Microsoft Windows Vista

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Author Message David Axt, AIA, CCS, CSI Senior Member Username: david_axt Post Number: 1020 Registered: 03-2002 Posted on Monday, June 30, 2008 - 01:55 pm:    Is anybody here using Microsoft Windows Vista? Can you tell me the advantages / disadvantages. Melissa J. Aguiar, CSI, CCS, SCIP Senior Member Username: melissaaguiar Post Number: 100 Registered: 12-2003 Posted on Monday, June 30, 2008 - 02:10 pm:    David, I have been using it against my will for about a year now I guess. I big on the disadvantages at this point and refuse to recommend it to anyone. I hate the fact that I had to bump up my RAM to a minimum of 2gigs to get the darn thing to even run the office products. It would lock up on me every day since the day I bought it. I got it up to 4gigs and it runs great now. I hate that in MS Word 2007 they completely changed the way the toolbars are and revamped the icon locations and made it into a ribbon icon thingy now and tabular system. I hate the fact that each type MS gives an update to the OP system it completely messes up my search engine and I have to spend an entire day reformatting my index. Happens ALOT! I hate that they decided to put in Account Security default settings mind you to keep new software from being installed unless you change your User Account Settings to allow installations. I mean, I bought this computer I should be able to have it at a default setting that allows me to make that decision and not them. So now each type I turn on my computer and it loads...Windows/MS has a little bubble that reminds me that I have it turned off. I hate it because I had to upgrade software that was 1 year or less on my old computer and respend money to do so because Vista was not compatible..and you will find a ton of software and hardware as well like this, including printers and scanners and other things of that nature. Internet Explorer is very unstable...more so than XP so I have to use FireFox to run internet most days. Sorry to be negative but I wanted to give you my honest opinion here David. Melissa Richard Howard, AIA CSI CCS LEED-AP Senior Member Username: rick_howard Post Number: 187 Registered: 07-2003 Posted on Monday, June 30, 2008 - 02:43 pm:    Vista is not ready for commercial use. Our corporate IT department will not allow any new machines with Vista on our network until they can get it to play nice with all of our system drivers. My son got a new HP laptop last year with Vista and is unable to install any updates. According to Microsoft, he will have to wipe out the hard drive and reinstall all the software to be able to install the Vista service pack that will allow it to run Windows Update normally. John Bunzick, CCS, CCCA, LEED AP Senior Member Username: bunzick Post Number: 923 Registered: 03-2002 Posted on Monday, June 30, 2008 - 03:25 pm:    I do not use Vista at work, but I do use it in my personal computer in my digital photo studio. I use Word 2007 at work and in my studio. Vista does require huge amounts of memory. But I knew that when I purchased my system and so have a lot. I agree that the popups requesting permission to continue are annoying for running certain applications under certain conditions, but I live with it because it helps me know what's going on with my system and because I know it reduces the likelihood of getting infected (though I've never had that happen in the past.) At work, my IT staff will decide whether and when to upgrade (some new machines have it) and I'll just go along. As to Word 2007, my office is beginning to migrate to it now. I was one of the early adopters here, and I will be assisting in training staff in its use. I actually like the ribbons just fine. Often I can find things more easily than before, but as Melissa points out, many things have been moved. But this has been the case with almost every upgrade to every software package I ever use. I know I'll learn it all eventually. ARCOM's Masterworks editing tools for use with Masterworks are native to Word 2007 now, so the tools reside in their own ribbon. Microsoft has a cool site online to help one learn where new commands are located. You click on the old sequence and it "plays" the new. Check it out: Word video They have the same thing for other Office 2007 applications. I've found this Word upgrade to be less painful than the last. George A. Everding, AIA, CSI, CCS, CCCA Senior Member Username: geverding Post Number: 435 Registered: 11-2004 Posted on Monday, June 30, 2008 - 04:02 pm:    Coincidentally, there was an item on the business news on NPR this morning on the way to work that mentioned that MS was going to stop shipping XP and would at some point stop supporting it. I was only half listening, but echoes of Vista problems mentioned in that radio story showed up in this discussion. I bet those interested could find an audio version on the NPR website. Melissa J. Aguiar, CSI, CCS, SCIP Senior Member Username: melissaaguiar Post Number: 101 Registered: 12-2003 Posted on Monday, June 30, 2008 - 04:19 pm:    John, I am glad that you have been able to adapt to it. I am slowly learning to accept its faults. I just wish I knew what you knew before you adapted to the new OP sys. I wanted XP but they had just took it off the market when I went searching for my office computer. I did try the training courses online as well but with work and my unbelievable time schedule of working almost 20 hour days for 7 days a week...stopping to smell the Vista Roses has not been a part of my schedule. So training on my part has been low on the priority list. Now, if anyone of you can tell me how to fix my search engine to be a stable environment when required patches and upgrades are issued by MS so that it does not clear my search engines and I lose all my abilities to search through my files for key words ---- I would buy and send a big box of Godiva Chocolates (sugar free for health nuts or diabetics) to you as a token of our SCIP friendship! LOL! George, that would be a great audio listen for me. Thanks for the info. Don Harris CSI, CCS, CCCA, AIA Senior Member Username: don_harris Post Number: 193 Registered: 03-2003 Posted on Monday, June 30, 2008 - 04:28 pm:    My IT dept. gave me a Vista Business machine to test at home. The price was right, the software problematic. It's been a year and I have gotten used to the quirks, though I don't always like them. I still hold a grudge against HP for refusing to build a Vista driver for my perfectly good printer that is now a paperweight. But, it is a paperweight that holds its own paper. I did buy a new printer (bad news), but (good news) it's a much better printer than the old one. I still can not get used to the Word 2007 Ribbons and Microsoft's removal of macro icon and toolbar customization. And, you can not organize your macros in logical toolbars. They all go to the top ribbon, I forget what it is called, in whatever order MS deems appropriate. Also, when migrating from 2003 about half of my macro icons did not transfer correctly. Needless to say, I am still using Word 2003 and will do so until I.T. and the Principals twist my arm beyond recognition. P.S. I.T. is installing Office 2007 on new machines in the office, but still refuse to migrate to Vista. W. Dean Walker, AIA, CCS, SCIP Senior Member Username: wdwalkerspecs Post Number: 27 Registered: 08-2006 Posted on Tuesday, July 01, 2008 - 10:46 am:    I just read this on Steve Bass's blog. He is one of the contributors to the PC World Magazine. Here's an interesting snippet: If you rejected Vista, you're in good company. Intel's said the same thing. According to NY Times blogger Steve Lohr: "Intel, the giant chip maker and longtime partner of Microsoft, has decided against upgrading the computers of its own 80,000 employees to Microsoft's Vista operating system, a person with direct knowledge of the company's plans said." Lohr's Intel source said after examining the cost and potential benefits of shifting to Vista, they couldn't justify the move. David Stutzman Senior Member Username: david_stutzman Post Number: 52 Registered: 07-2002 Posted on Wednesday, July 02, 2008 - 07:36 pm:    Give up using Microsoft file search features and try this gem. FileLocator Pro. This will be the best small investment you ever made and you will never use Microsoft search function again. http://www.mythicsoft.com/Page.aspx?type=filelocatorpro&page=home Melissa J. Aguiar, CSI, CCS, SCIP Senior Member Username: melissaaguiar Post Number: 102 Registered: 12-2003 Posted on Wednesday, July 02, 2008 - 08:24 pm:    David, I just tried the trail software version of FileLocator Pro and will be purchasing it so I can have a stable search engine environment. Thanks so much for the link and the recommendation. It is a great tool to have. So, do you what type of Godiva do you want...milk choc, dark choc, truffle type, sugarfree type? David Stutzman Senior Member Username: david_stutzman Post Number: 53 Registered: 07-2002 Posted on Thursday, July 03, 2008 - 03:12 pm:    Pick the chocolates you enjoy and have one when you realize you don't need Microsoft for searches. My pleasure to share this tidbit. Good software should not remain a secret. W. Dean Walker, AIA, CCS, SCIP Senior Member Username: wdwalkerspecs Post Number: 28 Registered: 08-2006 Posted on Thursday, July 03, 2008 - 05:34 pm:    How many specifiers are using Clipmate? http://www.clipmate.com . I have been using it for years. Also if you want good internet radio for free with lots of choices of genre download http://www.screamer-radio.com/ I like www.classicalarchives.com thru screamer radio. Melissa J. Aguiar, CSI, CCS, SCIP Senior Member Username: melissaaguiar Post Number: 103 Registered: 12-2003 Posted on Saturday, July 05, 2008 - 10:52 am:    Anyone else working this holiday? Yep, I am..for a Monday deadline. No rest for the specifier. Anyway, David I wanted to let you know that I think my new computer with vista troubles heard me talking to you about how much I dislike it and the search engine troubles. It crashed on me and it took me six hours yesterday to rebuild it and patch it up. Thank goodness for external backup harddrive system or I would have been in trouble with this job that is due on Monday. So, after I patched it with MS service updates, my search engine disappeared off the start menu. I could not find the link anywhere. I went into the control panels and troubleshot the problem when I realized after 1 hour looking around for something to fix the problem...that it WAS listening to me complain about how the OP Sys was horrible! Then, I noticed a address bar at the bottom of my start menu with a magnifier beside it; they moved the search engine around on me with the service patch update. Good grief. Who is in charge of development. It's like there is a monkey at the controls making design decisions. Too bad specifers cannot give them some input, I bet that would totally change their system to be more like wordperfect! HA!