What Went Wrong with Windows Vista?
December is the month for year-end reviews. We begin our first 2007 look back by offering 10 reasons why Vista failed to "WOW" consumers or businesses.
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7.12.2007 Are Windows Vista icons facing the wrong way?
I know what you’re thinking, “has it really come down to this”. No doubts you’ve all seen the “Computer” icon in Windows Vista.
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23.6.2008 The pundits are wrong: Vista is moving full-steam ahead
For better or for worse, Windows Vista is moving full-steam ahead toward a fall release-to-manufacturing and November business availability.
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23.9.2006 XP SP3 and Windows 7, the Wrong Reasons to Skip Vista SP1
In the evolution of the Windows client, Windows Vista Service Pack 1 is a step set firmly between Windows XP SP2 and Windows 7, just as well as the RTM version of the operating system.
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29.4.2008 How to Install Vista Language Packs MUI on all versions of Vista + video tutorial
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Basic, Vista Home Premium, and Vista Business versions of the Microsoft licensing restrictions can only preserve a language!
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23.9.2008 The Vista Built-in Super Administrator Account Has Survived in Vista SP1
Windows Vista Service Pack 1 is designed to evolve the RTM version of the latest Windows client from Microsoft, made available in November 2006 to business customers, and in January 2007 to the general consumers.
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15.2.2008 Vista SP1 Is Out, XP SP3 Old News, the Pink Edition of Vista Is In
Windows Vista Service Pack 1 is now nothing more than water under the bridge, now that the service pack was released to manufacturing on February 4, 2008, shipping to general users on March 18.
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27.3.2008 Tell Hasta la Vista to XP - Time to Upgrade to Vista SP1
Like it or not, this is the right time not only to upgrade to Windows Vista Service Pack 1 but also to tell hasta la vista to Windows XP.
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30.6.2008 Instant Change Vista Product ID with Vista ProductID Changer
In past we have reviewed number of application to recover product key like Product Key Finder, WinGuggle, Windows product Key Finder.
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1.11.2009 Vista SP1 RC1 Flies Past Vista RTM and Windows XP SP2
Despite the fact that Microsoft has expressed its official position regarding testing Windows Vista Service Pack 1 ahead of its finalization, there is simply too much of a hunger for the service pack.
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27.12.2007 Vista SP1 Won't Resolve the 4 GB RAM Limitation of 32-bit Windows Vista
32-bit Windows operating systems, and Windows Vista makes no exception whatsoever to this rule, are limited in terms of the amount of system memory that can be addressed to no more than 4 GB.
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4.1.2008 Vista Loader 2.1.3 - Windows Vista Activator 2008 Support SP1 with No Boot String
Vista Loader is one of the most successful Vista activation crack available to date, second only to physical modify (hardmod) the BIOS to include SLIC table to make BIOS Vista activation-compliant.
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15.5.2008 x64 Vista SP2 JPG Rendering Performance Inferior to x86 Vista SP2's
The JPG rendering process on 64-bit flavors of Windows Vista Service Pack 2 is inferior to that on the 32-bit variants of the operating system.
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10.6.2009 Microsoft to Kill the Grace Timer and OEM BIOS Windows Vista Cracks with Vista SP1
With the advent of Windows Vista, cracks also became available being designed to bypass the activation process of the operating system.
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4.12.2007 New Vista OEM Activation Hack - Vista Boot by gkend
Thanks to Steve Jobs for this article on his blog and to our forum members to clecha, Nighthief and fitterphil120 for most of the findings. One again the “Chinese” come up with a new method to trick out the Vista Activation. We have seen Softmode and VistaLoader, however “ Vista Boot by gkend” does promise even more.
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21.5.2007 Windows Vista on Super Nintendo, As Real As Vista on PSP
We're puzzled and confused... How can a console that's at least ten times less powerful than the acclaimed PSP cope with Windows Vista's requirements?
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15.8.2007 Vista RTM vs. Vista SP1 - Office 2007 benchmarking
Enough with benchmarking the OS - let’s see if Office 2007 is any faster on Vista SP1.
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26.2.2008 Microsoft Says Vista SP1 Needs to Speak the Same Language as Vista RTM
Microsoft says that Windows Vista Service Pack 1 needs to speak the same language as the RTM version of the latest Windows client. Otherwise there's no game.
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2.4.2008 Vista SP1 to Cure the Vista RTM Wow Hangover
When Windows Vista was unleashed in January 31, 2008, Microsoft was promising performance, security, innovation, all wrapped up under an umbrella of a Wow user experience.
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11.4.2008 Vista-For-Free coupon with Vista ready PC's
Microsoft and the world's leading PC vendors have reached an agreement to promote the long-awaited Vista OS by offering PC buyers worldwide a free upgrade coupon, as a way of encouraging them to buy a Vista-capable PC as early as possible, according to market sources, citing information leaked from Taiwan-based PC makers.
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11.10.2006 Can Vista SP1 help polish Vista’s tarnished image?
Call it complaining. Call it whining. The end result is the same: Windows Vista’s image is tarnished. And it’s corroding more and more rapidly as the weeks are going on. Thanks to pacpis for this news.
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21.8.2007 Vista SP1 Features the Same Sins as Windows Vista
Windows Vista Service Pack 1 comes with the same sins as Windows Vista. The service pack is not even out the door, and is already putting users at risk.
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16.1.2008 Will Vista SP1 Go Where Vista Never Went? Even with XP SP3 and Windows 7?
Throughout 2007, it became painfully clear to Microsoft that the main competitor for Windows Vista was not Apple's Mac OS X or even the open source Linux operating system but Windows XP, and, in fact, specifically XP SP2.
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1.3.2008 New Vista AutoPatcher - Vista update toolkit Alpha
Vista Update Toolkit Alpha (Windows Vista Updates Downloader) is a FREE program which downloads updates directly from Microsoft. All files are very useful with vLite!
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26.9.2008 Vista SP1 – Microsoft Could Not Have Given Less – Vista SP2 Anyone?
Microsoft had the chance to position the first service pack for Windows Vista as a panacea for the operating system, giving the platform nothing less than a fresh start and another take at the Wow.
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3.10.2007 Vista SP1 Rolling Over for Vista SP2
Vista SP1 did not do the trick for your RTM copy of the operating system? While such a scenario is highly unlikely, Microsoft is getting closer and closer to taking Windows Vista to the next level, again.
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7.12.2008 Vista SP1: Indictment of Vista 1.0?
Microsoft’s announcement that it is preparing a Vista Service Pack 1 beta in two weeks is curious on many levels. Although Microsoft delivers improvements via service packs I can’t help but consider Vista SP1 a do-over.
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30.8.2007 Vista RTM vs. Vista SP2
We are all well aware of the limping start of Vista on the OS market. Despite the fact that its launch had been highly anticipated for a good while, contrary to all Microsoft expectations, Vista was received with great reluctance and unwillingness on the part of XP fans.
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13.12.2008 Microsoft: Vista! Vista! Vista!
Microsoft has a single generalized answer to all life's problems, but especially end user protection, and that answer is of course Windows Vista.
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14.8.2007 Windows XP SP3 Twice as Fast as Windows Vista – Leaves Vista SP1 in the Dust
Forget about Windows Vista. And forget about Windows Vista SP1. Microsoft's latest Windows client has been quite sluggish to begin with. This in both consumer adoption and in terms of the performance it delivers.
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27.11.2007Microsoft Admits What Went Wrong with Vista, and How They Fixed It
Will Smith @
Maximum PC: We sat down with Microsoft to hear the co..
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11.09.2008Vista SP1 'prerequisites' to gear up systems for auto updates
In a world, to sound like Don LaFontaine for a moment, where nothing could possibly go wrong, when something small does go wrong, it's huge. Today,
Microsoft is hoping a small patch will make a huge difference to Vista's image...
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08.04.2008Are Vista icons facing the wrong way ?
No doubt you’ve all seen the “Computer” icon in Windows Vista. Some of you might have even clicked on it and few of you probably
have a shortcut on your desktop. But has it ever occurred to you it’s facing the wrong direction, away from you? At least one guy did, and this
is just one of the minor details under scrutiny at the Windows UX Taskforce that is particularly fascinating.
The problem is, by default,
Windows displays icons from left to right. Assuming the user sits in the middle of the monitor, the icons should in fact face right towards you and
not the edge of the monitor. The only icon in Vista off the top of my head which does this correctly are the “folders” icon which open up
towards the right. This actually conflicts with the official user experience guidelines suggesting the perspective of icons face left.
If
this isn’t weird enough, the Windows XP’s icons and even conceptual Vista icons designed by Iconfactory faced the right (pun) way. For
some unknown reason, Microsoft designers decided to flip them. Mac OSX icons face directly at you - probably the best solution.
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23.06.2008Windows Vista (In)capable
Robin Harris: What went wrong? Ill tell you what went wrong: Microsoft execs - starting with Steve Ballmer - dont care enough about their customers.
Which is too bad for the thousands of smart, hard working softies who do.
I went through the Vista Capable lawsuit Exhibit A
emails. Lots of warnings that Vista was a train wreck, that its requirements exceeded the market, that the continual changes and slips were killing
OEMs and that many peripheral vendors had simply given up trying to stay in sync.
Where was Steve?
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03.03.2008Warner Music CEO: 'We were wrong'
The chief of one of the labels leading the fight against P2P has a surprising change of heart: The industry, he says, was wrong about digital music...
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16.11.2007What Went Wrong with Windows Vista?
December is the month for year-end reviews. We begin our first 2007 look back by offering 10 reasons why Vista failed to "WOW" consumers or
businesses. Make no mistake: Despite PR assertions otherwise, Windows Vista did not meet Microsoft expectations.
-Windows Vista
advertising ended almost as abruptly as it started
-Microsoft beat the drum a bit too loudly about the number of Vista licenses shipped
-Windows Ultimate Extras became a real dreamscape of empty promises
-Microsoft already is advancing plans for Vista-successor Windows
7
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07.12.2007Vista: One Year Later
One year ago today,
Microsoft released Windows
Vista to manufacturing. In the obligatory anniversary post we ask: Was it ready? Will it ever be ready?
The answer to the
first question is an emphatic "no." Vista wasn't ready. Hardware manufacturers and software developers weren't ready for it. The channel and
enterprises weren't ready, and consumers couldn't get it because Vista missed holiday 2006.
Microsoft promised WOW, but the reaction was, "What?" What is
different from Windows XP? What is wrong with the hardware requirements? What is the difference between "
Capable" and "
Ready?" What is this
Software Assurance requirement for Vista
Enterprise? What happened to the familiarity of Windows XP? What is
wrong with my Vista applications and hardware?
More recently the "W" question is "When?"--as in
when will
Microsoft release Vista Service Pack 1?
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08.11.2007Five secrets to faster Vista starts
Oh, great. Here we go again.
The wise old men of mainstream tech journalism are once again repeating the conventional wisdom that
Vista is slow to start up and slow to shut down. Theyre wrong. I
proved this to my
satisfaction last spring (see also the
first and
second parts in the series) with tests on three separate systems, and Ive just
repeated the tests on a new crop of Vista PCs to verify that theres no new problem. The results are the same or better, perhaps reflecting incremental
improvements from the many reliability and performance updates since then.
In this post, Ill explain why theyre wrong and show
you how you can fix the problem if you encounter a slow startup.
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27.11.2007Rumor: Vista SP1 coming February 18, XP SP3 on March 23
French tech website
PC INpact is reporting that
it got its grubby little hands on the exact release dates of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 as well as Windows XP Service Pack 3. According to a source,
Vista SP1 is to be released on the night of February 18 while XP SP3 will be released on the night of March 23.
Although Microsoft has not
given a tight timeframe for when to expect XP SP3, it did state earlier that Vista SP1 will be available in mid-March. The screenshots should be
therefore taken with a grain of salt. It is possible that these memos were sent out before Microsoft delayed Vista to mid-March. Could it be that the
Vista date is wrong but the XP one is correct?
Read full story.....
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07.02.2008Everything youve read about Vista DRM is wrong (Part 1)
Last month, I wrote about the
FUD surrounding Windows Vista and DRM. The
FUDmaster is Peter Gutmann, a New Zealand researcher who wrote a paper last December that made a series of outrageous and inflammatory claims about
Windows Vista. Since then, Gutmann has expanded the paper to more than four times its original size. The
current version available on Gutmanns website clocks in at
more than 26,000 words, making it longer than some recent works of fiction.
And length isnt the only thing Gutmanns paper has in
common with the average pulp novel. Gutmanns work is riddled with factual errors, mistaken assumptions and unproven assertions, distortions,
contradictions, misquotes, and outright untruths. In short, its a work of fiction all on its own.
Gutmann is a clever writer, and
hes able to string together nouns, verbs, technical terms,and acronyms in ways that sound persuasive. In this three-part series (look for Parts 2 and
3 later this week), Im going to dig deep into Gutmanns work and show you just where he got it wrong.
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17.09.2007Microsoft Updates Vista Media Center
Microsoft has release an April
2007 Cumulative Update for
Windows Vista's built-in
Media Center application,
which aims to resolve a number
of issues reported by users.
On the list of fixes are DVD
freezes, errors when deleting
a picture, Media Center
rotating the wrong picture,
among others...
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25.04.2007Windows Vista is protecting the environment
Roger Halbheer, Chief Security Advisor of Microsoft EMEA: When we launched Windows Vista, one of the features which was pointed out to me was power
management and how it will lower the costs in the enterprise environment. Well, I put my focus on the security technologies (obviously) and ignored
the power management part - and I seem to be wrong. Read the following blog post and see that you should definitely look into this:
How green is your PC?
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01.12.2007Google Analytics Was Partly Showing Wrong Absolute Visitors
Googles web statistics service,
Analytics, was partly showing the wrong value for
śAbsolute Unique Visitors,ť Google said
in a statement. This bug is fixed now, Google says, and was only restricted to the Absolute Unique Visitors details report page,
and not the value as taken from the Visitors overview page.
But when you visited the former, Google previously made the error of
adding up the daily unique visitors; the sum of those days, however, are not the Absolute Unique Visitors value anymore (because the sum includes
repeat visitors). A sample calculation I made for one of my sites showed the wrong value to be off by a factor of around 1.6 “ the old Analytics would
have shown around 95,000 non-existing visitors on the Absolute Unique Visitors details page for the last month!
This case goes to
illustrate that even Google gets math wrong sometimes, but the confusion among search statistic providers and those who read the stats dont stop with
this bug-fix, unfortunately. Its helpful to clarify some terminology...
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13.09.2007Microsoft sued in China for black screen of death
A Chinese lawyer has filed a legal complaint against Microsoft for installing Windows Genuine Advantage on his computer. He has asked the Ministry of
Public Security to file criminal charges against Microsoft.
Dong Zhengwei accused the company of hacking into people's
computers. He said: "I respect the right of Microsoft to protect its intellectual property but it is taking on the wrong target with wrong
measures.
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22.10.2008Microsoft Admits What Went Wrong with Vista, and How They Fixed It
Will Smith @
Maximum PC: We sat down with Microsoft to hear the companys side of the Vista story. What lessons have been learned
following the worst Windows launch in the companys history? Is Microsoft doing enough to regain PC users faith?
Way back in
January 2007, after years of hype and anticipation, Microsoft unveiled Windows Vista to a decidedly lukewarm reception by the PC community, IT pros,
and tech journalists alike. Instead of a revolutionary next-generation OS that was chock-full of new features, the Windows community got an
underwhelming rehash with very little going for it. Oh, and Vista was plagued with performance and incompatibility problems to boot...
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11.09.2008Victorian Government Microsoft's $23 million Vista patsy: consultant
While the rest of the world is shying away from Windows Vista and looking to deploy Linux across schools, the Victorian State Government in Australia
is behaving like Microsoft's patsy by side-stepping competition and adopting Vista in schools, according to a leading local IT consultant.
Con Zymaris, the CEO of Cybersource, a company that has specialized in the integration of Linux and Windows sites since the early 1990s,
says the Victorian Department of Education, is heading in the wrong direction by adopting Windows Vista in a $23 million deal announced this week.
"The Victorian Department of Education has again neglected the market, side-stepped competition by open tender and signed yet
another deal with Microsoft - excluding all other platform vendors, to deploy Windows Vista - an operating system shunned by the rest of IT
industry," said Zymaris.
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25.10.2007Briefly: Apple says Leopard won't be delayed
Carve out another notch in the
loss column for
Taiwanese-based DigiTimes,
which on Friday reported that
Apple's next-generation
Leopard operating system would
be delayed till October.
Jupiter Research analyst
Michael Gartenberg later spoke
to Apple regarding the matter
and was told the report is
incorrect. " Just spoke
with Apple who confirmed the
reports are wrong and Leopard
is still scheduled to ship in
this spring as they previously
announced. The rumor mill is
wrong again ," the analyst
wrote on his blog site.
DigiTimes had said that Apple
would push Leopard's release
out till October in order to
bolster dual boot support for
rival Microsoft Corp.'s
Windows Vista operating
system.
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26.03.2007Look who's buying Vista Home Basic (hint: it's not home users)
Ed Bott: Who's buying new PCs with Windows Vista Home Basic? Judging by the name, you'd assume those OS editions would be loaded on underpowered
machines headed for tract homes in the burbs and studio apartments in the city. But you'd be wrong.
Based on my observations of
the PC market over the past year or two, I think consumers have rejected Home Basic in favor of Home Premium. But small, budget-conscious businesses
have embraced the low-end OS.
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10.10.2008Nvidia: We're ready for Microsoft this time (no, really)
When chalking up what went wrong with Vista, incompatible hardware/software always makes it into the Top 10 lists. So its understandable that the
Windows team is doing everything in its power to make sure third parties are ready with drivers and products that will work with Window 7 right out of
the gate.
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07.05.2009Microsoft Australia installing new PC's just to run Vista
News poster Spy has had an
interesting conversation with
a Microsoft product support
specialist in Australia over
the phone. When asked whether
the representative was using
Windows Vista, the man
surprisingly replied he
wasn't. Possibly even more
shocking is the reason. It
seems the company is
installing the Ultimate
Edition of Microsoft's latest
operating system the next day,
as the new computers to run it
have recently arrived. What
kind of example is this
setting for Microsoft's
customers? "Don't bother
with Vista unless you have, or
are willing to purchase, a
brand new computer." So much
for the minimum requirements
for Vista! Of course, it is
Ultimate (what's wrong with
Enterprise?) which is a bit
more resource-intensive and it
is entirely possible that the
last PC upgrade was 5 years
ago, when XP was released,
meaning that an upgrade is
simply the logical move.
neowin.net -
06.03.2007
