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View Full Version : Why I hate Vista.. YMMV.



Luke122
05-13-2008, 03:07 PM
Honest guys, I really did try to like it.

I uninstalled XP Pro x64 from Throttle Junkie, and installed Vista Business x64 instead. 3DMark Vantage was calling my name.. as was DirectX10.

So, I backed up my files, installed Vista, and started customizing. At first, things were goin nice and smooth, and I was being cautious. Finally, as I began to see the "light at the end of the tunnel" (tunnel being reinstall), I started to let my guard down a bit.

Oops.

First of all, I've forgotten how much of a pain the UAC is. Yes, it's there for security purposes. Yes, I realize that in the hands of an average user, it's much harder for someone to make seriously destructive changes in Vista than in XP. For someone like me though, the UAC is annoying as hell.

Second, streaming audio? Forget it. If you have Vista x64, you can kiss Shoutcast goodbye. Any station that streams on anything other than port 80 will either play for 3-4 seconds, then buffer forever, or never get past 60% buffering at the beginning and play nothing.

No, it's not a firewall issue. Yes I tried playing with that anyways. It *DID* work on XP x64, so it has to be a Vista issue. Yes, I googled. Yes, i posted on Shoutcast's forum. The short answer: "It's a bug in Vista".

One possible solution: SP1. So I start downloading it from Micro$oft's site. 80% and it hangs. Restart, 80%, and it hangs again. At the same time, my Live Messenger suddenly disconnects and reconnects. Wth.. network driver issue maybe?

I added a different NIC, and rebooted. Same issue persist, so it's not a driver issue. I just started downloading SP1 again from a diff MS link, it's currently @ 47% of 726mb.... still. It's been there for a few minutes.

Whoops, Live Messenger just disconnected and reconnected again, and the SP1 download crashed... again.

Meanwhile, right beside me sits the trusty Inspiron 8600 laptop running XP Pro, streaming away from Shoutcast and downloading the Mint Linux ISO.. no disconnection, no interruption... and it's on wifi. Desktop is plugged in... so there goes the possibility of a local network issue.

Let's talk Office 2003 for a moment. Once installed, it prompts me every single time I start (any of the applications in the suite) to accept the EULA. Google reveals a registry tweak to correct that.. didnt work for me.

Reinstall = same thing again.

I've run all the updates for Windows, as well as all the driver updates for my hardware, and my issues continue.

Now before anyone jumps on me for trashing Vista, or trying to run it on no-name/obsolete hardware, have a look at my system specs. This is not cheap stuff, and it's certainly not no-name, so there's no excuse for this sort of half-assed behavior.

I have decided that Vista is complete garbage FOR ME and that I will not recommend it to anyone. If you like Vista, good for you. I don't, I won't use it anymore, and will not ever buy another copy of it (or any other MS product) for any purpose.

Yes, I'm selling my Xbox360 (which I got for FREE ANYWAYS, with an RRoD, and fixed).

xRyokenx
05-13-2008, 03:59 PM
Weird... I'm planning on giving it a shot as soon as I get my secondary PC hooked up to the web and a monitor. Hopefully I don't have similar issues... and hopefully I don't take a performance hit when playing games but I think my specs are good for it. Who knows, never know until ya try, lol.

crenn
05-13-2008, 04:08 PM
First thing I do on ALL my Vista machines is disable UAC, so I can understand that.
Shoutcast issue, never heard of that issue, but I don't really use such applications anyway.
Can I ask what you were using to download SP1? Just IE? Unlikely to help, but try disabling IPv6.
Office 2003, not sure on that, if you wish I'll look into the issue for you and see what other possible solutions there are.

That hardware certainly should be running Vista fine.

xRyokenx
05-13-2008, 04:10 PM
That hardware certainly should be running Vista fine.

We all hope so, lol. Is there a page in the Wiki for improving Vista's performance after a fresh install? If not, that'd be a cool thing to add. Maybe I'll start a thread on it or something after I start figuring it out more. :D

crenn
05-13-2008, 04:24 PM
Generic tip of speeding up Vista, get rid of anything you don't need... this may include Vista itself.

xRyokenx
05-13-2008, 04:27 PM
Hahahaha, I think I need an OS to run games though.

Reminds me... they need an OS dedicated to gaming. Just gaming... well, maybe include other features too but have a real basic one that is very minimal so you get the most out of your machine. Just an idea.

crenn
05-13-2008, 04:35 PM
It's called nLite.

Eclecticos
05-13-2008, 04:42 PM
Well you can turn off the UAC. I have been running Vista x64 for the last 6 months. . I have had no probelms with shoutcast. Sounds like internet connection problems, you may want to adjust your MTU.

I've grown fond of it "Vista" works great . .for me atleast. At first there we allot of compatibility issues with hardware, and software but after making all the nesissary updates everything I use works fine.

The only thing I don't like is the fact that its a memory hog, Control panel icons take some getting used to, and when you start to save something you have to use the browse folders drop down menu to save files locally.

Luke122
05-13-2008, 05:15 PM
I have been running Vista x64 for the last 6 months. . I have had no probelms with shoutcast. Sounds like internet connection problems, you may want to adjust your MTU.

Ok, that's incredibly odd. I've found loads of people with the same issue as me, so I just assumed that it was the combination of Vista x64 and Shoutcast that was causing the issue. Are you running Vista Business?

I doubt very much that it is internet connection issues.. Every other PC on this LAN (almost 70) are working just fine, as was this PC before replacing XP with Vista. I did try disabling the QoS and IPv6 already, so no luck there.

My search continues, but there are other software compatibility issues arising now, so I'm likely going to end up back on XP before the end of the day anyways.

Nlite: I thought nlite was a tool to strip down an OS to the bare minimum, for smaller footprint installs?

Quakken
05-13-2008, 05:27 PM
Reminds me... they need an OS dedicated to gaming. Just gaming... well, maybe include other features too but have a real basic one that is very minimal so you get the most out of your machine. Just an idea.

I've thought this before.

M$ needs to make an os that doesn't have any unneeded programs, no unneeded interface (just xp, or even 98 would work). Just great device support, rock solid stability and linux-like system security. Then, I would be happy.

It would have directx 10, and be 64bit capability (I.E more than 4gig of ram).

That's what we want, microsoft. that's all most of need. Let us add our own programs and our packages if we need anything else. Please.

FrooP
05-13-2008, 05:38 PM
AND YOUR ODD WISHES WHERE HEARD

http://www.bloggiando.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/linux-microsoft-brevetti-violati.jpg

..srsly..never...

Luke122
05-13-2008, 05:41 PM
Ok, I'm going to give this one last chance. I'm going to try using vLite (http://www.vlite.net/) to trim/prune Vista Business x64 to try and squeeze out the functionality that I need from it.

I'm in the process of downloading the Vista Business x64 DVD with SP1, so once that image is in, I'll vLite the hell out of it, and burn it off. You can expect details to follow.

Eclecticos
05-13-2008, 05:51 PM
No, I have Windows vista ultimate.

You may want to try this patch. Here (http://www.fileaward.com/Internet/Network-Utilities/vista_tcp_ip_and_uac_autopatch.html) <=-

crenn
05-13-2008, 07:11 PM
By the end of the nTune process, the OS is smaller, but a lot faster (normally).

Eclecticos, that's for the link, I'll add it to the Vista links topic I made a while back.

Luke122
05-15-2008, 01:44 PM
Oh man.. it gets better. I just installed a program to play PLS files in Windows Media Player... all the shoutcast works fine now. So it's definitely a problem with Winamp in x64.

Now then.. there's still the frequent disconnect issue.. thoughts?

FrooP
05-15-2008, 03:59 PM
1. open side panel
2. open pants
3. drop pants
4. insert urine into pc
5. close sidepanel
6. start pc
7. all problems solved

GET A TYPEWRITER!

crenn
05-15-2008, 04:08 PM
Try VLC and see how that goes... now I'm a bit curious.

Luke122
05-15-2008, 05:10 PM
VLC crashed on the first attempt, but now it's streaming just fine.

TheGreatSatan
05-15-2008, 07:00 PM
Turn off UAC in User Accounts and then set your power plan to high performance in Power Options

crenn
05-16-2008, 01:19 AM
If it's streaming fine with VLC, then I wouldn't think it's a vista problem... although I'm not 100% sure.

Luke122
05-16-2008, 01:38 AM
Turn off UAC in User Accounts and then set your power plan to high performance in Power Options

I thought the power/performance options only applied to notebooks?

crenn
05-16-2008, 05:03 AM
Nope. The Power Saver basically just reduces the amount of power your computer you use.

Luke122
05-16-2008, 01:13 PM
Crazy.. so that's new in Vista then.. I've never seen that before on a desktop. I turned it up to "High Performance", and then as a secondary thought, checked the device mangler to make sure it wasnt set to turn off the LAN to save power.. it was. Changed that too..

We'll see how many times I drop connection today. :)

Cheron
05-17-2008, 12:07 PM
And connection drops???

Eclecticos
05-17-2008, 08:18 PM
You may want to try this patch. Here (http://www.fileaward.com/Internet/Network-Utilities/vista_tcp_ip_and_uac_autopatch.html) <=-

After i installed this autopatch my downloads skyrocketed.
I can play games with low latency, download all I want, listen to shoutcast, and browse the internet, all at the same time.

jbaldwinroberts
05-18-2008, 07:15 PM
I tried to play 4 different games on my friends vista laptop this weekend and none worked. Even with updates and compatibility mode on. i think ill stick to xp and linux.

Joe