I read Becta’s report on Vista and Office. Becta is a UK government agency supporting IT in education. The report is a ponderous affair and tells us that XP still works, so why bother with Vista; and that Office 2007 saves by default in a tiresome new format that few other applications can open; and … Continue reading Becta’s report on Vista and Office 2007: wise advice, or mere polemic?
After posting about the inadequacy of a recent test report I thought it would be interesting to conduct my own informal tests of Vista vs XP performance. I do not run a computer laboratory, but I guess my tests have the benefit of being real-world. I tested several conditions on three computers. On two of … Continue reading Vista vs XP performance: some informal tests
Is Vista really half the speed of XP? That is what CNET reports here, in an article which does not bother to link to the source of the tests, as far as I can see. The tests seem to be based mainly on scripting Office through OLE automation. This is certainly interesting, but it would … Continue reading Performance testing Vista: misleading reporting of inadequate tests.
CNET’s inclusion of Vista on a list of top ten terrible tech products has drawn some attention. Here’s the blurb: Its incompatibility with hardware, its obsessive requirement of human interaction to clear security dialogue box warnings and its abusive use of hated DRM, not to mention its general pointlessness as an upgrade, are just some … Continue reading Vista myths and reality
I was surprised to learn that CodeGear’s online conference is apparently closed to Mac users, or anyone not on Windows: That’s odd, since the company has Java and Ruby development products that run cross-platform. Further, even Windows users have had problems logging in. The conferencing software CodeGear is using is limited to 1500 attendees per … Continue reading CodeRage II: Windows only, login problems
Is there any more to say about Vista? Probably not; yet after reading 30 days with Vista I can’t resist a few comments. The author, Brian Boyko, says: On two separate computers I had major stability problems which resulted in loss of data. This is an unforgivable sin …. Additionally, Vista claims backwards compatibility, but I’ve … Continue reading 120 days with Vista
I wrote a little Windows utility that updates a file. It’s safe and harmless; it just modifies a file which is in my user documents folder. I called the utility UpdateMSI. Under Vista with UAC enabled, running this app throws up a dialog: An unidentified program wants access to your computer But why? Simple: Vista … Continue reading Don’t call your Windows app UpdateAnything
It was good to see – at last – the release of Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 Update for Vista. I was hoping this update would remove the need to run Visual Studio 2005 with administrator rights on Vista. Unfortunately I don’t think it does. It’s hard to be sure; in fact, I can’t … Continue reading Visual Studio 2005: still needs admin rights on Vista?
In the user data area in Vista is a virtual store. Find it at: C:\Users\[USERNAME]\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\ It is worth having a peek now and again. Here’s part of mine: The Virtual Store is a feature of User Account Control, the centerpiece of Vista’s enhanced security. Applications that try to write to protected system locations, including Program … Continue reading Peeking into Vista’s virtual store
Tech journalists have a tough job. They are meant to take the vast complexity of things like computers and operating systems and translate them into terms that ordinary people can understand. Of course there is never a one-to-one mapping between the complex and the simple. The simplified explanation is a compromise. So let’s look at … Continue reading How secure is Windows Vista?