Vista rant ---- MS must dump it...

[L233]

Very limited way to change anything manually

I found no limitations compared to XP, quite the opposite.

the new Windows Explorer is an insult

Again same basic functionality as the XP Windows Explorer but more options. How is it an "insult".

control panel usability and layout are a joke

How so? Tried to switch it to classic view? It takes only one click, you know?

having to turn on WLAN manually after every start (with "repairing..." message box to boot) is just awful

I've never had this problem and I have 3 different Vista PCs hoocked to a router via WLAN. If anything has improved hugely over XP then it's the way how wireless connections are managed in Vista.

Windows own programs and control panel apps produce a warning of sorts "do you really, truly want to run this potentially seriously dangerous app"

Disable UAC.

Also, where are the services/computer management? Or is this also masked out somehow?

Have you tried the search field in the start menu? You know, type in "computer management" and you'll get computer management.

Anyway, it's located under Administration Tools (or "Verwaltung" in the German version)... which is, incidentally, the same place it was located in WinXP.

Bioshock demo won't run at all for whatever reason, but I haven't looked deeper into it since it runs fine on XP on the same machine.

No problems with Bioshock demo here.


Seriously, I don't know what you did wrong and apparently, you can't cope with small changes so it must be "awful". Sorry, buddy, but it's not. It's certainly not the Jesus of Operating Systems but it's pretty good.

 

[_xxx_]

CarstenB: which is what I still think too, but XP was a lesser evil in this regard being a souped-up 2K basically.

L233: Explorer has more useless options, yes. And they all do nothing to help make it free of "MyWhatever" and the awful columns in the right window. Hell I even couldn't find how to show extensions or hidden/system folders (not like I tried for long, but I expect it to be in the "properties"-menu which doesn't even exist anymore).

 

[Kyyla]

Also, where are the services/computer management? Or is this also masked out somehow?

You should try using the new search in the windows menu and the control panel. It's a great improvement.

 

[_xxx_]

I don't want to "search" such basic stuff on my machine. That's outright ridiculous.

Well whatever, don't mind me here. I'll be using it for some office stuff due to business and for DX10 games only, so it doesn't bother me since I'll be using XP for everything else anyway.

 

[L233]

CL233: Explorer has more useless options, yes. And they all do nothing to help make it free of "MyWhatever" and the awful columns in the right window. Hell I even couldn't find how to show extensions or hidden/system folders (not like I tried for long, but I expect it to be in the "properties"-menu which doesn't even exist anymore).

It's still in the properities menu and it still exists. You can display the menu bar the same way as it works in IE7: press ALT.

You can fully configure the columns and grouping options. All it takes is a right click.

I'd advise against showing system folders because especially with the use of virtual directories for localization purposes you WILL fuck it up if you mess around there the same way you did in XP. I know I did.

 

[N00b]

I don't want to "search" such basic stuff on my machine. That's outright ridiculous.

Just try first and judge later. You will probably get used to the new stuff very quickly and feel right at home in less than a week.

 

[Geo]

See, the problem with interspersing personal insults into legitimate critique/comments is I'm just plumb lazy and will delete the whole thing rather than try to edit you into good little boys.

Anywho, quit talking about each other rather than the thread subject, or the pain increases from here.

 

[doob]

Just try to avoid getting like this poor guy(parody!)

 

[Frank]

How can I turn off that explorer wants to cache thumbnails and all the other statistics of any media that are in a directory, especially on a network drive , even when I have selected classic, detail view and removed the colums I don't care about? It takes ages for large directories to become useable. I turned off anything I could think of, to no avail.

How can I get the left pane (folder view) to stay put, instead of jumping around according to where I travel the mouse, without any scrollbars whatsoever?

Why does it start with a huge list of "personal" folders I have to close and select "computer", before it shows what I want to see?

Why do I have to re-enable my network link any time it wakes up from sleep?

Why has copying files become so much slower, even after the official patch?

Why do many older games crash or behave weird?

Why is it impossible to set a NON-MICROSOFT program as the default to open it in most cases?

Why...

You get the point. I like my computer predictable, and I like to be able to have it do as I want it to.

 

[Kaotik]

Why is it impossible to set a NON-MICROSOFT program as the default to open it in most cases?

It's not impossible, if you set program X to be the default, it is, no matter who made it - however some programs are coded sloppy and ignore the default you've set, it's not MS's fault

 

[Frank]

It's not impossible, if you set program X to be the default, it is, no matter who made it - however some programs are coded sloppy and ignore the default you've set, it's not MS's fault

Well, it works fine in XP.

 

[Kaotik]

Well, it works fine in XP.

Maybe the way it's handled has been changed a bit, and the programs in question ignoring the settings need to be updated accordingly?

 

[BRiT]

It's not impossible, if you set program X to be the default, it is, no matter who made it - however some programs are coded sloppy and ignore the default you've set, it's not MS's fault

Maybe the way it's handled has been changed a bit, and the programs in question ignoring the settings need to be updated accordingly?

That was the case with mIRC and it's handling of url links. Once an updated version of mIRC came out, it now loads links in the default browser. All my other programs are fine with using the default browser.

 

[Frank]

Maybe the way it's handled has been changed a bit, and the programs in question ignoring the settings need to be updated accordingly?

But, why would I need to spend all that money if it works fine? Because I have to support those companies? Or because they demand I do so?

Fortunately, even HP now supports "downgrading" newly-bought computers to XP. It's still a major hassle, but it does work.

 

[L233]

How can I turn off that explorer wants to cache thumbnails and all the other statistics of any media that are in a directory, especially on a network drive , even when I have selected classic, detail view and removed the colums I don't care about? It takes ages for large directories to become useable. I turned off anything I could think of, to no avail.

Weird, I don't have that problem. Unless I set one of the symbol view options, no thumbnail caching occurs.

Did you try enabling "always show symbols, never thumbnails" (or something like that) in the folder options?

How can I get the left pane (folder view) to stay put, instead of jumping around according to where I travel the mouse, without any scrollbars whatsoever?

Hm, I'm not sure I understand what you mean.

Why does it start with a huge list of "personal" folders I have to close and select "computer", before it shows what I want to see?

Because that's the standard view when opening the Explorer.

Solution: open the Explorer by opening My Computer, either the desktop link or from the start menu. You can also create a shortcut to My Computer in the quick launch bar or wherever you like (instead of explorer.exe).

Alternative: create a shortcut directly to a drive. Double clicking will start the explorer defaulted to that drive.

Why has copying files become so much slower, even after the official patch?

The patch should have solved the slow copying bug but there are still cosmetical issues with the progress bar in certain situations. It's possible that you're imagining it. There was another patch, AFAIK that solved some issue with copying speed over network or something. Maybe you missed a patch.

Why do many older games crash or behave weird?

Because there may be compatibility issues with new OS versions. It's not like WinXP didn't have it's share of problems in that regard.

Why is it impossible to set a NON-MICROSOFT program as the default to open it in most cases?

I haven't had any problem with that. Could you be more specific?

 

[Geo]

Because that's the standard view when opening the Explorer.

Solution: open the Explorer by opening My Computer, either the desktop link or from the start menu. You can also create a shortcut to My Computer in the quick launch bar or wherever you like (instead of explorer.exe).

That works well, but is non-obvious for a lot of people. Made me a bit nutty for a day or so until I figured out how to change it. Now I tend to forget it ever did anything else until I get reminded by a post like this.

 

[Sc4freak]

After reading half of this thread, it appears to me that the reason why most people don't like Vista is because its different. "I don't know how to use this new OS, and what I was used to in XP is now slightly different. Therefore, because I can't be screwed learning how to use this OS, I'll just call it bad and evil and be done with it."

That about right?

 

[N00b]

Why does it start with a huge list of "personal" folders I have to close and select "computer", before it shows what I want to see?

Because that's the standard view when opening the Explorer.

BTW, you can drag and drop folders to the "Favorite Links" area in explorer, so you can access them faster. Plus they will appear in all the Vista common dialogs, too, if you have enabled navigation pane (Organize->Layout->Navigation Pane). I'm not too fond of the some of the explorer changes, but this one is a real time-saver.

Re-enabling network links after sleep: AFAIK it's a bug.

Copying files: This is sometimes slower, even with all the hotfixes installed. Let's see if SP1 will bring improvements here.

After reading half of this thread, it appears to me that the reason why most people don't like Vista is because its different. "I don't know how to use this new OS, and what I was used to in XP is now slightly different. Therefore, because I can't be screwed learning how to use this OS, I'll just call it bad and evil and be done with it."

That about right?

Exactly.

 

[nutball]

After reading half of this thread, it appears to me that the reason why most people don't like Vista is because its different. "I don't know how to use this new OS, and what I was used to in XP is now slightly different. Therefore, because I can't be screwed learning how to use this OS, I'll just call it bad and evil and be done with it."

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

 

[Kaotik]

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Agreed. Let's go back to DOS. Oh wait, let's not.