Vista: Sleeping with the Enemy

So it has been nine days with Windows Vista so far... My general view has not been changed, in fact nothing spectacular has happened over the last week. I decided to give the upcoming Vista Service Pack 1 a chance. This means I will not upgrade to Windows XP until SP1 comes out and things do not improve. Several issues are still on the very top of my list of Vista shortcomings, but two are worth mentioning here.

First, the entire system freezes at least once a day. This is something I have not experienced since the Windows 98 days. Both Windows 2000 and Windows XP used to run extremely stable on my hardware. I kept on suspending / resuming machines for months, with just a small number of reboots a year, mainly when the Windows Update service forced me to do so... And having heard so much about how secure Vista is, I have never imagined it can crash on a daily basis. Of course this may relate to some non-Microsoft software, as the Lenovo X61 (my primary machine) came loaded with junk. I think I got rid of most of the junk, after devoting three days to clean the machine that arrived directly from the factory. But it still keeps on hanging. It happens gradually, first one of the applications freezes (does not accept any events), then a second one and so on, and finally even the task bar does not respond to clicking. Ctrl-Alt-Del does nothing.... so I am even not able to look up a process list... In the end the only thing alive is a mouse cursor on a black background. I would probably not complain on the very long startup of the OS, but when it hangs, it takes me some 15 to 30 minutes to recover... (forced reset, startup with disk check, restoring the applications...). Imagine this on batteries or discussing something with a customer... A pure disaster...

Second is the battery life. The CPU is never idle. I think I got rid of the most CPU consuming processes, but still the final result is the system in the energy conservation mode lasts 3,5 to 4 hours on a double capacity battery. It should last at least five hours. I just cannot imagine people ordering these laptops with single capacity batteries... What do they get? 90 minutes? On the other hand I must admit the L7500 processor that powers the X61 is fast. When Vista does not interfere, the applications are very snappy. This can be seen especially in the Firefox, when it renders complex Web pages. They appear lightning fast. But this just shows how much of a CPU is being eaten by the system, as the entire user experience cries "sloooow".

Having said that I am continuously looking for some positive features, some reasons to cope with all that Vista burden, some rewards... Have not found many so far, but here are a few little stars on the dark sky:

• Generally better structure of user's data - everything sits in C:\USERS\ - far simpler convention compared to the XP "Documents And Settings". And multimedia files (music, photos, videos) are not in the Documents folder, but just beside it.
• Bluetooth Stereo A2DP - not native, but better integrated - uses the standard Microsoft enumerator and "just" a Broadcom driver. But the user experience is still not here. While Vista allows different applications use different audio devices (like iTunes or Media Player to go via the bluetooth headphones, and other audio events through a standard speaker), there is no way to change this after the application is started. To switch YouTube session from a speaker to bluetooth, I have to shut down the browser, connect the headphones and start the browser again.
• Search integration - much better than before, to be honest I have not installed the Google Desktop, as so far Vista has done well in this field - finds both files and Outlook messages instantly.
• UAC or User Account Control - brings a feeling of improved security - when something is weird, like an executable downloaded from the Internet and just about to run, the system prompts for permission in a very clear manner.
• TPM or Trusted Platform Module. There is one in my X61, but I really have not realized yet how to use it. Probably the BitLocker full disk encryption would be the right way to go, but I have two probvlems with BitLocker: first, it is in the Vista Enterprise and Ultimate only, while I have just the Business edition and second, a quick browse through the Microsoft Knowledge Base looking for BitLocker fixes is really scary... There are a number of really serious KB issues / fixes related to the BitLocker... So at least for now it seems more likely I would lose my data due to a system bug than I would lose my laptop unencrypted... I will follow that development, as having secure data on a portable device is a very good idea. But it just has to work rock - steady and not slow down the system any more.

That is about it folks for a week's worth of Vista experience. If you have something positive to tell me (some things I am missing when complaining on Vista), just let me know. I still think the system will survive after the Sp1 is applied. Generally I am the "glass half full" type of a person and something mus really go wrong when I give up!

And as we approach Christmas, let me wish you a few days without the latest-and-greatest technology hassles :)