Vista`s Six Month Check-Up
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Microsoft finally shipped Windows Vista earlier this year. All was not smooth on the day of its release. The release date was pushed back many times and many features have been stripped out. It has some bugs and security holes, and is in need of tweaking.
It has been six months since Vista's release; let's see where it is now. I have been running Vista on my computer since a few days after its release, so I've had plenty of time to play around and get a feel for what Vista is like in general day to day usage.
Compatibility
One of the biggest complaints about Vista was driver support. I'm not as critical about this aspect as others have been. XP wasn't any better at its release; ME and 98 shared the same drivers, so when ME was released, most of the drivers were ready and polished at release. XP brought with it the need for brand new drivers, and this created gaps in people's devices and their respective drivers.
Granted, Windows 2000 drivers would generally work, but they weren't as widely created with the release of Windows 2000. Now six months after release we are seeing drivers coming with anything bought in stores now, and drivers hitting company sites for Vista. Even so, there still are plenty of devices that don't have compatible drivers out. I have a few USB devices that are still a no go.
Developers have been better about releasing 64-bit drivers for Vista than when XP 64-bit was released. The 64-bit driver availability isn't up to the same number as the 32-bit, and probably won't be for a while, if ever, for Vista. Most people are still using 32-bit operating systems and won't shell out the money to upgrade just for the 64-bit version of the same OS that they already have.
The most watched drivers are by far the video card drivers. Both ATI and nVidia had working drivers for Vista before launch, and have been releasing drivers regularly. They have done some really good work, but still are far away from matching XP in performance.
Even if your device had drivers for Vista, it doesn't mean smooth sailing unless the program you use it with is compatible. I didn't run into many of these problems, but there were a few. The program I use to connect my cell phone with my computer is still waiting for a compatibility patch. Nero and other burning programs needed a patch to work without errors. These were available before or shortly after the release of Vista. So there is not much of a complaint from me here, but this is just something else that made it one step harder to do normal computer use.
There was one program that made me want to throw my computer: Windows Mobile Device Center, AKA ActiveSync. I have never been a fan of ActiveSync, but it is the only program you could use. I downloaded Windows Mobile Device Center, and installed it without a hitch. I attempted to connect my Samsung i730, and was able to do nothing. Now what do I do? This is the ONLY program that could work with my PDA, and it doesn't.
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