Are criticisms of Vista bogus or legitimate?
By
Dennis O'Reilly
Several readers were dismayed to read about the Vista problems reported by Stuart Johnston in last week's
Top Story, some going so far as to call it "Vista bashing."
On the other hand, we heard from just as many readers who are struggling with the same problems as the readers Stuart quoted — plus other Vista glitches of their own.
Reader Victor Sacco left no doubt about where he stands on the issue:
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"It's simplistic and plain silly to say that Vista x64 is 'junkware,' or [that] 'bugs abound' in Office 2007 when run in Vista x64. And that business about 23 million Registry entries — how was this determined? Is it accurate? What does it mean?"
Reader John Douglas offers an explanation for some of these glitches:
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"Most problems plaguing Vista — both 32- and 64-bit — are caused by poorly written apps and drivers. I strongly suspect that this is caused by the higher demands of the OS, but it's not like the developers haven't had time to get through it.
"And likewise, it's not like Microsoft didn't do due diligence in making Vista betas available. Vista is simply an extension of Windows Server 2003 SP1, which was also the foundation of XP x64, which was my favorite OS until Vista 64 was introduced.
"Of course, this is not the first time we are using applications that have a different code base than the OS. How many 16-bit apps did we use on 32-bit OSes? And some still are! Also, what applications would benefit significantly from a 64-bit extension? Video and high-resolution photo apps like Photoshop and Premier Pro, or perhaps database apps. ...
"Finally, I will agree on one thing: the Registry is overdue for some serious optimizing. I just exported my Vista 64 Registry using Regedit, and the file is 374MB! Good thing I have 8GB of RAM."
Whether someone's Vista Registry has bloated itself up to millions of lines, hundreds of megabytes, or some other measure, the problems Stuart wrote about represent the experiences of many Vista users.
Ferreting out a disk-imaging bargain
One of my favorite things is saving money on what I consider an indispensable PC application. That's why I stood up and took notice when reader John Sullivan wrote to tell us about a great deal he found on Acronis's True Image disk-imaging software:
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"While on a tech chat with Acronis one day recently, they told me to go to [this site]. Turns out, on that site they offer to give you — yes, give you — version 8 [of True Image] for free, then tell you that you can upgrade to the current version 11 for only $30 instead of the retail $50 or common street price of $35 to $40. And you don't even have to install it (version 8), just get a free key from them to qualify for the upgrade. Here's their page telling about it."
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Victor, John D., and John S. will each receive a gift certificate for
a book, CD, or DVD of their choice for sending tips we printed. Send us your
tips via the Windows Secrets
contact page. |
The Known Issues column brings you readers' comments on our recent articles. Dennis O'Reilly is technical editor of WindowsSecrets.com.
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