Broken Features and Annoyances in Vista

[nevets]

They did real work on real security. See "UAC" and "virtualization."

I guess let me rephrase "real work", which should also include better social engineering. I've no complaint for the virtualization and I think UAC is a good approach, but it's seems executed poorly. Getting double - triple prompts, and very little information for the user to decide on. It's functional, but not very usable.

This is where my opinion differs from a lot of people here. I like value added software that is installed out of the box. When Joe Blow installs Vista or buys a new PC, he expects a minimum level of functionality like calendaring, email, and other productivity applications. These features make the product a better value in the long-run versus something like Windows 2000.

I don't disagree with you at all on this. I like extra stuff for free and all packaged up nicely and integrated. In fact, I wish they threw in a stripped down version of office too with business or ulitmate edition. What I don't like is they force people to use functions that not everybody wants.

Not to get into listing thing I don't want, what would really be nice is and "a la carte" option at installation. Tweaking windows is a waste of time, just let me install on demand. Also, it's less space taken on backups! Larger data=$$, and higer chance of corruption. Probably reduce the post of complaints by a good amount too! :p

[nevets]

Umm, that's exactly what Vista does. ActiveX controls (and anything in IE) run with LOWER than user privileges, hence the name "Protected Mode IE." Unless you've disabled UAC or something stupid like that, which obviously leaves Windows with no mechanism to start processes at lower privilege levels in the same session.

I'm just reporting what happend. As stated in my OP on this, this is a brand new compaq laptop, updated windows and installed the included NAV. I'm not sure what else a user can do. But after got to myspace, and a few websites after that, I ended up on a some webcam site. Just to test it, i said ok to install activex and after that, IE crashed, and a "anti-spyware" software got installed and IE kept restarting, and the error msg kept canceling my request for system restore. Finally managed to get to it, system restore come up with some error msg, so I just shut it down and restored whole system.. That's what happend. Only one prompt for activeX.

If you actually launched a seperate executable outside of IE, then that's something entirely different than an embedded ActiveX control. You'll be prompted for elevation if the executable is marked to require admin privileges, and if you don't know exactly what it is and trust it - you should absolutely say no.

I don't think about it too much when I'm testing around, bc that's how my client are. No matter how I teach them, they will never be fully alert all the time. If a user says yes, and there's not much protection for a "dumb" mistake, then I don't see much difference than XP. You can say I made a dumb mistake saying yes to the activex install, but I could easily be any legit looking site. Any hacker can make such a site with a little social engineering.

I'm going to nag again about this, but would be informative to integrate windows defender into the prompts. :D

OH, btw, is there anyway to search the internet with the start button search? I know it will ask you after it searched the computer, but can it be set to only do that? bc I personally don't search my computer (it's just me, but if there's a registry edit or something i can set the search button?). Make it function like the IE search bar. thanks in advance.

[Brandon Live Veteran]

For searching from the start menu, you might want to check out Start++

http://startplusplus.wikidot.com

[Andareed]

Umm, that's exactly what Vista does. ActiveX controls (and anything in IE) run with LOWER than user privileges, hence the name "Protected Mode IE." Unless you've disabled UAC or something stupid like that, which obviously leaves Windows with no mechanism to start processes at lower privilege levels in the same session.

If you actually launched a seperate executable outside of IE, then that's something entirely different than an embedded ActiveX control. You'll be prompted for elevation if the executable is marked to require admin privileges, and if you don't know exactly what it is and trust it - you should absolutely say no.

They may run with lower privileges, but I believe they still install with Admin privileges, since they generally install themselves into C:\windows\system32. An inf file (or DllRegisterServer export) is used to install the controls, so spyware can easily install themselves during the ActiveX control install.

[freak_power]

Installing more than one application at the same time is just a terrible idea. Many installers take a system restore snapshot before installing, so that you can rollback easily even if the installer is broken. That would totally mess them up as they'd be taking a snapshot of the system while some other app is halfway installed. Yuck.

Plus it's a nightmare for dependency tracking and file access/retention issues (especially since most installers aren't using transactional accesses). Installer A starts its dependency assessment and realizes you don't have XYZ requirement installed, so it marks it to be installed or downloaded during the install process. Meanwhile you install XYZ dependency, or Installer B which includes XYZ dependency. It could get really messy very fast.

Lets not also forget all the message broadcasts that frequently occur, Restart Manager restarting Explorer or other similar tasks, and so on. Your installer could be in the middle of setting things up when another app suddenly restarts the system or the shell? Yuck yuck.

It's pretty clearly not a customer issue and the people complaining about it are really grasping at straws.

Maybe with MSI installer...that's why i said it sucks. There are other installers where i can push 2-3 installations at the same time with no problem.

[Mordkanin]

Maybe with MSI installer...that's why i said it sucks. There are other installers where i can push 2-3 installations at the same time with no problem.

When the installer consists of copying files A B and C to the program files directory, and dumping a link on the desktop, sure. That's easy. But when you have your installing registering all sorts of stuff, dealing with dependencies, etc. two of them running at the same time can become a potential nightmare.

Most of the time, the only thing to get screwed up would be a system restore snapshot, or something but the potential for something far more horrible exists.

When you stop an installer midway, it undoes everything the install did. What if the two installers decided that they each need to install the same dependency? The other app you just installed is now screwed up and requires a reinstall.

The primary goal of the installer should be the integrity of the system. Allowing two MSI installs at the same time can compromise that.

[bradavon]

Your fans keep running when its asleep? That doesn't sound right. But anyway, most people don't turn off their desktops, or can just do it by pressing the power button. On a laptop you probably want it to sleep for 3 hours or so and then go into hibernate mode. That's what mine does and it works great.

No way at all in my experience. 99% of people (even those that understand hibernation does in fact turn the PC off) want to shut down their PC at the end of the night, it being a laptop or desktop pc.

To make sleep the default option for this reason is madness, it's also madness for the simple enormous waste of electricity it will cause. People will think their PC is turned off when it isn't. The default option should've been Hibernation, the end effect is the same (a quicker boot up and boot down) but the PC is properly turned off.

I can't think of any reason to really even have sleep mode still, hibernation has replaced it.

p.s - The Copy To and Move To always struck me as a nice idea but pretty worthless.

[falconcy]

My biggest gripe is wifi not restarting after hibernating. Seems like it is an issue that nobody managed to resolve. Got the same problem with the internal Intel wifi on my Toshiba laptop and also with my Belkin 11n card. It can eventually be gotten to restart, but not without a lot of messing around.

[Lt-DavidW]

1. Resizing Aero window title bars and borders produce jagged corners.

2. No longer FileTypes in Folder Options.

3. The Windows 3.1 Fonts dialog.

4. The user folder replacing Documents - pointless.

[4CxbqFxVnstmA Veteran]

i very often want to use windows explorer to go to my desktop.

why isnt there a 'desktop' link in the favourites panel?

anyone know how i can make one? :)

[Evolution]

i very often want to use windows explorer to go to my desktop.

why isnt there a 'desktop' link in the favourites panel?

anyone know how i can make one? :)

Guide Explorer until you find the Desktop Folder i.e. C:\Users\<User Name>\, then drag "Desktop" on to the Favourites folder.

[4CxbqFxVnstmA Veteran]

Guide Explorer until you find the Desktop Folder i.e. C:\Users\<User Name>\, then drag "Desktop" on to the Favourites folder.

thanks !! that is fantastic !!!! :D

[ObiWanToby]

Overall, I like Windows Vista, but I have always expected more. The demos and videos of Longhorn/Vista over the past few years had me really excited, but it feels like things came up short.

Vista looks a lot better than XP did, but the interface still seems inconsistent, and just a little weird. In the videos everything seemed to have a common theme, and a 'cleaner' theme at that.

I can see why people wouldn't like Vista. At best buy, 98% (no exaggeration at all) of the computers there were running with non native resolution, everything looked horrible, reading the text gave you a headache, and Windows MCE looked cheap (I ended up fixing most of the resolution issues, just because it bugged me). I also see anti viruses complaining of definitions out of date, and some special best buy gadgets getting flash and java errors. At Microcenter the situation was similar, with virus definition warnings and java errors, but their resolutions were properly set. In contrast I went to the Apple part of the store, and they just looked sleek and clean. Granted people could have messed with the Windows machines, but I could see someone getting the wrong impression of Windows, it is truly horrible.

My biggest gripe in Vista has to be IE7. IE7 crashes on me so much, it is so flippin ridiculous. In addition to instabilities, IE7 is too slow for comfort. Browse up and down on this page in IE7 http://googlesightseeing.com/2007/06/16/street-fight/ feel that speed ;). In Firefox that site works fine. http://videogames.yahoo.com and www.gametrailers.com are also too slow in IE for my liking.

Here are some more gripes. UAC is damned annoying, I get slower 3D performance in Vista compared to that of XP with an x1900XT, there are no proper 64bit compatible codecs for 64bit MCE and 64bit Windows Movie Maker/DVD Maker and Windows Ultimate Extras is so lame, approaching 6 months after Vista's release and the only useful extra is Texas Hold em.

Overall though, I think Vista is a wonderful step in the right direction, I just hope the next release of Windows is a bit cleaner and more refined. Performance and UI need to take top priority in the next Windows release. Though I suppose in today's world, security will probably be top spot.

[ATLien_0]

The one thing that bugs me about vista, well not as much about the os, but vista in general, is that I hate how there are so many editions. Why is Business more expensive than Home Premium, the have the same number of features, business without the home stuff, and home premium without the business stuff. I just wish they would do two versions, client and server. When you go to install the client edition you would have the option at setup for what type of user you are.

[ObiWanToby]

gamestargrinder, I agree totally. I wish there was one Vista edition, for around 100 bucks. Same thing for Office. Wouldn't that be so much easier? Being the go to guy for computers people always ask me what edition of Vista should they get, obviously marketing hasn't given them any idea.

[Mordkanin]

My biggest gripe in Vista has to be IE7. IE7 crashes on me so much, it is so flippin ridiculous. In addition to instabilities, IE7 is too slow for comfort. Browse up and down on this page in IE7 http://googlesightseeing.com/2007/06/16/street-fight/ feel that speed ;). In Firefox that site works fine. http://videogames.yahoo.com and www.gametrailers.com are also too slow in IE for my liking.

The only thing that ****es me off about IE7 is that Flash really really really likes to crash it.

[ATLien_0]

gamestargrinder, I agree totally. I wish there was one Vista edition, for around 100 bucks. Same thing for Office. Wouldn't that be so much easier? Being the go to guy for computers people always ask me what edition of Vista should they get, obviously marketing hasn't given them any idea.

obviously microsoft wants more money from business users, i really dont understand why microsoft has to be so complex sometimes, simple names and simple editions makes it so much easier. i mean as is all vista editions are on the dvd you buy, the product key just unlocks the different versions.

[NutralFaux]

Not sure if this is a vista problem or a thunderbird problem, but its a little annoying.

When I receive a email in thunderbird, it takes anywhere between 2 - 5 secs to load the email to read it, no matter how long or short the email is. Also, it take a long time to delate a email, always over 5 or 6 secs. When I used thunderbird with Xp, never had any of these two problems.

*shrug*