In part one of this two-part series, I discussed the major user issues that have emerged in Windows Vista, eighteen months into its life cycle. Part two will consider what steps are available to users to improve the Vista experience, and will discuss Microsoft's strategy for addressing the widespread unpopularity and perceived failings of the operating system.
Contributed by Bruce Coker Rating: / 7 October 28, 2008
One of the main problems with Vista is that it doesn't work as well as it could out of the box. This was demonstrated - almost certainly unintentionally - by Microsoft itself in the widely publicized and notorious Mojave experiment, in which they demonstrated Vista disguised as the "new" Microsoft OS, codenamed Mojave, to 140 participants and then documented their opinions.
The demonstration took place on a standard notebook PC fitted with just 2GB of RAM, the point being to show that Vista could run well on regulation hardware. On the face of it, Microsoft achieved its aim of revealing that users' issues with the OS are primarily perceptual, as the feedback was uniformly positive.
What this flawed experiment really revealed, other than that peoples' responses can't always be trusted due to the placebo effect, was that Vista can run effectively in an unrealistic environment when tweaked and manipulated to do so. In the experiment, Microsoft engineers set up the hardware and testing environment, chose the software they would run, and controlled the "tasks" that were performed.
This is a far cry from the real-world circumstances in which users have to run the OS and deal with its problems on a daily basis. However, knowing that Vista can be set up to run well, what steps can ordinary users take to improve their everyday experience of it?
Some aspects of Vista's behavior are difficult if not impossible to improve. These include its apparently random refusal to run certain applications, for example, or the complexity inherent in accessing certain features and functions. But in other areas it is possible to make significant improvements to how Vista behaves, and with a bit of gentle persuasion it can often be made to work the way you want it to. So here we present our seven-step plan to make Vista work better.
Many of Vista's release issues have been greatly improved in service pack 1. However, to get the most out of the service pack, a clean installation is highly recommended. This will avoid the clutter and hazard of trying to install the service pack over the top of a possibly broken system. The best way to achieve a clean installation is to first back up any data and ensure that all required application installation media are available. Then wipe the system hard drive clean, format it, install Vista with the service pack applied, and finally reinstall your applications. If this seems unnecessarily painful and time-consuming, there is unfortunately little comfort that can be offered, other than to say that afterward it may all seem worthwhile.
2. Update the hardware drivers
The absence or inadequacy of many hardware drivers was a major Vista issue on release. However, there have been many improvements in this area since then, and one way to significantly improve Vista's behavior is to install the latest drivers. This is best done as part of the clean install we recommended in step 1. But even without this drastic step, there is a strong likelihood that Vista will behave itself considerably better when all the hardware drivers are up to date.
3. Customize your personal settings
By default many display features of Vista are enabled that might be causing performance difficulties, or just preventing the OS from looking the way you want it. Particular criticism has been leveled at elements like the cumbersome new Control Panel interface, and much of the eye candy that comes with Aero. The Control Panel can be reset to the classic view, while the Personalize menu offers a vast number of options for controlling the appearance and behavior of the Vista interface. It's worth taking some time to familiarize yourself with these options and remove the things you don't like or that slow your system down.
As we described in part 1, the default behavior of the Search Indexer is to index application-specific folders that are of no benefit to the user, with a consequent heavy cost in terms of performance. The chief culprit here is the AppData subdirectory under the Users directory, although there may well be others that don't need to be indexed. Remember that every unnecessary directory that is indexed slows the system down, especially when its contents change frequently.
To reconfigure the Search Indexer, open the Indexing Options in Control Panel, Click on Modify, then select Show All Locations. Uncheck AppData and anything else that you don't need, then sit back and enjoy the peace and quiet as your hard drive stops its relentless grinding. We have to ask ourselves why Microsoft couldn't manage to implement this tweak out of the box.
5. Reconfigure Disk Defragmenter
Disk Defragmenter is configured by default to run on a schedule. This is a bad idea, as it is a system resource hog that can drastically slow down a machine. It is far better to set it up to run on demand or, failing that, to redefine the schedule for a time when your machine is most likely to be switched on but idle.
To disable scheduled defragmentation altogether, uncheck the Run On A Schedule box in the defragmenter utility. To reschedule it, open the Control Panel, then click on Administrative Tools and select the Task Scheduler icon. The console will open, in which you can locate the Disk Defragmenter and change its details to something more suitable for you.
6. Disable SuperFetch
Super Fetch is a useful utility, and we don't lightly recommend disabling it. Users with reasonably high-powered machines that have more than 2GB of RAM will probably want to leave it running. But if its disk access behavior bothers you, turn it off in the Services utility.
7. Get folders under control
If the inconsistency of the way Vista displays folders drives you crazy, don't panic. There is something you can do. This is a little more complex than the other fixes and work-arounds listed here, as it involves making changes to the registry and must therefore be approached with caution. Nonetheless, it is a change worth making if you want Vista to work for rather than against you.
It's all very well implementing our suggestions to make using Vista a better experience, but Microsoft still have to deal with the problem of its widely perceived failings. Many informed commentators are of the view that the company will cut its losses and move swiftly forward with the release of the next version of Windows - currently being referred to as Windows 7. There are certainly indications that this view might be plausible.
One clear sign that something is afoot has been the opening of a new blog - Engineering Windows 7 - on MSDN on August 14. This is a discussion hosted by Jon DeVaan and Steven Sinofsky, Windows 7's two senior engineering managers. The blog makes for interesting reading. Among the team introductions and technical articles posted by developers lurk some fascinating clues to the bigger picture.
Windows Customer Engineering team program manager Christina Storm, for example, describes work on the Windows Feedback Program for Windows 7 as "ramping up" in readiness for release. It's hard to imagine this being necessary unless that release were to some degree imminent.
There is also extensive talk about the need for dialog between the engineering team and its customers. Not to the extent that the development team is exactly canvassing for feature requests - in one post Sinofsky explicitly rejects this approach - but it is clear that involvement in the development process is being actively encouraged. Sinofsky and DeVaan even go so far as to say they believe that "success for Windows 7 includes an open and honest, and two-way, discussion." Is it possible that Microsoft is learning from its past mistakes?
Perhaps most tellingly of all, the blog's introductory post refers to two major events coming up in the fall. The first of these is the Professional Developers Conference (PDC) at the end of October, followed a week later by the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC). These events are expected to see a number major announcements about Windows 7 being made to the wider development community, whose support for the new operating system will be required.
The fact that Microsoft is so close to releasing major information about the product is the clearest indication possible of the advanced stage the development cycle has reached. Reading between the lines of all this, current best estimates in the industry of a possible release date for Windows 7 are late 2009 or early 2010. These dates are by their nature speculative but, even so, it would be a major surprise if the release were any later than Q3 2010.
So what does all this mean for the average customer? For those who already have Vista, it's a question of doing whatever they can to make it work for them: a goal that is increasingly feasible. For those that don't, the best solution might be to stick with XP for now, since in little more than a year form now, Vista, the newest and greatest-ever Microsoft OS, might already be a thing of the past.
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The Trouble With Vista
