Why Vista is So hated, and Why 7 is doing mcuh better.

[DDStriker]

Neither XP nor Vista was really crappy at launch, despite what the media wanted everyone to think.

xp was terrible until sp1 as i know i used it and i went back to windows 2000 but after sp1 hit and xp was stable i switched but for the rest it took time to ween them off of windows 2000 and there still on xp as it just works good for them and Vista my gawd boy was it terrible at first but i did manage to find workarounds for apps that didnt work but then when 7 came out and i tested it and i said wow 7 is here and goodbye Terrible Vista SP2 but of course a new os will always have growing pains till it matures and it adopted more and accepted more.

This

my first experience with xp from millennium is that when an application crashed it didn't take the whole system with it which was nice...but the frequency at which those applications crashed was just unbearable sp1 saved the day :D

[Scorbing]

Define unfinished, yes Vista didn't ship with some of the features it was supposed to have but that was due to time constraints and companies like nvidia and intel pressuring microsoft to get Vista out the door asap. Also according to you, Microsoft should be able to test windows out on every single system out there. Which is not only unrealistic, but also absurd.

Hahha windows7taskforce. A good amount of suggestions for that site are retarded. Stuff that you really won't make out at all, unless you were so anal about it that you would spend your day staring at pixels on your screen. That said, however, there are a few good suggestions there.

So 50% of the issues you experienced, were thanks to ****ty graphic drivers. The windows explorer crashing was linked to some 3rd party software that used context menus in an incompatible way, yet again not Microsoft's fault as the apis for windows explorer are well documented. And also what do you mean by "recycle bin freezing"?

I never had any problems with Vista, none of the ones you mentioned either. Yes nVidia took forever to come out with good drivers, but that wasn't Microsofts fault.

I have NEVER used 3rd party software that used context menus. I have NEVER used Explorer toolbars (I hate them) and I have NEVER installed 3rd party crap of ANY kind on my PC. The ONLY applications I run on my PC are:

1. Halo Combat Evolved

2. Photoshop CS3

3. Digsby

4. Adobe LIghtroom

Same applications I have on Windows 7 now. Vista NEVER worked right, even with Nvidia's latest drivers (and I do update them as they come out)

I had NOTHING running in the background on Vista either. Like I said, Vista was crap.

[wahoospa]

I don't hate Vista. It hasn't given me a problem yet. Never crashes. I have it on my recovery disks in a closet. It has been there since February 2007. It came with my new HP laptop and I immediately put XP Home on instead. XP has been on my laptop since and now it dual boots with Linux Mint.

[HawkMan]

can we get a definition of "crap" and "doesn't work right"

[Subject Delta]

That's debatable tbh. I know it turned out to be a whole mess, but it really depends on how you read the word capable.

Capable means that it can do something, but it doesn't mean it can that thing really well or be the best at it. (If that makes any sense). For example, my car is capable of going off-road, but that doesn't mean it's good at doing it.

But it does mean that it ended up on machines that where underpowered for it, your average layman buying a computer won't think that the reason is that their computer is slow they will think "god this Windows Vista is so crap, it runs so slowly"

[markwolfe Veteran]

Ok, I'll get real. I had absolutely no one problem with Vista. No laggy performance, no freezing, no random explorer crashing. Everything was great, even the gaming performance. Am I a Vista fanboy for keeping it real, even though I'm on 7 now?

First off, thanks for "keeping it real on the down-low". :laugh:

On a serious side, though, I have posted on Neowin a few times that I actually had no real problems with Win Me. I bought and installed it and it fixed a serious issue I had with Win 98 and my scanner and camera.

Now, do I pretend that all of the issues that everyone else experienced didn't exist, and claim that Me was something greater that it was, or spin things to make people who point out the real flaws look like they are liars or such? No. I can point out my anecdotal success story, and just let them give theirs without jumping in and saying that I am going to keep it real for them.

I don't hate Vista. It hasn't given me a problem yet. Never crashes. I have it on my recovery disks in a closet. It has been there since February 2007. It came with my new HP laptop and I immediately put XP Home on instead. XP has been on my laptop since and now it dual boots with Linux Mint.

Can hardly say you are giving Vista any serious chance there. Even I, a 100% Linux user, can say that there are several positive aspects of Vista that put it a league above XP.

But it does mean that it ended up on machines that where underpowered for it, your average layman buying a computer won't think that the reason is that their computer is slow they will think "god this Windows Vista is so crap, it runs so slowly"

Well, that is clearly Microsoft's fault. They are the ones that specify such things to OEMs.

[JnCoKiLLa]

I loved Vista, but Nvidas junk driver support annoyed me...As You See I switch to Ati to fix that. Win 7 Rocks

[Subject Delta]

Well, that is clearly Microsoft's fault. They are the ones that specify such things to OEMs.

Yep I don't dispute that, the whole thing was one unmitigated disaster from start to finish.

[Osiris]

Well at least theres a few more mediated voices in these sort of threads than there was prior to Win7's launch.

Look vista had problems on launch no doubt about it, but SP1 onwards Vista was rocking its just a shame by that point an intangible common view had seemingly developed that vista just sucked full stop. An important lesson for Microsoft I guess that first impressions count even in the Operating system market.

Theres been too many of these threads for me to shout at the rain anymore but it would be interesting to study this misinformed pyschosis for pyschology or something. Oh well, at least its easy to spot those people who got burnt by vista, who didnt try it post sp1 or who just hump the bandwagon, makes breezing over these threads to find posts with actual content easier.

Win7 is the R2 of vista, deal with it.

edit: Vista on launch ran dodgey on alot of systems which by rights should have handled it, this was due to a range of problems in Vista and the manufactuers drivers at the time. Vista SP1 ran surprisingly well on netbooks ffs thats how massive the change was.

Edited December 29, 2009 by Osiris

[Mr. Gibs]

I have NEVER used 3rd party software that used context menus. I have NEVER used Explorer toolbars (I hate them) and I have NEVER installed 3rd party crap of ANY kind on my PC. The ONLY applications I run on my PC are:

1. Halo Combat Evolved

2. Photoshop CS3

3. Digsby

4. Adobe LIghtroom

Same applications I have on Windows 7 now. Vista NEVER worked right, even with Nvidia's latest drivers (and I do update them as they come out)

I had NOTHING running in the background on Vista either. Like I said, Vista was crap.

So you claim to have never used 3rd party software that used context menus yet you have/probably have the following installed on your computer:

- Photoshop

- Lightroom

- Acrobat / Foxit reader

- WinRAR / Winzip / 7ace

- Some form of anti-virus / internet security

- Microsoft office

3rd party doesn't always mean spyware/adware/viruses. It just means software made by some company other than, in this case, Microsoft.

[th3rEsa]

Windows 7 is ugly and unusable. I never understood what the people like about it.

Vista is better.

[HawkMan]

Windows 7 is ugly and unusable. I never understood what the people like about it.

Vista is better.

When you're using classic, you really lose any credibility for talking about ugly and unusable :p

[TheTempestSonata]

So you claim to have never used 3rd party software that used context menus yet you have/probably have the following installed on your computer:

- Photoshop

- Lightroom

- Acrobat / Foxit reader

- WinRAR / Winzip / 7ace

- Some form of anti-virus / internet security

- Microsoft office

3rd party doesn't always mean spyware/adware/viruses. It just means software made by some company other than, in this case, Microsoft.

He did say "Photoshop" - didn't read any further on his post.

What's second party? I thought

1st party = manufacturer of OS

2nd party = liscenced to make (I don't know about PCs, but for example, Crash Bandicoot on the original Sony PSX)

3rd party = everybody else

Suppose I was wrong?

[gameboy1977]

I killed Vista off in June 2009 so I had to install Windows 7 RC1 on my PC. I like Windows 7 and it is better than vista.

I like Windows XP and 7 because they are both good OS.

Gameboy1977

[Lamp0]

Vista is a fine OS. I prefer it over XP and 7.

[Pharos]

I've used Vista for the longest time till win 7 RC was out, absolutely loved it, never understood where all the hate was coming from. Using windows 7 now, but definitely had a positive experience with Vista.

Same here. Like with Windows 7, I installed every leaked build I could get my hands on, and the Aero graphics really blew me away.

[peacemf]

vista is me, win7 is me after one year of proper gym use!

[nubs]

I thought Vista 64x was great. It was the first OS I used exclusively in 64 bit mode. I have virtually no problems except some minor video problems that were caused by shotty drivers from Nvidia. And I completely blame Nvidia because they had at least two years to get their drivers up to spec and they totally dragged ass. The fact that hardware vendors wouldn't update their drivers properly to be used in Vista should not be held against Vista or MS. I moved over to Win 7 as soon as it was available, but I'm always the type to jump in first. I'm not affraid of something not working, I'm affraid of becoming an old lady who doesn't know how to use the latest technology.

[PGHammer]

I thought Vista 64x was great. It was the first OS I used exclusively in 64 bit mode. I have virtually no problems except some minor video problems that were caused by shotty drivers from Nvidia. And I completely blame Nvidia because they had at least two years to get their drivers up to spec and they totally dragged ass. The fact that hardware vendors wouldn't update their drivers properly to be used in Vista should not be held against Vista or MS. I moved over to Win 7 as soon as it was available, but I'm always the type to jump in first. I'm not affraid of something not working, I'm affraid of becoming an old lady who doesn't know how to use the latest technology.

Graphics drivers (from nVidia, AMD, or even Intel) represent the majority of Vista-related issues (from the beta period to even today); the way that nV and Intel dragged their feet on the x64 side made the issue with Vista in particular even worse. (It was precisely the issues that nV had with the initial 8/9 series x64 ForceWare drivers that inspired me to upgrade to AMD-based graphics while I was running Vista Ultimate x64 (despite running a motherboard with an nForce 7100/630i chipset with integrated graphics, which I am still running today, albeit with 7 Ultimate x64), even though AMD-on-nForce smacked of heresy.)

[TCA]

i can honestly say i never beta tested vista, and it seemed fine at first, but when i started putting my programs and games into it, that's when i started to have problems... then there was the constant clicking for UAC allowance that's pretty much what did it for me. If I want to run something and I'm a system admin then I shouldn't have to do that, So I ended up upgrading to W7 Ultimate and I've had no issues at all except for 2 updates that wanted to be ghey and not install. Glad they fixed the issues from vista in windows 7 (almost typed windows 8) haha

[somethingelse]

i love how no one remembers how crappy XP was when it was first released. people wouldnt leave their beloved Windows 98SE.

Too true

I was all for XP (only because it was prettier than 2k), same with Vista when it came out. I liked Vista, It's pretty, boots WAY faster than XP and below, installs faster, I much prefer Vista's explorer to XP's, the layout is so much nicer IMO. But yes, I think Windows 7 IS better in a lot of ways, mostly small changes, I'd have liked to have more options in the taskbar settings, and I don't think they should have gotten rid of the sidebar, just made an OPTION to get rid of it. MS don't quite understand the notion of options, they think they should just take away one thing and replace it with another.

Having said that I'm still waiting for MS to ditch the classic theme LOL.

Funnily enough, I once tried running Windows 98 in virtualbox, Vista ran a million times faster on the same VM on 512 MB reserved RAM, 98 was SOO SLOW.

[Roger H. Veteran]

Too true

I was all for XP (only because it was prettier than 2k), same with Vista when it came out. I liked Vista, It's pretty, boots WAY faster than XP and below, installs faster, I much prefer Vista's explorer to XP's, the layout is so much nicer IMO. But yes, I think Windows 7 IS better in a lot of ways, mostly small changes, I'd have liked to have more options in the taskbar settings, and I don't think they should have gotten rid of the sidebar, just made an OPTION to get rid of it. MS don't quite understand the notion of options, they think they should just take away one thing and replace it with another.

Having said that I'm still waiting for MS to ditch the classic theme LOL.

Funnily enough, I once tried running Windows 98 in virtualbox, Vista ran a million times faster on the same VM on 512 MB reserved RAM, 98 was SOO SLOW.

Oddly enough people would say there are too many options in Windows already. There are tons of ways to customize Windows and that's why it's so hard for MS to make Windows exactly the way they'd want it to be.

As for the topic, i loved XP when it came out but got bored of it lack of anything current. Anytime i got a new machine and wanted to do a fresh install of Windows XP i had to spend lots of time installing drivers since almost NOTHING worked out the box. Vista solved lots of that but still wasn't perfect but it was 10times better at least, that plus it was new. I like new and shiny apparently. When 7 came out i was all over the betas, constantly trying to get my next fix :) When it was released, i got it right away also in final RTM. Using it still and converted several older machines and they are all running great!

[bjoswald]

Not this again...

[Jediweasel]

I still run Vista on 2 PC's at my home and have 7 on 2 others. I haven't had to reload or do any major work to either of my Vista PC's since I got them. I did purchase enough hardware to run the OS correctly when I got them and didn't go cheap. I believe this was a big difference between myself and the average user who bought a cheap PC at Wal-Mart and wanted to complain about it's performance without thinking why. I hate to rant, but I owned a computer store until 2007 and had to listen to it all the time and try to explain why Windows XP didn't run well on the Pentium II 300mhz PC's with 32mb of RAM.

[Growled Member]

Vista was all right for me but I find it a little slow. 7 is much, much better.