I have been using Windows Vista for a little over a year and a half, first as a beta tester for Microsoft and then as a consumer. Like many users of the latest Windows operating system, I was annoyed by the User Account Control (UAC), the incompatibility with existing hardware and the lack of drivers, conflicting 3^rd party software and how it was a resource hog. These were all acceptable to me during the Beta trial because bugs & annoyances were understood and were to be improved on before the release, right?

Wrong.

The UAC was the nagging mother who would second-guess you every time. “Are you sure you want to open this XYZ software?” Yes, thank you, mother. Click “Are you really sure? Momma knows better than you do.” Yes, mother. While it is true you can disable the UAC (good luck trying to find the disable feature), Microsoft really scares you into keeping it activated for security purposes.

When Vista was released, I purchased the “upgrade” Vista Premium Home edition, upgraded my memory and video card as suggested for the “Wow” experience but the software was still consuming a majority of the memory resources. Don’t even THINK of having a browser, instant message client and Photoshop CS3 running at the same time because Vista needs the memory to run processes in the background don’t you know?

The only issue I had with hardware was the wireless router and photo scanner but even then there workarounds and drivers released (way too long after Vista out).

This past week I downloaded and installed the first Service Pack released by Microsoft for Vista and was not impressed. It still takes way too long to transfer files or delete to the trash bin. Why? Because Vista has to think about what you are trying to do before even performing the action. Geez…quit second-guessing the user already!

After giving Vista its due diligence, after complying with the hardware/software requirements, after waiting for the SP1 to be released I am not impressed and regretted installing Vista. Well, I don’t have to live with that regret because I reinstalled Windows XP because it has been tested and improved upon for years now and it doesn’t try to think about what I want but lets me DO what I want. Immediately after booting I could tell a dramatic improvement in speed and performance. This weekend I “upgraded” back to Windows XP.