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Today PROnetworks released the Windows Vista Build 5472 Installation Guide. Although 5472 is avaible only to Connect/MSDN users, CPP Vista Users may want to also check this guide out as it will give some insight into the installations of future builds of Windows Vista. Stay tuned for the official Tweaking and Customizing Guide for Build 5472.
Posted by gries818 at 05:28 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Well, I haven't posted here for awhile and decided it was about time to post here again. I downloaded and installed 5472 yesterday with very minimal hasstle (I always do a full format of my Vista partition, thats the hasstle). Since being in 5472 (posting from it right now), I have noticed some things are different (I could never get 5456 installed, so my last build was 5384). The cursors have been replaced, some screens updated. Overall, there are some great new features with the build.
Well, I haven't posted here for awhile and decided it was about time to post here again. I downloaded and installed 5472 yesterday with very minimal hasstle (I always do a full format of my Vista partition, thats the hasstle). Since being in 5472 (posting from it right now), I have noticed some things are different (I could never get 5456 installed, so my last build was 5384). The cursors have been replaced, some screens updated. Overall, there are some great new features with the build.
Installation took about 50 minutes (from within Windows). My installation always gets hung up on the updates part (every build!) - I always choose no updates (wireless drivers apparently aren't loaded durning setup) and it always tries to find updates. Anyhow, I noticed one new reboot that wasn't there before, and it took a little longer for setup to detect the proper screen resolution however I can report that once Vista is setup - booting into it is much quick than before. Its definetly the fastest of all the OSes I've used - thats a great new feature.
Vista still hasn't been able to find my sound drivers (other builds have been able to) but thats not really a problem to me, I usually leave sound turned off! I'ved noticed that the Flip 3D has been updated and it is much quick (and more pleasant to look at) than before - even on my PC (I don't have a very good graphics card). Also I've noticed that some times the scroll bars turn black and become unuseable but this seems to go away but relaunching the application (its a pain).
My main complaint for this build is that some of my programs that have worked on previous builds - no longer work in 5472. No big deal though - its a Beta OS and I have XP installed for the programs I need. It really is an improvement over 5384. Check out our Photo Gallery for 5472!
Posted by gries818 at 03:22 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
When installing or reinstalling Windows XP the seems to be a huge number of things one needs to adjust to get Windows setup completely, ready to use and looking like one wants it.
With the recent builds of Windows Vista this just seems to be so much quicker and easier to do.
Most device drivers are already installed and those that aren't are quickly found and installed using either the "Set up devices" function, Windows Update or by right clicking the item in Device Manager and updating the driver from there (well it works for all my devices anyway).
Personalizing the desktop can all be done by right clicking the desktop and selecting Personalize. Display, background, power settings and a host of other stuff can be done from there.
This leaves only a few personal tweaks to make to get the system running and looking exactly as one wants it.
Anyone else agree that it is much quicker and easier than with Windows XP?
http://www.pro-networks.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=79950
Posted by Grav!ty at 02:14 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
As I noted earlier today, Microsoft released Vista Build 5472 to Beta Testers today. I have since learned that this is a CTP build and should be available to TechNet and MSDN members as well, so enjoy if you have a subscription or are a member of the beta program. If you aren't a member of any of the above, just wait until RC1 is released to the public. Unfortunately, you will have to have installed and activated Beta 2 to be able to download RC1, but that isn't an issue for me and not the topic of this post.
For many people out there, moving to 64 bit has been a very painful process. Manufacturers put hardware out there and then decided that they don't want to support it, so we're left with unsigned drivers for our systems, if we can even find those, to get things working. I'm sure that there are many people out there having this issue. The problem I'm having is with my on-board Promise Fasttrack 378 SATA/RAID controller, but there are many other devices out there with the same issue. For some, the drivers aren't really a problem as it is non-critical hardware, or something they don't use. I have a somewhat needed drive that is sitting on my controller that isn't supported, like backups, installation keys for various software/betas I have and install, and just some other random things. It isn't really needed, just highly wanted. Up until this latest build though, installing unsigned drivers hasn't been much of an issue. There has been the bcdedit method
bcdedit /set {current} nointegritychecks on
that would prevent you from having to press F8 on boot every time. The latest release of VistaBootPRO has also made this easier, giving you a graphical method of performing the command.
The entire ballgame has changed with 5472 though. You can use the bcdedit method from above and it will say it completes successfully, provided you are in the Administrator command prompt, or set it with VistaBootPRO. The BCD Store will even tell you that the operating system should ignore driver checks. Unfortunately though, none of the convenience options will work anymore. You can use VistaBootPRO all you want, or bcdedit, and nothing you do will allow you to restart your computer and use unsigned drivers. The only way that you can possibly install your unsupported hardware anymore is if you use the F8 method when booting.
If you don't know what I'm talking about when I say "F8 method" this is what you need to do. When your computer is booting, press F8 as if you were going to enter safe mode. When the menu with all the different boot options is shown, there is one there that says something to the effect "Allow use of unsigned drivers" and you can select that option and continue booting and you can now use unsigned drivers. The problem is that anytime that you start your computer or restart, you will need to do this. It is going to be the biggest PITA most likely about this build, and all the more reason to get things set up the way you like them and let the system on as long as possible.
Posted by imnuts at 11:33 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Today, Windows Vista build 5472 was released to beta testers. I wasn't actually around when it was released unfortunately, but I do have it downloaded and ready to be burnt to DVD. All data has been backed up that I need, so as soon as I can get to it, it will be installed. If you are looking for screenshots of build 5472, you should watch the PROnetworks Album as there should be a wealth of screenshots post there shortly. If you are in the Beta Program on Connect, head to the downloads section and get the build, which is about the same size as build 5456.
Another thing that you should do, if you haven't done so already, is download VistaBootPRO 2.1 Beta. It features the following changes from 2.0:
The main reason for an updated release so soon after version 2.0 was the bug occuring on systems with renaming/reordering entries. Sorry for any inconvenience for people on this. It has also been confirmed to work on the latest build just released as well (build 5472), so you will be able to use it on all Vista builds that utilize bcdedit.exe for altering the boot menu.
Posted by imnuts at 06:41 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
I had been meaning to make up a guide on how to increase Firefox's speed for awhile here but hadn't really gotten around to it with everything going on. Well its here - I posted it in the PRO Guides Center this morning - How to: Speed up Mozilla Firefox. Hopefully this will help out everyone who would be using IE7 but is using Firefox because IE isn't compataible with all webpages at this stage in its developement. This will also help those Opera/Firefox users wanting to get extra speed in Firefox (although in my experience Opera is still a tiny bit faster on my PC than Firefox is).
This guide explains 3 different ways to tweak Firefox to increase speed: Fasterfox (a Firefox extension), using the user.js file, and about:config. The user.js file method and the about:config method are really similar but I am sure that different users will prefer different methods.
Hopefully this guide will encourage users to make and post their own Firefox speed tweaks - every computer can benefit from tweaking different elements of Firefox. If you have your own go ahead and reply to my post - I am excited to see how fast we can make Firefox really go!!!
Posted by gries818 at 09:57 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Hey Everyone! I promised myself yesterday I would do my best to make entries in the Blog. It is kinda be refurbished if you will and I hope by posting here - it will help it grow in popularity. First of all I would like to say I am a little tired - I had some teeth removed today and am a little sore. Been taking breaks between being at PRO and laying down with ice packs strapped to my face. I am pittful aren't I? I'll get over it - just saying beforehand I am sure I will make more typos then usual (lol).
Well as you know from the multiple annoucements here at the blog (mine was of course unofficial) and elsewhere that VistaBootPRO 2.0 has been released to the general public! I am so excited to see it go. For the past month or so we've been hard at work on this release (I actually did no coding but I did do a lot of Bug Testing/finding!). Anyway, I am really glad to see it be released. Like I said before - We just all hope that you enjoy this piece of software!!!
Hey Everyone! I promised myself yesterday I would do my best to make entries in the Blog. It is kinda be refurbished if you will and I hope by posting here - it will help it grow in popularity. First of all I would like to say I am a little tired - I had some teeth removed today and am a little sore. Been taking breaks between being at PRO and laying down with ice packs strapped to my face. I am pittful aren't I? I'll get over it - just saying beforehand I am sure I will make more typos then usual (lol).
Well as you know from the multiple annoucements here at the blog (mine was of course unofficial) that VistaBootPRO 2.0 has been released to the general public! I am so excited to see it go. For the past month we've been hard at work on this release (I actually did no coding but I did do a lot of Bug Testing/finding!). Anyway, I am really glad to see it be released. Like I said before - We just all hope that you enjoy this piece of software!!!
Now on a completely unrelated note I shall turn this entry to the new middle east crisis. There is a discussion going on at PRO, HERE, so I won't go too in depth here but I just feel angry about the whole thing. Granted though, it was all started by the terrorists and not by the Israelis. With any luck, this will fade away although it could really be the start of something bigger. I will definitely have my eye on this topic and will have stuff to say about this in the future (when my mind is a little clearer - lol).
Now, I better get back to the forums - my guess is that soon people will be needing assistance with VBPRO although the new version is very easy to use (and we have a User Guide now!). I really wish there were smiles in this blog - it would be fitting right now.
See ya on the forums!
Posted by gries818 at 06:13 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
PROnetworks today released VistaBootPRO 2.0 Beta to the public, and with already over 25,000 dowloads of VistaBootPRO 1.0, it is sure to be well received. As the Vice Officer in charge of Applications here on PRO, I had the great pleasure of working closely with the Betas team in the development and testing of this application.
Windows Vista has introduced the BCD store as a new bootloader which replaces the old ntldr and boot.ini files which were used by Windows NT, 2000, XP, and Server 2003. Unfortunately, before VistaBootPRO, the only way to manage this new bootloader was through the command line tool bcdedit.exe. This tool requires complex commands (at least complex to the average user), and is not very user friendly. The Betas team on PRO has put together a great application written with Microsoft C# which provides a user friendly GUI (Graphic User Interface). The program has the ability to manage boot entries, rename them from the default 'Microsoft Windows' which the Vista Beta's use, set the default OS, and even add and remove Vista and legacy OS entries. In addition, VistaBootPRO 2.0 adds a number of advanced features which the power users will love. Also included is the ability to remove or replace the Vista Bootloader in case of a problem, or if a user wants to revert back to an earlier operating system boot environment like XP. This compact application makes managing the BCD easy for the average user, and because it actually uses bcdedit to accomplish most of the commands, it is fully compatible with Vista. This is one of the first true third party Vista software applications to be released.
Working behind the scenes with the Betas Team is always exciting, and developing a new application, for use on a new operating system is challenging and rewarding. We spent a lot of time on developement and testing, and the great thing about a working in a team environment is that you can test scenarios on a variety of hardware configurations and really put an application through its paces. Having 5 or more operating systems installed at any one time is no big thing to a Beta tester and we have all learned to keep our installation media handy for another fresh install at any time.
Windows Vista has gone through many stages over its development cycle and with Vista Beta 2, and Build 5456 we have seen some great additional features. Build 5472, 5490, who really knows what will be the next release. Of course when a new build is released, everyone wants to see the screenshots and read the reviews before they install it themselves. Now, with VistaBootPRO 2.0, running these Beta versions of Windows Vista will hopefully be a good bit easier for those who choose to be on the cutting edge.
Posted by jrfree1 at 09:21 AM | Comments (0)
VistaBootPRO 2.0 has been released!! Head over right now and download it HERE . I have to say this is really exciting because everyone has been working almost nonstop recently on it. Although you can download VistaBootPRO 2.0 right now keep your eyes peeled for News items from PROnetworks and other news sources.
VistaBootPRO 2.0 has been released!! Head over right now and download it HERE . I have to say this is really exciting because everyone has been working almost nonstop recently on it. Although you can download VistaBootPRO 2.0 right now keep your eyes peeled for News items from PROnetworks and other sources.
A couple of notable links VistaBootPRO 2.0 Announcement, VistaBootPRO User Guide, and VistaBootPRO Bug Reporting Thread.
For those of you looking to show off your custom made sigs - Head on over to the Unofficial VistaBootPRO Graphics.
We all have worked really hard on this - We really hope that you enjoy the second edition of VistaBootPRO!
(Just so everyone knows the official blog announcement is above this post. I just wanted to say my own thoughts on this program!)
Posted by gries818 at 08:25 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
It is TGIF and I am looking forward to weekend. I'm actually looking forward to Sunday because I still have another MCSE class on Saturday so Sunday will be for me and family. The past few weeks have been very active for me with my classes and work and real life issues.
Have a nice day everyone and a nice weekend.
Posted by ginogsm at 03:02 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
This blogging stuff is new to me so this "African farm boy wannabe techie" from sunny South Africa (cold and wet Cape Town, yeah its mid winter here) will dip his toes into this from time to time.
Watch this space for my personal observations and experiences on...well anything.
Posted by Grav!ty at 01:00 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Yes, that's correct. Despite the tries from Microsoft to make Vista less Linux friendly, such as altering NTFS and changing the bootloader, Linux still plays nicely with Windows Vista. The past week, I've been working with a few other users at PROnetworks in the compilation of a guide for installing Linux alongside Vista. Seeing as it is something that is bound to show up, and the fact that more and more people are trying out both now, it is only logical to figure out how to make them play nicely together. There are two big factors that are making it easier for users to test out both here too. The main factor is that Microsoft just released the public beta of Windows Vista (Beta 2). This allows users to install the operating system legally for the first time, and with all the hype around it, people are installing by the thousands. The next big factor that's causing people to test out Linux is that there is finally a very easy to use and install version with great support, and that is Ubuntu, which has taken the Linux community and the rest of the world by storm. A minor factor which is helping things along is the fact that more and more users are switching to broadband, making it all the easier to download both Linux and Vista to install. Back in the days of dial-up, it would take a solid week just to download a CD image required to install any sort of Linux. With broadband, it takes a few hours; making it much more convenient to do. The guide has been posted, so if you were looking at trying this, check it out. And, as always, you can easily get support in the forums of PROnetworks.
Posted by imnuts at 09:54 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Hi everyone!!! I just wanted to give a quick hello. I just got access to the blogs here at PRO! For those of you who don't know - I am a Moderator on the Betas Team. I'm pretty new on the staff - I think as of now I am the newest moderator.
Hi everyone!!! I just wanted to give a quick hello. I just got access to the blogs here at PRO! For those of you who don't know - I am a Moderator on the Betas Team. I'm pretty new on the staff - I think as of now I am the newest moderator.
I like PROnetworks a lot because I learn something new all the time. In my short time since joining the Betas Team, I've learned so much I didn't know beforehand. I do a lot of writing stuff at PRO - guides, etc. I enjoy it quite a bit - I really like writing although I often get writers block and some of my stuff can turn out only marginal.
As for my interests - I of course am in to Technology, PROnetworks, Camping, Politics, and Thinking. You may think that thinking is a odd interest but I do it quite a bit. As for Politics... I am a Republican but I think I am on the boardline of Libertarian. I don't know you tell me. I'll guess I'll try to stick to Technology stuff when I post at this blog (but I think you can post whatever???).
Anyhow - I hope you had enjoyed my little introductory rambling - I better get back to the Forums. A lot is going on there and I can't wait for everyone to see our hard work.
Posted by gries818 at 03:29 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Over the weekend, the Vista team was nice enough to drop off another build for us beta testors to start working with. It is really nice to have since the Beta 2 build was in our hands for testing for more than a month and was starting to get old. Many promises of changes and fixes were made, and it seems like many things have been fixed so far in this build. UAC, which used to create problems when doing simple tasks has been toned down, the graphics have been smoothed out, and things are running a little better overall. However, there are a lot of little things that are just sitting here that seem to be oversights that should not have happened. The nice thing about this though is that the download size has been reduced a lot, by about 1GB on both the x86 and x64 download from Beta 2. It is also probably the fastest installation for many people to date as well. There is also the option for upgrading Beta 2, which I haven't tried yet, but will in due time. So, there has been work in doing various things to make this good, but it seems like things have been overlooked that shouldn't have been.
So far, I've barely closed the bug reporting tool that is used with Vista. In fact, in the first 12 hours of this build being installed, it wasn't closed. There were also several bug reports filed in that time. So far, this is probably the buggiest build I've worked with that is still usable. There were past builds that were more troublesome, but I couldn't use them as they just wouldn't work and posed to many problems for day to day use, which I've been doing for some time now. So far, many of the problems that I am seeing are in the administrative areas of the build. The firewall, management consoles, and the control panel are all displaying things that shouldn't be happening. The big issue that I'm seeing that is really odd though is that the individual management consoles are missing something, GUI related, functionality, something, but the full Computer Management console which has many of the functions built into it for easy access to a lot at once is working fine and doesn't really have any issues. I'm not really sure how you can build two things that are nearly identical yet one works and one doesn't, or one looks different than the other.
Other issues that I'm seeing that shouldn't be there are things that work, but not until after you restart a time or two. In past builds, the firewall would start prompting you immediately if there was a program that it didn't recognize accessing the internet. Now, it takes a couple restarts before it starts prompting about allowing access. The Welcome Center can't be turned off until you log in for a second time either. I'm not sure what it is, but there must be something going on that is preventing stuff from happening in the first couple logins. I also see the firewall issue as something that should probably be addressed as that is kind of a security hole if it isn't working properly. It's really nice that all programs I had accessing the internet were doing so just fine, Winamp, WLM 8, Thunderbird, Flock, and I had no prompts for allowing access for them. Who knows what might have been able to get out and possibly in if this was a computer that wasn't protected from the outside world. I trust my setup fairly well, so it didn't bother me all that much, but I hate to think what might happen to a standard user or the average Joe out there if this would happen to them.
Even though this thing is buggy and has random oddities, there are a few improvements that have been made and are worth mentioning. The big one that has been a major point for a few months now is the User Account Control (UAC) feature. It has been the most annoying thing for most beta testers since it has been introduced. While it is a great concept, it has been poorly implemented in past builds. You would be getting restriction prompts and access denied messages when trying to do simple tasks, like deleting stuff from the desktop, or installing programs. They have done a good bit of work on it and while there are still prompts, they aren't quite as annoying now, unless you have sound. They have added the critical error sound to the UAC prompts. It's nice to know something needs attention, but it is the wrong sound, and shouldn't be around if accessibility is enabled to make use easier for blind persons as that is the reasoning behind the sound. So, hopefully, the small issues that are still around in UAC are being looked at and fixed for the future builds. It's nice to see that they are in the process of listening to folks and revising the system though.
The other thing that has seen some improvements once again has been Aero, the graphics theme and probably the most notable new thing in Windows Vista. If you are looking as to what some of these changes may be, head over to the PROnetworks gallery as there are quite a few screenshots of various things in the build. It is really nice to see how the details are being worked on and different views are getting more refined. Things like Flip3D, which used to look nice from afar, but kind of ugly up close, have received work to make the window edges smooth, and the transitions between open windows smoother as well. The transparency also seems to be better and clearer, that is if you can get Aero Glass to work. If you have trouble with it, see if this helps, as it seems like this has been a somewhat common issue for some reason in this build. Not sure what it might be though as transparency is working just fine for me as it has been for a long time now.
The other nice thing about the graphics in this build is that they kept the animations functions that could be added into Vista Beta 2, so if you want to get some cool effects with windows, try this out. Save the following code in notepad it as "dwm.reg" someplace that is easy to get to (like the desktop)
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\DWM]
"Animations"=dword:00000001
"AnimationsShiftKey"=dword:00000001
Now, double click the file to add it to the registry. You'll likely get a prompt about administrator rights being needed, this is normal though. Then, all you need to do is open up the services panel and stop and start the Desktop Window Management service. You can get to the services management console by typing "services" into the start menu search box. After restarting DWM, if you hold down on the Shift key, all the windows will minimize and maximize much slower allowing you to get some amazing screenshots. This also works with Flip3D, so you can slowly rotate through all the open windows you have.
Application compatibility has also changed some. While things are mostly compatible, there are some difference. The things that I've noticed thus far that have changed are NOD32 and VMWare. In Beta 2, VMWare Workstation was working mostly fine. It had some issues during the initial startup and also caused some BSODs when shuttind down virtual machines, but it worked fairly well. Now, in 5456, it doesn't seem to want to work. It could be that it has to do with this install being 64 bit and I had Beta 2 installed as the standard 32 bit install though. The other big change that I really like is that NOD32 is working again without issues. In Beta 2, there was an issue where NOD32 would cause 100% CPU usage for some reason. Some users got around this by disabling IMON (Internet Moniter), but that didn't seem to work for me. So, I tried it out again and it seems to be back in business. If you're wondering what NOD32 is, have a look at their homepage and a review I wrote. If you are wondering about other programs that may or may not work, well, I can't do to much help there as I haven't really gotten everything installed yet. I do know where you can find a fairly decent list of programs that do and don't work though. If you are wondering about Build 5456, see here, and since many people are still working with Beta 2, you could see this about the public release.
A couple final notes about this, I've been having fun using this build and will continue to do so until the next build is released. If you are wondering if you should install it or not, I would say that if you can live with minor bugs being everywhere, go for it. Otherwise, I would just stick with Beta 2. So, thanks to Microsoft for providing Vista 5456 to us.
Posted by imnuts at 02:34 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
This was brought about when a few beta testers were chatting. As more and more people install the beta, it is likely going to be more and more noticed, but this has been somewhat unmentioned thus far. Vista, when compared to previous versions of Windows, has a ton of processes by default. Many of them look like the same old things, just different as they are updated for Vista. The thing is, there are tons of processes by default. Where Windows XP would have maybe 40 running processes after installation, Vista has closer to 60. There are some reasons for this that can be explained, and there are also unknown reasons why there is so much stuff running after installation. However, we can look at the stuff that is running and see what the reasons may be for them.
The first thing one may notice is that there are a lot more svchost.exe processes running by default when compared to Windows XP. This is likely due to the increased security and the hope for better stability in Vista. Now, you may be wondering how running 2-3 times more stuff makes it more stable or more secure. Well, the reason for this is that under XP, each svchost.exe process accounted for several different services within Windows. Many times, there were critical system services running under the same processes as other, not very important services, and there were also large groupings of tasks for each process. This has changed in Windows Vista though. The individual tasks that svchost.exe is taking care of are now much more distributed and split up more evenly now. Critical services also do not appear to be "bundled" with as many other services under one process, if the process is running multiple things at all. This makes things more stable as it prevents a bunch of stuff from stopping if one service has an issue. It also makes things more secure for about the same reason, as any security issues in a given service prevent access to as many other services.
There are also other services and processes that are new and are really unknown as to why they are running. Some of these are probably not going to be used at all by many users, but they start up anyway. They also seem to start up prior to having anything run that they are associated with. The most notable of these are two services/processes started for Windows Media Player. Both of the services deal with networking, and are possibly from the network sharing feature that is in WMP11. The problem is, there is no easy to find way to actually disable these, and they also startup without notification. While many users probably will never notice this with the PCs that are likely to ship with Windows Vista, during the beta with testing, the extra resources that these unknown and unnecessary services take up slow down the computer.
There is another service that is possibly needed, but likely not, that is the "Trusted Installer" service. This service is obviously for installing things, but, it is started before anything is even installed by the user. So, apparently, something is installing in the background, as there isn't any real apparent need for this service to be running otherwise. There are similar services, which may have some sort of functionality, but there is no indication that they should be running immediately after installation. Overall, there is a lot of stuff that just sort of runs for you. I'm guessing that it's trying to get more out of Vista with less user intervention, so that things are already running when the end user attempts to run them. That would provide faster startup of the item since it would not have to wait for the service to start. The problem is, that if the user never actually uses what these background services are there for, it's actually defeating the purpose. If the program the service(s) are there for are never used or run, then they just sit there consuming system resources with no purpose.
So, who is really configuring this system for performance? If it were me, I would have the system start only basic things upon first startup. After this, there should be something to remember what is used and what isn't. If something isn't used, then it should remain off. If something is used, it should be started. If it is not used after a certain period of time (1-2 weeks) then it should be set as off again. There shouldn't be any reason that Windows Media Player services are running on initial boot, especially when I haven't even opened WMP yet. Why should something running when I haven't even used it?
Posted by imnuts at 10:20 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
People have long stated that Microsoft Windows is an unstable operating system. However, I have seen many cases where Windows is just as stable as Linux, Unix, and Mac OS, so what is the root cause of this assumption. My primary guess is that much of this stems back to the days before NT4 and then the period between NT4 and Windows 2000, the 95/98/ME days. This does a very large chuck of Windows history, but it also includes the worst of Windows in my opinion. Since many people did not even have computers prior to Windows NT4, we'll focus on Windows 95 and later here, mainly because this is also when most people actually started getting computers for themselves as prices dropped significantly. Now, in their day Windows 95, and then Windows 98, were not bad operating systems. They worked very well, but did have the occasional BSOD and did have their own issues. Overall though, Windows 95 and 98 were not that bad, although they were not rock solid by any means.
Then, there is what is likely the biggest reason that Windows is considered unstable, Windows ME. It is quite possibly the worst opperating system ever released, and was extremely unstable. A user could install Windows ME, and even as they were starting it up for the first time, they would get a BSOD. If you didn't restart or shutdown your computer everyday, it was likely that it was going to BSOD and shut off randomly, if it didn't do this on you already. If users got their Windows ME computer to stay on for a week without problems, many would likely consider them very lucky. Then, there was the whole issue of driver compatibility, or lack of compatibility. Since ME never really caught on, manufacturers soft of just skipped an entire generation of Windows and mostly just made products supporting Windows 98 or 98SE instead. With all sorts of random problems, lack of drivers for a lot of common devices, and just a poor system in general, I think this one poor operating system is haunting Windows to this day.
There was later Windows 2000, which never really came into the home user arena and stuck mainly with businesses, although gamers seemed to like 2000 a lot as it was very stable and ran games very well. Ever since Microsoft ditched the 9x series, which included ME, and switched back to the NT Kernel, Windows has been very stable. Now many people still say that Windows XP is very unstable, but I don't really see how this is true. I have worked on hundreds of different installations of Windows XP, both Home and Pro, plus MCE and Tablet PC, and I have yet to see where Windows itself is actually the cuprit of the operating system being unstable. Windows Vista seems to be behaving in the same fashion, even in the beta stages. While, there have been times when Windows Vista, or its alpha versions, codename "Longhorn", have been unstable, it has been very stable for a number of testers in the world. What is it then that is causing Windows to get a bad reputation as being unstable, even if it isn't.
I would have to say that the quality of the hardware underneath the hood of the computer would be the largest contributing factor to how well any operating system performs. Mac OS has been rock solid for a long time now, and despite the fact that they are pushing out a ton of security updates now, it continues to be, even on somewhat sub-par hardware. The big reason behind this is that Apple makes nearly everything in the system, and therefore, can essentially make a problem free operating system if you know the hardware that can go into the computer. Where as Windows has to be able to handle millions of different combinations of hardware, Apple has to deal with only a small handful, with the video card being the only major component that can really change all that much. With Windows, you have to worry about the motherboard, video card, chipsets, processors, network adapters, audio adapters, and pretty much anything that can go into the system. With all of these combinations, it's no wonder there are some problems sometimes.
Now, you may be saying that Linux and Unix do not suffer from the same issue, but I have seen and heard of unstable installations of Linux. Usually, it's also on the same computers that have issues with running Windows as well, not much of a coincedence. The computer is much more than the operating systems that run on them, and thus, poor hardware results in a poor user experience. If the end user selects quality hardware to put into their computer, they are going to end up with a very stable operating system, no matter what they install. But, if you have low quality components, and many OEM manufacturers do, you can end up with a very poor computer. While there are several people that have much more luck with Linux and Unix even when Windows doesn't want to work properly, Linux and Unix have a huge developer base compared to Windows. You have several thousand distrobutions out there, a few hundred of them have funded projects for development, plus a ton of individuals writing their own drivers and patches to fix things. The nature of the operating system itself allows for it to be much more flexible, and thus can deal with sub-standard conditions better in certain situations.
There is also the fact that there many of the people in the world that do run an open source operating system tend to be running it on a decent computer as well. This is because they are already experienced computer users and know the difference between good and bad when it comes to system components. That, and if one is going to run soley Linux, they usually look for compatible hardware so that custom drivers aren't needed and they can get up and running quickly with the built in drivers. Odds are, that if you took the average Linux system and put Windows on it, Windows would not have a problem running either. It is really hard to compare Windows and Mac OS, seeing as they just become somewhat compatible, but all reports that I have heard thus far say that Windows is very stable on the new Intel based Macs. In fact, some users are having fewer problems with Windows on their Macs than they are with OS X on their Macs, at least after figuring out the right-click issue they are. So, what is really the cause for an unstable operating system, is the operating system itelf, or the components underneath the software that are making the system go that are the real issue?
Posted by imnuts at 10:20 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
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