Scientologist ASBOed for being over 36

Lots of you don't like Windows Vista. Well, it turns out that's down to five small misunderstandings and, once they've been cleared up, you should be on your way to enjoying the new lemon operating system. Have a read, and benefit.

Windows Search is just one of the services that is largely unnecessary for a vast number of users. I can't be the only user who always knows where a document is - it's in "Documents"! My music is in "Music" and so on.

But the Windows Search service isn't the only one that most users should disable. Superfetch is a terrible hard disk thrasher, making your PC less responsive after any change. ReadyBoost is a waste of time, and I could go on.

Vista *AND XP* should have a configuration wizard that asks you a series of questions about the use of the PC, and disables services appropriately.

Lozzyho

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The sadly forgotten disipline of OR would immediatly identify the basic problem.

Adding a feature which slows down something I do fifty times a day (like saving a file) in order to speed up something I do once every two days ( like searching for a file ) is not a good tradeoff.

Or maybe a basic software science course which would teach tham that it is possible to do thier indexing in a low priority background thread without affecting the users response time?

Sorry my coat hasnt been hung up yet - the cloakroom attendent is still indexing the contents of my pockets.

James Anderson

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I have a Limited Account, Games Account and an Admin Login for my XP machine, I'm the only person I know who does this, even the IT Dept at work all have their default login as admin at home and at work! and any time I mention running as a Limited User they look at me like I'm mad.

Am I the only who makes use of User Accounts in XP? I've not seen much of Vista but my sister has it on her laptop and her boyfriend, also in IT set it up and there is no User Login screen so I guess this also has admin as default. I should think Microsoft have their work cutout trying to convince people to use Limited User Accounts, the only program I use regularly that requires a Admin account is my tv guide and that I have configured so it asks for the Admin password to run, everything else seems okay to me.

Anyway just wanted to get that off my chest, I've been wondering for al ong time if anyone else uses Limited Accounts.

Thanks

Roger Barrett

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Ahh, so I misunderstood. I've struggled with my "misunderstandings" for a year now, and they ain't gettin' any better. I have turned off all the cr*p I "misunderstood" and then I was left with a slow, resource hungery, crippled copy of XP.

Format C:, install Linux and run a VMware XP instance. Vista misunderstanding? Not anymore

Anonymous Coward

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I'd call myself an advanced computer user, but in general I use my computer like anyone else - browsing the Internet, writing documents, watching Divx/listening to mp3s, and the odd software like FInal Draft, Dreamweaver etc.

I bought a mid/high-range laptop three months ago, replacing a five-year-old model.

And here's the kicker: Because 'Vista is doing so much', my battery life has halved. Before I could expect a good 2/3 hours of laptop use. Nov on Vista, I'm down to 1 hour or 1 and a half hours (and this seems similar for others I spoke to).

And apart from the flashy graphics, Vista - on the surface - appears to do NOTHING different to XP. The new Search Index is probably the height of it.

Anonymous Coward

Firefox 3 is out. The initial release candidate for the popular open-source browser is available for download, but a storm blew up on the comments page over plans to gather browsing data:

Hidden usage tracking? Depends on just how 'hidden' it is.

If there is an option in the 'custom' install asking if you would like to participate etc, then that would be moderately OK.

If there is an option in the Standard/express install asking if you would like to participate, which is unticked by default, then that would be better.

I don't care about data pharming [arf], provided I have the option to, quite clearly and expressly, opt out of it.

Your argument is a bit moot however, seeing as it hasn't even been implemented yet as far as I know, and is still in the early consultation stages - the negative press attached to it may well either kill off the data harvesting idea in it's infancy.

Anyway, it installed on my machine this morning with an update, and it seems to be happy enough, fairly zippy and generally running without any issues.

Steven R

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Well I for one won't be downloading it because of this. As far as im concerned any company who even has ideas of this kind of thing has lost my business.

It sadens me that a company like Mozilla who are meant to be free and tax exempt are even thinking about making more money by selling peoples data.

a lot of people who use Firefox use it because they think its safer & to avoid things like this. In my op, Mozilla are very close to shooting themselves in the foot.

Steven

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Yes, if Mozilla decides to spy on me, I won't use their products any more. And if my girlfriend cheats on me, I may look elsewhere, and if my car pisses me off enough, I'll be looking for a different one. Hell, if my pinky toe gives me pain every single day, I may look for the bolt cutters... But why the wildfire response to something that hasn't even been implemented, and probably will never be implemented? And if it is, you'll likely either have to opt in, or be able to easily opt out. Firefox is still one of, if not the best (and free) browser out there. God (almost only) knows what data MS is harvesting from your computer as a matter of course.

Everyone relax a little :)

Anonymous Coward

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Certainly it is conceptually annoying, but given that users can turn it off, no-one who is serious about user-tracking will give up the cookie/URL redirection mechanisms they currently use which you can't opt out of.

Its a light-weight system for non-critical use. Just turn it off if you don't like it. Phorm certainly won't be relying on it!

Move along, nothing much to see here.

P. Lee