Vista - Vista took one for the team

Sure, Windows 7 is a better Windows than Vista, but it would have been much less so in December 2006 when Vista was released. Enough adjustment to Vista has happened that Windows 7 won't be as imposing a change.

I'm coming to the belief that Windows 7 is basically Vista 1.5 - a notably upgraded, but not substantially different, product. But the passage of time and "work" done by Vista has freed Windows 7 from the disrepute of its predecessor.
My sense of the complaints about Vista is that the two biggest ones had to do with UAC (User Access Control) and lack of support for devices. Microsoft compromised some on UAC in Win7 (that compromise led to some controversies—I think they caved in to bad PR, they see it differently) but the basic principle of UAC in Windows 7 is the same.
The real problem that UAC tries to solve is when third-party software requires privileged access. In almost all cases, there are ways to do what the software needs to do without requiring privileged access or, in the alternative, segregating the privileged components into a service and communicating securely with it. This is, for instance, how Automatic Updates works on your system without requiring you to provide administrator credentials.


Vista Took One for the Team

Thanks echrada for lead-in to a well discussed issue.........Microsoft and UAC. Still, some very interesting views, and my UAC remains enabled!!

Microsoft has developed the mentality for pc users for years...

It really has come back to bite them on the b*m..

I've always used a user account.
Administrator is "run as" only when needed.

Now, also have Microsoft allowed us to remove IE?

I've not been into computers for very long. The first operating system I experienced was XP Pro.

I used that for about a year and then went to a new machine and Vista 64 bit.
I just thought it was amazing straight away. It looked much more grown up somehow and it was compatible with all my peripherals so no issues there.
Everybody moaned about UAC but I don't mind it at all. It's a little bit of a hassle but nothing really and I've had no problems that I didn't cause myself in two years.( so it works)

Things got better after SP1 but I was fully up to date anyway so it didn't make that much difference to me.

Other complaints were that it used a lot of resources and was actually slower than XP and I agree with both of those statements.
But. I'd just got a new, much more powerful machine than I had been used to and to me it seemed faster than XP and more stable.
As such the XP vs Vista debate and the keep XP alive campaign were a bit of a mystery to me. I couldn't understand why anyone wouldn't prefer Vista.

For a while I dual booted Ubuntu and it's certainly amazing, very fast indeed, and the Compiz Fusion eye candy make Vista, W7 and Macs OS look fairly ordinairy.
Problem was I still didn't ( and still don't) know enough about Vista so I found the extra learning curve involved with learning to use Ubuntu too much.
I opened in Ubuntu less and less in the end I wiped it.

I hope that the same thing won't happen with this W7 Beta dual boot but for different reasons.
This is not a steep learning curve, it's ok, it's not that much different, it's got a couple of nice touches but nothing "wow" that I've yet discovered.
It fact it's a bit boring and I'm worried I'll stop bothering booting it cos I've got my Vista setup very nicely at the moment (new install).
Also it doesn't seem any faster or less demanding on RAM or CPU

I'm not sure it's even Vista 1.5.
It's more like some Firfox Add-Ons and a couple of new Google Apps.
I suppose moving straight from XP to Vista 64 was a bigger step than previous Windows versions. I don't know, wasn't there.
As I've said elsewhere I'm underwhelmed with W7.
Best wishes, John

I don't find UAC to be a hassle at all. So I have to physically move my finger to click a button? OMG!!! WHAT DO I DO?! AGGGHHHHAKJHBHGSJHGBSHGBSH!!!

At least, that's how some people seem to react. Say my comp gets hit by a trojan or virus and it tries to access sensitive material that can seriously screw up my system. It needs administrative privileges to do that. If you know you didn't activate said UAC prompt, then likely, something else did. Seems useful to me.

UAC is no bother to me either. I find that the computer gurus feel the UAC is a hand holder and these gurus do not need to have their hand held. I'm sure they don't. However, I think there are more non-computer gurus who do need their hands held. UAC helps these folks stay out of trouble. It sure beats having to go to someone to have a virus removed for $100.00.

I like Vista i think its a notible improvement over XP. I built my first pc two years ago with vista in mind and havent upgraded anything since then. In that time iv never had a virus or spyware on my machine and i have UAC disabled and no virus or spyware scanner installed. I install AVG every four months or so do a scan and then bin it just for peace of mind. Blue screens have never happened either whereas on XP they happen quite a lot.

I think the problem with vista is it comes with just too much c**p like UAC, sidebar, etc. I personally would love to see an OS come on two disks one with the minimum it requires to run and the other with everything else leaving it up to us if we want to install it or not.

As for "Vista took one for the team" i really dont agree and il be skipping windows 7.

I am very happy for you that you have not had any problems. However, it seems to me that you are taking unnecessary risks. With all the free anti virus programmes out there you really should have one running on your machine.

Remember it is not only an infection over the internet that is putting you at risk. You can put a Cd/DVD into your machine and get an infection or a memory stick....

But I am not here to preach to you .... Windows 7 will get you some time or the other.

"Windows 7 will get you some time or the other". I dont think so, from what iv seen of it theres nothing really new and so no need to upgrade.

As for virus and spyware scanners theres no need to have them, so i dont ( just google on ways to do this).

My rig runs faster than my mates quad core pc for everything except for games as his GPU is loads better than mine. This is because on startup he's got virus scanners, defragers, spyware scanners, UAC, firewalls, etc, etc.................

What I have read about 7 is that it is faster than Vista. More stable. What else does it really offer. Come on, sell me Windows 7. Tell me something that will make me go drop another $200.00 for a new OS