I have actaully got used to almost all the changes in Vista, but the one that really angers me is the "Network and Sharing Center". It quite plainly takes more clicks to do what you want to do.
A few examples: on every Vista machine I have used, there is a NOTICEABLE delay when right-clicking the Network icon.
And to get to any even vaguely advanced option you have to go into the god awful Network and Sharing Center, which also takes fucking ages to appear. On this laptop it's a good 4 seconds on first launch, but any delay more than about half a second is enough to annoy me.
What is more Start>Network is a complete lost cause, it brings you to a hopeless Network Map which you never want to use really. There is at least a button to bring you to the badly designed Network and Sharing Center.
See, XP wasn't logical but at least it was learnable. Vista is possibly more logical but definitely less learnable. Ugh.
Network and Sharing Center
I do - agree.
Hmm, this is a strange emotion that I don't much care for.
But yes, I am generally a bit of a 'yay Vista' type when it comes to useability for most things, but having two entry points to the network gubbins is a bit horrid, and even for things I've had to do several times, I do find myself going in circles a bit around the Network and Sharing Center (which namewise is such an uncomfortable marriage of technology and peddling Windows as some sort of social new order), and I suspect that they could have got away with de-emphasising the network map quite significantly.
As for the time it takes to populate the window itself, its not perfect but its substantially better than it has been before. Windows of old would take an embarrassing amount of time to enumerate lists of workgroups and so on without really embracing asynchronicity, so I can put up with this relative delay.
Hmm, this is a strange emotion that I don't much care for.
But yes, I am generally a bit of a 'yay Vista' type when it comes to useability for most things, but having two entry points to the network gubbins is a bit horrid, and even for things I've had to do several times, I do find myself going in circles a bit around the Network and Sharing Center (which namewise is such an uncomfortable marriage of technology and peddling Windows as some sort of social new order), and I suspect that they could have got away with de-emphasising the network map quite significantly.
As for the time it takes to populate the window itself, its not perfect but its substantially better than it has been before. Windows of old would take an embarrassing amount of time to enumerate lists of workgroups and so on without really embracing asynchronicity, so I can put up with this relative delay.
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Gavin Scott
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Gave up on Vista. Its a pile of dookie. I removed it from both machines I use regularly and I'm delighted to be back to XP.
For me its been so much easier to network my machines and browse network folders with XP - although my experience seems to be different from yours, Luketh.
For me its been so much easier to network my machines and browse network folders with XP - although my experience seems to be different from yours, Luketh.
Maybe so but it's still not bloody good enough! When everything else is so feature advanced and the hardware is plenty fast enough, why the fudge should I have to wait 5-50 seconds to see a computer on my screen that's 6 feet away from me and the OS is already talking to in another window?As for the time it takes to populate the window itself, its not perfect but its substantially better than it has been before.
And, I really like Vista too. Bah.
I usually access a network share by typing \\<PC NAME>into Start/Run. I find that quicker and easier than dabling with My Network Places in XP, and from the little bit I've played around with Vista the replacement seems even worse.
Bring back Network Neighborhood! That was so much more straightforward!
Windows networking does seem to have problems reading directory listings/shared resource lists more than anything else. I have several shares and a printer share setup on my laptop to connect automatically when Windows starts. If I open a shortcut to a specific file or print to the printer over the network, it responds instantly. If however I tried to view all the shared resources on a computer or browse the contents of a folder, it takes an age to respond - even though the connection is always there. This problem dates back to Windows 95/NT, wheras older Windows networks based on the 16 bit Windows for Workgroups always responded instantly when the connection was allready mapped - despite the hardware of the day being much less powerul and the network connection running at 10 Mbps at best (along with the contention issues which came with 10base2 'daisy chain' networking) back then.
Just like the infamous 'add fonts' dialogue box, I think something very, very old is still rattling around 32 bit Windows networking software - even in Vista.
Bring back Network Neighborhood! That was so much more straightforward!
Windows networking does seem to have problems reading directory listings/shared resource lists more than anything else. I have several shares and a printer share setup on my laptop to connect automatically when Windows starts. If I open a shortcut to a specific file or print to the printer over the network, it responds instantly. If however I tried to view all the shared resources on a computer or browse the contents of a folder, it takes an age to respond - even though the connection is always there. This problem dates back to Windows 95/NT, wheras older Windows networks based on the 16 bit Windows for Workgroups always responded instantly when the connection was allready mapped - despite the hardware of the day being much less powerul and the network connection running at 10 Mbps at best (along with the contention issues which came with 10base2 'daisy chain' networking) back then.
Just like the infamous 'add fonts' dialogue box, I think something very, very old is still rattling around 32 bit Windows networking software - even in Vista.
Every new major version they claim 'built from the ground up', which is always a blatant lie when development starts with tightening up the previous codebase then adding features. Wouldn't have killed them to extend the life of XP to 5 service packs or so and actually start again from scratch, IMO.
I suspect they'd then reach a Mac OSX period. The long life of XP as it was meant that things were being coded to be "too XPish" and had trouble with Vista.
I've noticed however Vista's half life is far lower than XP's. I'm consideirng yet another format, although having said that, I suspect a fresh install starting with SP1 might be more stable than my current setup.
I've noticed however Vista's half life is far lower than XP's. I'm consideirng yet another format, although having said that, I suspect a fresh install starting with SP1 might be more stable than my current setup.
"He has to be larger than bacon"
Hmm, on a similar subject to all this - I've been trying to revive an old XP box of mine, and I didn't realise it would be such a bitch to have it see the Vista laptop (or rather, the other way round).
But that's not really what this is about - rather this gorgeous use of language:
But that's not really what this is about - rather this gorgeous use of language: