Oh, Og! NVIDIA is my 3-d Video card for WoW! Did they straighten that out?
Thanks
Q
For the most part yes. Nvidia is still hasn’t cleaned up some hiccups. I stopped using vista in exchange for windows 7, though I hadn’t had a blue screen courtesy of Nvidia for a good, oh, 8 months or so before I made the switch.
Issues with Nvidia and Windows 7 on the other hand are more numerous and more noticeable. I can’t quit out of Fallout 3 for example, I am forced to kill the app when I’m done playing via cntl+f4.
Probably. I installed a new Nvidia card (and had an intergrated one by them for 2 years on this Vista machine) last week, and had no problem getting Vista drivers for it. Actually, I never had a problem with their drivers at all, just tons of other companies’ drivers.
Why don’t I like Vista? Let me tell you the reasons.
Find doesn’t work at all, as far as I know.
My main editor (which I use all the time) was installed by copying into a directory under “Program Files” Vista does not allow copying an exe file into a directory under “Program Files”. I had to put it under root.
My TeX program came on a CD that had a file called setup.exe on it that was supposed to be run to install. It also had 1142 other files. When I looked at the CD using Win Explorer, it showed that there were only 1142 files on the disk. Guess which one was missing. I was able to install it from a command prompt.
But I guess it was the broken find that finally caused me to downgrade. I’m just too old to play their games and there is no useful documentation.
Again, a clueless user blaming the OS.
Do you really think that there wouldn’t be some extensive technical documents online by now highlighting the “fact” that vista HIDES .EXE files from it’s users?
You don’t think that perhaps the most likely scenario is that you are doing something wrong?
I had vista since it launched at retail. And it never hid files from me. Gosh, I must be special.
Are you talking about the search function? If so I wonder what your issue is, it is way faster and much better at returning results then any of the previous windows versions. You sometimes have to go into advanced search to get what you want, but personally I think the improved search engine is one of the highlights of vista.
The indexer does not cover your entire system by default. When Vista is first installed, the indexer will cover C:\User\Documents and that’s it. But a few seconds in indexing options and you can set it to search entire drives or specific directories. It takes a while for the system to index all your files but once it’s done you’ll discover the actual power of the new search.
Also be aware that search is picky: it searches from where you are at the time. So if you search the Start Menu, it will search only within the start menu. If you search from an Explorer Window, it will search only from within whatever directory you are looking at right then. If you search from within “Computer” you’ll get results everywhere.
Program Files under Vista does not have any special protection on it that will prevent you from creating new directories. Take GSpot for example (it’s a codec identifying program). It’s just an .exe so I make a directory for it under Program Files called GSpot. I drop the .exe into the directory I just made. Voila. And Vista has no complaint. If you’re getting a specific error on this, it’s not caused by Vista.
Microsoft itself admits that search doesn’t work properly. That’s why it was worked on extensively for the first service pack. And the second service pack just released.
Admissions like this?
Amazing. My taxes subsidize Google making a profit with its search app at the cost of my native search app working worse. Thanks DOJ!
This is another big problem with MS. Their hands are tied by the DOJ. If they werent then we’d see less OEM crapware bundling and more MS native apps. The only reason MS cant put in a free virus scanner with each OS is anticompetitive concerns. Shame really, Joe User needs one especially when he refuses to pay the monthly fees for his bundled Norton.
So just to clarify:
- If I want Windows 7, I have to buy it?
- If I’m on “Auto-Update”, a Vista service pack will load itself?
- Microsoft knows that (for some of us ;)) Vista is a little difficult to work with, and they’re fixing it?
Appreciate all the help and responses!
Q
Yep you’ll have to buy it. Eventually SP2 will be sent as an auto-update. MS is always doing something with Vista. Im sure you’ll be seeing SP3 in a year or two.
Yeah, my first clue that I was going to really, really, really regret buying a Vista-loaded laptop was when I found myself typing in to Google:
How do you get search to work on Windows Vista?
Just for you, BorgHunter:
I purchased my ACER laptop about 8 weeks ago, it came pre-installed with Windows Vista. When I got it home, the first thing I wanted to do was run the Windows Update. But where was it?
Click Click Click.
Click Click.
scratch head
Click.
Click Click Click.
Where the hell is the Windows Update?!
So I thought I’d search for it. So I clicked Search, and typed “Windows Update”.
No results found
What? So I tried again:
No results found
After trying as many different ways to type in “Windows Update” as I could think of, I started considering the possibility that the actual search function was the problem. Sure enough, nothing I searched for was being found. So off to Google I went:
Google: How do you get the search function to work in Windows Vista?
Sure enough, others had the same problem. Turns out a lot of people had this problem. In fact, here’s a webpage detailing how to disable/re-enable some search index, just to get the search function working. Why on earth am I having to adjust settings on the default installation of Vista just to get the search working?
Anyways…
I found Windows Update, and installed the updates. No worries. Time to set up my bluetooth internet (using my mobile phone as a wireless modem). Works seemlessly on my XP PC, so I’ll just grab the installation CD and install it on Vista…
Error: Some stuff not found. Cancelling installation
Eh? Try again:
Error: Some stuff not found. Cancelling installation
WTF?! Turns out the the software I use to connect my bluetooth->mobile phone to a computer is not compatible with Windows Vista. Is this a joke? Windows Vista is not backwards compatible for software that runs on XP?! WTF?!
Oh well, off to the manufacturer’s website to download the Vista version. But it’s licensed software. I have to pay (again) if I want to download the Vista version. The version that came with my original purchase was only the “Every version of Windows except for Vista” version.
ARRRRGGHHHH!!!
So I start Googling around for alternative methods of getting my bluetooth internet connection happening. I find a potential solution: Go in to the Device Manager and…
Where the hell is the Device Manager on this thing? Why isn’t it just sitting there in the Control Panel?!
ARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!
Eventually I find some other way to use my mobile phone’s internet data plan on my Vista laptop, but not before spending $$ on a cable, having long ditched my failed bluetooth attempts.
So, finally! After investing hours and hours and hours of my time, I get the thing working. Yay! I’m surfing the internet on my laptop using the data plan from my mobile phone! Woohoo! But hang on… why do I keep getting logged out of web applications? I’ll tell you why. My Vista laptop can’t “maintain state” with the web applications I am using, constantly logging me out of email, facebook, etc. This problem never occurrs on my XP PC when doing the same thing. Only my Vista laptop.
So, looks like I’m back to using the wireless USB stick that I paid $150 for, plus data costs, if I want to use the internet on my laptop when I am not at home. Thanks very much, Windows Vista.
Okayyyyyyy. 
I didn’t really fully understand that you were writing, there Borghunter, but I hope I did point out that I do have some probs with the OS. Maybe not the same as some of the others, but enough to be aggravating to me, and yes, I also understand that service packs are necessary to fix things, (even with XP). I just really didn’t mean to give you the impression that I thought Vista is “just all right with me”, because it isn’t.
Anyway, no hard feelings, okay?
Q
I am an IT professional and Vista is a BAD OS, this is not me being a clueless user but a professional in the field.
Argh. Capital letters even. Must be huge problems with the OS.
I’m in IT and I hate Vista, as do all my co-workers. Part of our job is to help people who walk into our office troubleshoot problems on their computers. Only trouble is that Vista (for god only knows what reason) changed the way it interprets DHCP from XP, making it fail on I’d estimate 2% of the computers we have to deal with. 2% is not a lot, except that we have 11,000 students who we have to troubleshoot. Vista defenders don’t believe me? Check this knowledge base article: Windows Vista can’t get an IP address from certain routers or DHCP servers - Microsoft Support.
In addition, Vista has this really awesome failure mode where it won’t obtain an IP address, and the only error it will give you is “Unidentified Network”. This is the most unbelievably useless error message because it’s unspecific, and could be a whole host of problems. I honestly want to strangle whoever designed Vista’s networking.
What I did wrong was buy a computer with Vista. So Vista hides exe files. Wonderful. Just what I wanted to find out. Well, I use need exe files.
Maybe I am clueless but I am at least polite, so I will stop here.
Any sufficiently mature technology is as easy to use as a flashlight.
Using Vista is like trying to generate light by banging rocks together.
Stranger