Vista Service Pack 1 and You

July 5, 2008 in microsoft
Tags: microsoft, pack, problems, service, vista, windows, x64

Hello everyone. This is my first article right here so please do forgive me for any errors and please feel free to notify me via comments.

Some time back, Microsoft came out with the then much hyped Windows Vista. Unfortunately for them, it was torn apart and slammed by tech-critics worldwide. We all know the story there.

But recently Microsoft came out with the first Service Pack for their infamous operating system, and proved the famous comment (which said, “Microsoft should release their operating systems with the first service pack!”) true. Vista just became a classic example for the same.

After using Windows Vista for about a week when it was first released, I had sworn to never use it again. Then when I read about Microsoft trying to push Vista by cutting XP off, it made me even more determined to never use it. But eventually after the first service pack release, I decided to give it a try.

The version I use is Windows Vista SP1 Ultimate x64, since that was what all my gamer friends recommended.

After using it for a week, I was surprised it did not crash at all! In fact it was working perfectly, even when I keep Aero interface on all the time. I noticed in the first few days that my DVD burning speeds had actually gone up, and so did my hard disk transfer rates. The IIS 7, which comes bundled with Vista is a breeze when compared to its predecessor. The only problem was that the FTP it uses still came from IIS 6. But you can fix that by downloading the FTP Publisher for IIS 7 from Microsoft.

The best part of Windows Vista is the ease in networking. This is where it simply kills every other operating system. It is extremely easy to start/stop services that one needs. Everything comes with logical explanation.

Instead of the bundled WIndows Defender, I decided to try out Nod32 3.x, which again works much faster in Windows Vista. The bundled Internet Explorer 7 64-bit is very good for browsing sites that you may expect to get trojans from, since most of those do not run on it.

Now, for the negatives. Let me just say it simply – Internet Explorer 7 (32-bit) is simply THE worst web browser that I have come across till date. Replace that with a 32-bit Firefox 3.0.

Windows Live Mail, the successor to Outlook Express isn’t too good either. I decided to replace that with the tried and tested Mozilla Thunderbird 2.0.

Overall, Vista SP1 x64 is impressive and very stable. I wouldn’t recommend NOT switching.

Thank you for reading, please do check back for updates.