I have been testing Vista since release 1 in July last year; and I mostly happy with the advancements that have been provided. Yet despite it’s different functionality there are certain functionalities which have not been changed since the days of Win 3.1 – Cursor icons, Calculator, and for the most Paint, although this package has received a right click menu functionality.
The fonts displayed are mostly Tahoma, or MS Sans Serif instead of the Segoe UI.
The initial installation screen appears to have been based upon Windows 2000, with only the text and progress bar being displayed. The Licensing screen is presented in Tahoma 9pt font, with the bullet points being displayed as squares, with the dialog box being displayed in classic mode; and does not lend itself to the original Vista experience.
The installation process itself is simply bland and does not display what files are being copied to the machine. Sorry, but being Techies we want to know which files are being copied to allow problem resolution.
Upon first launch the machine appears to operate very slowly and flickers – I’m assuming that this is down to the heavy background, and the use of the graphics card memory rather than software. Vista uses memory allocated from the graphics memory rather than the additional software drivers which normally enable “soft transitions” within earlier versions of Windows. This issue should be resolved fairly quickly, (though it’s taken 10 months to get here first).
The screen graphic settings are still associated with the machine, and not the user profile, which means if you use the graphics at a higher capability than anyone else, you’ll need to keep changing the settings when you’re using the machine.
Although the Windows Update is set within the installation, it defaults to checking every day at 3am which would mean that unless the user checks for updates after the initial installation their machine could be left with vulnerabilities unpatched for a significant period of time. Running Automatic Updates on completion of installation would mean that the sysem is patched and therefore reduces the risk of attack via known/published vulnerabilities.
The Windows SideBar, which is a nice introduction, currently has two states either it’s pressent and takes up a sizable amount of screen on the right hand side, or it’s hidden. Sadly there is no functionality included yet that allows this bar to be automatically hidden or moved to another part of the screen. The “gadget” icons on the sidebar cannot be resized, which means that you are able to only display five gadgets whilst in 1280 x 1024 screen resolution. The calculator gadget wins the prize for the most fonts used – MS Sans Serif, Tahoma, Segoe UI, and Times Roman .. just how many fonts do you want ?
ScreenSavers – there are some good introductions here, but some of them are pointless; yet the development team have decided to leave-out the settings option.
Running the x64 version of Vista, means that you will see two program file folders. The first is the native 64-bit, and the second is 32-Bit, which is named “program files(x86) with programs installing within the correct folder.
Not sure whether those of you who have tested Vista have noticed but there are two versions of IE7 available. IE7 will be deployed to Windows 2000, and XP based systems while IE7+ is included within Vista. This is primarily due to the way in which each package works. Within W2k, and XP IE7 is associated with the user profile, whilst within Vista IE7+ operated sepperately and is not associated with the user’s profile operating as a seperate application – we’re waiting for more information upon this ….
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It looks as though Vista will receive its public unveiling within the next couple of weeks when it’s made available to a larger community of Techie Beta users.
Currently Microsoft are releasing updated versions of the Vista build upon the penultimate Friday of each month. Which means that you will need to re-build your machine on a monthly basis in order to receive the latest functionality.
Prior to the release of Vista Beta 2 to the larger population I believe that Microsoft will need to address the issues below … & in this instance I also include the Beta of IE7 …
With the release of IE7 Beta2 Preview, Microsoft failed to advise that the version prior to March 20th was vulnerable to several known issues. It was only after considerable pressure was applied & logic argued that Microsoft amended the relevant KB to state that IE7B2P was vulnerable, and that users should update.
This raises another issue in that the user is required to remove IE7B2P, which invokes a system restore point, and removes any applied patches/software that has been installed after the IE7B2P leaving the machine vulnerable to attack, until the user has re-applied the patches; but in the meantime their machine is within the public domain with minimal security; yet Microsoft were not willing to accept responsibilty for this issue, and continually stated that IE7B2P should not be used upon a live system – ?
Just how many spare non-productive computers do they think a family owns ?
There are still bugs within the product, that have been identified for quite some time, not to mention that lack of drivers – whether this is originally a Microsoft issue or not, it is Microsoft that will receive the grief, and therefore something that Senior Management should ensure is resolved.
There is also the lack of documentation concerning the build for the general public; in that the x64 version uses both “program files”, and “program files(x86)” yet this has not been mentioned in anything that I have seen available to the general public.
Will Microsoft also release documentation explaining how to navigate around their new “Windows Explorer”? – This can be confusing upon first use …
My biggest concern is how will Microsoft handle security patches.
Microsoft currently state that neither IE7PB2 or Vista should not be installed upon a live production system. However, with the pending release of the Operating Environment into the Public arena, Microsoft do hold the moral responsibility to ensure that those people who have installed either IE7PB2 or Vista, and who are testing it – whether it be for kudos, curiosity, or research – are fully protected.
If Microsoft are not going to include Vista within their monthly patch cycles, then they need to produce a statement to this effect; and explain whether they are going to continue issuing monthly updates – as current – which will cause an uproar from within the user community.
Although I have blogged upon this issue, I have kept it to exclusive sites. However, for once I’m going to raise my head above the parapet & openly state that although Vista has the potential to be a really good and secure OE that until Microsoft have address the support, and security issues it is not ready for release to the public community until Senior Management, must ensure that they has provided a resolution to these issues before any form of Public Beta is considered ….
Vista has the potential to be one of the best OE?s released by Microsoft, however, with current guidance from senior management, the lack of basic debugging, and continued focus upon the front end GUI; Vista has the potential to become more of a joke than Me ? and we still laugh about that today !!
Grateful for your thoughts
A
