Even though Microsoft announced the retirement of Windows XP, it is still pretty much popular with the users. According to a Forrester survey, Windows XP is still the most widely used operating system with as much as 87.1 % of the companies surveyed using it. XP Hurting Vista Badly:

According to a recent Forrester survey, less than 10 percent of the 2,300 companies surveyed use Vista. Forrester says 87.1 percent of companies surveyed continue to use Windows XP.

As per my analysis of the server logs of my site/blog and the general analysis of the data available on the web, I have found one thing and one thing only. By delaying in bringing Windows Vista to the consumers, Microsoft may have sounded the death knell for it’s latest operating system even before it’s launch. Actually the non-availability of a new version to the best version of Windows to-date, Windows XP, has hurt not only the consumers but Microsoft too. The result is easily visible before you. Windows XP reigns supreme while Vista struggles to make friends with consumers.

The future of the PCs is here. A demo of the next version of Windows, codenamed Windows 7, was recently given by Microsoft Corporation. It is the first time that the much speculated Operating System has been shown ever since Bill Gates confirmed that the next version of Windows is codenamed Windows 7!

I certainly hope that the successor to Windows Vista is better and delivered sooner than when Vista was launched (after 6 years in the making).

Here is a common list of FAQs at Microsoft’s knowledge base which highlight some common problems faced (or questions asked) by users who are either installing Vista SP1 or are planning to do so. It identifies them and then gives you a workaround.

If you are looking something more or if you haven’t found what you were looking for in the above article, you can check this FAQ article regarding Vista SP1 at Computer World. It also has a lot of informative news.

Ok, the much awaited Service Pack 1 for Windows Vista has finally been released by Microsoft. Right now they are offering it as a manual (read: optional) update on the Windows Update Service and will start enforcing it on users from mid-April.

Even some users will not be able to see it in their respective Windows Update unless they have the prerequisites (which are nothing but some pre-SP1 updates that Microsoft has been sending us) installed on their PCs (oh! as if all the other things weren’t enough they expect us to install prerequisites).

There is a standalone version of the Vista Service Pack1 on offer though. But, I don’t really know if it will install on your PCs. Read the Post on the Windows Vista Blog for more information on how to install SP1.

I suggest that you better wait right until mid-April (the time when Microsoft starts enforcing SP1 on all users) so that you will get SP1 anyway. This way you don’t have to be running from pillar-to-post in order to install SP1. By that time we will be able to find out the performance of the service pack.
I hope the compatibility level has been increased in the service pack for XP applications to run without glitch on Vista.

If you do decide on installing SP1, here are some important things you must know before you install SP1(Microsoft Knowledge base).

With so many confusing editions of Vista around, people get Home Premium. While undoubtedly, the best edition of Vista is the Ultimate Edition. I came across a good article that let’s you add features to your Home Premium Edition of Vista.

Here’s the great article on how to make your Windows Vista Home Premium a lot more like Windows Vista Ultimate.

If you are a user who swears by Windows XP, you might be aware that support for XP will soon be coming to an end. What this means is, you have to switch to Vista anytime soon. Here’s an article that shows some ways to make Windows Vista your own, Vista: Create a Version New.

It seems Microsoft has done it again in terms of achieving user (dis) satisfaction with it’s latest Operating System, Windows Vista.

I am amazed at how hard the folks at the big dubby have worked in order to make things harder for us hapless users. Don’t mind their advertisements and various slogans including this one: “The easiest Windows yet!”.

The easiest Window yet, yes, but from my ass-point. Yeah, right. The only Windows they did make easier than the previous ones was the friendly Windows XP.

I mean, how many of you had faced problems shifting over to Windows XP? I mean to say forget about getting used to the new UI, just getting familiar with the general operations of the OS.

Isn’t an operating system supposed to make the operation of a PC more easier so that we users don’t have to look at how to send binary command to the hardware?

Why am I so pissed you say? Well sample an operation that we will perform in Windows XP and Windows Vista to see how easy is easy?

To uninstall a program what should we be doing?

Windows XP Home/Professional: To uninstall, go to Start Menu > Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs. Select the program you want to remove, press uninstall and voila! We have uninstalled the program.

Windows Vista (Any edition) : To uninstall, go to Start Menu > Control Panel > [Search for the right option unless you can't find one and then call your friend who has been through this process before and then he tells you the answer] Programs and Features (They couldn’t come up with any more creative name, in effect just confusing the user all the more).

Yesterday, I went to see what my colleague was doing and here we had him struggling in Windows Vista’s so called “friendly interface” just to configure his ASP.NET project to work with IIS 7.0 (it comes with Vista).

As part of it’s simplification process, the folks at Microsoft thought lets do something more innovative and change the IIS Services Administrator interface and options hierarchy. They then went ahead and created the IIS Service Manager. This has all the more made the task difficult.

If we wanted to make some changes we weren’t able to do so with any more ease than working with Windows NT!

So there you go. The easiest Windows yet, they say! Well we think otherwise oh brethren at Microsoft.

I must tell you that I believe Windows Vista may be using a lot of battery in comparison to my Windows XP Professional installation which has far more programs installed on it.

I noticed this problem with Windows Vista Ultimate (that is the version I have installed on my laptop) while working on battery. I noticed that it gave me a time remaining indication for about an hour. that is about half the indication I’m used to see from Windows XP.

For those who don’t know, I have a Toshiba Satellite A100-709 with Windows XP and Windows Vista installed on two separate partitions. The battery, generally, stays with me for around 2 to 2 and 1/2 hours  while I am using Windows XP. But the backup goes down to just near the 1 hour mark when I am using Windows Vista. At first I thought this to be a refresh problem regarding the backup time from the operating system. But later to my dismay, I found the timing was correct.

Makes me wonder, what is so special in Vista that I should be losing more than 60% of battery backup time for it? On my business trips, I am using Windows XP.

So, there you have it. Another (mis)feature of Vista. The WOW factor Operating System !

Every once in 2-3 (or in Vista’s case more than5 years) we are forced to upgrade to a new operating system, courtesy technology advancements, coupled with commercial and shareholder’s profit interests .

So, to deal with this really silly phase, I have devised a strategy which helps me to upgrade my system to a new OS smoothly. I have always been cautious in doing an upgrade (no, not money wise my friend!).