Vista RC1 - First Impressions

from WinCustomize Forums

I have been trying out the latest release of Vista (RC1) for the past couple of days.  I wanted to write about my first impressions of it.  I also wanted to focus more on the usability of Vista, rather than than the super technical reviews you commonly see.  This is just the first part where I will post some impressions of Vista, and will follow up when I have tested some more features.

Installation

Doing a clean install on a second hard drive on my PC, Vista installed in roughly 30 minutes.  When booting from the DVD, Windows asks for the typical information such as your product key, and what drive/partition to install to.  After entering this basic information I went to play a quick game on my Xbox 360 and before I knew it, the installation was done.  One of things that personally annoyed me about installing Windows XP was having to sit there throughout the whole installation and entering informaton about time zones, modem connections, and what I did at work yesterday.


When installation was finished it took me to a screen where it asked for me to name the User accounts, and some other basic information.  Then I was greeted with the "Welcome Windows" as I call it.  This window seems to give you some basic information about Vista, along with links to download programs such as Windows Messenger and Desktop Mail.


Boot/Load Times

This is one area where I am not very impressed with.  After I completed the installation and it was time for my first reboot.  The boot times for Vista are the same if not longer than XP.  Now I understand this will vary on different systems, but a clean install of XP for me will boot within 1 minutes, and have a usable desktop within 2 minutes.  Vista took about 2 minutes to boot to the desktop screen, and about 3 minutes before the system was "usable". 

Start Menu

The most notable difference to the Start Menu is how it is now organized into the single pane.  When I first tried Vista this was very odd, but after a while I found it to be very usable and I now actually prefer it to the typical Windows style.  For the most part the Start Menu is the same visually.  It has the common shortcuts to such places as the pictures, documents, music, etc. folders. 

Performance

I am running a custom box with a Pentium 4 HT, 2.8ghz, with about 768 of RAM, and an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro video card.  For me performance is about equal to what it is running XP Pro.  I have a browser, IRC chat, iTunes (yes iTunes works), and a few other programs running with no noticable slow downs.  I haven't tried running anything like Photoshop yet, but I expect about the same results from something as power intensive as that. 


Desktop Sidebar

This is something where I still haven't decided if I like it or not.  I know from reading many online forums that the sidebar is loved by some, hated by others.  I have been running the Sidebar with a few widgets such as weather, RSS feeds, and a picture viewer.  The biggest problem I have with the Sidebar is that is has no auto-hide feature.  It takes up a lot of real estate on my desktop and I would love to be able to hide it and just move my cursor over it to see it, but that's not possible right now. 


Hardware compatibility

This is something that will also vary from user to user, but I did want to point out that hardware that would not run on Vista in previous builds are now working.  The biggest issue I had with previous builds was it would have a major problem with my sound card.  So much that I wouldn't have any sound in other builds.  But RC1 detected my sound card (turtle beach) with no problems and is running without problems.


Integrated Programs

This is something I haven't gone too deep into yet, but I wanted to say a few things about it.  Vista has such programs as Calendar, Windows Mail, etc.  So far I am very impressed with these programs.  The calendar is very useful and seems to integrate well with other Microsoft programs.  Windows Mail, the obvious replacement of Outlook Express is simple, but effective.  One of the programs I always replace in any version of Windows is a program to view and organize pictures.  Vist includes "Windows Photo Gallery" which from my testing so far, is very effective at organizating and viewing your pictures.  All of these seem to be the "iLife" of Vista.  How effective they are is still yet to be seen, but I am happy to see the direction they are taking.


 I am going to spend more time with Vista over the next few days trying out more of the features I mentioned above.  I would like to hear your opinions on this release of Vista.


http://islanddog.wincustomize.com


 

 

2,945 views 5 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Sorry for the double post but I thought this might be a more appropriate place to ask this question...

Has anyone tried a Blackberry Device with RC1? On the Beta it would not work. The old drivers wouldn't work with Beta 2 and Blackberry has not released any new ones. I'm curious if RC1 will work with the old drivers or are we going to need to wait for a driver update from BB.
Reply #2 from JoeUser Forums Top
I will be waiting for the Gold, but I do appreciate the beta news.  I am scoping out my new PC (my old one is creaking!), and adding features.  So far, nothing I have read seems to indicate a need to upgrade.  Other than my job.
Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion
Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I'm not so happy with RC1 but I don't know that it is MS's fault. No drivers anywhere for my blackberry, and when I use my TV Tuner card in any size window other than full screen, the video gets all screwed up. If I could get the Blackberry to work I'd be able to test it more.

Any word on when Office 2007 B2TR is due out?
Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
Updated Beta 2 with RC1 yesterday and the 1st thing that really got me is that my account hasn't got full admin rights as it was in B2. And when I try to logon as Administrator it doesn't recognize my password. So I am logged out of my system at the moment. Even when it says my user is "administrator" it complains it needs an admin login for the activation. Dooh !
Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top
So far, I see the following with RC1:

Pros:

- Clean install is much easier and faster than any version of XP.

- Hardware recognition during install is more efficient than XP.

- UI (User Interface) has much better graphics quality (not specifically referring to Aero here, just the actual art work on UI components).

Cons:

- Running of 2003 graphics programs (I tested with Illustrator 10, Photoshop 7, and CorelDRAW 12) is sluggish at best, considering the improved UI engine.

- Microsoft supplied drivers are still a step behind, and most hardware manufacturers have not made a Vista driver available (other than a beta driver). This is to be expected, but making a determination as to whether or not your new (or old) tablet or monitor is going to perform at a high level is not possible without these manufacturer supplied drivers.

Other thoughts:

I am testing Vista by using the built in Internet and Multi-media programs, and would say that if you were stuck using just the OS supplied e-mail, browser, media player, and organization tools (combined with free online productivity software); you would be just fine.

The invasive User Account Control is still there, but has been toned down slightly over Beta 2 release, which can (of course) be disabled if not wanted.

If a 10 means that RC1 is a ready for prime time rating, I would give RC1 a 7.