.. Shhh.. But I think Vista is actually good.. I am not sure I could go back to XP.. Give me Aero any day.. On yeah I am 4.4 on the index..

Some days you are reminder that there is only a certain amount of sand in the jar. That day came on Friday for me again when my step father glapsed. I will stop any worry now, he will be fine but it was a scary couple of days in Kingston Hospital and not ones I would want back. But silver lining to the cloud is that it reminder me of how close a family I have and we all managed to rally around and will continue to do so till he is 100%, which cross fingers he will be soon. In short though .. Boring but true life is short remeber to enjoy it ;-)

Well I did it .. I changed. I moved lock stock and Barrel into Vista (Ultimate edition) .. and have been working with it for now a couple of days.. these are my first impressions.

So the Good..

* The interface is fantastic the look and feel is very well polished in places.
* The networking is much better. Discovery of devices on the network is fantastic.
* UI for existing applications looks better.
* Graphic engine makes WOW actually look better for me.
* It is safer to use for your average user the disabling Admin from the start and other sensible tweaks will be a good thing for the majority users.
* Windows update UI is clean and neatly intergrated.. Nice.
* Control panel layout.. Will be excellent for your standard home user.
* Default Programs menu.. HORRAH .. that is not hidden any more for the standard user. Excellent stuff.
* The new backup ..Looks good.

The bad..

* User access control is just painful in places. (I have shouted at my PC for the first time in years because of this..but i switched it off.)
* There should have been a basic introduction into the new features for all levels . Developers, IT managers, Home Users.. Just something to shows the basics and connect the dot's between Vista and XP.
* The new menu system on the start bar in programs is sometimes very sloooowly...To the point you end up click on something you did not want. On the bright side I am finding new tools and features.
* VS .NET 2005 support.. LOL I know this will get fixed .. But please did nobody sort this one before release. It looks like the Dev team on VS did not speak to the Vista team.. (That is harsh). But every other app I have all run under Vista.. maybe I am just lucky.
* The switch off button.. Does not switch off .. Puts me in sleep mode.. Err.. Why?


The Ugly..

* SQL Server 2000... Err.. When did that go out of support from MS? (I just taken it as new year new database system.. But for most of my clients that is a no no).

* Lack of support for NT backups, is just plain stupid IMHO. I used to backup regular in this format and now I cannot get access to the backup files without a XP box. There should be support for old XP backup format. I took nothing forward accept my backups and I will need them for all sort of reason to be accessible in the long run. This mean I will have to keep an XP machine somewhere to get access to them. Doh!

Security Fears in the long run..
More was potentially less when it came to warnings for user. My biggest fear for User Access control is that users will get to the point that they will not read the messages.. They just get into click through .. Yep I know what I am doing. Yes it will stop spyware, but I think it will give Trojans a better chance of installing themselves, people will stop reading warning messages after a while more was potentially less on this area. But I cannot fault Microsoft on this, they could not sit by and this will be an improvement, but human nature will maybe make this an impossible problem to solve. I feel for the security people.

What I installed ...

VS .NET 2005 (and patch and vista patch)
SQL Server 2005 Express (and patch)
All my client software I have written.
Office 2007 .. So sexy
Skype
Windows Live Messenger
Smart FTP (Just trying it out.. Looks good)
World of Warcraft
LLBLGen Pro
Red Gate SQL Compare
AVG Professional
Fireworks 4
FireFox
ITunes.

In general Vista is a good thing, but like all new things it will take some time getting used and there have been a few moments of pulling my hair out, but in general that is the joy of being in IT something is always changing you either in embrace it or you hide and get left behind. Would I reccomend Vista.. Yes for your average new computer user it is good OS to work with. For existing XP user base and IT devs especially it will be a painful at first but hopefully the rewards in the long run will out live the pain... I am sure they will.

James

I working with a couple of companies at the moment who have mixed needs but they all need a backup plan. I know this article is years old but it is still hugely relevant to today. MS Backup on XP is awesome for a free bit of kit. Combine it with USB 300GB drive now a days and you have actaully quite a good starter backup kit.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/setup/learnmore/bott_03july14.mspx

Well worth a second peak at MS backup if you are looking at backup solution on a tight budget.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/england/6240497.stm

Having spent most of the ashes crying into my beer on Friday nights having wasted my life watching it, living in deep hope of actually winning something. I thought at least the 20 20 we might actually have a better day out.. 14 Sixes! .. Sob sob...Do they not know I have an Oz girlfriend ??

Well it has been a busy first week, and there is an even busier one to come. Really looking forward to the EVO event at Microsoft on the 19th. I am working in WPF at the moment and can honestly say it is painful to get a business app up and running compared to .NET 2 and Win forms. I have lost quite a bit of hair so far ;-) But it will be fantastic to see were MS are taking the technology and to pick up any of those vital tips that save time.

Just thought I would also put out a shout out to the following site : www.shutterstock.com which saved my life last week when getting some images for a client.

Protex intergration this week and I release my first component out to the world.

Well new year .. New website.. http://www.unwindsoftware.com

I have obivously moved my blog, also over to here using Blogger as the base publisher though which seems to work very well.

Happy New Year to Everyone.

James