vista
Last night - for the sake of science - I decided to install the newly minted Windows Vista on my home computer. Going into this, I knew there was going to be some hardware and software issues, but I thought it’d be fun to try anyway.
I downloaded all my important drivers and installed them to a USB backup, and then I ran one of those “we’ll tell you if your computer is ready for Vista” programs on my system. I figured that my desktop would get a glowing review, but it came up short in the “you can run Vista at its full potential” benchmark. Although it was suspicious that it was my video card vendor provided the scan and then told me the only thing I needed was a new video card. They said that my video card would be an issue because it wasn’t a 256mb card - which was an obvious glitch, considering that I have a 512mb card (one model higher than the one they recommended).
Anyway, I did 45 minutes of prep time before getting to actually getting to work. I uninstalled the always-problematic McAffee anti-virus software and was ready to go. From there I watched my computer flash warm, focus group-tested pastel backgrounds on the screen as it routinely rebooted over the course of two hours.
When the install was complete, I reinstalled the crucial drivers and then marveled at how many of my favorite programs were actually Vista ready - and was in disbelief at a few of them that weren’t. Luckily, there’s a feature that lets certain programs run as if it were still on XP (handy!).
I wish I could give a better review of Vista, but the actual installation took so long that I haven’t yet had a chance to mess around with it - although I suspect it’ll be really exciting for a few days and then I’ll realize that it’s just another operating system and move on to my next infatuation.
[I shot the Vista installation process for my weekly “Click on JL” segment [video link], in case you skipped to the bottom of this post and would rather just watch everything I just wrote instead.]
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Just for point of reference… I’ve been running Vista Beta RC2 on my 6 year old compaq for a while now. It works, with glitches of course, but, it works. Even with the onboard 32MB graphic card. (works better than the Windows ME that was installed on this dinosaur, and almost as well as the pirated “devils 0wn” XP I used for a while) Viva la Vista?