PC World recently wrote an article about The Most Annoying Things About Windows Vista that I wanted to comment on. Some areas I agree, others I correct, and some I disagree.

Home Basic - There’s no reason to buy this

The authors highlight that Vista Home Basic is crippled from a feature perspective, including Aero Glass, and that it will run more slowly than XP on the same hardware. As such, people shouldn’t waste their time with this version. Hogwash I say!

All Vista offerings bring significant security value over Windows XP, including Home Basic. Also, the kernel improvements I went into limited detail in a prior post also add significant value to the Basic edition. Tightly integrated search, vast improvements for setting up, discovering, and diagnosing devices and services on a home network, Parental Controls, streamlined Start menu, ReadyBoost for speeding up your system, and many more seen and mostly unseen but felt features make Home Basic a valuable upgrade. I won’t spend any time talking about the Sidebar or built-in apps like Photo Gallery because you can arguably download similar 3rd party apps on XP. Also, things like SuperFetch that are provided in the Home Basic edition do have memory requirements, so I’ll take that off the table too (even though it is there)

As for making your computer run slower, the only time I’ve ever seen an XP upgrade run slower is when the hardware was a stretch even for XP. This is one of those Vista myths that has very little merit. In almost every case, Home Basic is a worthwhile upgrade for someone who doesn’t have the cash to buy a new PC, but can part with $99.

Of course, I do agree, that to get the full Vista experience, Home Premium is the way go to.

Ahh! My screen blacked out!

Here the authors complain of constantly being prompted to do simple things like change the system font, and that the prompts black out the screen causing a “stop everything” reaction. This of course is by design. User Account Control (UAC) by default throws up a secure desktop (the screen blackening) so that malicious applications can’t do bad things when an elevation prompt is requested. I do think there are improvements to be made in this area, but I truly feel the authors are venting on first few uses with UAC enabled. The everyday usage of Vista doesn’t throw these prompts up; only when you want to change something system wide. The author mentions fonts, but how often is a user going to change their system font? The same is true for installing software or adding new devices. There may be times when this is done a lot, such as when you first install Vista, but after that, things *really* settle down. I’ll spend a whole post talking about UAC in the near future, but in the mean time, I’ll suggest something the authors didn’t research to figure out. Rather than completely disabling UAC, if you don’t like the secure desktop, you can just disable that.

From the search box in the ‘Start’ menu, type ’secpol.msc’ to launch the Security Policy editor. On the left-hand pane, expand ‘Local Policies\Security Options’ and scroll to the bottom in the right-hand pane. Here you can set ‘User Account Control: Switch to the secure desktop when prompting for elevation’ to ‘disabled’.

I highly suggest you not disable the secure desktop because it’s there for a good reason, but it’s is better than disabling UAC all together.

The large-print edition

Here the authors complain that desktop icons are not in the same place as before he upgraded and the size of the icons are much bigger. Huh; I’ve not experienced this, but I have not done an XP-to-Vista upgrade. If this is the case, I completely agree. The upgrade experience should be as seamless as possible, and people do get attached to how their desktop looks. Out of curiosity, did XP upgrades maintain the arrangement of desktop icons?

Ultimately Expensive

Here the authors suggest that Vista is more expensive compared to XP, and complain about feature parity. I talked about this before when Having Fun with Vista Versions. The authors are simply wrong unless I’m really missing something huge. The Vista equivalents to XP are the same price. The features Vista Ultimate has over XP Premium are completely new features that are ultimate features. Second, the Business Edition is, as the name suggests, for businesses not consumers. I have a difficult time with reviewers that try to strengthen an argument by comparing apples and oranges. The business-focused BitLocker is not on consumer editions for good reason; it requires a hardware chip that is only found on laptops focused toward business professionals. As for PC backup, which the author claims only exists on Vista Ultimate, my Home Premium PC includes this feature. Perhaps the authors should take a closer look next time before sending to print

Is this my OS or Hollywood’s

Here the authors complain about the Digital Rights Management (DRM) restrictions and requirements for displaying premium HD content. I went into a lot of detail surrounding The Real Deal on Vista’s HD Restrictions back in January, which the authors should have read.

The downgraded upgrade disk

Here the authors don’t like not being able to do a clean install using a Vista upgrade disk by simply using the full XP disk in the CDROM. I agree with the authors on this one. I’m betting that this capability was removed because a pirated XP disk (no valid key) could be used to install a clean Vista upgrade. However, the same pirated copy of XP could be installed clean then upgraded to Vista. Pirates will spend the extra time doing the pre-install to get a cheaper version of Vista (if they aren’t pirating it).

Search instantly anywhere (as long as by ‘anywhere’ you mean ‘where Microsoft thinks you should’)

Here the authors complain about integrated search only indexing (and thus searching) the user’s folders on the system disk by default. I agree with the authors on this one. All hard drives should be transparently indexed without the user having to do anything. This is an obvious oversight or poor decision in my humble opinion.

Who’s in charge around here?

Here the authors complain that even administrator has to elevate some applications. I would have thought they would have looked into UAC a little further (prior complaint) to answer their own question. All users, including administrator, run in a lower privileged account for much improved security. More and more I’m talking myself into writing a post on UAC and the other security enhancements in Vista. My post on Vista Productivity Goodies describes how to easily run any tool/app elevated.

Where, oh where, are my network places?

Here the authors complain that ‘My Network Locations’ doesn’t exist anymore, and that they don’t want to look through the massive amount of computers, devices, and services displayed in the Network Explorer for their work network. They are looking in the wrong place; mapped drives (DAV, FTP, SMB, etc.) are in the Computer folder (formerly My Computer). Network places are at the end of the day hard drives across a network that you access, so this is the right place for them. Perhaps a link should have been placed in the Network Explorer that opens a unique view of only the network shares in the Computer folder. What do you think? 

Vista, Game off!

Here the authors complain that 3rd party video drivers (I’ll add sound to this mix) have not yet provided Vista versions that support gaming. Amen! I completely agree, as will my friend Mark There is no excuse for why high profile ISVs can’t get their drivers for a world changing OS done in time.

In my previous post about OEMs extending Windows Vista, I talked about my IBM (now Lenovo) Thinkpad and the ThinkVantage suite of software that extends the out-of-box Windows experience; specifically the extensions for fingerprint logon and the Mobility Center. In this post, I wanted to share how poor of an experience I had installing all these updates.

For starters, my experience would have probably been much smoother if I read the README files that came with each update, but lets face it, no consumer is going to open a README file when a Setup.exe file is in the directory next to it. Yes, I’m a Unix guy too, but my expectation for a Windows install experience is much higher than doing a source install on Linux. Second, in Lenovo’s defense, If I had installed the System Update package first, the end-to-end update of my system would have been smoother (this package handles the nuances of each separate installer). However, if the OEM wants you to take that route, don’t burry the System Update package among all the other packages.

My experience of installing the myriad of updates for my Thinkpad can be described simply: not consistent. Some of the packages are self extracting archives that ask where to extract the actual installer; others are self extracting archives that don’t provide the user with an option of where to extract (only the default is available). Even better, some of the packages are the actual installer (not self extracting archives). It’s clear that either (i) organizational boundaries exist between these components, (ii) there was very poor coordination across components, (iii) there are no guidelines for ensuring a consistent installation experience, or (iv) all of the above.

Take for example the fingerprint reader packages: the Client Security package is an actual installer, whereas the driver for the fingerprint reader and the administrative tools for managing the security stuff are self extracting archives. However, one of the archives provides an option of where to extract, but the other does not. It took me a while to figure out that dependent files were in different directories, and that’s why my install wasn’t working.

Lastly, almost every install (successful) resulted in the following error dialogue, indicating the the installer was not authored correctly for Vista (I don’t know the details about this though):

Yes, the Thinkpad series is designed for mobile workforces which are usually managed by IT professionals, but I won’t buy that as an answer to such a poor experience. Our friends in IT hate poor experiences too! Can anyone else report a poor OEM experience? I need to know what PCs to recommend to my friends and family so I don’t end up becoming the IT administrator whenever they need to be updated

OEMs, such as IBM, HP, Dell, Sony, etc., add all sorts of differentiating features to their PCs that clutter improve the end user experience of maintenance, backups, usability, etc. As a platform, Windows Vista further supports this differentiation, especially for laptops. IBM in particular has created a suite of software that extends the out-of-the-box Windows user experience for mobile professionals, touting the ThinkVantage moniker. This suite of software modules provides: maintenance (driver and ThinkVantage software updates), backup, security (password and fingerprint management), mobile settings management (power, presentation), etc.

I haven’t dug too deep into all of these ThinkVantage modules, but did get a chance to look into the long awaited Vista support for my built-in fingerprint reader and some of the mobility features. 

Improved Vista support for biometric credentials

Simply put, the Graphical Identification and Authentication (GINA) module in Windows XP was not extensible; you know, the login screen and processing of various forms of logon credentials. Because of this, independent software vendors (ISVs) who wanted to enable various forms of logging in, such as smart cards, fingerprints, retinal scan, facial recognition, etc. had to completely replace the GINA library and logon UI. This was obviously not a well thought through architecture, and ISVs had to suffer to differentiate their systems. Vista *finally* resolves this trouble by introducing a new authentication model where the logon UI and credential providers are separate but communicate directly. This means ISVs no longer have to mess with the UI, but rather only author a credential provider for the particular authentication mechanism desired, such as the fingerprint reader in my Thinkpad. Note that credential providers can all live together happily, so if I choose to login with my standard password rather than scanning my fingerprint, that is okay. Because of this architectural change, all GINA library replacements that worked on XP will not function on Vista; hence why it took some time to finally get biometric support from the OEM for my laptop.

Windows Mobility Center

A new feature to Vista is the Mobility Center, a one-stop shop for managing the mobile features of your laptop. OEMs can extend this feature, and Lenovo has done this for Thinkpads.

The Windows Mobility Center provides a central console for managing wireless, presentation settings, multiple monitors, power, etc.

 

As you can see, new modules for controlling zoom, keyboard light, and active hard drive protection are added. Check out the mobility center (control panel) to see if your OEM has provided some extensions.

There are *many* other areas for OEMs to extend, so if I stumble across any more, I’ll talk about it. If you find any, or have questions about what you find, let me know and I’ll dig deeper.

A few days after my last post on WM6, The Mobile team officially announced the new version at the 3GSM (3G and GSM smashed together into yet another acronym) conference in Barcelona.

“By the second quarter of this year, the world will see the first Windows Mobile 6 powered devices available on the market…”

It looks like the T-Mobile Dash will be upgradeable to this new version, but so far no news for my Samsung Blackjack

I found a couple more reviews which are worth a read:

• Modern Nomads review of WM6
• Review of the Vista Mobile Device Center

One thing I like about Mac OSX is the Expose feature. While Flip3d in Vista is cool, it does require multiple keystrokes to find the specific window you’re looking for. With Expose, a simple mouse gesture will display all the open windows on the screen. Luckily, Vista exposes the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) to developers so they can extend (and enrich) Vista and build cool applications, like My Expose. This app does the same thing as Expose for Mac OSX, but for Vista. Note that before you download and install My Expose, you’ll need to install the C++ Redistributable Package.

By moving the mouse to the upper left-hand corner of the screen, or hitting the F9 key, My Expose will nicely display all open windows.

It looks like Windows Mobile 6 (WM6) is nearly upon us. I’m not aware of any announcements from carriers releasing this update for exiting phones, but that’s probably because Microsoft has not yet officially launched the release. WM6 has three versions:

• Professional (formerly PocketPC Phone Edition)
• Standard (formerly Smartphone Edition)
• Classic (formerly PocketPC Edition)

There are a bunch of goodies in this release that I am looking forward to, including:

• HTML email
• New versions of mobile Office apps
• Improved calendar
• Windows Live for mobile
• File transfer in Live Messenger

This screen shot shows Windows Mobile 6 Standard Edition (smartphone). Check out more images at Engadget.

 

Update: PC Magazine did a review of WM6; check it out. Also, some more feature detail is provided in Jason Langridge’s blog.

Deb Shinder over at TechRepublic wrote a great article called Don’t be misled by these 10 Windows Vista myths, which is definitely worth a read. Of the myths mentioned, these are my favorites:

• Vista requires a new PC
• Vista is no more secure than XPSP2
• New DRM prevents listening to ripped or previously purchased music

A lot of what I’ve read in some major reviews is total garbage; especially from ignorant folks who believe an operating system should be rated alone on its visual pleasantness. I don’t discount how important that is, but saying Vista is just another service pack to XP is ignorance at its finest. Authors of reviews which have wide circulation have an obligation to do some research and ask questions of the experts before serving up an ill informed cocktail (koolaid perhaps) of rubbish to an impressionable audience. I’d settle for stating what was and wasn’t liked about the experience, but speaking as though fact is a disservice and hopefully impacts the credibility of future writings.

Now that my rant is over, I’ll keep this series going whenever I hear a new and improved myth

I have more to say about the visual user experience, but will save that for another post.

The folks over at Penny-Arcade always make me laugh.

In all fairness, consumers only have one more choice than they did for XP (which had Home and Professional).

• Vista Home Basic
• Vista Home Premium
• Vista Ultimate

Of course there are upgrade versions of each that are cheaper. The other versions are for Business and Enterprise and won’t find themselves prominently displayed in retail if at all. Consumers need not worry about those. I do believe; however, that the next client release of Windows should further embrace feature unlocking through the web to simplify the retail story. Vista incorporates this concept, but I’m sure there’s some more innovation to be made in that space. Personally, while I see the point of Home Basic (for older PCs), this could have been accomplished in a more elegant way (for example operating in basic mode until hardware upgrades are sufficient to run the premium or ultimate experience).

What do you think? By the next client release of Windows (trust me, it won’t take as long this next time around) would you like to see more features enabled online to simplify the retail positioning?

iTheater is an open source alternative to Apple’s FrontRow application. iTheater, like FrontRow, limits your multimedia experience to the Mac (unless your Mac is connected to a television), and is essentially a 10 foot experience of iTunes and Quicktime. The user interface is similar to the upcoming Apple TV, which is specifically designed to extend the iTunes experience to TVs around the house via wired or wireless networks. None of these solutions currently support live or recorded TV; only content stored in iTunes.

It’s great to see these applications becoming more wide spread.

Looking forward, it would be great if the open source developer community exposed iTheater and the iTunes library it consumes via standards-based protocols, i.e. those defined by the Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) such that the application could not only be used to browse and play media libraries on other media servers (like Windows Media Player), but it could act as a media server for other standards-based media players. Doing this would certainly give iTheater an advantage over Apple’s FrontRow. 

Engadget is usually on top of Apple rhetoric, so I wasn’t surprised to hear a report from Apple issuing a warning to iTunes users not to upgrade to Vista.

I find this really funny, especially from Apple. Microsoft has been more transparent with developers this latest release of Windows than any other release in the past. Every few months a technology preview was released and available to developers (including Apple) so they could ensure their software would not have any problems.

In reality, Apple should be apologizing for letting down the majority of iTunes users. Yes, that’s right, I’m talking about the ones running Windows!

Windows takes significant pains to ensure application compatibility across releases. Apple has never been this graceful for their developer community; sometimes breaking highly visible applications across OSX releases. Mike Flasko, a peer of mine, wrote an interesting post about this some time back that is definitely worth a read. This childish behavior from Apple is getting sad and is only hurting their credibility, and worst of all their users.

Granted, Microsoft is not perfect either; however, iTunes for Apple is akin to Office for Microsoft. Users should expect a flagship application that supports a major business to just work across releases.

Apple folks; thanks for eventually getting around to supporting your users with an update (which is now available). It didn’t take much time to produce a fix; which begs the question - why no be proactive in the first place? I have a bunch of thoughts, but what do you think?