Windows Vista, first impressions
Wow. I just lost an entire post thanks to Windows Vista restarting my computer after installing some updates. I’m really not too impressed with this Beta release. I’ve been using it for a couple days now and Vista has been plain annoying more than anything. Windows Vista pros? A pretty slick interface. Cons? Everything else. There’s something really wrong when it takes 3 separate dialogs just to remove an icon from your desktop. The main culprit here is a new component called User Account Control. Anytime you try to do something that could potentially damage the system, this little guy pops up asking if you’re really sure, sometimes more than once. I could see this being useful if I accidentally dragged my c:Windows folder to the Recycle Bin, but not when I’m trying to do something as trivial as deleting an icon. Thanks, but no thanks.
The entire kernal and almost all of the components of Windows Vista have been rewritten from scratch. This means a lot for the stability and security of the system but doesn’t directly translate into any cool new stuff for the user. Besides the new Aero interface, the only noticeable change is the addition of a widgets sidebar. You can put on it things like a stock ticker and calculator for easy access. It’s kind of neat, but Yahoo! Widgets blows it out of the water. What happened to my relational file system, or my Monad Shell? These were two really cool features hyped up a couple years ago, but have since been removed from the initial Vista release. What reason do I have to upgrade to Vista? Internet Explorer 7? Way to show up to the innovative browser party 3 years late, Microsoft. The only reason I can think of is that DirectX 10 will be Vista only, but I doubt any publisher out there has the balls to release a DirectX 10-only game.
Maybe I’m just in a bad mood because the computer lost an entire post I had written. It’s important to note that this IS a beta release. The final version will hopefully be an improvement. You better get this one right, Microsoft. Your future is depending on it.
Oh yea, here are some screenshots:
Desktop
Flip 3D feature
