Will Vista ever get stable

It's really hard to determine if Vista is good or not. Some people like it because it JUST HAPPENS to run the thing they wanna run, and for others, they don't like it because well, you know...

I'm hoping Vista improves if its THAT flawed because if I choose not to use Vista, XP is the answer. Windows XP is kinda getting rather old and I'm tired of it since I've had it since 2002, so I'm hoping Vista will make a great operating system eventually. According to the list of software compatible with Vista, I may be good to go...

 

Isn't this the exact same reason why people like XP so much or any other operating system for that matter?

 

I'm using XP Home, with the admin account all the time. It's simply annoying to run without 100% privleges all the time in Windows. You can't install programs or even play Punkbuster enabled games without admin. Yes, I have been guilty of allowing my machine to spread malware. I didn't notice my firewall program crashing and I was greeted with a RPC crash/Windows is being shut down by NT Authority etc error message thanks to the blaster worm. Having a condescending attitude towards others won't help to spread your message.

I've only heard this from rumors, but doesn't Vista gimp access to folders until you "take ownership" of them? This happens in XP to a lesser extent (opening the C volume for the first time gives you a "this folder contains important system files..." notice which you have to dismiss). That and UAC popping up makes me consider buying a XP Pro license now, before they're discontinued.

 

I wonder if its worth getting Vista 'cause isn't windows 7 coming out in 2010? Thats like 2 years not that long...

 

I rolled back to CP/M, the heck with this new-fangled Windows.

 

LOL.

 

Mmm...on a related note, I've been using the built-in Vista firewall + AVG since I got my new laptop. Haven't had any problems (yet) but I'm behind a router and browse in a fairly safe fashion.

Anyway does anyone know how 'effective' or 'good' the Vista firewall is? Am I a complete nut for trusting the MS firewall all this time? I used Zonealarm for years on XP but was always told the built-in XP firewall was trash so I never really gave it a shot.

To be honest the main reason I never got a 'real' firewall is because when I first booted Vista, the higher memory usage vs. XP really caught me off guard and I didn't want to bother installing one more program But now I'm thinking it might be better to use a different firewall, I dunno...

 

Im the same position as you Ackeron. Ive used Vistas firewall + AVG all this time, which has worked well. I wanna know aswell how good or bad Vistas firewall is

Comodo firewall seems to be preffered.

 

Having comodo firewall makes a world of difference in your safety. It also gives you a boost in your internet speed, mostly in torrent downloads as vista firewall doesn't play well with torrents.

 

So is my security vulnerable at the moment? If so, how vulnerable are we talking about?

I havent had any problems with torrents or any other program. Kinda seems like its not doing anything. I also have a router firewall and disabled UPnP

 

The Vista Firewall is OK; however, if you want to configure outgoing connections it is a PITA.

If you used ZoneAlarm on XP, take a look at ZoneAlarm AntiVirus on Vista. The full ZA suite has too many missing pieces in the Vista version for me. There's some links on my website that explain it further.

 

If your computer has been good with the default Vista firewall, IMO, there's no point in installing a third party one. I don't understand Calvin's claim that a third party firewall software will boost your internet speeds; doesn't make sense to me. What would make more sense is that it would slow your system down, perhaps not noticeably, but the slow down will be there. If you want speed, the default firewall on the Windows OS is the way to go since it is most compatible with software.

Besides, you have hardware firewall (your router) plus the Vista firewall; a good combination if you combine it with senseful surfing/downloading habits, which I'm sure you do anyways since your computer is fine.

And as always, this is my opinion. Internet safety vs. computer efficiency is a debatable topic and I'm not much for debating that.

 

vista is peace of crap. PERIOD. here is why
1) internet explorer 7 is totally unsecure **** OS. Its getting easily effected by malwares and trojans.
2) Windows vista default email client (windows mail) is actually an downgrade from windows xp outlook express. I really can not express my feeling enough how much hate windows mail client. This **** gets freeze every time i perform any task through imap and this has made life miserable as hell.
3) Many of my stocks software do not work with windows vista. Okay, if its not microsoft's falut then neither its mine. Give me XP you microsoft ****s. I don't want VISTA until it can run all my softwares.
4) Windows vista have tons of problems with old printer drivers, firewall softwares and telnet in windows vista just do not work. I have to constantly do some tweaking on router through automated telnet scripts which do not work at all in windows vista.
5) WINDOWS VISTA SUCKS. If all these software will become available on MAC i will really throw out my vista computer out of the window and by atleast 8 apple mac's. Steve are you reading this?

 

and yeah, all those users who don't have problems with windows vista, LET ME TELL YA, it costs $100's of dollar to buy softwares again which was made for windows xp. They all need to bought again even if they start working on windows vista. So windows vista do not cost $200 or something it virtually cost $1000's of dollars more for hardware + software + routers + printers + network upgrades.

I think the biggest mistake in 20th century computer industry has made is built all softwares on windows platform. Now all we are paying price by spending hours of hours on something totally useless and unproductive tasks like saying yes to security dialogs every few hours and spending 1000's of dollars more every few years on useless stuff which is really not required.

I mean what kind of progress it is? My computer in 1997 use to do all application tasks with faster speed (I am not saying multimedia and gaming) then todays' computer which are at least 20 times faster and have 20 times more ram. wtf!

I am so pissed right now because my windows vista mail client is not sending out email because its not syncing with imap server. damn.

 

1. have you heard of firefox?
2. gmail anyone?
3. point?
4. if you have a pre-2005 printer. a few words of advice "get with the program".
5. again point? when you throw your vista computer out...just send it to me ;p and your gonna buy 8 mac's? you must have a very large bank account.

mods, i think the post(s) above mine need to be deleted. it is hot (flamed)

 

listen my dear microsoft fanboy friend

You are speaking here with 12 years experienced, level 2 linux system administrator. I know what i am talking. Firefox, yeah i guess i am using it from version 0.6.

2) gmail?? hah!! Since when did free email accounts work well, gmail constanly blocks tons of emails and throw emails in spam box. I manage 10000+ email users what do you know about emails! heh!

4) why? why? why i have to spend $400 just because few new notebooks are now using windows vista. Do you get my point?

5) dear microsoft fanboy, I will send you my office address so that you can come and try to catch the computer when i throw my vista laptop out from window. Ofcourse, this can only happen when softwares which we use are made available on macs and millions of our cods are finally converted to either linux or windows platform. (can you imagine i am talking about $10000's dollar investment in re-writing codes?)

Do you even have small idea what i was talking about or you just want to remain windows fanboy?

 

@ max if ur soo pro and level 2 linux mac fanboi l33t admin then why do u whine? obviously, mac and linux dont support your kind of work lol.

i think u havent looked at the market lately but virtually all laptops are on windows vista now.

there is thunderbird pop3 mail client asides form the builtin windows one.

i think if u want something to be done start with the code writing to mac or linux already! lol your

 

Im actually hoping vista is just another throw away o.s like m.e was, I was always extremely happy with xp but then my needs changed etc... vista was actually exciting for me, with the incorperation of media center into the mainstream.also alot of new technology is incorperated.

Thinking back on xp
Loved xp pro hated home and mce and games ran like no other

Vista should of scrapped the 32 bit crap all together and focused on the 64 bit. and made less versions of it to focus on.

 

If you truly manage 10000+ email accounts I would assume you use Outlook instead of the built in email client.

Using this logic all MAC's must suck, since they don't run your current software.

If they work on Vista why in the heck would you buy them again?

 

1. FF ftw!
2. hmmmm 10000+ email accounts? or you h4xors 10000+ accounts?
3. no rebutle?
4. few few notebooks use vista? again "get with the program"
5. which is why windows is more popular than macs? i think so.

and if you like xp so much, why don't u just install xp on your computer and stop whining?

and me a m1cr0shaft fanboy? ha! you make me laugh.

i was just offering alternatives/(attempted) solutions to your problems

and BEWARE ALL he knows what hes talking.

 

harpreet, are you working for microsoft (by any chance)?

2. I work for very reputable web hosting company. Yes, we have more then 10000+ email users on our network and we proccess about 1 million emails every day.

4. Our softwares was basically bought and designed to work in windows 2000 environment which worked fine in windows xp but they have problems in windows vista. So we are dumping microsoft platform and switching all to java and linux but this seems impossible because there are tons of old codes written on windows platform and we just don't have enough money to re-write all codes, because it will cost about $50,000 salaries to get it re-0done on java platform.

because no vendor is selling windows xp based laptops anymore. Hell, sony, compaq etc., even have stopped providing xp drivers for their latest laptops. Do you get my point?, or you still want to troll within your small windows vista world and play like Microsoft fan boy? and then wonder why i am calling you microsoft fanboy?

yeah, we just bought 2 laptops from dell with windows xp this month just to be able to run our old codes till we sort out problems with windows vista. FYI, I have both vista + xp laptops but XP is old and I have already spent my $2000 budget with dell vista laptop and stuck with this one for 2 more year. If you can send me $1500 I will be happy to send this laptop to you and buy windows xp dell.

 

hp business class laptops still have xp on them

and no i do not work for microsoft.

do you charge customers to re-write codes?

and this point has been brought up in the other thread: you should have researched all of this before purchasing your laptop. and you yourself are also a microsoft fanboy for defending xp no?

and my $849 laptop is good for me no need for me to buy your laptop for $1500.

 

harpreet, grow up, software engineers need food to eat and therefore some money.

 

hmmm i could've sworn i read something about customers being charged.

 

Careful! You are straying off-topic.

Reverting to the title of this thread, I have found Vista to be more stable than XP (less good in other respects, but more stable).

John

 

which was my point from the beginning. (i don't think i was successful getting that point across)

 

problems with vista are not about stability, problems with vista are about compatibility. If all your softwares work with vista then you will not have any problems, but many many enterprise and business users who's softwares do not work want to stay away from vista and they are the only once *****ing and moaning about vista.

let me give you an example, netlimiter is an software which allows admin to limit connection speed on network, this software helps us save about $300 on internet usage every month but this software instead of being vista ready do not works properly on vista. It crashes vista allot (atleast 2 times in a day) and causes tons of problems, now if we don't use this software we have to pay atleast $300+ every month on internet usage bills, that means $3600+ every year for us just to use vista for small company like us with only 4-5 users.

 

netlimiter works for vista.. even vista 64bit. Have you tried the latest version?

Dont you think XP had the same compatibility issues when it first came out? XP has been around for way to long compared to Vista. Microsoft and program developers are both still trying to improve vista just like XP was

I bet when windows 7 comes out, people are still gonna complain. Why? because XP has been around for so long that they easily compare its perfection to a new OS's infancy flaws. Completely forgetting XP had its issues too when it first came out

 

I think that's the main thing most people don't comprehend in terms of this "Will Vista ever be stable?" question. Vista, from what I've seen and tried, works fine with few minor problems, which I believe SP 1, and future SPs will come to fix.

The "instability" most people see is the incompatibility of software/hardware XP-ready, but do not work for Vista. This was the EXACT same problem that happened when XP was introduced when everyone was still on 98/2k/ME. It was a pain to get through, and everyone wanted to stay with what they found to be "stable." But eventually things started getting better. Updates were made and finally we see that everyone is actually embracing XP so much that they refuse to upgrade to Vista.

Hmm...see something familiar?

So give Vista some time. Right now, it is at an eye-candy level, with improvements to be made, and developers to adjust to. But hey, that can only mean improvements to software/hardware, right?

Isn't that what we want?

 

Actually a lot of issues that XP had got drastically reduced with SP1. I don't know if that is the case with Vista.

Though Maxberry's tone isn't the best , what he is saying at heart is right. Vista is incompatible with lots of software out there. This is the reality out there amongst many people, not just a few. I don't know what Microsoft were thinking when they made vista since it is incompatible with SO many softwares.

Also the other right thing Maxberry said was the lack of XP laptops. Only 2 companies (Dell and Lenovo) really have XP as an option. Want another laptop? Try to manually install XP and pray you don't run into issues. I hate it when any company tries to shove crap down our throats. It's OUR choice. We are paying for the damn OS. Let us choose XP or Vista. That way everyone is happy all round. I really hope that laptop companies that only offer Vista see a slide in their sales because of the lack of respect for the customer.That was the reason I went for my laptop and HP lost a potential customer. However looking at thinkpad's superior quality, it is HP's loss not mine.

 

Let me ask you something. If there was problem of migration from 98/2K/blah to XP, then shouldn't Microsoft have thought about this little problem while making Vista? Aren't they supposed to improve as a software company by making sure there no back compatibility problems? Of course there will always be some incompatibilities but it seems to me that there are much more of it rather than the way around.

I want to ask all vista users one question: What is there in Vista that makes it MUCH more better than XP in order to justify a migration from XP? From what I read its not more stable, it has incompatibility problems, runs slow despite having up to date hardware, requires so much tweaking, has problems with games etc etc.

 

Like I said, I was running Vista Ultimate and got a lot of BSODs. Then went back to XP and no more BSODs. I think it was a driver compatibility issue. The only thing I liked in Vista was the desktop visuals. But now I have my stable XP with Vista looks, so for now no Vista again.

 

You guys did know the word Vista is spanish for "view" . Thats why its all visual stuff compared to XP

Wait... didnt XP also have similar issues when it first came out?! I mean geez, it only took them like 7 years to get it the way it is now. Vista is only like up to 2 years?

Reading stuff is nice, using it is better. He said, she said

 

So let me get this straight: XP had these problems so we (as in Microsoft) are not going to do anything to prevent it in Vista. That sounds about right doesn't it? If that isnt progress, then I dont know what is

I have read a lot about the problems in vista. I mean a lot. Everyone seems to have different issues from another person all of which, in itself, are pressing. There are dedicated threads in these very forums for downgrading(?) to XP. If people are so happy with vista, why downgrade?

 

Vista has worked fine for me on my lappy, so for me it has been "stable".

And, I came over from having XP!! )

 

You could say that same thing for Windows 2000/ME to XP. You can email MS and ask why they didnt add measures to prevent issues on the next OS

All new OS's will come with flaws and holes. Even Windows 7 will come with flaws, thats what windows updates are for. Vista is only up to SP1 since its release. XP is up to SP3 now, of course XP will be better at most things.

Why the downgrade? cause people are resistant to change, specially when XP has been around for 7 years or so. As soon as new users come across an issue with Vista 'OMG VISTA SUX BACK TO XP' . Some people do have specific reasons which gives them no choice but to go back to XP

Dont get me wrong, i use XP at work and find it rock stable but when i come home i use vista. It doesnt even bother me because both feel the same thing

Everyone has different experiences with Vista. Personally ive had a great one, specially on 64bit. I did come across a few issues but right now its stable and flawless for me.

I havent done as much force shutdowns/restarts from freezing or pressing alt+ctrl+delete compared to XP a few years ago

 

No kidding.

Vista has never crashed on me once before throughout the whole 6 month period I've used it. But XP, crashed on me quite a few times.

I dunno. I guess it's just the intent of the people...

 

Whew...this thread has surged ahead quite nicely since my firewall post! Thanks for the replies re: that subject though

 

I've been using AVG + Vista firewall as well, but I did use Comodo for a while.

 

If you are always behind a properly configured router any software firewall is of debatable value, especially when running Vista. Nevertheless, I always do run a software firewall.

 

Vista is also English for "view". Just an FYI.

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=vista&x=0&y=0

 

If I were to connect to a public hotspot for any length of time, I would install Comodo.

 

Thanks for the suggestion Pix, i'm trying it now. Question, can I run Comodo and Windows Vista 32 bit Firewall side by side or should I disable Windows firewall altogether?

 

Any third party firewall should automatically disable the Windows firewall.

 

I personally like Kaspersky. Used for a very long time Bitdefender...but got tired of it.

 

It didn't so they're both running.

One thing I already love about Comodo is it's what UAC for Vista should have been. It prompts you of changes being made to your system and alerts you of it. You have to respond AND it learns your answer.

 

For some reason, after disabling Windows Firewall, my internet speed increased, not "Oh my god, so this is the internet!" increase, but it was noticeable. Especially with torrents, if you do some reading, you'll find vista firewall doesn't play well with torrents.

 

I agree here. Kaspersky has been good to my system.

 

You can find compatibility issues with any firewall if you really wanted to, but it doesn't mean that it's a 100% case for everybody. I'm sure I could surf the web for reports of slowdowns caused by Comodo. And if I did, would you stop using it? (rhetorical question)

 

Maybe, depends on what you find. If it may affect me, or does affect me I'll switch to something else. It hasn't only been me, but a lot of other people have experienced a lot faster internet speed when switching to comodo and disabling windows firewall.