Another Vista defender

It’s amazing how, once enough people say something, that something becomes common fact.

Take Microsoft Vista, because a few people loud enough to be heard above the rest slag it off then it’s crap, a waste of time, useless.

WRONG!

I’ve used every version of Windows since Version 2.0 runtime (Ah, Word For Windows 2.0, still the best Word Processor I've ever used) and Vista is very, very good.

Take this weekend, I’ve had to reinstall XP on a machine that I only built 3 weeks ago because Microsoft Update kept crashing and not installing updates.  AVG wouldn’t install and the thing was running slow.

I’ve also had to repair a family member’s XP install because user settings stopped working.  It didn’t take long to fix but it was a pain.

Now Vista. For reasons best known to myself, I installed some web software into root folder of IIS and not a sub-folder and everything messed up with all my other sites.  Disaster.  I know, I’ll take IIS off and put it back on.  Nope, IIS came off, wouldn’t go back on because the software I installed left a load of crud behind.

A quick trip to Windows Restore later and the machine is back to how it was, IIS runs great, the other websites run great and the software I installed is a memory.

I wish we’d had Vista back when I did IT Support.  The number of calls we’d get saying “I’ve not done anything but the computer’s stopped working.  If we’d had the reliability and performance monitor we could have seen exactly what they’d not been doing and sorted it out.

The problem with Vista is where you buy it.  PC World, Currys, ASDA (?) et al all put “crapware” on the PCs.  Norton Trials, Dodgy image software trials, Curry’s helper trial and the like.  The first thing to do with a new PC is format the lot and start again (if the company isn’t willing to provide original CDs/DVDs for all your software, don’t use them).  After a reinstall you’ll find everything runs much better and there is plenty of free software that replaces what the companies try to foist on you.  (Search “AVG Free” for Anti-Virus, “Zone Alarm” for firewall).

The other problem with Vista is the number of cheapo PCs that are flooding the market from supermarkets and the likes of PC World.  “Hey, why spend £900 on a laptop when I can get it from Tesco for £300?”.  Well, why buy Hovis bread from Tesco when you can get Aldi bread from Aldi’s for a lot less, the same reason, the cheaper stuff is crap!

Yes, it might have a good name on the box, yes, it might have a super CPU, lots of memory and a big hard disk but is it a reliable CPU, is it well made memory, is it a well build hard drive?  Go to the expensive places and you’ll get the best hardware, go cheap, you’ll get crap.  Here’s a good point, if you buy a PC from PC World that comes with Vista Home Basic as standard, you’re looking at a PC that’s at least 3 years old, that’s why it’s so cheap.

So it’s not Vista that’s at fault, it’s the companies building crap computers to run it on and installing crap software to slow it down.

My recommendation, go to Dell, Sony, HP or your local independent computer seller.  Tell them what you want, tell them what you need the computer to do.  Be willing to pay extra for something that will last and all your Vista woes will be behind you.

You might still have to clear off the crapware though!