I am a software developer and have recently downloaded Vista Beta 2 build 5384 x64 edition. I have experienced a number of issues with Vista which marred the experience:
1. The Vista setup program does not support USB mice - I had to use the keyboard to control it until Vista finished installing, upon which my Dell USB mouse was finally recognised and started working.
2. The display settings UI does not seem well thought out. The initial user interface presents a page of hyper-links to different settings which looks good. When you actually click on say the "Display Settings" link, it doesn't take you to a new page which you can navigate with the forward and back buttons like you'd expect a hyperlink to, instead it pops up a dialog of settings similar to the old Windows XP Display property sheet. The new Vista UI is supposed to use a browser style interface - why is it mixing metaphores like this?
3. Performance in general seems to be very slow on a Dual 3.4GHz Xeon with Hyper-Threading, 1GB of RAM and an NVIDIA 6800 Ultra card (Vista rating 3) and it is obvious that not everything is being double buffered. Our own scientific imaging application, Volocity (www.improvision.com/Volocity) is unable to use hardware accelerated Open GL (probably due to the beta NVIDIA drivers) and even 2-D drawing with DirectDraw is incredibly slow and flickery due to the selective lack of double-buffering.
4. My monitors resync every time a security dialog appears - this is not good as it puts a strain on them.
5. There are way too many security dialogs - do I really need to click on one just to change the date and time? The UI is still too verbose and is constantly assaulting the user with dialogs ("Did you notice the Information Bar!!!!", etc.).
6. Multiple monitor support seems messed up - I was not able to set my LCD panel to use its highest res (1024x768). Whenever I tried, the settings would reset, my LCD would set itself back to 800x600 and my CRT would become the secondary monitor instead of the primary monitor like it is supposed to be. Maybe this is a problem with the beta NVIDIA drivers?
7. The start menu is too cluttered and the distinction between individual items has been lost due to the removal of the icons. In particular, the "Computer" option needs to be much more distinctive and belongs near the top as it one of the most frequently used items.
8. The new inplace browser to view available programs in the start menu is awkward to use because the available space is very cramped and requires much more clicking just to see what programs are available. I much prefer the old hierarchical menu system.
9. I haven't seen any sign of the new 3-D Alt-Tab window navigation system. Is this something I have to turn on? The borders on the edges of windows are too narrow and when one window is overlaid on another, it is hard to distinguise where one window ends and the other begins (not helped by the "Aero Glass" opacity effect).
Personally I think MS still has a lot of work to do on this release (yeah, I know - it's still a beta). The UI is starting to grow on me, though. It doesn't seem to have the ton of overused flashy 3-D animations I was expecting (mostly just subtle things like the scale-down window minimisation animation), but this is probably a good thing.
Vista Public Beta 2 Feedback
"Oliver David Stuart" wrote:
I am a software developer and have recently downloaded Vista Beta 2 build 5384 x64 edition. I have experienced a number of issues with Vista which marred the experience:
1. The Vista setup program does not support USB mice - I had to use the keyboard to control it until Vista finished installing, upon which my Dell USB mouse was finally recognised and started working.
I did not have this problem. I used a Microsoft USB Intellimouse optical and it recognized it just fine and worked well.
2. The display settings UI does not seem well thought out. The initial user interface presents a page of hyper-links to different settings which looks good. When you actually click on say the "Display Settings" link, it doesn't take you to a new page which you can navigate with the forward and back buttons like you'd expect a hyperlink to, instead it pops up a dialog of settings similar to the old Windows XP Display property sheet. The new Vista UI is supposed to use a browser style interface - why is it mixing metaphores like this?
3. Performance in general seems to be very slow on a Dual 3.4GHz Xeon with Hyper-Threading, 1GB of RAM and an NVIDIA 6800 Ultra card (Vista rating 3) and it is obvious that not everything is being double buffered. Our own scientific imaging application, Volocity (www.improvision.com/Volocity) is unable to use hardware accelerated Open GL (probably due to the beta NVIDIA drivers) and even 2-D drawing with DirectDraw is incredibly slow and flickery due to the selective lack of double-buffering.
Since this is beta and you say you are a software developer, wouldn't you realize there is probably some debug code and other processes running that will not be there in the final?
4. My monitors resync every time a security dialog appears - this is not good as it puts a strain on them.
5. There are way too many security dialogs - do I really need to click on one just to change the date and time? The UI is still too verbose and is constantly assaulting the user with dialogs ("Did you notice the Information Bar!!!!", etc.).
I am starting to agree with this statement. When I was in my Users folder and trying to open the Pictures Folder, it said I was denied. Yet, I went to the left hand side and clicked on the Pictures quick link and it went right inside the Pictures folder.
6. Multiple monitor support seems messed up - I was not able to set my LCD panel to use its highest res (1024x768). Whenever I tried, the settings would reset, my LCD would set itself back to 800x600 and my CRT would become the secondary monitor instead of the primary monitor like it is supposed to be. Maybe this is a problem with the beta NVIDIA drivers?
7. The start menu is too cluttered and the distinction between individual items has been lost due to the removal of the icons. In particular, the "Computer" option needs to be much more distinctive and belongs near the top as it one of the most frequently used items.
Again I agree, but I think they (MS) are gearing people to use the search feature on the bottom of the start panel. This will in turn get people used to the idea of using search for everything on their computer.
8. The new inplace browser to view available programs in the start menu is awkward to use because the available space is very cramped and requires much more clicking just to see what programs are available. I much prefer the old hierarchical menu system.
9. I haven't seen any sign of the new 3-D Alt-Tab window navigation system. Is this something I have to turn on? The borders on the edges of windows are too narrow and when one window is overlaid on another, it is hard to distinguise where one window ends and the other begins (not helped by the "Aero Glass" opacity effect).
Did you try the Windows key + Tab button? I have an Inspiron 6000 with a Radeon x300 and it worked just fine.
Personally I think MS still has a lot of work to do on this release (yeah, I know - it's still a beta). The UI is starting to grow on me, though. It doesn't seem to have the ton of overused flashy 3-D animations I was expecting (mostly just subtle things like the scale-down window minimisation animation), but this is probably a good thing.
"Oliver David Stuart" wrote:
I am a software developer and have recently downloaded Vista Beta 2 build 5384 x64 edition. I have experienced a number of issues with Vista which marred the experience:
1. The Vista setup program does not support USB mice - I had to use the keyboard to control it until Vista finished installing, upon which my Dell USB mouse was finally recognised and started working.
I did not have this problem. I used a Microsoft USB Intellimouse optical and it recognized it just fine and worked well.
2. The display settings UI does not seem well thought out. The initial user interface presents a page of hyper-links to different settings which looks good. When you actually click on say the "Display Settings" link, it doesn't take you to a new page which you can navigate with the forward and back buttons like you'd expect a hyperlink to, instead it pops up a dialog of settings similar to the old Windows XP Display property sheet. The new Vista UI is supposed to use a browser style interface - why is it mixing metaphores like this?
3. Performance in general seems to be very slow on a Dual 3.4GHz Xeon with Hyper-Threading, 1GB of RAM and an NVIDIA 6800 Ultra card (Vista rating 3) and it is obvious that not everything is being double buffered. Our own scientific imaging application, Volocity (www.improvision.com/Volocity) is unable to use hardware accelerated Open GL (probably due to the beta NVIDIA drivers) and even 2-D drawing with DirectDraw is incredibly slow and flickery due to the selective lack of double-buffering.
Since this is beta and you say you are a software developer, wouldn't you realize there is probably some debug code and other processes running that will not be there in the final?
4. My monitors resync every time a security dialog appears - this is not good as it puts a strain on them.
5. There are way too many security dialogs - do I really need to click on one just to change the date and time? The UI is still too verbose and is constantly assaulting the user with dialogs ("Did you notice the Information Bar!!!!", etc.).
I am starting to agree with this statement. When I was in my Users folder and trying to open the Pictures Folder, it said I was denied. Yet, I went to the left hand side and clicked on the Pictures quick link and it went right inside the Pictures folder.
6. Multiple monitor support seems messed up - I was not able to set my LCD panel to use its highest res (1024x768). Whenever I tried, the settings would reset, my LCD would set itself back to 800x600 and my CRT would become the secondary monitor instead of the primary monitor like it is supposed to be. Maybe this is a problem with the beta NVIDIA drivers?
7. The start menu is too cluttered and the distinction between individual items has been lost due to the removal of the icons. In particular, the "Computer" option needs to be much more distinctive and belongs near the top as it one of the most frequently used items.
Again I agree, but I think they (MS) are gearing people to use the search feature on the bottom of the start panel. This will in turn get people used to the idea of using search for everything on their computer.
8. The new inplace browser to view available programs in the start menu is awkward to use because the available space is very cramped and requires much more clicking just to see what programs are available. I much prefer the old hierarchical menu system.
9. I haven't seen any sign of the new 3-D Alt-Tab window navigation system. Is this something I have to turn on? The borders on the edges of windows are too narrow and when one window is overlaid on another, it is hard to distinguise where one window ends and the other begins (not helped by the "Aero Glass" opacity effect).
Did you try the Windows key + Tab button? I have an Inspiron 6000 with a Radeon x300 and it worked just fine.
Personally I think MS still has a lot of work to do on this release (yeah, I know - it's still a beta). The UI is starting to grow on me, though. It doesn't seem to have the ton of overused flashy 3-D animations I was expecting (mostly just subtle things like the scale-down window minimisation animation), but this is probably a good thing.
1. The Vista setup program does not support USB mice - I had to use the keyboard to control it until Vista finished installing, upon which my Dell USB mouse was finally recognised and started working.
I did not have this problem. I used a Microsoft USB Intellimouse optical and it recognized it just fine and worked well.
3. Performance in general seems to be very slow on a Dual 3.4GHz Xeon with Hyper-Threading, 1GB of RAM and an NVIDIA 6800 Ultra card (Vista rating 3) and it is obvious that not everything is being double buffered. Our own scientific imaging application, Volocity (www.improvision.com/Volocity) is unable to use hardware accelerated Open GL (probably due to the beta NVIDIA drivers) and even 2-D drawing with DirectDraw is incredibly slow and flickery due to the selective lack of double-buffering.
Since this is beta and you say you are a software developer, wouldn't you realize there is probably some debug code and other processes running that will not be there in the final?
4. My monitors resync every time a security dialog appears - this is not good as it puts a strain on them.
5. There are way too many security dialogs - do I really need to click on one just to change the date and time? The UI is still too verbose and is constantly assaulting the user with dialogs ("Did you notice the Information Bar!!!!", etc.).
I am starting to agree with this statement. When I was in my Users folder and trying to open the Pictures Folder, it said I was denied. Yet, I went to the left hand side and clicked on the Pictures quick link and it went right inside the Pictures folder.
7. The start menu is too cluttered and the distinction between individual items has been lost due to the removal of the icons. In particular, the "Computer" option needs to be much more distinctive and belongs near the top as it one of the most frequently used items.
Again I agree, but I think they (MS) are gearing people to use the search feature on the bottom of the start panel. This will in turn get people used to the idea of using search for everything on their computer.
8. The new inplace browser to view available programs in the start menu is awkward to use because the available space is very cramped and requires much more clicking just to see what programs are available. I much prefer the old hierarchical menu system.
9. I haven't seen any sign of the new 3-D Alt-Tab window navigation system. Is this something I have to turn on? The borders on the edges of windows are too narrow and when one window is overlaid on another, it is hard to distinguise where one window ends and the other begins (not helped by the "Aero Glass" opacity effect).
Did you try the Windows key + Tab button? I have an Inspiron 6000 with a Radeon x300 and it worked just fine.
"Oliver David Stuart" wrote:
I am a software developer and have recently downloaded Vista Beta 2 build 5384 x64 edition. I have experienced a number of issues with Vista which marred the experience:
1. The Vista setup program does not support USB mice - I had to use the keyboard to control it until Vista finished installing, upon which my Dell USB mouse was finally recognised and started working.
2. The display settings UI does not seem well thought out. The initial user interface presents a page of hyper-links to different settings which looks good. When you actually click on say the "Display Settings" link, it doesn't take you to a new page which you can navigate with the forward and back buttons like you'd expect a hyperlink to, instead it pops up a dialog of settings similar to the old Windows XP Display property sheet. The new Vista UI is supposed to use a browser style interface - why is it mixing metaphores like this?
3. Performance in general seems to be very slow on a Dual 3.4GHz Xeon with Hyper-Threading, 1GB of RAM and an NVIDIA 6800 Ultra card (Vista rating 3) and it is obvious that not everything is being double buffered. Our own scientific imaging application, Volocity (www.improvision.com/Volocity) is unable to use hardware accelerated Open GL (probably due to the beta NVIDIA drivers) and even 2-D drawing with DirectDraw is incredibly slow and flickery due to the selective lack of double-buffering.
4. My monitors resync every time a security dialog appears - this is not good as it puts a strain on them.
5. There are way too many security dialogs - do I really need to click on one just to change the date and time? The UI is still too verbose and is constantly assaulting the user with dialogs ("Did you notice the Information Bar!!!!", etc.).
6. Multiple monitor support seems messed up - I was not able to set my LCD panel to use its highest res (1024x768). Whenever I tried, the settings would reset, my LCD would set itself back to 800x600 and my CRT would become the secondary monitor instead of the primary monitor like it is supposed to be. Maybe this is a problem with the beta NVIDIA drivers?
7. The start menu is too cluttered and the distinction between individual items has been lost due to the removal of the icons. In particular, the "Computer" option needs to be much more distinctive and belongs near the top as it one of the most frequently used items.
8. The new inplace browser to view available programs in the start menu is awkward to use because the available space is very cramped and requires much more clicking just to see what programs are available. I much prefer the old hierarchical menu system.
9. I haven't seen any sign of the new 3-D Alt-Tab window navigation system. Is this something I have to turn on? The borders on the edges of windows are too narrow and when one window is overlaid on another, it is hard to distinguise where one window ends and the other begins (not helped by the "Aero Glass" opacity effect).
Personally I think MS still has a lot of work to do on this release (yeah, I know - it's still a beta). The UI is starting to grow on me, though. It doesn't seem to have the ton of overused flashy 3-D animations I was expecting (mostly just subtle things like the scale-down window minimisation animation), but this is probably a good thing.
I did not have this problem. I used a Microsoft USB Intellimouse optical and it recognized it just fine and worked well.
If it's just a bug, that's absolutely fine. I've reported it using the Vista feedback webpage, anyway.
Since this is beta and you say you are a software developer, wouldn't you realize there is probably some debug code and other processes running that will not be there in the final?
Not really - MS build separate "Checked" (i.e., Debug) and "Free" (i.e., Release) builds. The checked build has all the debug code and runtime checks turned on, the free build is supposed to be built with optimisations and have all the debug checks turned off. As it's a public beta, I rather doubt MS is shipping the Checked build to ordinary users.
Now - I've no idea if, nevertheless, the code is horribly unoptimised or some debug processes are running which will not be part of the final version. The purpose of the beta is to solicit feedback and I don't see the point of not commenting about performance problems. If the problems go away with the removal of debug code then I doubt anyone at MS will have suffered long-term emotional damage from such complaints, and if the problems are more deep rooted - they need to have an idea of how good/bad the user's experience with OS is on different hardware.
I am starting to agree with this statement. When I was in my Users folder and trying to open the Pictures Folder, it said I was denied. Yet, I went to the left hand side and clicked on the Pictures quick link and it went right inside the Pictures folder.
Yep - happened to me too!
Again I agree, but I think they (MS) are gearing people to use the search feature on the bottom of the start panel. This will in turn get people used to the idea of using search for everything on their computer.
The search thing is fine, but if I already know where the program is (usually case) then typing in a query is much slower than quickly stepping through a hierarchical menu. I don't see any point in making the "All Programs" item harder to use - it doesn't make the search box easier to use as a side benefit!
Did you try the Windows key + Tab button? I have an Inspiron 6000 with a Radeon x300 and it worked just fine.
Yeah - didn't realise it had a different key combination from Alt-Tab.