WINDOWS VISTA REVIEW by Amit Patnaik

aah, i have been away for a while but now i am back and big time too, i haven't been doing nuffin' all this while i have completed my windows vista, in which i have dissected the the new version of windows.
please note that this review is completely orignal, nothing is copid and pasted neither is anything taken from any magazine, i would also like to thank one dhruv shukla who gave me the vista dvd.
i tested vista on rig witha p4 3 ghz processor(530j),1 gb of ddr 333mhz ram,80 gb pata hdd, a nvida 66oogt 128 mb and intel 915gav mobo.
1st the sys rq. well it is suggested that u have atleat a 2 ghz intel pro. 512 mb ram, and 10 gb of free hard disk space and most importantly a directx 9 compatible display card. u can downloaded the windows vista upgrade advisor from microsoft website to check for the req.
it is alo reqd. that the drive u are installing vista in is ntfs formatted, i suggest using no more than 15 gb drive.

now the installation.
vista come on a single layered dvd only, so instead of downloading th 4.5 gb iso file, i suggest u borrow it from sum1, the version i tested was the windows vista beta 2 ver, build 5384(ultimate edition), i popped in the dvd and it took a min for the setup and then another 3 min. before i could get a place to click next.
u have to obtain a serial for installing vista as of now this is easily available upon registration with microsoft, vist presents u the option to upgrade or to separately install if u wanna keep xp too, choose separate install,and then start the installation, now the installation doesn't require any user intervention for most of the time, and it took about 1.5 hrs on my pc, so i suggest u get a quick nap, when u get if everything went fine the installation should be over and then u jsut have to configure the regional settings etc.
BOOTING INTO VISTA
vista uses its own boot loader and presents u with option of booting into vista(microsoft windows) or xp(earlier version of windows), 1st good thing u notice is the time it taks to go from the login screen to the desktop, very fast and it seems to fade away, and u can start opening folders even before the os is fully started and all the services load so very good startup time, now u are pesented with the welcome center where u have the options and info. abt. vista.
EYE CANDY.
the icons are larger nbow and are of higher resoluyions, the wallapers seem more spectacular, thw windows are transparent, the sceen savrs look stunning especially the desktop aquarium, u will laso notice how the windows seem to fade in slow mo when u minimize them and when u move ur cursor over a tab in the task bar it give u a picture preview of what's rnning and on pressing the win=key + tab, u get a brilliant 3d flip of all the minimized windows including the desktop, the start menu has changed as well now there are no horizontally cascaing menus for programs, instead the go vertical, u also ahve a search box in the task bar.
the explorer has changed as well there is the vista trademark green progress bar that fills in the address bar as the explorer loads , u also have a menu in the address bar besides a better side bar containing favorites and specific locations, the re is alo a side bar for the desktoop which u can customize and add gadgets like sudoku, calc. etc.
BUNDLED PROGRAMS
vista bundles along loads of programs like a new windows movie maker a brilliant media center software, dvd burner, windows defender, parental security,ie 7,wmp 11 and lots more, yet a proper firewall and antirus, iso files handler, download manager are missing.

ANNOYANCES
the is no "run" menu in taskbar so u have to press winkey+r, type in msconfig or regedit or try to acess some settings from control panel or even press alt ctrl delete, u will see that an annoying window always pops up skaing confiramtion or permition even for the most absic tasks, this is really frustating, microsoft calls in user acess protection which means preventing the user from changing any systme setting(like pressing alt ctrl del), if u are a power user like me u can disable it in the security settings in control panel.
also u must registe vista or else the os will lock down in 14 days, luckily it free.
i recommend visiting tweakingvista.com and follwoing their tweaks and downloading tweakvista.
also bear in mind the the os is quite unstable, after installing ez antivirus and spyware doctor, the system got sluggish and the net stopped working, i couldn't correct it whatever i tried.
the cold hard fact is after u are familiar with the cool eye candy and the new bundled software vista seems like old wine in a new bottle, it is still a lot like xp, and maybe more irritataing, microsoft seriosly needs to look into it before realeasing the final version.
my suggestion= if u are considering an upgrade just to run vista, forget it its not worth it, buy a mac instead, which looks and performs better.