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I've been Vista-ized!
by Dale Brown, 2007

ARTICLE ORIGINALLY APPEARED AT TheBigFiveOh.com Blog @ Yahoo.Com, 2/17/08

I've been having some problems with my 2 year-old Gateway 9100 desktop computer--nothing mechanical, all due to various incompatible programs and drivers stepping on one another. It literally was not talking to me any more--no sound was coming out of the speakers, even after updating the audio drivers, ActiveX, and Java and making sure I had the volume turned up. Ever try playing "Act of War" without sound? You don't realize how many important subconscious cues you get through sound until you don't have it any more.

They were getting serious enough that a complete erase and OS reload was in order. But I thought as long as I was going to redo the OS, why not go to Vista?

The press has been bad on Vista, especially compared to an Apple Mac--the Mac's new OS, Leopard, seemed like the Second Coming compared to Vista. My wife got a new PC laptop with Vista on it and NONE of her real estate programs were Vista compatible; they run OK in Compatibility mode (and to be fair, NONE of the real estate programs work at all on a Mac either). I heard stories of folks actually DE-grading their OS back to XP after horror experiences with Vista.

But then my brother Ken got a new Dell computer at Costco with Vista on it, and it runs perfectly. I got a chance to try it, and it was fairly intuitive, seemed faster than XP, and appeared...how should I describe it? Smoother? Creamier? Softer? Less industrial? Dare I say "stylin'?" Windows and icons seemed less rigid and more aesthetically pleasing. It has more colors and themes to play with. It's definitely different than XP.

So I bit the bullet and got a copy of Vista Business and Microsoft Office 2007. My Webmaster will be horrified that I have become an all-Microsoft slave, but he lives in Texas and actually ENJOYS golf!

I knew I was going to do a Clean install because I didn't want the gremlins in my computer to stay, and since I had a new copy of Office 2007, and that represented 75% of the work I do on a computer, re-installing the other programs would be no big deal.

The install went great. It took about an hour to install, plus another few hours for Vista to automatically download and install updated drivers. There were a couple programs that I could not live without that I had to buy Vista-compatible versions. About $800 and a day later, I'm fully up and running with Vista.

So was it worth it?

I don't consider myself a slave to fashion or too concerned about appearances, but I'd say that Vista is better because it LOOKS better than XP. So far it runs about the same. It has some rather aggravating security-related features (remember the Apple Mac -PC commercial with the security guy who keeps on interrupting with "Allow or cancel?" every time the Mac guy asks the PC guy something?), but I'm accustomed to them already.

My laptop is running OK on XP, and I won't even CONSIDER altering it, however. If it's happy, I'm happy. My desktop is now talking to me with Vista. It probably would've talked to me again just fine with a fresh XP install, but now it has the latest and greatest. Let's see if I'm appreciated for it.

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