful tool for the less technically minded computer user. Overall, installing the video drivers was a snap!
Unfortunately, the rest of the drivers were not so easy to find. I was not able to find audio, chipset, and network drivers on the manufacturers' website. There was only a message that drivers for Vista would be available at a later date, but it did not specify when. So I was forced to use the Microsoft supplied drivers, which work very well, but lack some of the more advanced features that the regular driver would have provided.
Software
The first thing I noticed was that most of the regular software programs installed easily and quickly, which was fantastic! However, one minor problem was the UAC (User Account Control). Every time I wanted to make a change to how Windows did something or whenever I wanted to install a program, I was prompted to allow the action. Without doubt this is a very secure way to handle administrative tasks on the operating system, but if I am honest, it was less than convenient and required an undue amount of user interaction. So I simply turned it off, which can be accomplished in the control panel, under User Accounts.
Some of the security software I had used with earlier editions of Windows would not work with Vista. So, I thought I would give Windows Defender a shot. Unfortunately it fell short of being a useful virus deterrent. To test its capabilities I went to a website (one that I will not name), which I knew to be infecting computers with a nasty virus. To my surprise Defender was happy to allow the vicious script - known to many as the joss stick panda virus that had affected several computers in the past.
I also faced a network issue that I encountered while surfing. My internet connection was reset, leaving me with no option except restarting my computer. It was a problem I looked at in more detail, spending hours trying to find the source. I have an A+ computer certification, which by no means makes me a computer genius, but I am able to handle most computer problems that come up. However, this one had me stumped, so I decided to contact Microsoft to see if they could help me solve it. After spending about 3 hours on the phone talking to people from 4 different countries I was left with no clear answer as to why I was having this trouble. I asked around to see if anyone else had experienced the same issue, and it turns out that it is a common problem. However, I am sure with all the energy Microsoft put into Vista we will see some type of fix for it in the very near future.
After I struggled with the network issues, I felt a little frustrated. So, I headed back to familiar ground and reinstalled my old favourite, XP. After using Vista for a month I was able to complete my office work with ease and I definitely had fun with the new features! However, the few minor issues I had will need to be fixed before I am completely happy. I think in a few months I will go back to Vista to see if the compatibility issues have been resolved and more driver support is added by other manufacturers. The new visual style is easy and efficient, but is not quite enough for me at present. I am really excited about Vista in the future as I really enjoyed what time I spent on it.
In the next installment I will tackle Linux, the playground of our techie friends. So, stay tuned to find out how Linux faired against Microsoft's new visually stimulating Windows Vista.
Note:
CPU: Pentium 4EE w/HT - 1MB L1 cache - 3.2 GHz over clocked to 3.5 GHz
Main board: ASUS P4P800-X Socket 478
RAM: 512 x 2 Kingston Value RAM 4-4-4-8 over clocked to 2-3-3-5
Video: ATI 9550 8x AGP 256MB VRAM
RAID: 2 x Seagate 7200rpm 160GB on a Promise TX2000 Pro PCI set to RAID 0
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