by Jack Roviere

Created on: April 21, 2008

I am about to tell you a personal tragedy of Windows Vista and my subsequent downgrade to XP. I don't pretend that my experiences are typical or widespread (although if you've read any technically inclined news source, you might as well find that my views aren't isolated.)

I used to be quite neutral to Windows Vista. Before I bought my current laptop, I had a computer with Windows XP. I was happy with the operating system, but I felt that my laptop was holding me back. It was outdated and showing it, so I decided to buy a new laptop.

Fortunately, because my old machine's specifications were so subpar, I was able to upgrade without having to buy the latest and greatest parts. Still, for me, moving from a Pentium M processor to a Core 2 Duo processor that would be at least twice as fast was a major improvement; moving from a tiny 60 gigabyte hard drive to 120 gigabytes was a major improvement. As a linux enthusiast on the side, moving away from ATi to a more stable nVidia GeForce 8400M GS was a moderate improvement, I was happy with. And best of all, with the new computer, I'd be able to experience for the first time the power of Windows Vista, Microsoft's latest masterpiece!

When I first got the machine, I can't say I was completely impressed with Vista...sure, it looked great...but I had to learn a new operating system. That didn't hold me back, though, since I was convinced that the time spent learning new ways of doing everything I had once done was worth it. Vista brought some new annoyances such as the UAC (User Account Control), but the first thing I did was to disable its constant requests for permission. For the first few days, I was certain that Vista brought meaningful improvements to my daily computing.

The honeymoon was short-lived.

When I bought my phone (a Windows Mobile-enabled PDA-phone), I expected it to be able to sync with my computer flawlessly. Windows Vista consistently had problems recognizing the phone, but even when it did recognize the phone, it had an annoying habit of deleting all my calendar dates and emails from my phone instead of synchronizing them.

I am not a heavy gamer, and I reiterate that my graphics card - the 8400M GS - is no powerhouse. However, I began to note that every game I attempted to play - Civilization IV, Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, Rise of Nations, and other strategy games - defied my attempts. Civ IV and Rise of Nations would load, but send explorer.exe crashing until I pulled the plug from my computer and restarted

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>