Windowsw Vista SP1

It seems all the negative press on Microsoft Vista is making MS to sit up and take notice. They ought to. The flag bearer product of a company can not be allowed to be a bug in itself. In my previous post, i recommended that users who are using microsoft vista, must stick with Vista rather than downgrade to Windows XP. Now there are plans afoot to make the experience ( Damn, i used eXPerience) of Vista much more fruitful. First up, the larger known issues. People have complained about various things, chief among them are

- computer can lose its default Gateway address when resuming from sleep mode
- Long time taken to copy large files, especially from USB devices. This one really makes me laugh. They designed "Ready Boost" to boost performance through USB drives, but bugged it enough to make the file transfer slow.
- Lesser compatibility in case upgrading from Windows XP.
- Driver issues with nVidia; in fact with most video drivers.
- Activation tweaks

Not a very long list, but very basic things that can put a user off. So to address all these issues, Microsoft, in a muted and downplayed manner, is doing what it does best. Bring out a service pack. Two substantial collections of Windows Vista hotfixes have been leaked to the Internet. I say leaked, because they were initially offered to Windows Server 2008 beta testers. This led to lot of speculation amongst users that the pair are actually the foundation of the future Service Pack 1 (SP1) release for the operating system, although Microsoft has entirely downplayed the whole issue.

Labeled "Vista Performance and Reliability Pack" and "Vista Compatibility and Reliability Pack," the two updates feature a long list of non-security-related bug fixes. The AeroXperience site even posted results of early testing of the packs' performance. According to a write-up here, systems updated with the Vista Performance and Reliability Pack copied large-sized folders in less than half the time as compared with unpatched machines. That is good news I suppose. But it is always better to wait with crossed fingers when it is related to Microsoft.

Vista Goner?

The general consensus around the world seems to be weening away from the "Biggest Book Of Lines Of Code" in the form of Vista, to come out of the Microsoft stable. The general feeling seems to be that whatever was promised before launch of Vista, has not been met. With all the Longhorn versions coming out, with so much talk about WinFS; well, there is a long list of promises Bill could not keep. The operating system that was supposed to revolutionize the way we use our desktop, and all that hoopla, has not really been able to live up to it's own expectations.

The big question; Is is worth upgrading to Vista? It is a million dollar question, indeed. (maybe not for you, but definitely for Microsoft). I will answer that question shortly, but before that, we must talk about all the negative publicity received by Vista. The negative vibe started with the delay in launch itself. Then it caught on with Microsoft's insistence about "Activating" the OS. In this day of open source, does MS really want to stick to things like activating and present a large usage & learning curve for users who might be first time computer users? If i was a first time user, i will surely be put off by things about computer that intimidated me. And activation is first amongst them.

Next comes the User Account Control. I really feel stupid when my computer keeps asking me permission to do things that i would do without bother on a XP machine. Agreed, we need that kind of security to avoid the kernel level breach, but there has to be a level of intuition in the OS that can decide where it needs to interfere and where it does not. I guess it is just not viable or possible to demand a self learning software.

Now folks, I do sound very critical about the software, but i definitely like it. Believe me, I have really forgotten those days when I frequently had to stare at the blue screen, dreading about data loss and then a fresh install. I have been using Vista for close to four months now, as a single operating system, on a clean install, and i have yet not come to a stage where i would need a fresh install. Yes, there have been instances where the OS "was made to crash" because of various reasons, my stupidity one of them, but the whole system has nice 'self healing' capabilities; if you would call them. It means there are many methods available by which you can really go back to where you lost it all. And I surely like the Aero desktop. It might be system crunching design, but is definitely well thought out. One thing I do not like though is the Orb or the start button. MS really needs to work away from this. If Vista is to look radically different from XP, start button would have to be the first one to go. Sidebar, is just a desktop hogger, really! All those functions that can be carried otherwise through desktop or start button, look stupid on the sidebar. I really do not need to make my desktop look like a TV screen showing too many commercials and absolutely little workspace.

Finally, do you want to upgrade? Answering a million dollar question can be really tough. I would keep it like this. If you are already an XP user, continue using it and if possible, install Vista alongside of XP to get a hang of it. When you are comfortable with features of Vista, go for a clean install.

If you bought a new PC and it came bundled with Vista, do not even think about downgrading it to XP. All the service packs coming out for XP are eventually going to make it look and feel like Vista. And at that time, you will find Vista moving clearly ahead from where it is parked right now. I would bet my bottom dollar on the fact that Microsoft will transform Vista into a totally different look and feel system once XP service pack 3 has made it look like Vista of today. So downgrading to XP from Vista will be really going back in time. So then, that answers the question i guess.

Vista Dual Boot with XP

So, bought a new comp that came pre-loaded with Vista? How you want to get back to the familiar environs of XP while still running Vista. Sounds familiar? Then this tutorial is for you. This is the place You want to go for clearing your lingering doubts about the dual boot strategy. Hope These images give you an idea what lies beneath!