Windows Vista RC1 (build 5564)

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10 out of 10 people found this review helpful

4.0 stars

"Great beautification"

by peter.mortensen on September 4, 2006

Pros: Visually much better than XP, gadgets are nice, no crash so far!

Cons: A new UI to get used to
Summary: Microsoft has done a good job in moving their OS forward to a more modern look.
Although some people would say it's using ideas from Apple's Tiger, I feel overall it doesn't appear much of a copy to me (I also use Tiger).

The installation process wasn't too pretty. My screen was full of random pixels for a few seconds for example and it had to restart several times (but didn't require any user interaction).

The Gadget feature is nice and was something I missed compared to Tiger's Widgets.

I've noticed that in some cases the screen is not drawn optimally. E.g. when you resize a window (using the right/lower edge) the frame is flashing a lot and the URL in IE is also flashing in this case. Apple is still doing a better job on such details. But these kind of things are minor and it still looks a lot better than XP.

Overall so far I haven't found a reason for wanting to go back to XP.
Updated
I'm starting to really feel annoyed by the way Vista is designed to be more safe against viruses and spyware. It's like someone designed an OS then someone else found the security risks in it. Then a third team found ways to add protection on top of it to patch the holes. It feels like nobody designed from buttom up with maximum ease of use and security in mind at the same time. It's not fun to use Vista when you do something just a bit more than mainstream use cases. I had a hard time setting up a network printer for example. I wish they could make the security issues something I just don't need to worry about and don't need to be reminded about constantly.
Tiger is just way more better on that parameter I realize. A major challenge for Microsoft I believe is that their architecture with the registry, DLL files and certain folders etc. can not be cleaned up for improved security easily because it would eliminate backward compatibility.

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Windows Vista RC1 (build 5564)

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