Nikhil Dev

Being a proud MSDN sunscriber, got an oppurtunitu to try out vista even before it was released to the rest of the people. I thought I might rather document a few findings.

The good are:-

1. THE EASIEST INSTALLATION of an operating system. I have never system that installs this easily. It gathers the minimum details from the user and installs much faster to any other version of windows. The interface is totally GUI driven unlike till vista were the initial stages were CUI.

2. TOTAL DRIVER SUPPORT - I was so surprised that vista immediately recognized all my devices without a bang on any in the device manager including my TV tuner card. The only problem is that I was not able to get my 5.1 surround sound support and when I tried to install my audio card manufacturer, the audio refused to kick in. That was the only thing I was facing a problem with.

3. Awesone accessiblity of options - Everything was so accesible with the Run menu integrated right into the Start menu. Just type the name if the application and you have access to it.

The bad are:

1. No option to deselect the applications that we do not need. There are so many things that come bundled with this baby that we do not need any other software. But people like me would like to use out own softwares. There is no option to remove the other softwares that one does not need.

2. No option to have a Windows XP like interface. People like me have been using Win XP for such a long time that it now runs in our blood, So getting along with things is very time consuming, There should have been a way you can maintain the XP like interface.

Overall I would give it a 8 out of 10 cos all the research that Microsoft has done over these years has led to something that is initial very appealing. The stability factor is yet to be decided cos I havent run it for a long time. So for all the people who are thinking of taking a system sooner or later, make sure that it is VISTA CAPABLE.