Why Windows Vista (SP1+) is Better Than Windows 7. You’ve been brainwashed. Brainwashed by clever marketing and the classic underpromise- and- overdeliver strategy employed by Microsoft to fix the mistakes they made with Vista. I know, I know, everyone told you Vista was bad.

Why Windows Vista (SP1+) is Better Than Windows 7. You’ve been brainwashed. Brainwashed by clever marketing and the classic underpromise- and- overdeliver strategy employed by Microsoft to fix the mistakes they made with Vista. I know, I know, everyone told you Vista was bad.

You maybe even used Vista pre- SP1, on a “Vista Capable” machine way back when it launched and concluded that it was horrible. Or, maybe you heard all the bad press and skipped on it altogether? Stuck with XP, then switched straight to 7. Is that what you did? Well, regardless, I am convinced that Vista is the superior operating system. So vastly superior, that I am going out of my way to ensure that it replaces all the systems that I have been tricked into installing Windows 7 on. At work, at home, and for my clients.

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I am going to make an argument in this article as to why I believe that Vista remains superior. I challenge someone to list 7 reasons why Windows 7 is better than Windows Vista. Actual reasons. Those could easily be implemented into Vista, if it were not abandoned in the wake of Windows 7 by the new CEO, Steve Ballmer. So, we begin with a mini history lesson: Windows Vista was a major disaster. Microsoft suffered from heavily over promising on features (remember Win.

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FS?) and failing to live up to their own hype; and they really hyped it up. Naturally, normal people don’t care or know when a new Microsoft operating system is launched, but the tech community does. So, to over- promise and under deliver, and miss your self- imposed deadlines again and again, the disappointment becomes palpable. At the time, 6. 4- bit processors were becoming more ubiquitous, and Windows XP 6. Edition had a plethora of issues with drivers and was not widely adopted — so they were under immense pressure to release the OS. Vista Beta 2 came out in 2. If you looked at it funny, or moved the mouse too quickly, it would crash.

It was completely unusable, but Microsoft insisted that it was intentional, and that they were planning to fix all of the bugs at once, at the end, prior to RTM. They did, although there was still the issues of heavy disk I/O in the final RTM as well as a large number of driver issues in the final versions.

Much of the problems with Vista stemmed from an overzealous Search Indexer, incomplete drivers from third party manufacturers, UAC, and underpowered systems. RAM was still moderately expensive at the time, and Vista did not work very well with only 1. GB, which was common on low- end systems. After Beta 2, Microsoft shipped release candidate versions and finally the RTM. They continued to fix all of the issues rapidly, releasing patch after patch. All the while, Vista was hammered in the press, blogs and forums repeatedly for problems stemming from the aforementioned.

This negative press was not without merit. Vista was truly very slow, and despite the improvements, they felt minor in the face of a computer that was so severely hampered. Especially when the computer was branded as: Vista Capable.

Finally, with Vista Service Pack 1 (2/2. However, plagued by the hasty launch, not enough enticing features over XP, and an insipid ad campaign (“the wow starts now“), there were very few who gave it a second review. Microsoft later attempted to “prove” that they had fixed Vista with the Mojave Experiment, in which they secretly video taped people who had heard that Vista was bad, and had them interact with a supposed “new” operating system codenamed “Mojave.” Evidently, over 9. XP and/or Vista, and expressed shock/surprise when informed that they were actually using regular .

Of course, bias is to be expected. After the release of Service Pack 2 (4/2. Windows 7. None of this ever made it to the press because Windows 7 was under- hyped, under- promised and over- delivered by releasing early, since Microsoft learned their lessons with Vista. Moreover, Microsoft’s “I’m a PC” ad- campaign for 7 was well executed. So, what’s wrong with Windows 7? Why have I become so negative about it?

Here’s 7 reasons why I think Windows 7 is a downgrade from Windows Vista (asterisks denote a subjective comment): 1. Windows 7 removes features. What’s missing? Well, where’d the Quick. Launch go? Oh, right, it got consumed into the massive start menu. Where’d the Show Desktop icon go?

Moved, to the right hand side (this drives a lot of people batty, believe it or not). Windows Mail, Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, Dream. Scene, just to name a few, no longer come with the OS, they have to be downloaded manually with “Windows Live Essentials” (except for Dream. Scene, which is totally gone. All system tray icons are hidden by default. Is this a problem?

I think it is. Microsoft’s attempt to unclutter the taskbar by hiding all third party systemtray icons is a nuisance. How many times have you had to try to explain to someone to “click the little arrow to the left” over the phone to a client, family member, or friend? Hiding all systemtray icons does little in the way of solving the “problem” of the systemtray. As a result, I often find myself just showing all icons on the systems I administer and repair.

Libraries. After much annoyance, I finally get libraries. I understand why they exist. I even think it’s a semi- cool idea . Try and copy the path of a file you’re looking at within a Windows 7 Library into another Explorer dialog box. What’s that? You can’t? Well that’s aggravating because everytime you click a shortcut like Music on your start menu, it takes you to the music Library, even if you just have one Music folder! Can you replace the shortcut on the Start menu to go directly to your Music folder?

I won’t add a separate section, but Home. Groups annoy me in a similar fashion. I’m sure they’re great for some people — but in general, I just get a lot of “what’s homegroup?!” from people trying to do very basic filesharing across their networks. Windows Media Player 1.

Have you used Windows Media Player 1. It’s pretty simple to use. Yes, the defaults are still annoying, but the interface is vastly superior. Try it yourself. Use WMP 1. The illogical layout of the software is mind boggling to me.

This isn’t exactly a Windows 7 issue per se, but since Microsoft made a specific decision to remove WMP 1. I find it worth mentioning. Also, it looks like you can fix it here. Search. This, for me, is the real trouble with Windows 7. In Windows XP, you can download the optional search indexer from Windows Update. Its heyday was really with the search add- on version 2. In Vista, Microsoft took it to the next level by deeply integrating the indexer and the UI throughout the operating system.

Vista’s search solution, once the Indexer was optimized with SP1+, is very powerful and incredibly easy to fine tune. Observe the control you can exert over your search in Vista: Now, let’s juxtapose this with Windows 7’s search “improvements”: So, here is what I can’t do with Windows 7’s search: – Force a search in a non- indexed, or partially indexed location. So, let’s say you just added a folder and want to do a quick search in Windows 7. So you’re screwed. This is a constant problem that I run into all the damn time.– Change the search path without first performing a search, and then scrolling to the very bottom of the search results.

Who was the genius who designed this?– Perform complex filters quickly. In 7, I have to use that awkward drop- down menu to manually select each filter, and then scroll back to the left to change my search parameters. This is incredibly cumbersome and unintuitive.

Totally fails the grandma test. In Vista, if I want to find a song, I just type one word of the song and then click the “Music” button and bam — it appears immediately.– Inconsistent search- related glitches (see also Bugs, #6, below) which for whatever reason cause known search results not to materialize. Video evidence of this that I documented is here, on a fully patched, legally licensed, MSDN version of Windows 7 Ultimate. I’m not the only one complaining, either. This is a real problem that simply didn’t exist before 7.– Oh, and see how the text becomes blue in the search box once I type the word “in”? Well that’s because Windows 7 thinks that I am using a search “operator,” and thus it is not returning any results.

If I type the exact same search query into Vista’s search box, it would return results. In order for me to make 7 search for the word “in” I have to put it in quotes in order to “tell” 7 to search it, and not to use it as an operator. Do you think your clients are going to figure that out? I doubt it. 6. Bugs that never get fixed. Microsoft has the capability to fix problems. They proved that with Vista.

In my years with Vista, I observed Microsoft fix the operating system relatively quickly. Each problem slowly disappeared, and by the time SP2 hit, nearly everything that was a concern vanished. Yet somehow, that isn’t happening with Windows 7. My biggest #1 problem with Windows 7 is the Explorer refreshing bug.

Have a look at that link. You’ll find that this is a bug that has persisted throughout every single version of Windows 7, and despite innumerable complaints, it isn’t fixed. Windows 7 launched in 2. I have lost track of how many times I have had to explain to clients that the reason why the file that they saved to the desktop/folder isn’t appearing is because it sometimes won’t refresh automatically and that they have to right click and hit refresh or press F5. Of course, F5 won’t work on Microsoft keyboards because you have to first press F- Lock to enable standard keyboard behavior. This is aggravating, and Microsoft appears unable or unwilling to fix bugs of this magnitude, despite their brilliant engineers on staff.

Other bugs are equally frustrating. For example, after installing a completely legal MSDN version of Windows 7 Ultimate, with keys from Microsoft, activated and operating for a few months, Microsoft released an optional hotfix to determine if your specific instance of Windows had been illegally activated.

Important Facts About Microsoft Windows Vista. Microsoft Windows Vista was one of the least well received Windows operating systems released by Microsoft. While for the most part corrected in later patches and updates for the operating system, several initial system stability issues plagued Windows Vista and was a major contributing factor to its poor public image.

Windows Vista Release Date. Windows Vista was released to manufacturing on November 8, 2. January 3. 0, 2. 00. Windows Vista is preceded by Windows XP, and succeeded by Windows 7. The most recent version of Windows is Windows 1. July 2. 9, 2. 01.

Windows Vista Editions. There are six editions of Windows Vista available but only the first three of them listed below are widely available to consumers: Windows Vista Ultimate. Windows Vista Business.

Windows Vista Home Premium. Windows Vista Starter. Windows Vista Home Basic. Windows Vista Enterprise. Windows Vista Starter is available to hardware makers for preinstallation on small, lower- end computers. Windows Vista Home Basic is only available in certain developing markets.

Windows Vista Enterprise is the edition designed for large corporate customers. Two additional editions, Windows Vista Home Basic N and Windows Vista Business N, are available in the European Union. These editions differ only by their lack of a bundled version of Windows Media Player, a result of anti- trust sanctions against Microsoft in the EU. All editions of Windows Vista are available in either 3. Windows Vista Starter, which is only available in a 3. Windows Vista Minimum Requirements.

The following hardware is required, at a minimum, to run Windows Vista. The hardware in parentheses is the minimum necessary for some of the more advanced graphics features of Windows Vista. CPU: 8. 00 MHz (1 GHz)RAM: 5. MB (1 GB)Hard Drive: 1.

GB free of 2. 0 GB (1. GB free of 4. 0 GB)Graphics Card: 3.

MB & Direct. X 9 capable (1. MB & Direct. X 9 capable + WDDM 1. Your optical drive will need to support DVD media if you plan on installing Windows Vista from a DVD.

Windows Vista Hardware Limitations. Windows Vista Starter supports up to 1 GB of RAM while 3. Windows Vista max out at 4 GB.

Depending on the edition, 6. Windows Vista support much more RAM. Windows Vista Ultimate, Enterprise, and Business support up to 1. GB of memory. Windows Vista Home Premium supports 1. GB and Home Basic supports 8 GB.

Physical CPU limitations for Windows Vista Enterprise, Ultimate, and Business is 2, while Windows Vista Home Premium, Home Basic, and Starter support just 1. Logical CPU limitations in Windows Vista are easy to remember: 3. Windows Vista Service Packs.

The most recent service pack for Windows Vista is Service Pack 2 (SP2) which was released on May 2. Windows Vista SP1 was released on March 1. See Latest Microsoft Windows Service Packs for more information about Windows Vista SP2. Not sure what service pack you have? See How To Find What Windows Vista Service Pack is Installed for help.

The initial release of Windows Vista has the version number 6. See my Windows Version Numbers list for more on this. More About Windows Vista. Below are some of the popular Windows Vista specific tutorials and walkthroughs on my site: You can find most of my other Windows Vista tutorials on my Windows Vista How- To's, Tutorials, and Walkthroughs page.

If you're looking for something more than maintenance and troubleshooting help, which is my site's focus, please know that the About. Windows site is also available which is a fantastic resource for helping you get the most out of Windows Vista on your computer.