Episodes 43 & 44: What Annoys YOU About Vista?
October 23, 2007
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Intro and Exit music provided by IODA Promonet. This week’s show features:
Mitch Woods And His Rocket 88s
“Chicken Shack Boogie” (mp3)
from “Mr. Boogie’s Back In Town”
(Blind Pig Records)
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Chicki Chicki and the Blog Queen are both new Vista users (well, isn’t everybody who uses Vista a relatively new user????). Here in the Coop, I use Vista Home Premium. Kim uses Vista Business. We’ve both found our own personal irritants as we’ve explored the world of Vista and thought it was very important that we share not only what annoyed us as new Vista users but how we fixed it! We are not the type of chix to stop at griping…we’re solutions oriented gals!
We divided our annoyances into two parts. In Part 1, I discussed the following Vista “features” that had me complaining….loudly!
- The login screen – What happened to the simple login boxes for User Name and Password? Am I stuck with the “Fast User Switching” screen with the little icon next to the names of all the accounts I have on my computer (except Administrator, which is another annoyance for another show…)?
- What happened to the Run Command?
- ARRRRGGGGHHHH….how do I get rid of that Yahoo Search on the taskbar across the bottom of my new HP Pavilion Slimline s7700n PC?
OK, I’ll admit right up front that the very first annoyance is still an annoyance. I have searched high and low but haven’t found out if I can get my plain Jane login screen. If anybody out there knows how I can do it, PLEASE….GIVE IT UP!
Annoyance #2 turned out to be a case of not knowing what Vista feature has replaced my need for the Run command. In Windows XP, I used it quite frequently: I clicked on Start and chose the Run command to access MSCONFIG or COMMAND on a regular basis. All of a sudden, I clicked on Start and Run was gone! “Oh, woe is me,” I whined. I even went to all the trouble of actually searching and finding out how to restore it to my Start menu, which is simple enough:
- Rt-click the Start button and click Properties to display the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties dialog box.
- Click the Start Menu tab
- Choose Start Menu or Classic Start menu (Hint: Classic won’t look as cool, but it’ll use fewer of your new Vista PC’s resources)
- Click Customize to the right of whichever menu you choose
- Scroll down through the list of available links, icons and menus until you find “Run” and click the little round checkbox to add it to your start menu
- Viola! Run is restored to it’s rightful place on the Start menu….
What I discovered after more investigation is that I can do the same thing I did with the Run command simply by clicking the Start button and typing in the command, program or file I want to use or find. Vista automatically starts searching as soon as I start typing and displays a list of possible commands, programs and files that match! Who needs Run? Just in case you think you do (or would just prefer to hang onto that XP feeling a little longer) just press the Windows key along with the R key on your keyboard and the Run command window will open for you. Annoyance #2 has been solved!
Annoyance #3 was perhaps the MOST annoying problem I found with my new HP. If you aren’t using an HP, this probably doesn’t apply to you so consider yourself fortunate that you don’t have to start pulling out your hair trying to get rid of Yahoo Search on your taskbar. I’m not going to go into how I figured it out in this post because it annoyed me so much that I’ve already posted about it. Much to my surprise, that post has been the one that has received the most comments! To keep this post short (well, short-ER), I’m just going to link to the original where you’ll find your answer…or you can listen to Part I of the podcast.
My wise co-host, Kim Beasley, “The Blog Queen,” got to the show late so you’ll have to check out Part II for her list of annoyances.
PART II:
Kim and I both responded to a listener’s question: Is Vista easy to learn? Just like any other operating system, it depends on what your computer skill level is and what your expectations are. Neither of us had problems learning…just a few annoyances when things that we’d learned to do in XP didn’t work the same way in Vista. If you’d like to get a preview, you can visit Microsoft for a Vista Tour.
One of the first things Kim noticed about Vista that annoyed her is that finding programs doesn’t work the same as in XP. She has multiple software programs installed on her computer and was used to clicking on Start>All Programs and watching the list unfold in panels…several panels that opened up across her screen! In Vista, she got a single list of programs that displayed above All Programs when she clicked. Not being able to SEE all of the programs at a glance was an annoyance…until she discovered the Search bar that appears just below All Programs when you click Start. As soon as you start typing the name of the program you’re looking for, Vista starts displaying the names of files that contain the first few letters in the pane just above the Start button. For example, you can find all of your Microsoft programs simply by typing “microsoft” into the search field. You don’t even have to know the ‘official’ name of the program (EX: Word is winword.exe) for the Search function to find the program you’re seeking.
Another annoyance for Kim was the presence by default of the Gadget Bar (or Sidebar). This feature is meant to help you personalize your desktop by allowing you to add various gadgets (mini applications with a variety of uses) to the sidebar that display all the time. Besides taking up valuable desktop screen real estate, the sidebar also taxes your resources. Although the gadgets are kinda cool and you can download hundreds (or maybe thousands) from the Microsoft website, they don’t serve a lot of purpose for our Blog Queen.
If you don’t want a clock to stay on your screen via the Gadget Bar, you had the option in XP of clicking on the clock in the bottom right-hand corner of your screen and opening a clock from there. When you got tired of having it on your desktop, you had to click to close it. In Vista, the clock only stays on your screen until you click out of it. Having displayed the clock in XP whenever she wanted to watch the time, Kim was a bit irritated that the clock in Vista wouldn’t hang around until she gave it permission to go.
One of Kim’s BIGGEST annoyances (and one shared by many people who are using Vista) is the User Account Control feature. This is a built-in security feature that pops up a box when you want to run some programs or download some things from the Internet. It works in conjunction with Internet Explorer 7 and Windows Defender to lessen the risk that some rogue program is making changes to your computer without your knowledge. Unfortunately, just about everything you try to do activates the “Are you sure…?” box that asks for your permission before Vista opens/runs what you’re trying to open/run. When you’re opening and closing programs on and offline all day, it gets to be a real pain to keep getting authorization notification. Fortunately, you can turn the feature off if it’s that much of an annoyance. You could run your computer under the Administrator account but that’s not something either Kim or I recommend. It leaves your computer at the mercy of anyone who is able to tunnel into your system by giving them unlimited access to change anything. We do recommend that you use, at a minimum, the Windows Firewall. Personally, I use Zone Alarm and there are several other FREE firewall programs available. Just “Google it” to find one that’s right for you. Warning! Make sure you research FREE firewalls thoroughly. You don’t want to download one that does the opposite of what it promises to do and opens the door to your computer for everyone!
Finally, Kim got pretty annoyed when she discovered that the multiple versions of Vista (Home, Home Premium, Business, Media, Ultimate) each contain features that are not available in other versions. With XP, each version upgrade contains all the features of the version below it plus other features. In Vista, however, each version is a standalone version with features specific to that particular version. You may even find that in order to get a feature you’d like to have, you have to downgrade! To see which version has the features you need most, compare the features on the Microsoft website.
My final annoyance falls into the category of an annoyance only if you use the feature. The feature I’m talking about is the ability to print a directory listing from a folder in XP that disappeared with Vista. Not everybody wants or needs this feature but it’s one that I used often in XP. In Vista, I had to work around not being able to create a new action for folder in Vista by creating and adding the printdir.bat file to the Send To folder. Fortunately, the instructions for doing this in XP work for Vista, too. SO, if you’re one of those folks who like to have a paper copy of all the file in a directory, you can do it in XP and Vista.
If you’re still using XP and we could recommend what you need to find out before you upgrade to Vista, this is what we’d tell you:
Paige: Don’t buy Vista as a standalone software package to upgrade from XP on your current computer, especially if it’s more than a couple of years old. Wait until you’re ready to buy a new machine. MS will have had more time to work out the bugs and the new computer you buy will come Vista ready! Also, visit the MS website and try Vista before you buy it. Take the virtual Test Drive. The Test Drive is for Vista Business but will give you a good idea of what Vista in any flavor is like.
Kim: Research the software and hardware you currently own to see if they are compatible with Vista. The manufacturer may have updates/patches/drivers available that you need before your software programs or peripherals will run on Vista. You may find out that your printer or that version of Photoshop just won’t work on Vista!
Finally, we both recommend that when you find a fix for one of your own Vista annoyances, RECORD IT SOMEWHERE! Print it and keep it in an easily accessible place. Bookmark websites that offer solutions. You never know when you many need to refer to it again and you don’t want to remember that you were able to fix the problem before but can’t remember how. As always, we would love to hear about your own personal Vista Annoyances and how you solved them so leave us a comment (or two). Until next time….
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