Yay, Vista.

[dvandom]

So, my work machine finally got "upgraded" to Vista while I was off in Canada (the process has been going on for months, I'm one of the last holdouts).


In addition to all the reset-all-the-settings stuff I wasted time on yesterday (including lowering the screen resolution because I couldn't find any other option for "make the system font bigger than microscopic") and a few problems unique to our IT guys (i.e. I forgot to triple-check that nothing important was on my C: drive, since they never back that up before wiping your machine for an upgrade...and it turns out that my Firefox bookmarks lived there despite having thought I'd moved them to the O: drive).

Today I ran into two other annoyances, although to be fair, the bigger one isn't Vista's fault.

The big one is that I can't install software anymore. Too many people have blithely stuffed their machines with malware around campus, so anyone moving to Vista loses admin access to their own machine. So I had to get special permission to upgrade my Flash plugins (since the old plug-in was apparently either also on C: or it wasn't Vista-compatible).

The little one is a matter of "changing how things are done for no good reason" in Vista. In XP, it remembers what you last did for "Shut Down". So if you only ever want to log out, you don't need to do anything special, just click Shut Down and hit enter, it remembers you did Log Out last time. Vista, at least in my experience today, doesn't remember this. It returns to Shut Down as the default, so I need to change my habits to avoid shutting down every time I want to just log out. :/

Comments

[diosoth.livejournal.com]

The key part to remember is... NO ONE LIKES VISTA! It's turned to to be wholly incompatible with anything previous. PCs are largely gamer platforms, which is why they remain popular, but as it is, running games on Vista is a matter of luck. It only seems a guarantee if the game is actually programmed specifically for Vista.

One reason I never upgraded is because I can't be certain that even 10% of my game collection would operate. I already did the requisite stuff to get old DOS games running in XP- source ports, DOSbox, etc... I am not doing it again.

Vista is actually a dirty word at a local PC repair shop. They hate it.

[dvandom.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, the university is a corporate user and can't afford to drag its heels too much. We delayed adoption quite a bit, but in the end it's go Vista or things get even worse than if we don't go Vista. :/

Home machine's still on Panther, but it's six years old and reaching the end of its ability to benefit from OS upgrades.

[diosoth.livejournal.com]

Sadly, I've found an entirely fresh OS install more reliable than simply upgrading. My attempts to install Service Packs into my old XP Home edition made things worse. I finally managed to buy a second-hand Volume License Kit XP Pro with SP2 integrated CD. Probably pushing legalities, but it is a legit Windows disc that doesn't need a CD key. It'd be the same type your university uses.

As for your bookmarks, those seem to be tied with Windows, even Firefox. I did an OS reinstall last week due to some nasty unknown spyware and lost my Firefox bookmarks in the process. Now, I did a Windows reinstall without a drive format, so most stuff stayed, but the bookmarks... gone.