Windows Vista Revisited
Well, despite my anti-Vista stance a month or so ago when running the MSDN build I went out and bought the retail version of Vista Home Premium and am running it full-time on my laptop.
Strangely enough, the retail version – despite being the same build as the MSDN version I was running before (and promptly removed from my laptop) – works absolutely perfectly. I have no idea why this should be as I was under the impression that the release MSDN builds were what went to RTM. I should also point out at this juncture that the ‘MSDN’ version I am talking about is the official Microsoft MSDN build that I downloaded from Microsoft with my MSDN subscription.
Anyways, everything I want to use seems to work – so far. The only slight issue I had was with Adobe’s Acrobat Reader, which was easy enough to work out. If you’re struggling to install Acrobat Reader on Vista, have a look here for how I did it.
The other issue I have is that my copy of VMware Workstation 5.5 no longer works, which is a shame. I’ve had a go with VMware’s Workstation 6 beta but bridged networking (really the only networking system I use!) doesn’t work with a wireless connection. Bugger. I suppose I could move to Microsoft’s Virtual PC 2007 but you lose so much functionality and a substantial wodge of performance too. For now I’ll stick to dual-booting between Windows Vista Home Premium (my personal workstation) and Windows XP Professional (what I use at work).
The only other concern I have is the lack of any decent anti-virus software for Vista right now. Only a few suppliers actually have anything you can use – and those that do aren’t exactly brilliant. I did try out Windows Live OneCare but found it extremely irritating to use. Symantec’s home product for Vista isn’t out yet (at time of writing) and CA’s software has, in the past, crashed my PC. It’s such a shame you can’t buy Symantec’s Anti-Virus Corporate Edition as a standalone product – I really hate those packages that try and install everything for you. All I want is a small anti-virus product that sits in the background, takes next to no system resources and quietly gets on with its job. Is that too much to ask?
