Give the magic: HP dv5t
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35 out of 38 people found this review helpful
2.0 stars
"Wait for the next version and hope it's better"
Pros: It's prettier than XP
Cons: Only a corporate IT administrator could love it
Summary: What's wrong with Vista? Behind the translucent windows, sharp graphics and desktop "gadgets" lies Vista security to prevent you from easily doing anything that Vista/Microsoft deems as insecure. Sure,
XP was insecure unless a user maintained constant vigilance and installed all updates, but at least you still felt like you controlled your own fate. With Vista the feeling of control is gone, now Vista controls you and everything you want to do on your computer.
Say you are a bit of a techie and want to take a hard drive from your old computer and put it into your new Vista compatible machine running Vista. After you get it installed Vista sees it, you can see it, but Vista prevents you from reading the drive saying that it is "not accessible" and "access is denied". In typical Microsoft OS fashion there's no information about why access is denied, no link to more information, nothing except for the sparse error message.
Go into Control Panel and choose "Add Hardware"; an annoying dialog box is displayed requiring that you give your permission to continue. Get used to this dialog box, you will see it over and over and over again and be required to click the "Continue" button each time. In Vista's security run amok world, things you could do in XP are now considered possible security violations and require your explicit go ahead.
What about new features? Oh, they are there and some of them are good ideas, but Microsoft has missed the boat on usability. New features are worthless without an intuitive user interface that works with you, provides help when you need it and links to additional helpful information. In Vista's case the UI suffers the same, if not worse problems, than XP's. Error messages are vague, UI paths to features are convoluted, help text is, for the most part, written in the same garbled techie language that plagued XP (and ME, 98, 95, for that matter).
I can hear Microsoft now exclaiming that they've rewritten help from scratch and it's the most comprehensive ever.Maybe so, but Vista help (like XP's) mostly just tells you what's wrong and then tells you to go fix it on some menu without telling you exactly how to get there.
The shame in Vista is that after 25 years of writing operating systems and supposedly improving on Windows, Microsoft is still making the same usability mistakes that have wasted our time and taxed our patience before. You'd think they'd get the idea that the UI and the user experience is at least as important as new features.
So, what has Microsoft been doing for the last 5 years besides making Vista hard to use for the common user? They've been adding features for the the IT staff at corporations. The IT staff will love the Vista features that give them new found control over every aspect of the computers they manage. Think of Vista as the secret police working on behalf of the IT department as they seek to lower the digital curtain (my apologies to whoever coined "iron curtain").
Should you purchase Vista? Not if you want to feel like you control your computer instead of the other way around. Your best course of action is to complain loud, long and repeatedly to Microsoft about their lack of regard for Vista users. Demand they do something about it instead of throwing a bunch of features together under a pretty, but incomprehensible UI, and calling it Vista.
If you complain enough maybe you'll find someone at Microsoft that still knows what "user friendy", "it just works" and "business at the speed of thought" really means. Otherwise, just buy a Mac (and being a long-time Windows user I don't say that easily), it will save you a lot of time in the long run.
- 15 replies to this review
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You said in your comment about windows vista what I have been trying to say for the last six months, which is when I bought my computer with vista already installed in it. I have complained to Microsoft and not one response. I have gone on help sights and all they want you to do is buy more software. I refuse to spend any more money. I can not use any of my old programs, I am so frustrated with this vista. I don't know what to do anymore. You explained it to a tee, exactly what this operating system does to you. Hats off to you. Trackworker ( Rob )
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I had no choice, my dealer installed vista on my new pc. I have xp on my old one and I had to get a router so I'd be able to use it instead the new pc.I'm a 70 years old guy,starded to learn computers when I was 64 with xp and it was fast I have to brag, this useless vista, I'll die before I get used to it. It's for the birds! I wonder who was the brain( or brainless)who set this complicated crap up. Still try to fine out how to use my scanner, how to get the scanned photos to 'my pictures'. Where can I find my address book? This was real simple on xp otlook express. Vista's mail is another crap, I fined. I try lerning about vista don't think I'll ever fully get it. What a step backward for MSN?!!! do some of us older persons (at least) agree?
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I had no choice, my dealer installed vista on my new pc. I have xp on my old one and I had to get a router so I'd be able to use it instead the new pc.I'm a 70 years old guy,starded to learn computers when I was 64 with xp and it was fast I have to brag, this useless vista, I'll die before I get used to it. It's for the birds! I wonder who was the brain( or brainless)who set this complicated crap up. Still try to fine out how to use my scanner, how to get the scanned photos to 'my pictures'. Where can I find my address book? This was real simple on xp otlook express. Vista's mail is another crap, I fined. I try lerning about vista don't think I'll ever fully get it. What a step backward for MSN?!!! do some of us agree?
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I had no choice, my dealer installed vista on my new pc. I have xp on my old one and I had to get a router so I'd be able to use it instead the new pc.I'm a 70years old guy, Starded to learn computers when I was 64 with xp and it was fast I have to brag, this useless vista, I'll die before I get used to it. It's for the birds! I wonder who was the brain( or brainless)who set this complicated crap up. Still try to fine out how to use my scanner, howto get the scanned photos to 'my pictures'. Where can Ifind my address book This was real simple on xp otlook express. Vindows mail is another crap, I fined. I try lerning about vista dont think I'll ever fully get it. What a step backward for MSN?!!!
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I agree completely with Alanwea's opinion' but one you have it installed what can you do? Is there any way one can make it work better
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I agree totally with you. I hesitated in purchasing vista 64 bit but did anyways, what a mistake. I have a custom built pc for vidio/music applications. Special music application cards, soundcards, scsi devices. Guess what nothing works and no drivers etc. I ended up removing everything except the ATI Graphics card that did have a vista driver, after all AMD bought them out so they had to be Vista compatible. Never again. Like you said buy a Mac, I am heading in that direction. Thank you Joseph
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Strongly disagree with Alanwea. Vista is faster, more user friendly, more secure than aany other OS i've used. Sure the Security Advisor is a pain and Microsoft needs to adress this, and Internet Explorer has bugs in Vista that make it lock up but other wise my rating of Vista is 10 out of 5.
To get rid of the Security Advisor got to Windows Security Center, select Other Security Settings and turn off User Account Control. Windows will freak and tell you that you have a security issue but don't worry about it. Windows Firewall, OneCare, and Defender are all on duty so there are no security issues. The way Microsoft could make User Account Control useful is to add a Remember this Decision button to the Security Advisor. Users could live with this. Norton and Zone Alarm have this feature and it's never bothered me. Actually made me feel more secure knowing what was going on behind the scenes. So you have to go through the initial pain of training Security Advisor but you wouldn't be bugged again after you had made your choice and instructed Vista to remember your choice.
As for IE - when hasn't it been buggy. The developers will fix them (eventually)and until then if you can't live with IE use a GNU explorer like Opera or Firefox (i'm sure there's more but i use IE by habit).
All said and done, Vista has the greatest GUI yet, the most powerful security features yet, and the most stability yet (I have not crashed the OS once since i installed it - the day it came on the market).
Another tidbit i found when i tried installing XP programs on Vista that very often they would not install but if you rightclick the installer for the program and choose Properties, click the Compatibility Tab you can tell Vista to run the program in compatibility mode from XP SP2 all the way back to win95. The thing is IT WORKS! only loss i've noticed is when you open the program after installation you lose the Aero desktop - i can live with that. But see if there's an update to your program making it Vista compaatible before going through all that hassle
happy computing
eagle -
Strongly disagree with Alanwea. Vista is faster, more user friendly, more secure than aany other OS i've used. Sure the Security Advisor is a pain and Microsoft needs to adress this, and Internet Explorer has bugs in Vista that make it lock up but other wise my rating of Vista is 10 out of 5.
To get rid of the Security Advisor got to Windows Security Center, select Other Security Settings and turn off User Account Control. Windows will freak and tell you that you have a security issue but don't worry about it. Windows Firewall, OneCare, and Defender are all on duty so there are no security issues. The way Microsoft could make User Account Control useful is to add a Remember this Decision button to the Security Advisor. Users could live with this. Norton and Zone Alarm have this feature and it's never bothered me. Actually made me feel more secure knowing what was going on behind the scenes. So you have to go through the initial pain of training Security Advisor but you wouldn't be bugged again after you had made your choice and instructed Vista to remember your choice.
As for IE - when hasn't it been buggy. The developers will fix them (eventually)and until then if you can't live with IE use a GNU explorer like Opera or Firefox (i'm sure there's more but i use IE by habit).
All said and done, Vista has the greatest GUI yet, the most powerful security features yet, and the most stability yet (I have not crashed the OS once since i installed it - the day it came on the market).
Another tidbit i found when i tried installing XP programs on Vista that very often they would not install but if you rightclick the installer for the program and choose Properties, click the Compatibility Tab you can tell Vista to run the program in compatibility mode from XP SP2 all the way back to win95. The thing is IT WORKS! only loss i've noticed is when you open the program after installation you lose the Aero desktop - i can live with that. But see if there's an update to your program making Vista capable before going through all that hassle
happy computing
eagle -
I've heard some applications couldn't run in windows vista, what kind of applications are those? what about unlicensed softwares?
you said(so did other people) that hard drives from old computers is a pain to transfer to vista, what about external hard disks, does these encounter the same pains?
one user mentioned that his web cam does not work even with drivers installed, is this the same with wacom tablets, cameras and other stuff which needs drivers as well? -
It has the same problems than old version doing an upgrade. You need to do a clean install. It just look better but does not works better. So keep your old XP and wait or another version. If you can, I canīt, buy a MAC. Itīs really just works.
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Nothing works since Vista - no sound - no scanner - only one half incoming e-mail
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I was reading an article a little bit ago sying Microsoft is going to release a new OS in 2008. I thought WOW!!!!! I was going to buy WINDOWS VISTA ULTIMATE, but after reading that I can't bring myself to spend $400 that they are asking for it. I used the RC2 on my laptop and loved it but I wonder, if they are going to release a new OS in 2008 why should I spend $400 on VISTA ULTIMATE. SOUNDS LIKE A WASTE OF MONEY TO ME.
I also did not really think that article was completely accurate Though Microosft declined to comment when asked by the people that wrote the article(NO SURPRISE THERE) but they claim they spent the last 5 years working on VISTA how can they write another OS in a year. IMPOSSIBLE, unless it is going to be like the did with WINDOWS 95 release a and release b and then Windows 98 and WINDOWS 98SE. I also heard they are working on WINDOWS VISTA SP1 to be released in the second half of 2007. -
Alanwea's right! Tonight I got to spend several hours with a beta verrsion of Vista. I was impressed at how the latest, greatest offering from microsoft could consume a tremendous amount of resources and deliver even less than XP-pro, as in XP, the CLI might just as well not be there. All of the important decisions have been made in Seattle and you have nothing to say about anything except which sipffy GUI elements you want to waste your processing power on, The OS itself is in excess of 21 gig, a screaming dual core box will now remind you of that 100Mhz 486 your dad bought. If you consider your computer as "My plastic pal thats fun to be with" you will most likely dig it. However , if your computer is a tool for "Mission critical" applications, have a good line of credit, some Maalox, and Rogane, you'll need all three and the OS will never bend to your will in the time alloted. At this point I am very happy I know UNIX/LINUX. Good Luck!
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I have been using Windows since version 3.0 In fact I even used version 2 for a while. Even then they were releasing products that were shoddy on initial release, remember WFW 3.1? What a freaking mess that was until WFW 3.11 was released. This will be more of the same but far worse given how much more complex it is. I held out even touching XP until SP1 came out, during NT 3.5/3.51 a lot of people got severely burnt with shoddy patch releases, NT4 was the same. XP SP2 is pretty good, just unbelievably memory and resource hungry. So you can imagine what Vista will be like with a minimum memory requirement of 1GB. Wait until SP1 comes out before doing anything. Then wait for six months after SP1 to make sure that bugs have been squashed in that release and that hardware has caught up with the software requirements, because trust me, you will want hardware accelerated Raid WD Raptors to deal with the demands of this beast. I already have those for XP
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Your comments are very interesting and confirm my fears about all the hoopla. I also think your comments about much of the benefit accruing to corp. IT dept's. in term of their control vs. users are probably right on.
Definitely gives one pause about spending the money to upgrade when, after many updates, XP seems to be pretty stable and secure.
P.S. Winston Churchill coined the phrase "Iron Curtain", but I like digital curtain very much as well!
