Four things I hate about Windows Vista

October 25th, 2007

My new computer arrived with a new, forgotten about feature. In all this excitement of actually getting a new computer, it had completely slipped my mind that it would be arriving with Windows Vista. I decided that I would not make any serious judgments until I had used it for a while: if I decide it’s going to be a huge disaster then I will get rid of it; if it’s going to improve my productivity then I will keep it. This decision has not yet been made. I’m also going to do a test run of Fedora 8 in a few weeks, so no final decisions will be made until then.

I’ve decided to make a short list of things I absolutely hate about Windows Vista, even though I’m a bit late on this one. These items are small annoyances compared to more large-scale issues that Vista might have, but these are the things that annoy me every single day. Even if the operating system itself may be functional, Microsoft’s lack of imagination and innovation angers me so much, I may stop using Vista on principle rather than performance.

1) Windows Calculator

I could rant for hours about my hatred of Windows Calculator, but I will make this point brief due to it’s relative insignificance. To be blunt: the calculator has not changed in any noticeable manner since Windows 95. This wouldn’t be a problem if there weren’t so…basic. No history function? It can’t graph? Unreliable automation? This calculator may as well have been abandoned in the ’90s. Why Microsoft has not included a better calculator into their operating system somewhere in the last 12 years is beyond me.

2) User Account Control

Microsoft has always had troubles with security in their operating systems. Usually, these problems show themselves in the form of self propagating worms and viruses. With Windows Vista, however, there are new and different problems. In concept, it seems as though Microsoft has won some major wars against the virus writers. I’m sitting here with Windows installed and no anti-virus software, and as far as I know, I’m clean. But I pay a price for this happiness; every two or three minutes, my screen blacks out and comes back with a scary warning message. I’m sure you’re all familiar with the “Cancel or Allow” decisions that Windows Vista users must face daily.

3) Gadgets

I think it’s pretty much universal that in every field or industry, competing companies use each other’s ideas. This theft of ideas has occurred countless time in the software industry, and most would agree that the end result tends to be a good thing. However, if you’re going to steal another company’s idea, it’s usually a good idea to change the name of the product you’re steeling before you market it. Apple has been making Widgets for years now. Microsoft started using Gadgets when Vista was released. To answer your question: no, Microsoft did not change the name. They changed the first two letters of it.

I called them Widgets because that’s what they are.

4) Notes

I would like to mention a specific Widget here: one that is called “Notes”. This has got to be the least thought-out Widget that Windows Vista. It’s a little notepad where you can type short notes to yourself. The idea seems nice, but it violates all principles of Windows applications. You can only choose from a selection of two fonts, each of which looks just like the other, and the font cannot be made smaller than default. On top of that, the Widget cannot be resized. This results in scrolling notes, even if they are short. It gets even worse by adding the fact that there is no scroll bar! Perhaps you’re not supposed to write notes that are more than five words long, but…gah.

There are plenty more, but these stuck out immediately. I suppose I should end this by saying that there are some cool things about Vista, but each and every one of those things should have been in XP since 2001. That, and none of them are new ideas to the world of computing. So here you go…things I like about Vista: Rolling folder search (Mac OS X, I think?), a small calendar appears by clicking on time (GNOME window manager, right?)…that’s about it.

And now for the regular segments:

The IBC is at 79,669 - 82,473. That number is really scary considering it was about 10,000 smaller when I last mentioned it a couple of months ago.

Today’s music is Genesis.

Entry Filed under: Technology, Rants