Windows Vista Vista pases the "mom" test

[Matt]

http://www.news.com/8301-13860_3-9860683-56.html?tag=nefd.pulse

There is the proof that Vista isn't a crappy operating system.

 

[Jason]

I'm not sure if it passes the "Supposedly Tech-Savvy University Student" test though, at the start of the semester i had to go and help out 3 different students who were baffled by the security features when they were attempting to download and install teamspeak and a patch for a game we wanted to play over LAN.

Although i guess for a mother that is unlikely to be an issue, so the added security could be seen as beneficial there, and to be fair since sorting the permissions out and explaining what to do no one has come back needing any more help.

 

[Matt]

Heh, I guess they were not exactly tech savvy, just gamers. I know a lot of friends that play games like Halo and don't know much about computers.

But from what I've seen, Vista is much more secure than windows XP.

 

[THFS]

agreed! i think it is WAY more secure!

 

[Matt]

For example, an application tried to get control of your computer, and UAC blocks it. Also, there have been security patches for XP and 2000 that haven't applied to Vista.

 

[brotherZ]

To tell you the truth, I missed XP. Vista is giving me such a big headache, especially when the PC hibernates. I always have a hard time waking up the PC and IE 7 keeps crashing.

 

[Chaoswarrior]

then install avant vrowser(i did have the same problem),like i did,it is basically a program which wraps itself around the IE shell...

 

[doeda]

I think when i buy my laptop i will format it to XP or make a doubel boot

 

[the_blue_master]

well i now have it on my main system and my laptop and i have to honestly say that xp issues come to mind. eg compatibility doesnt like working, ie crashes, system holds when its being waken from sleep and hibernate, everything lags like a whore and it kicks the crap out of any system.

 

[Matt]

Hmm, have you downloaded the latest versions of the software and games that you are running? I had a program called Anvil Studio that didn't work, but I downloaded the latest release a few months ago and now it works fine on Vista. What GPU do you have btw?

BrotherZ, what issue are you having when you try to get out of Hibernate? It's working fine for me on my desktop. Anyway, if IE keeps crashing, why not try Opera or Firefox?

 

[Kyle]

Worst test ever.
By the way, any reasonable computer user could tell you within 10 minutes of touching Vista these three things:

- UAC is ANNOYING (Unless you know Vista, you won't know how to turn it off, either)
- The start menu is retarded, it needs to be put back to XP style (Too much crunched into that little window, and very disorganized)
- If they try to move anything across drives, it will take FOREVER.

And that's just within 10 minutes of trying Vista.
"Mom" Must be pussy-footing around.

 

[Matt]

I complained that User Account Protection (UAC) was "the most annoying feature that Microsoft has ever added to any software product," and sadly, that's largely true today, with a caveat. I do feel that most people will find UAC to be hugely annoying, especially if they take the more secure route and run as a Standard User. However, I also believe that all Windows users should leave UAC enabled, in order to ensure that their system is as secure as is possible. UAC is most annoying when you first set up and configure a new Windows Vista system: That's because this beginning time period is where you install all your applications, and that's exactly when you're going to see the most UAC prompts. You may read reviews of Windows Vista that harp on this problem, but such reviews don't offer a particularly deep analysis of the reality of UAC, which is this: Over time, the number of UAC prompts you need to deal with will go down. And over time, the annoyance of UAC will evolve into acceptance as Vista users discover what Mac OS X and Linux users discovered long ago about similar security controls in those systems. UAC is annoying, yes, but it's not deadly. It may just be one of the most important features in Windows Vista.

http://www.winsupersite.com/reviews/winvista_07.asp


So, as your installing apps, it will prompt you, but after that, it's pretty much fine. And it does make your computer a lot more secure.

Start Menu: it seems fine to me, and the instant search is great, type in the first few letters of an app, and it appears instantly.

 

[Kyle]

Well, I'm one of those people who do a lot with their system, and I tried to leave it on, but after getting over 50 warnngs in about 3 hours, I had to shut it off. lol

It's majorly annoying to power users, and my cousin got pissed at it when she got it too.

 

[Jim O]

Heh, I guess they were not exactly tech savvy, just gamers. I know a lot of friends that play games like Halo and don't know much about computers.

But from what I've seen, Vista is much more secure than windows XP.

I couldn't agree more. Plenty of gamers are not tech savvy. I'm using Vista, and while the messages can be irritating at times, they are a small price for the security. There are too many nitwits out there running "kiddie-scripts" looking for a vulnerable computer. I *hope* that mine won't be one of them.

 

[the_blue_master]

if the uac messages annoy you that much you can do what i did and download and run tweak uac as you can get rid of the majority of the messages that you dont find nessesary

 

[THFS]

OMFG!!! TWEAK UAC is such an awesome tool!!! thank you soo much for the tip!!! that is awesome!!!!!

 

[Matt]

Hmm, never heard of Tweak UAC, though perhaps I'll try it when I get a new PC.

Anyway, I did notice that Vista does seem quite a bit more secure. I left my Vista PC without an AV for several months, and it only got one virus via email, and the virus didn't seem to do anything. On XP, after a few weeks, I had around 6 trojans, and 2 viruses, though they didn't seem to be doing much either. But at least there were less on Vista.

 

[the_blue_master]

the security in vista is down to the windows defender software but relying on that instead of an independant AV and AS your pc will run considerably slower as windows defender isnt really what we would call optimized.