Windows Vista Business

February 3, 2007 09:49

4.0/5
The main reason that I'm posting this review is to comment on CNET's abject hate of the search function being one level down. Here's the thing, if you're about to type then your fingers are on the keyboard. All you have to do is tap the Windows button to and the start menu pops up and anything you type goes into the search box. Then push the enter key and presto--no need to click anything or "delve through layers." This is a hundred times more convenient then having search on the desktop, which would require me to minimize all of my windows just to search.

One thing I don't like is Windows Sidebar. The gadgets can't be resized, and are for the most part to small to be useful (looking at you, RSS reader). For whatever reason there isn't a gadget to control media players, which was one of my favorites on Google Desktop (far superior to Windows Sidebar).

I don't regret my free upgrade (courtesy of the University of Florida, go Gators!), but I wouldn't pay money for Vista. Most of the useful features are free through programs like Google Desktop and Window Blinds, so whats the point of spending hundreds of dollars?

- jfowers

February 28, 2007 07:10
Good
1.5/5
I recently had my business laptop die on me and replaced it with a Dell loaded with Vista Business. So far, I have had major time consuming issues with Outlook. I originally tried my Outlook 2000 which is not supported. Apparently this is because of a file called wab32.dll that was located in Outlook Express does not exist because OE has been replaced by Windows Mail. Now that I am loading in Outlook 2000 from the Office XP suite, I am getting all kinds of error messages and warnings from Vista that a program is trying to hijack my email addresses from outlook...and I most certainly don't have any viruses or anything! You would think that somewhere along the line, the designers would have realized that people coming into vista will be using Outlook 2000 or 2002, and they seem to have done NOTHING to bring these business users into this new platform.

Aside from that, the system isn't really very fast, which is surprising, and it seems to have an awful lot of thinking to do. I know Microsoft wants to create this "totally new experience" and the website claims like "simplifying your business so you can have more fun!" and others that are equally nauseating. Vista has provided me with no benefits thus far.

- theoboeguy

February 17, 2007 11:00
Terrible
0.5/5
Before You Buy Vista Business Edition,Just check whatever you use Like Printer, Internet Because none of the things supports in this advance version.Microsoft doesn't bothered how existing system works.

- mitra911

June 25, 2007 09:22
Good
1.5/5
It is infuriating to have a great printer (Lexmark C524dtn) with duplex capability and not be able to duplex under Vista but have to go to an XP machine to do the duplex printing. This is a driver issue that should have been ironed out before Vista's release. It is even more infuriating to see that detachable disk drives by major manufacturers (e.g. Iomega) are not supported under Vista but are supported under XP. Furthermore, the web sites for these devices state that these devices will not be supported in the future because of "major architectural changes" between Vista and XP. This is absurd. We shouldn't have to upgrade peripheral hardware every time there is a "major" OS upgrade. Even worse: The hardware requirements for basic satisfactory operation are substantially greater for Vista than for XP. XP will run reasonably well on 500 MB or even less. Vista is intolerable on 500 MB and becomes comparable performance wise to XP only at about 1.5 to 2.0 GB of memory. Ridiculous. Vista would never have been released in its present form if Microsoft has serious competition in the OS business. I think XP is superior to Vista in its present form and will be serviceable for almost all applications for many years to come. Microsoft should not be allowed to drop support for XP.

- MDJTS

March 29, 2007 11:20
Spectacular
2.5/5
After toying around with Vista Business for about 4 hours, I got frustrated enough that I ended up wiping my hard disk and reverting back to XP. I had made an image of the hard drive before upgrading with Norton Ghost so it was easy. I'm back on XP and frankly have no intention of upgrading in the near future, if even the distant future.

The appearance features weren't all that did me in, but they were the most disappointing because it had been hyped up so much as such a supposedly beautiful operating system. On appearance, XP's solid blues and greens are so much better than Vista's 10,000 shades of teal, plus the grey/black for maximum nausea. If they wanted it to look good, the least they could have done was package some themes rather than telling users to download nonexistant themes if they didn't like the layout.

The "Flip 3D" feature of "Aero" is killed by the fact that you have to find a little button on the taskbar to use it - or do an awkward 3 key combo - so it's not convenient the way it should be.

Other disappointments included the fact that the "All Programs" menu in the start menu doesn't expand the way it does in XP and previous versions. If you want that, you have to revert to a "classic" theme for the start menu and taskbar, which is basically straight out of Windows 2000, so it clashes with the rest of the desktop (and it is not as convenient as XP's start menu because it only has a single column).

Instead, the start menu in Vista just has a scrolling list of expandable folders, which is about as easy to use as if I were trying to use Windows on my Blackberry. You have to scroll up and down to find anything.

The User Access Control is one thing I thought wouldn't bother me, but it does. Unless you turn it off, it will warn you whenever you run a program it doesn't recognize, which included something as benign as WinRAR. And there is no way I could find to flag a program as "Acceptable." It warned me about WinRAR several times in a row.

Certain folders now take forever to load, for example the Control Panel, which even on my very fast computer takes about 5 seconds to load. On XP it loads right away.

There are now 2 startup pages instead of one. The second is an animation with a nice sound, but before you get there you get a black screen with "(c) Microsoft Windows" at the bottom and an ugly, puke-green progress bar where the bars aren't even evenly spaced. You'd think they would have at least tried to create a good presentation for the opening screen.

Some of those things I could get used to, but the desktop appearance and ease of using the start menu are things that I consider nonnegotiable.

It seems like they made changes to the user interface because they felt like they ought to be making changes, not because they had any compelling reason to do so. This is the same feeling I got when I upgraded to IE7, and which is why I started using Firefox a few months ago after being a longtime IE enthusiast through IE 6. If Vista doesn't crash and burn and force Microsoft to change direction, I think XP will be the last Windows I buy (I got this Vista upgrade for free with my new Dell laptop). I love XP, I just hate Vista. I'll go for a Mac or maybe Linux, if they make Linux easier to use (i.e. multimedia-wise... this would probably require widespread adoption of non-proprietary formats, so it's probably too far in the future).

Now that I think about it, the "commoditization" of operating systems that Microsoft fears seems like it would be pretty good from a consumer perspective... we need more competition in this market, especially if it can be commensurate with standarization. The compatibility issue is the only reason having Windows as a monopoly has been good for consumers thus far, and this can be solved with standardization.

- psychoxl99

January 8, 2008 03:20
Good
1.5/5
I cannot recommend that a small business use this highly buggy program until Microsoft updates what is really a beta software product. For reasons probably best known to Microsoft, Vista is actually being sold as a tested product. Incredibly Vista Business, installed on my Dell Optiflex 766 computer by Dell, does not work either with Microsoft Office's Word (also installed on the computer by the OEM) most of the time, or frequently with the other components of Microsoft Office. If there was one program that you would expect not to have any issue with Vista, it would be Office. Yikes.

- Jurislaw

January 6, 2008 04:39
Terrible
0.5/5
I 've had to reinstall once because it wouldn't install office 2003 (office 2007 is another story. Control Panel and all included in CP dissappeared(printers etc), several lock ups, task mgr shows processor & memeory usage, but no programs are running. I don't know what the hell it's doing & I've only had it a week. I bought this new computer for increased speed and have spent all week trying to get it to work. I'll probably format and install xp pro.

- hthomas49

March 23, 2007 06:20

4.5/5
To start off I would like to say that I in way claim the illusion of objectivity in my review; I have always loved the speed and customizeability of microsoft products and have been a microsoft customer for 8+ years.

-I've had the pleasure of using Vista Beta for 1 month and Vista Business for 5 days.

-My current computer's specifications

Inspiron 6400/E1505, 120 GB 5600 RPM HD, 1 GB 666MHz RAM, ATI X1300 128 MB Video Card

First off I'd like to say that if you are interested in buying a new operating system, do your research FIRST! If your hardware vendors have not made vista drivers yet for you then don't buy Vista yet. If you really want it quickly I suggest e-mailing those vendors and pressuring them to get with the program (pun intended). Now, on to the review.


~Installation of Vista on my machine:
Installing Vista was child's work even when installing on a seperate partition along with XP (partitioning the HD however, is NOT child's work). Installation took about 32 minutes from when I put the CD in to when I was fully logged in to Vista.
I was soon greated with a simple welcome window and a windows update notification with a few drivers that I needed to download. I press a button, then another, and voila! All my hardware works! (May not be so easy for others without a vista premium capable Dell).

-The Interface (Look and feel):
These days all you hear about operating systems is how nice they 'feel' and how great they look. If you're looking to show Vista off to others you are in luck. It is a STUNNER. No where near the shear power of Beryl on Ubuntu but still quite spectacular. Moreover, this interface does not bogg the user down but feels crisp and well....bouncy.

~Features:
Basically, as an extremely proficient XP user (who said I was arrogant?!1?), my windows XP already had MOST of the features in Vista installed through third party vendors and tweaks. However, for those of you without my amazing powers Vista is a GODSEND. Let me outline some things for you:

1. Search - Extremely fast and accessible searchs allow you to run programs or documents simply by hitting the windows key and typing the first 4 letters (maybe 3, maybe EVEN 2) of the program or document's name. Productivity goes through the roof! Contextual searching also makes searching through folders easy with a simple shortcut (windows key + S) when in a folder view in explorer.

2. Navigation:
Moving around in Vista is a breeze with the new 3d tab view (windows key + Tab) and previews on the taskbar. Everything I look for in a folder is exactly where I expect it to be and working with files has never been easier. However, there is a dark side to all of this (see security below).

3. Desktop Sidebar
Although this is nothing new (Konfabulator was the first) it's about time microsoft integrated mini programs ("gadgets") into its operating system. I've found some (drool) really useful ones that replace the functionality of full programs I had in XP. And when it gets intrusive simply turn it off.

4. Many others like:
i. Built in 3d games
ii. Revamped Volume controls
iii. New and fast Windows Media Player
iV. EASY networking and filesharing
V. etc...

~Security:
With the addition of User Account control and the built in Windows Defender (for spyware) Vista is almost bullet proof when run as a standard user. Even running as an administrator is much more secure than it was under XP. No programs install themselves without the explicit authorization of the user and no system files (or any files for that matter) can be modified without permission.
However, due to the constant nagging of security it may get VERY frustrating for an expert user who installs a lot of programs. Therefore I recommend switching UAC (user account control) off when first installing all of your programs on Vista. Also, I would suggest getting a virus scanning program to supplement Windows Defender (AVG Free is great).

All in all this will become a great investment when all the driver/software issues are sorted out (all of mine have been). However, the price may still be prohibitive to many. I for one would never have bough a $300 operating system and only am using Vista because I got it free though my College MSDN free software licensing program. (Jealous?? Well I pay $40K a year to go here...)

My recommendation: Vista is the upgrade in your life that you've been waiting for. But before you upgrade, research, resewarch, and research. And if you're one of the lucky ones without any problems, Buy buy buy. (Nsyc' reference anyone?)

~Peace out

- manogamez

February 21, 2007 09:04
Excellent
2.0/5
Bought a new T60 widescreen Thinkpad a week ago. Found out in quick order certain programs such as Sage ACT! 2006 does not work at all with Vista. I had some issues setting up our HP office printers as well...HP doesn't yet offer drivers for certain printer/Vista combinations.

The sidebar eats up room...and memory. Yahoo widgets does the same thing and better IMO.

Needs more than 1gb to run well.

I spent the weekend installing XP Pro SP2 and finding drivers for my T60 and it runs like a dream now. ACT! 2006 works again. ACT! 2007 claims to work but has some real operational trade-offs + costs more $$$.

I'd say give it 6-12 months before you try to introduce a Vista machine into a large corporate environment. If you own any version of ACT! before 2007, you're SOL.

- REMIX68

March 7, 2007 01:09

4.0/5
I like the fact that the clunky XP Pro GUI has been replaced with a clean, edgy GUI which makes Vista a lot of fun to use. I had some minor installation which I was able to figure out pretty easily. All in all a pretty good product. In my opinion one of the better products by Microsoft.

- ghostboy005