Vista less annoying

It will also contain a small number of new updates. For more details on Vista Service Pack 1, check out Microsoft's beta white paper. Interestingly enough, the beta does not appear to include an update to Vista's desktop search interface, which Microsoft promised last month after a legal complaint from arch-rival Google.

But Shanen Boettcher, a Windows general manager, told Cnet that this would come later in the beta process. Indian IT services giant HCL Technologies has quietly removed some of the controversial clauses from its HR policy revealed by The Reg revealed last week, which required resigning employees to pay back bonuses. According to the policy, employees who resign are responsible for paying back all the bonus they've received from their last appraisal cycle until their last working day LWD.

A company email detailed that the LWD would be taken as 31 March , so if a staff member leaves on 3rd March , the amount paid from 1st April through to 28th February would be recovered. Microsoft's board of directors has hired a law firm to review its sexual harassment and gender discrimination policies and practices following a shareholder proposal.

The shareholder vote came at the urging of Arjuna Capital after the investment management firm warned that "sexual harassment at Microsoft presents a material investment risk. Vivaldi will not provide crypto-wallets in its browser because it doesn't want users to participate in digital coin trading — something CEO Jon von Tetzchner desribes as "at best a gamble and at worst a scam". The move comes a week after rival Mozilla dipped a toe in the crypto-waters , only to have it angrily bitten off.

Mozilla initially talked of accepting donations via cryptocurrencies but swiftly backtracked, saying the policy would be paused and reviewed. Anti-malware veteran Norton also came a little unstuck at the same time thanks to inbuilt crypto-mining tech.

Microsoft's cloudy storage platform, OneDrive, is a handy solution for mixed fleets. Using Windows and Mac hardware? No problem; a local-file-like experience is on hand for either environment Linux users, sadly, need not apply for the time being.

One facet of the OneDrive experience is Files On-Demand, where the content of files is not downloaded until needed for example, opening up a Word document. It saves disk space and means OneDrive only downloads what it needs when connected to the internet unless a user has manually specified that a file or folder be always available.

Dropbox's Smart Sync does something similar. Interview Supply chain woes continue to batter the tech industry but that didn't deter the makers of the diminutive Microlino from introducing a new electric vehicle amid a pandemic and chip shortage. We last looked at the Microlino in , when the bubble-like electric car was shown off at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. Not that the two-passenger and three beer-crate Isetta-inspired vehicle would have won any prizes for velocity, thanks to a maximum speed of 90kph.

Don't blame an OS for the limitations of its users. The commands are similar since they share a common Unix ancestor. Don't make the over simplistic mistake of say they are essentially the same. They are not. It makes you look stupid. Time to move on. Here in lies Microsoft problem, other than Vista!

People that were still using OS 9 software me included had at least 6 years notice that OS 9 support would be discontinued. I don't know of many people that took issue with this - those that did were given fair warning so they have nothing to gripe about. Herein lies MSFT's problem. They need to draw a line in that sand and move forward. TBH, the whole "virtualised XP" idea is a good one - but not helpful. Sorry enterprise - time to get with the program geddit!? Legacy software cripples development.

Very well put, I totally agree. Sometimes it's best to take the risk, cut lose the old junk and move on. I feel a little sorry for MS sometimes, not easy trying to maintain a massive bloated mess, clean it up and still give people new eye candy, but then I think of Billy and Steve B's bank balances and think sod 'em! They made their bed's, they can lie in the them! Me, the penguin and the fruit are happy where we are thanks! Too much new stuff and commercial inertia a la Vista and possibly Sys Admin people in a twirl at extended or over extended competencies.

I read somewhere that linux in all its guises accounts for some 0. It is to state an estimation of its user base as a percentage. DOS 6. Fixed by buying DOS 6. Bought laptop running Windows Later installed Windows 98, when asked why USB port didn't work reaction from MS was "it doesn't, just fuck off" or words to that effect.

Upgraded to XP. Bought new motherboard and memory to run XP. When asked why scanner didn't work reaction from MS was "it doesn't, just fuck off" or words to that effect. Bought Vuescan to run scanner. I have Macs, Linux boxes, and some Windows. I have to say that the Windows machines are looking like the poor relatives- slower, uglier, less efficient, less stable, more annoying to use.

Since I need to keep windows around anyway ok, want, too- left4dead is fun , I would rather windows sucked less than it does right now.

XP is reliable, but ugly and primitive and Vista is just a pile of arse. As things stand, I use Linux at work, and on my netbook, the Macs for most of my general computing plus graphics, digital darkroom and DJing , and Windows mostly for games, and for things that require Windows support.

Since it seems I can't completely get rid of it yet, I'd rather it improved. So, roll on windows 7, as long as they have not only got a clue about not releasing a heavy bloat hog, but also about slimming the price somewhat. I, fortunately, am not as professionally tied to Windows as many who read this forum, and I know this can be very big for a large number of folks, but someone has to keep saying the emperor is only wearing a thong. Celebrate Windows 7, have a drink, but if you are an IT person worth more than your MBA overlords, plan a post-Windows strategy and stop waiting for Balmer to keep you in a job.

Why the hell would anyone shell out for this??? WTF does it enable me to do that XP can't? Actually, I'd rather have a couple of days playing with swine flu.

The pig'd be a better shag. Paid-for, proprietary operating systems are sooo last-century. Why can't the corporate retards see it??? OK, Ballmer, lob a chair at me. It's my missus' 50th soon, and we're one seat short for the party. My wife used to run Vista on a decent spec laptop but it drove both of us crazy.

She had used various flavours of Windows for years but I still must have spent at least two hours a week fixing things and helping her just to get her work done. Wireless networks were particularly problematical but the whole thing ran like an absolute dog.

I bought her a MacBook and about three days after she switched, she just stopped asking for help and I probably haven't spent two hours helping since then last July. Five of my friends have made the same switch and all are delighted by Mac OS X. I have never met anyone who switched the other way.

Perhaps they exist, but their rarity is telling. The Register - Independent news and views for the tech community.

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Remember me. So, screw MS, time to try something different. But what about VSync option back in for 3D, and a way to lock the wallpaper or Theme!?

Perhaps it will be better than it sounds in practice. Microsoft then figured that some users would not appreciate the difference between links and copies and would delete the original folder, thus losing their stuff" Good greif, are Windows users really that dumb? This is way beyond Stockholm Syndrome. I for one am considering a MacBook Pro as my next laptop purchase Two quotes that I found hilarious "Windows 7 also eliminates a Windows Vista feature whereby every GDI window was held in memory twice, reducing memory consumption and speeding performance.

I do like the authors writing style, seems to be more unbiased than most Microsoft writers. It's trying to to turn me mad. There is an option to disable that crap new taskbar! The question is: Will it blend? Nothing could be as bad as Vista so "7" looks good. Thursday 30th April GMT michael am I the only one who looks at a lot of the new features in an os and thinks "how can I turn them off" I mean I am sure they are fun and pretty but how many of them are useful?

For suffering Vista for several years before this fixpack came. Microsoft gives all monopolies a very bad name :. So if you get the 64bit version of Windows 7, do you get the 64bit version of XP? So, um Why bother? What's the gain over XP? Methinks a change in licensing policy for XP should be forthcoming along with the release of W7. Sage Line 50 will be one of those : Queue lots of "we don't support this product in Virtualised XP sessions" plastered all over the virtual packaging as a result.

The mac fanbois laugh at windows? The should rename it Windows 7 windows for masochists. My lovely new disc and licence for Windows XP Pro XP is now 8 years and almost 2 releases old. Thursday 30th April GMT Ben Rosenthal sounds good about the increased performance over Vista, think I'll be stealing this one though as I don't qualify for an upgrade a patch that makes Vista run as nice would stop me though and I already have virtual PC with XP sp3 installed.

Vista resets my mouse speed to sloow after Is ripping people off, repeatedly. A non-hypervisor virtual XP isn't going to fix either of those problems. Didn't like it. Tried W7 beta. Bought a Mac. Like taking a stone out of my shoe. Thursday 30th April GMT Chris Williams I'm not spending money on it I foolishly bought Vista Ultimate to run on my laptop and the only thing about it that's ultimate is the fact that its the ultimate as in 'last' version of Windows I intend to purchase.

I R reddy fur desktop now, kthnxbye [Mac] ooooh kay - so, I've got graphics, music, multimedia and I'm just so damned dripping with cool that I could single-handedly turn back global warming and bring about the next ice age - our little penguin pal over there has got servers all wrapped up nicely almost as well that little red imp chap, where is he by the way?

MS, get a clue! Have you actually used Win? You may not have posted in response to my post, but I sympathise with many of the above comments so please allow me to respond in kind: I'm very pleased that your experience has been good, and I have seen many a posting not dissimilar about Vista itself, but perhaps it is you who needs to get over the fact that some people are dissatistied and frustrated with good reason.

Thought not. Good luck! They are aware that cash is tight right now? Wakey fscking wakey! Thursday 30th April GMT Big Bear Mac Phreak Sorry Mac Phreak — I used that as an example to highlight the, dare I say it, inbuilt geekiness of Linux, where even Ubuntu, which has long been touted as the most user-friendly and hence ironically most similar to the two big players, will scare the average user when they have the big screen talking about partitions and other techie matters.

Thursday 30th April GMT Anonymous Coward re: It's like Vista, only less annoying another anon coward who wrote "i don't want the explorer to automatically go to my user area unless i use a menu option, i happen to want it to go straight to my list of drives".

Maybe this highlights the difficulty any OS or application developer has? Sorry, I meant Users. Or should that be Adopters? By michael Posted Thursday 30th April GMT proper multi user support and networking protocols especial for wireless, vastiley improved support for usb devices.

Automatic Updates - As if I'd trust those :- Bottom line is that if 98 didn't do what I wanted I'd have upgraded, but apart from MS insisting I do so, there's no compelling reason to, and I guess that's where most XP users are coming from also. There again MS have always known how to make friends. Will I use it day to day? Probably not. It is not that Windows 7 is expected to be crap: it is expected to be good in fact.

However, the main reasons are 1 it's no longer supported 2 No more security fixes 3 Programs generally don't support 98 any more, because it's a sack of limited, unstable buggy shit that's a horror to program for. Do you know how the activation system works? My experience from my vista laptop which had a motherboard replacement. But in a way they didn't like. I think I could, because it is typical why-don't-they-get-the-basics-right MS rubbish. By the way. Will Office run in W7?

Because there's nothing I need a new Office package for. Come to think of it, there's nothing I need a new OS for! I'll hang onto it thanks.

MS can go fuck themselves. Come back to me in 5 years when they have covered more that 1. Um, yes. We did actually, and for good reason. Friday 1st May GMT Brian Whittle security security Microsoft backed them selves into a corner with the popularity of windows and the lack of security in windows until the vista.

When you first setup your system you are making SOOO many changes. From installing applications to chaning system settings. Once you are basically done with that, you are installing maybe 1 or 2 apps per week, for the most part. No matter how annoying UAC is, it is a necessary evil. Similarly, giving users the option to disable the feature on install is not an ideal solution.

Most users will not understand what UAC is, or why they need it. UAC is a great idea that MS caught on to way too late. There should be 1 password per action.

Each installer process has to have its own validation. I think Windows is doing this right now with a known-list of installers, to pop up the UAC dialogs at the right times. Ah, the pain MS goes to for backcompat. Those old systems should just be broken, in my opinion. Or relegated to a virtual PC sandbox.

Fair comment about the disk space though — most drives these days can easily handle the 5Gb base OS install! A vanilla Suse Help files?

Sample media files? People are annoyed with the beta for excessive prompting on mundane tasks, like deleting a shortcut, and the programmers are talking about letting users install updates without authorizing? This does not sound good. Updating changes system files. OK… I wrote this up on a BB that I use to communicate people I game with, but I will paste it here all the tirading included , because it is how I feel:. This is false. Because, at the moment, the classic login is not available in Windows Vista although it may reappear in certain versions he seems to believe that the Administrator account is no longer accessible.

By creating. This is the same registry entry to do the same in Windows XP. This is also untrue. Mostly Lie 3: User Access Control has a feature to prompt for elevation of permissions, but when it does this it locks you out of the desktop until you respond.

This is true. At least in the default behaviour. If this annoys you to no end, then you can change it by running secpol. While the number of bugs could easily be more or less, I am finding Vista Beta 2 to be more stable than any of the previous versions.

In some previous versions I had unexplainable crashes of Explorer on brand new installs. That is certainly not the case in Beta 2, and in the last several days of using it, I have not had any crashes whatsoever.

Anti-malware veteran Norton also came a little unstuck at the same time thanks to inbuilt crypto-mining tech. Microsoft's cloudy storage platform, OneDrive, is a handy solution for mixed fleets. Using Windows and Mac hardware?

No problem; a local-file-like experience is on hand for either environment Linux users, sadly, need not apply for the time being. One facet of the OneDrive experience is Files On-Demand, where the content of files is not downloaded until needed for example, opening up a Word document.

It saves disk space and means OneDrive only downloads what it needs when connected to the internet unless a user has manually specified that a file or folder be always available. Dropbox's Smart Sync does something similar. Interview Supply chain woes continue to batter the tech industry but that didn't deter the makers of the diminutive Microlino from introducing a new electric vehicle amid a pandemic and chip shortage.

We last looked at the Microlino in , when the bubble-like electric car was shown off at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. Not that the two-passenger and three beer-crate Isetta-inspired vehicle would have won any prizes for velocity, thanks to a maximum speed of 90kph. Still, in a market awash with concepts and dreams that are far from production, the Microlino looked to us to be an intriguingly practical proposition for urban transport.

On Call A warning from the past in today's On Call. Helpfulness is not always rewarded with a pat on the back and a slap-up meal on expenses. Our tale comes from a reader Regomised as Derek and concerns his time working for a multinational with plants at multiple locations in the UK.

A cry for help had to be answered within the hour. One of the plants would start production at on Monday mornings, but started work four hours earlier to make sure things were up to speed.

It had two main buildings. One was an office unit, housing the comms and server rooms. The other had an equipment room, with switches and patch panels as well as an operations room with client PCs and expensively large monitors. In conjunction with a White House meeting on Thursday at which technology companies discussed the security of open source software, Google proposed three initiatives to strengthen national cybersecurity.

The meeting was arranged last month by US national security adviser Jake Sullivan, amid the scramble to fix the Log4j vulnerabilities that occupied far too many people over the holidays.

Sullivan asked invited firms — a group that included Amazon, Apple, Google, IBM, Microsoft, and Oracle — to share ideas on how the security of open source projects might be improved. Google chief legal officer Kent Walker in a blog post said that just as the government and industry have worked to shore up shoddy legacy systems and software, the Log4j repair process — still ongoing — has demonstrated that open source software needs the same attention as critical infrastructure.

Apple's having a problem retaining top chip personnel, with the latest defection being CPU architect Mike Filippo going to Microsoft. As chief compute architect at Microsoft, Filippo will design server chips for the software giant, according to media reports.