Windows Vista is perceived as an unreliable behemoth that requires the power of a supercomputer to run.  When it was released that may have been the truth and there still may be some to it.  Today, that is less the case but first impressions cam be hard to change.

No operating system is completely perfect but Windows XP SP3 with the Zune theme (as opposed to the green and blue default) is a very good operating system.

You can also add some Vista-like effects to it using YzShadow and some free transparency tools.  But, Microsoft needs to rethink its entire way of making operating systems.  Here are some things that should be removed according to Computer World.

1.  DRM (digital rights management) is all the rage these days and Windows Vista takes it to a new level.  If you were running an illegal copy of Vista earlier versions of WGA would have shut you out.  Now it just does some things to annoy you.  It needs to go.

2.  The Registry.  This is essentially a poorly organized mess of various Windows settings, user preferences and where most programs store portions of themselves.  You need a PhD in Computer Science just to understand it.  Follow only professional advice if you need to modify entries but don’t go poking around it just for the heck of it.  No other operating system has such a thing as a “registry.”

3.  Internet Explorer and ActiveX controls, it’s time to let both rest in peace.  Or is that pieces?

4.  One of the most annoying features in Vista is User Account Control but it does have some features besides providing bothersome confirmation dialogs.  The memory virtualization feature is probably its only useful feature.  TweakUAC can turn off everything and leave that feature intact.  As a whole it either needs to be completely revamped or just plain removed.

5.  Windows Meeting Center.  Microsoft included a collaborative technology in Vista?  Really?  I didn’t know that.  Like a lot of other things designed by (or bought and somewhat ruined) the company it simply doesn’t work and amounts to wasted hard drive space.

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Related:

Could Microsoft kill open source with its almost free Windows offering?

Vista’s SideShow feature going nowhere

Microsoft predicts hacker behaviour

PC World: Vista SP1 beta release imminent

Can your PC run Vista in the real world?

Entry was posted on Friday, August 22nd, 2008 at 6:54 am under Microsoft, Security, Upgrading, Vista.  Print This Post

Read more entries by Jonathan Schlaffer.