Over the last four days, I’ve spent plenty of time getting up to speed on the latest offering from the boys in Redmond, and so far I’m reasonably pleased with it. It looks plenty pretty. With a few exceptions (the “setting up” dialog as you log in for the first time being one), the interface has a nice makeover from XP. But is it worth upgrading? That I’m not sure about.
The speed is nice, but to be fair, I’m running on a new computer too. So I can’t really say if it’s better than it was or not. Probably not. There’s a lot going on with the new animations and the gadgets in the sidebar (which are neat, but mostly useless), so I suspect that if I tried to install it on an old computer, I would be really dragging. I’ve also noticed that I tend to lose Internet connectivity with some regularity – my IM client goes in and out every few minutes. Plus, driver support blows. Really blows. This is the one area that I absolutely cannot stand.
My computer actually came with Home Premium, the second of four levels of the new Vista, and since I need to join a domain, I had to upgrade. I really need Business, level three, but since I can’t upgrade from Home Premium to Business, I had to upgrade to Ultimate. Fair enough. Shell out a few bucks to Big Daddy Bill and I’m in business. But just make sure that if you use the “Anytime Upgrade CD”, you upgrade prior to doing so. I actually inserted the CD, hit the upgrade button, and an hour or so later, thought I was done. Only to find out that nothing happened. Nice design.
So then I went online, and found out that I had to pay first. When I did, I found out that I couldn’t upgrade. The problem was that I couldn’t seem to activate. This may have been related to the bungled upgrade, but regardless, it is a bit of a design flaw. I had to call the number (blech). Then I had to actually speak with someone who gave me the third degree. Finally I get the joy of typing a 48 digit number, I’m activated and I can finally upgrade. Another hour or so later and I’m on Vista Ultimate.
Like a dutiful Soldier of Redmond, I go to Windows Update and try to download updates – including a driver for my video and audio drivers, which I figured was because of the new version of Vista. Unfortunately, the install craps out and I’m left without both. I spend hours trying to reinstall from Windows Update, from the Recovery Manager on the PC, from the hard drive, from the manufacturer’s web site and even from the supplier’s web site. No dice. So I try the online chat of the manufacturer. No dice. They say I should try installing while not connected to the Internet, because it can’t connect to the update servers. Even though I’m installing from disk. Sure. But I try. Nope.
Later, I try calling. After half an hour of providing detailed information, I get the lovely answer that I’ll need to call Microsoft because I dared to upgrade. Guess that was a nice purchase, but we’re done with you now. I won’t be purchasing from them again. I can understand and all, but is Ultimate really that different from Home Premium? I doubt it.
Anyway, I muddled through for a while longer and finally decided to reboot in Safe Mode. I don’t know why exactly, I just did. Nothing seemed different, but then I figured I would try installing while there. And what do you know – it just worked. No problems at all. So now I know – when the drivers need updating, I just need to restart in safe mode. Nice.
I found out later today that I apparently need to do the same for a printer driver too. How cool is that? What a piece of junk. Has anyone else seen this behavior? I can’t believe I’m the only one who is seeing this happen where Vista just sort of sits for five to ten minutes and then just times out on installing the driver, saying that the installation failed. Thus far it’s happened on a video driver, an audio driver and a printer driver. Everything else seems to be working fine.