Windows Vista's dirty little secrets

[JDArt]

Windows Vista is out. And by now, almost everyone knows three things about Microsoft's first major operating system release in five years: it has enhanced security features, a snazzy interface, and better search capabilities.

But there's more to Vista than these three features - and the news is not all good. While some of Vista's secrets are bound to surprise you pleasantly, others could make you question your decision to upgrade altogether.

Registration lockdown

With Vista, Microsoft has gotten stricter than ever on acceptable use of its software. The company's Genuine Software Initiative has been picking up steam over the past year, forcing users to "validate" their version of Windows when a critical patch or desirable new feature is made available over the Internet. If, through this check, the software is deemed invalid, access to the download is denied. Complaints from paying customers of Microsoft's software are not rare under this system.

But with Vista, Microsoft has taken the Genuine Software Initiative to a new level. If you fail to "activate" - or register -* your version of Vista with Microsoft within 30 days, the operating system goes into a "reduced functionality mode," which essentially cripples the operating system.

Once in reduced functionality mode, you'll be able to log on to Vista for only one hour. After that, Vista will force a system shutdown. Even during the hour you're logged on, Vista will disable the Aero interface and several other key features that make Vista what it is. About the only thing you'll be able to do is activate the product using one of the acceptable methods.

When Microsoft tried a similar scheme in the early days of Windows XP, there were so many complaints from legitimate users who were blacklisted that Microsoft published a workaround. Unless the program has been significantly improved, a number of users may again find themselves blacklisted - and this time, the complaints will be louder, since reduced functionality mode renders your PC virtually useless.

User accounts

Part of Vista's emphasis on security alters the way users of a PC are handled. Vista's new User Account Control (UAC) is at the heart of these security enhancements, and it's a feature that's bound to cause frustrations for a large number of people.

Here's why. By default, Vista monitors a user's actions and throws up a dialog box requiring administrator credentials before allowing any action that has a potential impact on system security.

UAC is designed to prevent malicious software from infiltrating your PC, and it goes some way toward achieving that goal. The downside, however, is that most users will have to deal with annoying dialog boxes whenever they run a program that requires access to sensitive locations. Many beta testers of Vista complained that UAC prompts showed up even when performing seemingly harmless activities.

To avoid such annoyances, Vista owners will have to become thoroughly familiar with the concept of UAC and configure their user account appropriately - no lightweight task.

Performance

Windows Vista requires more computing horsepower than any previous version of Windows. While that's not necessarily surprising, what may be is that Vista's visually impressive Aero interface won't even be available to you if your computer does not contain a dedicated graphics card. Roughly half of today's computers will need to be upgraded to run Vista adequately, according to U.S.-based Jon Peddie Research.

Notebook users will be especially hard hit by Vista's hardware requirements. That's because many lower-cost notebooks over the past couple of years were sold with low-cost integrated graphics controllers that work fine when displaying the standard business applications and Web pages in Windows XP. But for Vista, these machines will be inadequate.

Even worse, notebook users with integrated graphics won't be able to upgrade their machines just by purchasing a new video card. Most notebook computers would require an entire motherboard upgrade to work effectively with Vista. In other words, it will make more sense to buy a completely new machine.

Those who do have a dedicated graphics card with at least 64 megabytes of memory will have make sure their systems meet the other unspoken requirement of Vista: at least 1 gigabyte (GB) of system memory. Anything less will have you tapping your fingers far too often - or reducing the number of tasks you can undertake simultaneously.

[Mr. Pickles]

Even worse, it took hackers a few hours to break into the new "secure" OS....

Here is just one:
http://www.redherring.com/Article.as...ctor=Computing

[brian.austin]

Originally Posted by JDArt

Registration lockdown

Complaints from paying customers of Microsoft's software are not rare under this system.

Good writeup on this here: http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=142

I'm not a big fan of WGA but I understand why they did it. And the Vista installations I've done have been pretty easy for activation. What irks me more than anything is that, with over 100+ workstations in my corporate network, I now have to install a local Activation Server that answers activation requests the workstations send out every six months.

User accounts

Here's why. By default, Vista monitors a user's actions and throws up a dialog box requiring administrator credentials before allowing any action that has a potential impact on system security.

Apple has been doing this for years. It's about time Microsoft started working with a security model that gets the user more involved.

Performance

Notebook users will be especially hard hit by Vista's hardware requirements. That's because many lower-cost notebooks over the past couple of years were sold with low-cost integrated graphics controllers that work fine when displaying the standard business applications and Web pages in Windows XP. But for Vista, these machines will be inadequate.

Even worse, notebook users with integrated graphics won't be able to upgrade their machines just by purchasing a new video card. Most notebook computers would require an entire motherboard upgrade to work effectively with Vista. In other words, it will make more sense to buy a completely new machine.

Those who do have a dedicated graphics card with at least 64 megabytes of memory will have make sure their systems meet the other unspoken requirement of Vista: at least 1 gigabyte (GB) of system memory. Anything less will have you tapping your fingers far too often - or reducing the number of tasks you can undertake simultaneously.

I just haven't seen this. I have a Dell Latitude D810 with Intel integrated 945 graphics controller, 1Gb RAM, and nothing particularly special in the processor. It's running Vista with NO issues, including the Aero interface. Response is fast and there are no hangups at all.

[Paul Shields]

Excellent post Jay. I'm still waiting for my Vista upgrades to arrive and then I'll give it a good tryout on a notebook. I'm going to resist as much as possible commenting on it until I've really seen it in action. I had a copy running for a while and it was fine, but really a bit underwhelming considering the money and time spent on it. My main bugbear at the moment is the ridiculous number of versions and the really quite extortionate costs (I'm talking from a UK perspective here). I'm not sure Microsoft have done themselves or their customers any favours on those points.

[JDArt]

The cost of the OS is really over the top. It's about $400 for a full version of Ultimate (the one you want), with the only family pricing that I know of allowing customers of ultimate to buy copies of the Home edition -- the one nobody wants, including kids -- at a lower cost.

To be fair, I have been most impressed with two aspects of Vista: driver updates via Device Manager actually work (should I be impressed that this feature finally works?), and getting a vista computer onto the network is quite easy (again, better late than never).

At the end of the day, though, Vista is a pretty face and not a heckuva lot more. That is, there's nothing compelling functionality-wise about the OS that I have yet seen, and there's a good bit of relearning involved to accomplish basic, non-productivity tasks, like adjusting stuff in the control panel.

Perhaps most annoying to new users will be the constant permission prompts thrown up by UAC.

[JDArt]

Originally Posted by brian.austin

I just haven't seen this. I have a Dell Latitude D810 with Intel integrated 945 graphics controller, 1Gb RAM, and nothing particularly special in the processor. It's running Vista with NO issues, including the Aero interface. Response is fast and there are no hangups at all.

That's good to hear. Performance seems to vary, sometimes quite a bit, from machine to machine. I installed vista on one PC with more than enough horsepower and RAM, and the hard drive is constantly being hit, with just vista and office installed.

MS has done a good job of "hiding" performance behind animated graphics in vista. You'll find yourself mesmerized by pulsating sliders and pretty status bars while vista does its thing in the background. In the past, MS OS's have not done this, so users were more aware of how long a PC was taking to accomplish a task.

[brian.austin]

Originally Posted by JDArt

The cost of the OS is really over the top. It's about $400 for a full version of Ultimate (the one you want), with the only family pricing that I know of allowing customers of ultimate to buy copies of the Home edition -- the one nobody wants, including kids -- at a lower cost.

I agree. This is easily the most costly upgrade MS has ever put out, including the NT to 2000 upgrade for businesses, which was pricey.

At the end of the day, though, Vista is a pretty face and not a heckuva lot more. That is, there's nothing compelling functionality-wise about the OS that I have yet seen, and there's a good bit relearning involved to accomplish basic, non-productivity tasks, like adjusting stuff in the control panel.

If all you're after is the pretty face, there are a lot of Vista-like interfaces available for XP now. It's basically a "theme" type approach, layering Aero functionality (although I'm not sure if the transparency effects are there) on top of XP's normal Explorer shell. Google "Vista XP interface" or something to narrow it down.

[Paul Shields]

Originally Posted by JDArt

The cost of the OS is really over the top. It's about $400 for a full version of Ultimate (the one you want), with the only family pricing that I know of allowing customers of ultimate to buy copies of the Home edition -- the one nobody wants, including kids -- at a lower cost.

List price here in the UK for Ultimate is £369 ($725) - no kidding! *Though you can get it from Amazon for £350 ($68 *- quite a bargain . *There is a loophole that's being exploited though where you can buy Ultimate for around £136 ($267) on Amazon if you are an 'OEM' - though there's some confusion about future licensing issues that may arise...

All in all, it's a mess. I doubt if Vista (in any of it's artificial versions) is flying off the shelves, at least in the UK. Of course many people will be getting it pre-installed on new computers, or will have upgrade vouchers if they've purchased the last few months. I think we'll see some price repositioning very quickly once the (fairly small) post-launch rush has died down.

[Drake]

Do what I did Sell my computer for 800. turn around buy a dell for 1000. google a coupon code for 250$ and meet the requirements for a free version of windows vista premium version.

[JDArt]

Originally Posted by Drake

Do what I did Sell my computer for 800. turn around buy a dell for 1000. google a coupon code for 250$ and meet the requirements for a free version of windows vista premium version.

How in the world can you sell a computer for $800, unless it started out life a year ago as a super computer? Resale value of PCs is horrible.

[cedric_r]

Maybe it's time to consider alternatives to Windows.

[Mr. Pickles]

Originally Posted by Drake

Do what I did Sell my computer for 800. turn around buy a dell for 1000. google a coupon code for 250$ and meet the requirements for a free version of windows vista premium version.

Kind of a long way to go to get a copy of a bloated OS that doesn't really add much at all to the computing experience except prettier screens, isn't it?

I mean, what do you really get for your time and/or money? A much larger installation on the ole hard drive, a higher requirement for RAM, and the need for a faster processor, and

I agree with Cedric.....

[dc2]

I will wait a fair time for the price to drop and any bugs to be ironed out before thinking about it. Its to early yet to find out all its problems

[Paul Shields]

Originally Posted by cedric_r

Maybe it's time to consider alternatives to Windows.

Ah, there speaks a Linux man if I'm not mistaken . TBH, I like all different OS's for lots of different reasons. Right now I'm in the office typing this on an iMac running OSX. A great OS, but frustrating in some areas. I also have a Windows notebook next to me, and a Linux box under the desk. Looking after *NIX systems is my day job. My perfect OS would be the software availability of Windows, the slickness of OSX, and the price point of Linux.

[cedric_r]

I heard of people running PS in wine. Never tried it myself (having no paying software at home anymore), I'm happy with The Gimp given that I do very little post processing on my photos and I use mainly JPEGs.

[JDArt]

Originally Posted by PaulS

My perfect OS would be the software availability of Windows, the slickness of OSX, and the price point of Linux.

LOL.

My favorite camera would have the functionality of a 1DS Mark II and the price of a Brownie.

[Paul Shields]

Originally Posted by JDArt

LOL.

My favorite camera would have the functionality of a 1DS Mark II and the price of a Brownie.

Well if you wait long enough I'm sure it'll get drop down to that level. Of course by then you'll be lusting after the 1DS Mark IX.

[Drake]

We all hate microsoft. We all hate windows...but get over it everyone uses it and it doesn't seem like any major company will be making a change. Major, small, medium I don't see companies switching something like an operating system or the computers. As stupid as people are out there they can barely handle windows and have to get the geek squad to help them with that.. I can only imagine what would happen if someone switched them to OSX they might actually understand what is going on..but it won't happe. Sorry

[cedric_r]

Originally Posted by Drake

We all hate microsoft. We all hate windows...but get over it everyone uses it and it doesn't seem like any major company will be making a change. Major, small, medium I don't see companies switching something like an operating system or the computers. As stupid as people are out there they can barely handle windows and have to get the geek squad to help them with that.. I can only imagine what would happen if someone switched them to OSX they might actually understand what is going on..but it won't happe. Sorry

I disagree with that. Most companies I know (including where I work) have more and more Linux servers. I also know very large companies and government organisations that have switched to thin Linux clients because they're much easier to maintain. Microsoft gets away with pretty much anything because people are lazy and afraid of change, not because they have better or more user friendly solutions.

[Paul Shields]

There is also a mindset amongst many managers and decision makers to not move to something that doesn't have formal support. I've seen decisions made here where we've paid well over the odds for some functionality that we could have picked up much more cheaply, but didn't have the associated account managers and '24/7' support costs. Red Hat are trying to move into that area with their (rather expensive) Enterprise Linux setup. I guess it helps the decision makers sleep better at night knowing they're able to pass on problems to a 3rd party.

Anyway, back to Vista. One of the things that I've been concerned about was the DRM that was supposed to be built-in to Vista. According to link though MS have kept that part of it low key due to the fact that it may already have been bypassed (which is great news if true - I'm not a hacker or warez merchant but I do like to have control over my own content). After the fiasco of Plays4Sure/Sky/FairUse4WM you'd have thought they'd have learned some lessons...