Vista Annoyances Resolved

Careful with those questions Paul...Mike Galos is going to attack you.

It appears that I have a new background task: keeping track of what this gentleman has to say.

Great article.

Ocean, Nonsense. I only attack ignorance, deception and manipulation, none of which describe Paul Thurrott. If he wants to discuss Vista issues with me, he's got my email address as well as several other ways of talking with me rather than use this comment board.

My biggest annoyance: Vista doesn't link to my blog in a fresh install. :P On a non-humor tone, I have to note x64 is good, but as always, could be better, and I'll have to second the bit about ISOs.

If there is one thing that really turns me off Windows it is the silly balloons. It drives me up the wall.

First off great article. However its a great article for a Techie. Example the first problem listed "Constantly Changing Folder Views" I have seen this and it has irked me like crazy. The fix is cool and it works, which is great. That said I cant see my parents using this fix EVER. That is where Vista falls short. It workes in XP but not in Vista and the fix for joe user is a complex registry hack. Also my most annoying problem file copy speed was not even listed? Although it has been mostly fixed with SP1 its still slower than XP or OS X. The article is really spit into three sections, Real Problems that have a quirkly fix, Real Problems that have no fix right now "Photo Gallery Freezing", and un-educated users, (Memory usage, disk activity, DRM..etc).

Yert "My biggest annoyance: Vista doesn't link to my blog in a fresh install. :P " But, remember, Yert, that you can build a custom install file and fix that. ( :-P back)

"Why can't I have different backgrounds (or background colors) on different monitors? Or span a widescreen image across multiple monitors?" Is this really true? Can anyone offer an opinion as to why this is so? Can XP do this? Really not trying to do the usual Mac/PC thing, but Macs have done this since the mid 8o's and I don't see what the issue can be. OTOH, my biggest complaint along these lines is that on OS X you can't duplicate the menu bar on multiple monitors. In this case, Windows has the menubar(s) in the individual Windows, but the cure is worse than the disease.

Here is what the writer says: >>While some people, such as the average forum poster, spread FUD purely through a lack of knowledge and without any malicious intent, a significant number of people do it deliberately and professionally. Many bloggers and tech writers receive a notable portion of their income based on the advertising revenue generated from the traffic to their sites. Indeed one of the constant dilemmas facing these people is the pressure to write interesting new material in order to maintain their existing readership and attract new readers. The New York Times recently reported on the emerging phenomenon of 'blog stress', pointing out in particular that: One of the most competitive categories is blogs about technology developments and news. They are in a vicious 24-hour competition to break company news, reveal new products and expose corporate gaffes... To the victor go the ego points, and, potentially, the advertising. Bloggers for such sites are often paid for each post, though some are paid based on how many people read their material. They build that audience through scoops or volume or both. Little wonder then that even before the beta process for Windows Vista began, then subsequently through to its official retail release, and ever since then, there have been, are, and will be, countless articles jockeying to provide all sorts of sensationalist and downright inaccurate takes on every facet of Vista. When Vista is milked dry, they'll move on to Windows 7 and repeat the entire process, as is already starting to happen.<< Why hasn't this happened to Mac OS? To Desktop Linux? To the Wii? It's a field too far to assume that MS can't out-market (and thats what his claim is) bloggers and tech-journalists.

@ lotsamystuff He cant help it if he writes for people above a 7th grade level. Some of us can actually appreciate a person that takes time to write a through piece. @Ocean Just stop. we know you, and I'm sure some others are ready to take this thread into another 157 comment BS-a-thon. So if you are just looking for a flame or attack to get people going then I will call on everyone to just ignore further postings from you.

@master: "He cant [sic] help it if he writes for people above a 7th grade level. Some of us can actually appreciate a person that takes time to write a through [sic] piece. Sorry for the [sic] bombs, but come on...it was too easy. ;-) Look, I have no problem with anyone writing a technical piece, and the information is certainly good. But then don't claim that it's NOT a technical article when it is.

The solution to 'Nagging UAC Prompts' is to disable the service or hack the registry, In fact, the first two solutions involve hacking the registry! This solutions guide isn't aimed at the soccer mom, John or Jane Doe user. It's aimed at the technical users of a forum like this one. Thus for a significant part of Vistas aimed audience, I'd bet that the criticisms and the annoyances would remain even *after* a thorough reading of this article.

>>The reality is that the only solution to most problems is knowledge. Blaming Vista for all your problems is like kicking a flat tyre - a tyre usually doesn't get flat by itself, typically something else caused the flat, and some basic knowledge, user caution and regular maintenance might have prevented it. And at the very least, some knowledge on the correct procedure to replace a flat tyre is needed unless you want to find yourself stranded in the middle of nowhere.<< Yes, because hacking the registry is no more different than swerving to avoid a nail or broken glass.

Mum: ' "Nonsense. I only attack ignorance, deception and manipulation" And then there's the senseless bashing of whatever you don't like for whatever reason, which is somehow different from what the Mac fanatics do when they bash Microsoft.' Okay; you do realize that MG specifically indicated what he doesn't like and for what reason in the very sentence you quoted?! lotsamystuff: ‘ "And most certainly this article doesn't try to dazzle you with technical jargon." I call BS on that. After a long-winded three page introduction of the history of Vista that would make Paul proud for its verbosity, the writer finally gets to the first two "fixes"... which involve editing the registry! Yeah. Grandma's going to do that. ‘ Ughm…You do understand the difference between dazzling with jargon and using the appropriate language to describe the procedure. What would you have him say, “and now we’re going to edit the thingy that stores the thingy, by changing a thingy to say a different thingy”? And then, of course, there’s Ocean, who is in a class all by him/herself. ‘Why hasn't this happened to Mac OS? To Desktop Linux? To the Wii?’ Because Mac OS’s penetration is in the single digits; the Linux’ is even less, and Wii is a different subject altogether. ‘ The solution to 'Nagging UAC Prompts' is to disable the service or hack the registry, In fact, the first two solutions involve hacking the registry! ‘ You’re having difficulties comprehending written English, I see. Here’s the low-down – the solution to the Nagging UAC Prompts is actually “do nothing, they’re there for a reason.” The rest is for “tech-heads” who think they know better and then they can sure understand what is written. ‘This solutions guide isn't aimed at the soccer mom, John or Jane Doe user. It's aimed at the technical users of a forum like this one. ‘ It was never suggested otherwise. ‘ This is a chicken or egg first question. Why release the OS if you know that the drivers out there are going to destabilize the system? Why not use your leverage with your partners to get good drivers out there, and in turn showcase them. That would get them off the fence fast. ’ No it really isn’t, you could run a system without those components and wouldn’t need the drivers. The driver support responsibility rests squarely on the OEM, which is a part of the bigger expandable system model that the “IBM compatible PC” world lives in, as opposed to the closed system that the Mac world lives in, where the person supplying the equipment and the OS is one and the same and therefore responsible for driver support. ‘Ultimately, even if it's true that the third parties caused the problem, it was MS' customers that suffered (which is why Vistas rep has suffered). They should have been more creative, IMHO. ‘ What the heck are you talking about? Creative like how? ‘Yes, because hacking the registry is no more different than swerving to avoid a nail or broken glass. ‘ I think the author was clear that the issues that he highlighted as requiring registry edits are genuine problems and the solutions provided are workarounds, as opposed to made up FUD like “Vista is a memory hog” on the basis of the perceived memory usage of SuperFetch (which I have personally had a lot of quite heated discussions about with misinformed people – not your average users, either, supposedly quite knowledgeable people). Or the widely publicized DRM nonsense that everybody and their grandmother parades as the slogan of their anti-Vista campaign – still, even after Gutman has been exposed as an idiot. Anyway.

>>‘This solutions guide isn't aimed at the soccer mom, John or Jane Doe user. It's aimed at the technical users of a forum like this one. ‘ It was never suggested otherwise.<< Sure it was. Paul said at the top: >>I am, however, interested in discussing Vista problems. You know, real problems that really occur and to real people, really. <<

">>‘This solutions guide isn't aimed at the soccer mom, John or Jane Doe user. It's aimed at the technical users of a forum like this one. ‘ It was never suggested otherwise.<< Sure it was. Paul said at the top: >>I am, however, interested in discussing Vista problems. You know, real problems that really occur and to real people, really. <<" Paul talks about "real problems that really occur and to real people." Now that doesn't imply that the solution is something that an average Joe or Jane can implement. I've had to go to the car mechanic for a lot of real problems that I've had with my car. When Paul talks about "real problems", he means real problems, not FUD. Understand? You might want to try reading it again - a little slower this time.

Let me congratulate Koroush Ghazi for writing one of the aboslute BEST articles on Windows Vista thats loaded with facts and experience. Not the usual hyperbolie and pulp fiction that accompanies the usual PC Magazine, PC World, Randall Stross, and other articles as of late. Clearly Mr. Ghazi has been to this site and others, because in one massive article, he's debunked the arguments of lotsa, johnpapola, daveinla, ocean, lindy, cesjr, and every other antiVista critic on this forum. Wow, talk about a verbal smackdown of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson proportions. I learned more out of reading this article and the TGTC than all the worthless F.U.D. on this forum. In an eloquent way, he managed to make all of points based upon logic, reason, past history, and user experience. Now reading the previous arguments of our resident F.U.D. artists, I'm laughing my ass off at the narcissism, ignorance, and sheer hubris. Now if we can add another D to make F.U.D.D. for Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt, and Disrespect. This is the same argument Al Gore makes in his political book, "The Assault on Reason" and Barack Obama's book, "The Audacity of Hope." Intelligence, logic, and reason always beats ignorance and the consistent Argumentum ad Hominem attacks we've suffered in here since this blog began. To you guys whose arguments have been thoroughly debunked, I suggest this. GO READ THIS ARTICLE! Read it from beginning to end. Especially the FUD Factory one. Infact, read it a few times and let it wrap around your brain a few times. Throw out the useless and worthless FUD arguments of the past. Infact, I'll borrow a suggestion from Paul. Instead of constantly telling us what sucks, give us substantive arguments that could fit in the form of a Microsoft KB article on actual problems with Vista. Not being a parrot of the hardcore Mac fans, not the ignorance and personal attacks of the radical GOP, bring something useful and sincere discourse to this forum. We'd probably get more attention from Apple and Microsoft, than the crap that goes on here day in and out. Well since I'm about to be attacked, I'll let this one stew for awhile, while the resident troublemakers eat some crow again and react. Peace.

subzero Absolutely right on all counts. I've sent the link to Koroush Ghazi's site out to a bunch of my contacts, both for this article and for his tuning guides (for the more sophisticated people on my list)

@subzero - Your political comments aside, you are right on the money. I am reading the entire article again and each time, I learn a little more about how much FUD has been spread on this site and others. Should MS take a look at this article and write patches and utilities for many of the things that are mentioned? Of course they should...but until then, I am keeping that article saved on the CD that I take with me when ever I work on somebody's Vista machine. I especially like your comment regarding The Rock...this article is most definitely a smackdown on the candy a$$es of the FUD Mongers. Live long and prosper... --tayme

I would like to add two addtional complaints to Paul's list which I agree with 100%. 1. Why isn't there an audio recording program similar to GarageBand natively in Windows? 2. Why has the ability to remove applications such as IE 7 and WMP taken out of Vista? In previous versions of Windows, this was an easy task in the Control Panel, and something I'd like to see restored. I'm sure there are more, but these are my big two. Later.

@ Ocean Probably only 10-20 million :-))

I've been saying for awhile that Microsoft needed a digital suite to answer iLife. Granted there are some applications in Windows that does part of it, but an audio recording app would be great. And yes there is plenty of 3rd party audio recording. However, this is something that millions of users actually use and should be available in Windows. From professional artists, to independent musicians, and school musicians of all levels, they would practially use a good audio recording application if it was included. lotsa stated: I'd say that, for the average reader (you know, the one this article is allegedly geared towards), that IS overwhelming technical jargon. My Comments: Are you kidding me? You can leave the browser menu running in the background, while executing these changes. Or you can print out the instructions and execute the changes. These simple registry changes are NOTHING compared to other command line changes in various flavors of Linux, the old DOS, and Unix variants. Also, I thought that OS-X was the more technical of the OSes. But its you and Ocean who are complaining about registry changes. I know many Windows users who are quite at east with a registry editor. I think this is what's is fundamentally wrong with the Mac experience. You're completely dependent on Apple to fix all of your problems, yet Windows users many times don't wait for Microsoft. Getting under the virtual hood is part of the Windows experience. I think its hilarious that the supposedly more advanced users are complaining over a few simplistic registry changes. Or there's another explanation, could it be laziness? I'll leave that for others to figure out. Folks, computing is both an investment and a responsibility. Either you're up for the challenge or you're not. Later.

@subzero - "However, this is something that millions of users actually use and should be available in Windows." Do you think that maybe MS is a little gun shy about trying to bundle any more free apps in the OS? They were already and continue to be slapped around a bit for that by the DOJ and EU. I can see why they do not. I would say that it should be up to the Dells and HPs of the world to bundle these apps. I, myself only use iPhoto and iDVD(rarely), but think that a good Windows alternative to iLife would probably sell. I would like to see Apple porting it over to a Windows application, as long as they did some quality work, unlike the port of Safari. --tayme

"Why does Windows Vista feel the need to tell me (via balloon window) when it has successfully done something (like install a driver)? Isn't "just working" the baseline? Bug me when something goes wrong, and leave me alone otherwise. Just work." As I mentioned this is probably the most annoying aspect of Windows. It has been compared to an overeager Boy Scout with a lifetime supply of chocolate covered coffee beans, too eager by half. Scenario Avro has great idea while writing his University dissertation. Idiot pop-up Bubble demands attention (Your wireless connection is now working) Avro: Hold the thought Idiot pop-up Bubble 2 demands attention (The mouse you plugged into the USB port is now working) Avro: What was the thought? Idiot pop-up Bubble 3 demands attention (You may be at threat as we do not detect an Anti-virus program, but then we cannot detect all Anti-virus programs and you may be running one) Avro: The Thought is Gone!! :-(((( All in the best memory of *****Clippee. Macs are not perfect but they tend not to get in the way of your work. Windows could learn from this.