How would you change Windows Vista?

What do you get when you take a product used by hundreds of millions of people every day, add a few new features / polish up the interface, and then try to get everyone to shell out a grip of money for this delay- and bug- plagued upgrade? No, we're not talking about New Coke, although Microsoft probably could have learned a lesson from that failed experiment when it went about developing what would end up being Windows Vista, namely that consumers demand more than some glitz and fancy new packaging if they're to abandon an old, reliable friend. And besides that impressive Aero GUI -- which many PCs can't take advantage of anyway -- what is Vista really offering us that XP didn't? A crash-prone new media player? Exclusive "ultimate extras" that have so far amounted to a lame shareware game? A thousand chances a day to feel important when bequeathing "Administrator privileges" on all those demanding processes?

You can probably tell by now that we're no Vista proponents, and having run the new OS exclusively for almost six months at this point, we're actually about to "make the leap" back to XP. But we're not willing to give up on Redmond just yet, and the beauty of all these service packs and "Patch Tuesdays" is that some of our suggestions could conceivably be incorporated into a product that's already hit the market. So, what does Microsoft need to do to make Vista (and its price points) more palatable (short of re-releasing it based on the WinFS file system)? Loosen up the DRM restrictions? Toss the controversial WGA? Put all possible features in a single SKU like certain other companies? Well come on, we're positive that there's no shortage of suggestions out there, so let's hear 'em!

[bg @ Feb 29th 2008 10:18PM]

after the sudden change to vista, i ACTUALLY like it. I've gotten rid of the useless crap my computer came with, and it finally got better, it crashes less, but the major things i would chnage is this: 1. the areo thing, it looks stupid, you really don't need it. 2. 3d flip, for that same factor. 3. add an xp theme, royale theme. 4.turned off the "start-up" center. 5 make on verison of the os for all systems with built in mpeg 2 encoder. 6 give everyone office software. and finally add a "full restore" programs on a seperate disc to let you pick what programs you want. there are alot of suggestion i have but, i just don't have a lot of room or time.

[Bman @ Oct 17th 2008 10:50AM]

IPX Support - anyone who LANs old school games needs XP
General Stability improvements
General driver support improvements
XP Start menu as an option

[Cormang @ Oct 20th 2008 9:55AM]

Plain and simple:

New system/hardware = Vista runs smooth.
Old system/hardware = Stick with XP.

Not sure why so many people are upset by this. I, for one, am thankful they are finally ditching support for older hardware. It's just making restrictions for us that have good hardware...

And for all you legacy users thinking Windows 7 will be what Vista was suppose to be, think again - it still wont work on your POS machine - so get real. Either upgrade your hardware, or stick with XP. Plain and simple... XP is still supported, so why are you complaining about an operating system that your POS machine can't handle? if you're that upset, run Linux...

I've been running Vista for a looong time on an AMD system. It's never crashed - not even in beta. The only issues I ever had with the operating system was a graphic card driver from Nvidia - but I was using an older graphics card. Upgraded to an 8600 on the release date of Vista, and I've been running great ever since...

However, with all the above said, I'm NOT impressed with Vista... To be honest, I think they should have waited another year or 2. It bothers me that a lto of things are STILL the same. I wish they would have cut ALL legacy hardware... And WTF is Vista BASIC? All Basic is doing is allowing copanies liek Dell sell POS computers with crap graphics cards - BAD MOVE MICROSOFT!

Microsoft SHOULD be cutting all this legacy crap. All they are doing is allowing computer manufacturers like Dell, build computers with crappy on-board video that can't handle AERO..

[Bhavin @ Oct 25th 2008 4:48PM]

Get Rid of the folder system & make it into a tagging system... so that we can have a file in as many places as we want by applying multiple tags to each file, without having to make a copy of it to that folder!!!

[DADDY PANDA @ Dec 14th 2008 1:23AM]

This thing called, “ WINDOWS V I S T A “ is & was, the worst thing that technology has ever come up with. Should have kept the “ WINDOWS XP “ that everyone still uses and has to this day. My family and friends has the XP set-up and never has any problems. My father purchased the VISTA and has had it for about 2-yrs but with-in the 2-years, he is going on the 3rd tower.
TOWER -1 - HARD DRIVE WENT OUT, JUST SHY OF ONE YEAR.
TOWER - 2 - THE MOTHERBOARD BURNED OUT.
TOWER - 3 - SO FAR NOTHING YES.

(( I JUST WITH THAT PEOPLE WOULD STOP TAKING THINGS AND CHANGING THINGS THAT WORK. EVERY TIME THINGS ARE CHANGED THINGS GO WRONG ))


W H A T A S H A M E

Like Grandfather always said: WHY FIX SOMETHING THAT IS NOT BROKE.

[Alexande @ Aug 19th 2007 6:41PM]

everthing

[Don Wilson @ Aug 19th 2007 2:08PM]

Did they even see what the operating system looks like when you switch into the classic theme? It's the ugliest thing I've ever seen.

[DrWatson @ Aug 19th 2007 4:04PM]

Too much wasted whitespace in menus and the explorer (I'm all for clever use of whitespace - emphasis on: clever). Down with those grandma-style ginormous icons. Bring back the "+" and "-" on the explorer tree.. those fading micro arrowheads are just too slow ang counter productive (at least make them static).

[Alex Cromwell @ Aug 19th 2007 5:14PM]

Did you just write that for attention? Have you tried Vista?

I'll agree it has some compability issues, many of which are bening worked out.

I'll also agree that if you have a garbage computer, you will not like how it performs. Also, those with their Core2Duo, Core2Quad who complain about this simply need to take computer courses. If you do not know how to maintain a computer, then don't expect to get much out of it.

I maintain my PC, no heavy brainwork required. I Have Vista Uitimate, yet boot up in

[Alex Cromwell @ Aug 19th 2007 5:22PM]

Less than 60 Seconds, full functionallity. My *impressive* specs:

- Socket 478 mobo (Circa. Feb 2004)
- 3.0GHz Pentium 4 CPU
- 2GB DDR RAM (400 MHz)
- GeForce 6600, 256 MB DDR2 (AGP 8X)

* It wouldn't hurt if ppl made sure they had a decent PSU and proper air flow aswell.

Many of Vistas problems (those which everyone whines about, yet I have had none of) will probably be worked out in the service pack update.

[Alex Cromwell @ Aug 19th 2007 5:37PM]

@ Don Wilson

It looks ugly because the classic theme is basically the same UI you used in Windows 95 genius.

Bash, bash, bash - But you continue to use Windows..

[falconer @ Aug 19th 2007 5:59PM]

actually, the classic UI in vista is unfinished, isn't polished at all, contains icons and elements from early betas of Vista and IE 7, and looks significantly worse than Windows 95 ever did. who's the "genius" now?

[Alex Cromwell @ Aug 20th 2007 12:25AM]

@ falconer

Well, I guess it makes you the genius then. I've had vista months before it was released and I've played around with things, so I would consider I've seen enough.

The classic theme, my genius friend, is the same Windows 95/98 standard BS that you would also see in XP's classic theme. Maybe this does have the odd Vista twist, but is is the same game, different box.

[Alexande @ Aug 19th 2007 12:55PM]

everything*

[Joe @ Aug 19th 2007 7:50PM]

Remove: DRM, Windows Media, Internet Explorer, Windows Security Center, Windows Genuine Advantage.

Add: Ubuntu.

[ethana2 @ Aug 20th 2007 1:30AM]

Yeah, basically.

With compiz fusion, of course. That really was wiiiiiide open for that.

I dual boot Ubuntu and XP. I know what I like. Vista would not be it.

...even if they open sourced it, it couldn't save it's sorry butt. I can just see Linus taking one look at it, laughing a little, taking the drivers, throwing the rest of the code at the wine project, and sanitizing his hard drive ;)
I know I would.

[Rich @ Aug 20th 2007 6:42AM]

The biggest problem with Vista is the one that Microsoft can least fix - driver support.

Even after all this time, there's still a lot of (even brand new) hardware I own that doesn't support Windows Vista.

Maybe Microsoft could bribe (or offer "incentives") to manufacturers to release Vista drivers for all of their hardware less than 3 years old. And make sure the drivers actually work properly.

Other than that, I think the "Ultimate" edition should actually be the only version on sale. Price it at the same as Home Premium and then at install time give the option of installing a "basic", "regular" or "expert" version of the OS.

It would save a lot of shelf space and confuse consumers less.

[I LOVE THE CAPS LOCK KEY @ Aug 20th 2007 3:07PM]

How about the price, $350 for Business and $400 for Ultimate! It's especially ridiculous considering that Vista is revamped and over glorified Windows NT.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_NT

[Ant @ Aug 20th 2007 8:15PM]

Ye, why bother changing it, XP works and Vista dosn't, simple. Use XP you get more done faster. Vista needs to come with a special Vista PC that can handle its clunky eye-candy code. Personaly I don't want eye-candy when I'm trying to work, just want to get it done ASAP.

[McSwindle @ Aug 19th 2007 4:32PM]

64 Bit Digital Audio Drivers and drivers for my USB Toaster/Teapot

[hartmania @ Aug 19th 2007 12:58PM]

WOW another biased article! Vista needs a lot of work, and so does the journalistic integrity of Engadget.

[Daniel @ Aug 19th 2007 1:10PM]

I thought engadget was more of a blog rather than an unbiased objective technology journalism outlet.

[WL @ Aug 19th 2007 1:58PM]

I think by change they meant improve not downgrade.

[Mark @ Aug 19th 2007 2:05PM]

"I thought engadget was more of a blog rather than an unbiased objective technology journalism outlet."

Every time someone questions Engadget, someone else trots out that excuse.

I could be wrong, but I at least _think_ I remember a time when I could come to Engadget and read about cool gadgets and reviews thereof. Sometime in the last year or so Engadget seems to have become infected with blog-poison: "sarcasm makes us cool and so does bashing everything".

So while Engadget may just be a blog, for a while there it felt like it was something more.

[mark @ Aug 19th 2007 2:11PM]

Engadget's more of an apple shill--dont go accusing them of lacking integrity.

[Chris Macdonald @ Aug 19th 2007 6:32PM]

Since when were blogs supposed to have journalistic integrity?

[Chris Macdonald @ Aug 19th 2007 6:41PM]

And I think sarcasm and bashing things do make them cool. I think that it's very important for the bloggers at Engadget to be critical of technology unless it's flawless, so the people who read the blog know what products to buy and what products not to buy. I feel that it's also important to do it in a funny, sarcastic way to make it a bit easier to read. If you want unbiased reports on technology, go look at a consumer reports chart. This is a blog, not a news report.

[Greg Poole @ Aug 19th 2007 8:09PM]

Well unfortunately bias is a fact of life in an industry (and real life for that matter) where there's at least two of every offering and nobody seems to be able to get by liking or using both. If you think you're getting bias here then subscribe to the Slashdot news feed and watch the Microsoft, Linux and Apple fanboys battle it out to the death.

[phill @ Aug 19th 2007 10:22PM]

Biased ain't so bad, it is the damn flame bait that's showing up everywhere that's the problem.

[Blake Kachman @ Aug 19th 2007 11:55PM]

"I thought engadget was more of a blog rather than an unbiased objective technology journalism outlet."

"Every time someone questions Engadget, someone else trots out that excuse."

Every time someone questions Engadget, God kills a kitten.

[Pedja @ Aug 19th 2007 12:58PM]

Like Alexandre said: everything :)

Actually, better yet, I would make it more like Apple :D
Just like I would make http://www.Google.com results to be shown like http://www.PeekStr.com results ;)

[Garrett W. @ Aug 19th 2007 3:28PM]

interesting, this PeekStr has a great idea! thanks for the link.

[Pedja @ Aug 19th 2007 4:34PM]

You're welcome. It still has some shortcomings which actually come from Google Ajax itself. Basically, the results are not identical to those obtained from "regular" Google search but it's the idea of viewing pages there and then that matters I think.
Unless Google Ajax API improves a bit I think http://www.PeekStr.com will probably switch to Yahoo Search API to get more results per query and thus be more usable. Anyway, its new and it can be called a concept at this point, we'll see :)

[Dae @ Aug 19th 2007 4:42PM]

Thanks dude. i have never visited that site. I also like that preview view. I was using a fire fox plug-in sometime ago to get a small preview in google search results.

thanks again

[PeteC @ Aug 19th 2007 8:32PM]

I think I'm incredibly cynical that I just imagined you going to the lengths to register 3 Engadget accounts to pull that off. I'll put it down to the general unhappiness that Monday morning is approaching.

[Pedja @ Aug 20th 2007 3:19AM]

@PeteC
If you knew me, trust me, you would know better. I have one and only one account where ever I go. [porn sites don't count ;)]

[Evan M-S @ Aug 20th 2007 4:13AM]

Snap.com seem to do a better job of that than PeekStr, it's faster and more polished.

Evan

[Pedja @ Aug 20th 2007 5:11AM]

@Evan
Last I checked they were using screenshots and not live pages to view.
And some pages they had cached but still nothing live.
Remember, PeekStr is just a concept, it's NOT a release or anything. Its just one guy and his idea created in a few hours.

[Colin @ Aug 19th 2007 12:59PM]

Replace it with OS X?

[MrGam3r @ Aug 19th 2007 1:12PM]

no, i have a better idea. change only the NAME to OS X so it will sell to apple fanboys....

[Alex @ Aug 19th 2007 6:46PM]

How about no? I love OS X, but I need windows to make fun off! >=D

Really though, change the UI it is really really tacky, I know I can change it back to the old XP or what not but then why would I buy Vista? There isn't that much on vista you can't find on XP and XP is a really great OS!

[Zach Fichtler @ Aug 22nd 2007 1:44PM]

Well, XP *is* a really great OS, right. But was it that way from the start? NO! It's taken a couple years of updates and development to make it run the way it runs now. I remember when XP first came out... it crashed every day, my internet didn't work right, installers failed all the time, etc... I almost switched back to ME (gasp!). But now, I have had NO trouble with XP in the past six months. Vista will be the exact same way. Give it a year. It will become the primary Windows OS in use, companies will stop supporting XP, XP will be phased out by the schools, libraries, etc. But it will take time.

[JuggleNuts @ Aug 19th 2007 1:01PM]

@"replace it with os x" comments: *yawn*

[skinnypup @ Aug 19th 2007 3:37PM]

More "fanboy" comments... Lame.

[Jason @ Aug 19th 2007 1:01PM]

I'm using Vista, and I'm actually fine with it. I do have a problem with my DVD drive, and that's it. Others, I have all 64-bit drivers for everything, and I don't see what the big deal is.

I would prefer these things, however.
1) Give us more Ultimate Extras! What did I pay for?

2) Not requiring me to upgrade my RAM, graphics card, and processor to have a speedy system like I did with XP.

3) Make the transparency effects even more transparent.

4) Force Adobe to release flash for IE 64-bit.

5) Let me move my Favorites folder to a different drive and still let me create favorites.

6) Make the UAC less annoying, especially when renaming files and move files.

7) Improve compatibility with games released before Vista.

[mattclarkie @ Aug 19th 2007 1:16PM]

I am fine with Vista. What really cracked me up was when Engadget said XP was reliable. I have had 3 XP machines and all of them became slow and unusuable but not because of spec, XP itself.

I agree that Adobe should push out the 64bit flash already, but my Vista rig is great, I built it making sure all components played well with Vista and they do. It is speedy and reliable. Plus I got to buy the OEM at 1/3 of the normal cost, at the expense of installing on multiple machines, which I don't need to do.

Engadget get off your high-horse and go lick Jobs arse, that's what your good at.

[bombastinator @ Aug 19th 2007 1:47PM]

How hard are you pushing the software? I run some fairly high end apps and from my perspective Vista is a total POS.


all my hardware lists as compatible too, and while I have not had the OS that long, already I have had at least 3 total input lockup - power button doesn't work - pull the power crashes, one of which necessitated a full clean reinstall with major data loss. Regular OS crashes happen weekly, sometimes multiple times a day. It seems anything that pushes the OS hard, particularly in the graphics arena, will crash the thing.

[Eagle117 @ Aug 19th 2007 2:05PM]

Great comment. I'm running Vista Ultimate x64 with no problems at all. All drivers work great and system is just as stable as my XP build. All of the games I run work without issue and I have yet to find a program that has issues with my build. Overall I'm fine with Vista. It may not be the greatest thing ever, but I don't have any problem with it.

I do agree with several of your points:

1) Give us more Ultimate Extras! What did I pay for?

4) Force Adobe to release flash for IE 64-bit.

6) Make the UAC less annoying, especially when renaming files and move files.

[ucla74 @ Aug 20th 2007 8:58AM]

@bombastinator: You say you're running high-end apps on Vista and that, IYO it's a POS. So, what high-end apps? I'm running high-end apps too, and I have no problems with it at all (64-bit Vista Ultimate). I'm also running 4 GB of RAM and the top of the line video card. Horsepower helps, but simply because the OS works better with better equipment, doesn't make it a POS.

[Andir3.0 @ Aug 19th 2007 1:01PM]

Make it follow standards that aren't contrived by MS.
Remove all DRM.
Include Firefox/Opera options on install.
Include any kind of options on install ... (I don't want all that crap in my build. Why should I have to take it out after it's been installed?)
Tighter code, more open, don't gimp OpenGL by layering it on DX.
Smaller memory footprint.
Open and documented standard APIs.
Did I mention standards?