Software Review: Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate

The Vitals:
Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate 32bit/64bit
Installed: About a month and a half ago.

The Sorty:
A buddy of mine calls me up the other day and tells me that another buddy of mine who works for Microsoft wants to send us copies of Windows Vista Ultimate and Office 2007 Ultimate (I'll review Office 2007 at a later date) for next to nothing (staff pricing for the win). Needless to say, I said "zomgI'lltakethreeplsthnx:)!!1!"

The package arrives within 2 weeks and Im excited. At that point in my life (about a month ago), I had an old piece of crap computer that didn't really deserve the effort of installing a new operating system on it. I decided to wait until I bought my new computer (which I will also review at a later date) before installing my new software.

I sold my current computer and bought the new one, and the stage was set for the new install. Now, I have to be honest, at first I decided to NOT install Vista, mainly due to the compatibility horror stories I heard. I initially decided to re-install Windows XP and wait until some Vista patches came out to make it more user-friendly. Big mistake.

Most of you will not really get this next part. If you black out when you hear incomprehensible computer mumbo jumbo, then skip to the next paragraph, or just black out now. I had set up my new computer as a SATA RAID 5. Three 150GB Barracudas working together to offer lightning fast data delivery. The problem is that the Windows XP install CD did not have drivers for my particular RAID setup, and I spent 3 agonizing nights trying to get the damn installation process to recognize my drives. In the end, I lost some of my hair, some of my health, gave up on installing XP, and gave in to installing Vista.

I must say, the Vista install was, by far, the fastest operating system install I have ever experienced. It had all the RAID drivers I needed, and installed everything in about 30min. Initially I installed the 64bit version, but after getting error after error of "Cannot recognize drivers" or "failed to initialize drivers" or whatever, I realized that I have to install 32bit for now until more developers design programs to actually use 64bit OS. I uninstalled the 64bit version and installed the 32bit version. After this move, I was stunned by what happened next.

........everything...went....... smoothly. I could not believe my eyes. Everything worked. I was almost in tears.

Now, of course, this is not really that big a surprise, but things had been going so badly during this transition, and I heard so many bad stories about Vista, I was expecting the worst.

After (around) a month and a half of using Vista I have to say that this is the best operating system I have ever used, and Im a huge Mac fan. Yes, it is better than OSX. Microsoft, as much as I hate them, have integrated almost all the best Mac OSX features into Vista, such as the "Spotlight" search engine, Widgets, and a very (very) attractive user interface. Vista is really beautiful. Really.

So, Microsoft has really stepped their game up. They are challenging Apple Mac in the looks department - a department that Apple completely owned for the past decade - with one heck of an eye-candy operating system. Everything is so damn pretty in Vista. The "window" frames are transparent (but blurred like bathroom window glass - which looks great), and the windows open and close in a smooth flowing motion. When a window is minimized and you mouse over the tab, a little screen pops up showing you the contents of your minimized window. You are now able to Alt-Tab switch to the Desktop (previously unavailable in XP), the Start button - although filled with more buttons - is far more intelligently laid out and somehow easier to use. For example, rather than clicking Start, then All Programs, then waiting for the sliding screen to pop up, then carefully moving the mouse to the next section without losing it, then clicking Adobe, then waiting for the next slider to pop up, then carefully....you get the point, instead, you click on Start, then Programs, and the actual drop-down menu turns INTO all the programs, eliminating the stupid, annoying slide-out menus. What a friggin relief...I hated those damn things.

Microsoft is also catching up to Apple in the speed and efficiency department as well. Vista is more CPU efficient and faster at processing information (I'm too lazy to get my "references" for that litte nugget of info, but trust me, its really fast and efficient). The computer takes about 30 seconds to fully boot up and about 15 seconds to shut down. Of course, this is also related to my hard drive setup, but it is still much faster than XP.

As for compatibility, I have really had no problems. One or two programs don't work, and I just HAVE to have the only printer currently on the market with no drivers for Vista, but the benefits that Vista offers far outweigh any of the problems I have had.

And I have to say that the "Cancel or Allow" security feature is really not at all annoying. I really love those Mac commercials (yeah, I know, most of you hate them), but - in all honesty, and despite my being a Mac fanatic - those commercials are biased and misleading.

The biggest flaw in this new operating system is the price. $500CDN is obscene (not half as obscene as $800 for Office 2007 Ultimate) and I would never pay that much for a new operating system (or any software for that matter). Unfortunately, using your friend's copy is not really possible anymore with Vista (from what I can see and have been told, but you never know those hackers/programmers...go hackers go!) so you are stuck with either biting the bullet and buying the damn software, or waiting until it becomes cheaper. Of course, you can also try to make friends with someone who works for Microsoft :D.

In conclusion, Microsoft Windows Vista 32bit is the best operating Microsoft has made to date, and I dare say the best operating system this world has seen so far. I definitely recommend installing it. It is extremely fast, the layout is much more user-friendly and logical, it has great security features (which are also "Turn the @#$@% Off"-able), has lots of great new "why didn't they think of that before?" features, the install was as smooth as Velveeta (what ever happened to Velveeta anyways?), and is prettier than Gwen Stefani in that "Don't Speak" video.

....ok, well, maybe not that pretty.

The Score:
Install: 9/10
Compatibility: 7/10
User-Friendliness: 8.5/10
Looks: 9/10
Price: 4/10

Overall: 75/100

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- Consumer #1337