It’s no secret I was a bit disappointed with Windows Vista. It was an incredibly ambitious project that delivered a massive, under-the-hood update to Windows. Where it failed was that it was released just a bit too early.  Too early means not enough polish on things that could have dramatically improved the first impression of the new OS.

Here is what I said back in 2006 prior to Vista’s launch:

What will happen if they ship Windows Vista if it comes out in 1Q2007? I predict it will be a disaster. Driver compatibility, rough edges in software working, weird and unpolished UI design, etc.  The acronymn UAC will come to haunt Microsoft and they will rue the day they didn't wait just a few more months to get driver compatibility together.

Windows 7, by contrast, is all about polish. It fixes the mistakes made with Windows Vista.

Unfortunately, I still have to deal with Windows Vista. And now, even issues I hadn’t noticed before in Windows Vista become painfully obvious now that I’m used to Windows 7.

Below are 10 things that are driving me crazy about Windows Vista now that I’ve got Windows 7.

Reason #1: Nothing is ever responding

In Windows Vista, it seems like the OS is just waiting to declare a window isn’t responding. This is particularly obnoxious when it comes to network windows.  The Windows 7 GUI is much more responsive and it’s far less likely to have that annoying “not responding” behavior occur.

Reason #2: The UAC

I still can’t believe Microsoft hasn’t updated UAC in Windows Vista so to make it less annoying.  Every time I go back to a Windows Vista machine, it’s one of the first things that comes up. Prompts. Prompts. Prompts over the silliest of things.

On Windows 7, there’s a lot more control of these annoyances. Windows is still the “are you sure” OS but it’s a lot less annoying.

Programs like Tweak 7 make it easy to further refine this. For instance, the delay/darkening of the screen theoretically can add more security but it’s just annoying. On Windows 7, I can turn that off.

Reason #3: Basic Usability

In Windows Vista, if you want to change the resolution, you either use the video card’s built in add-on (seen at the top) or you have to jump through menus. It’s ridiculous.

in Windows 7, you can get to screen resolution quickly by default. A very nice touch.

Reason #4: The System Tray

I had no idea how annoying the system tray system of Windows Vista (and before) was until I started using Windows 7.  Going back to Windows Vista is like going back to system tray hell.

No comparison. On Windows 7, it’s clean and nice.

Reason #5: Explorer Usability

Windows Vista (above) is just a lot less useful with explorer even though it seems more cluttered (to me anyway).

By contrast, Windows 7 (above) has common sense options up above and the navigation pane on the left is much more useful as well.

Reason #6: Customization – Vista sucks at it.

For reasons unknown, Microsoft insisted on putting lots of hard-coded colored images in the Vista UI. 

Windows 7 still has the problem somewhat (baby blue) but it’s a lot easier for programs to customize a color than it is to deal with an image.  So if you run a program like WindowBlinds that lets you customize Windows, Windows 7 makes life even better.

Reason #7: Cyan borders.

This goes with Microsoft’s love affair with various blue-like colors being baked in. Vista had cyan borders on the edges.

On Windows 7, the colors are neutral.  I should also add that Aero doesn’t have that annoying reflection texture in it anymore.

Reason #8: Useless network object

How often are you going to want to sift through all the computers on your network?  Windows 7 cleans up (it could still be better) the network experience.

Reason #9: Devices

This is something that seems obvious in hindsight but Windows Vista does not have it. A nice, simple screen for dealing with the real world stuff that people use.

Reason #10: Windows XP mode

Windows 7 Professional and Ultimate include “Windows XP mode”. For most people, it’s not a big deal. But it’s a handy tool that one would have thought Vista would have included for programs that had compatibility problems.

You can install things from within the environment and then they will run seamlessly on your desktop.

So if you have programs that don’t like Vista (or Windows 7) you can run them within Windows XP on the desktop.  Unfortunately, it doesn’t work well with games very well.

But imagine how things might have gone with Windows Vista if it had had something like this. 

There you have it…

Well look here, I just got handed a Windows 7 Professional DVD.  Goodbye Windows Vista.

WindowBlinds 7 quickie demo: http://screencast.com/t/HM3IdyykvJxJ

 
DeskScapes 3 quickie demo: http://screencast.com/t/wwhSKh7x

Do you have Windows 7? Do you have a 64-bit system? Then you should have Object Desktop which not only supports 64-bit Vista and Windows 7 64-bit but has native engines for them.

Object Desktop: Windows: XP/Vista/7

I was playing around with DeskScapes 3 today, and I found myself downloading a bunch of .dreams and applying effects to them just to see how they look.

It’s hard to tell by just a screenshot, but the Motion Blur effect changes the animation of the Christmas Lights to a really neat effect.  Try it out!

Applying the Sepia effect makes a big change to this .dream.

Putting the Alien World effect on this already slick .dream really tops it off. 

Let me know which effects are your favorites, and which .dreams you like to apply them to.  You can get DeskScapes 3 now by subscribing to Object Desktop .

I wrote a tutorial on how to create textures to use in WindowBlinds 7, but I wanted to take a moment to actually show you how easy it is.  IN this video, I create and apply a texture to Aero in just over a minute. 

Get WindowBlinds 7 now by becoming an Object Desktop subscriber!

I’m still running Windows Vista on my laptop.  I’ll post more screenshots from other versions of Windows soon on this but here’s a sneak preview of Sublime, a new skin that is part of the WindowBlinds 7 beta.

To get WindowBlinds 7 early, get Object Desktop at www.objectdesktop.com .

WindowBlinds is the engine.

The skins are the content.

UIS1 and UIS2 were the two skin formats WindowBlinds has supported.  UIS1 for “simple” skins and UIS2 for complex skins.

Both were designed in an age where few people wanted their systems to resemble Windows classic let alone Luna (the Windows XP look) .

Windows Vista’s Aero changed that.  Because (like me) think Aero looks good.  But Microsoft severely limited the customization options of Aero for reasons most of us can’t fathom. 

But we skinners only has UIS1 and UIS2 skin formats.

If making an Aero like skin required lots of work, then skinners might as well spend that same amount of time to make something truly original right?

Therefore:

As a result, nearly all the Aero-like skins were designed by Stardock because skinners didn’t want to spend a ton of hours to make a skin that simply looked slightly different from Aero.

Unfortunately for skinning, LOTS of users wanted looks that were just a bit different from Aero.

This is why the new skin format in WindowBlinds 7 is such a big deal.

Of course, there are color options in Aero but you have no choice but to deal with the default weird texture and other behaviors that you’re still stuck with regardless of the transparency.

But because of all the effort involved in making a traditional WindowBlinds skin, that meant that previously, no one would make simple Aero skins like the one below that can now be done in seconds from within the WindowBlinds configuration interface that are obviously not possible with what’s built into Windows.

WindowBlinds 7 comes out in early November. Object Desktop users can do this now though.

Alas, Poor Skinning. I knew him…

Or so it seemed.  Skinning was huge for awhile. And then it wasn’t. 

What happened?

I’ll tell you: Windows stopped being so ugly and there was no easy way to simply customize Aero(the default glass look of Windows Vista and Windows 7).

Until now.

In the years since Windows Vista, if you wanted to have say a metallic version of the Windows Vista UI, a skinner had to spend as much time making that (i.e. many days) as it would take to create something outrageous. And so, most skinners chose outrageous because let’s face it, people don’t appreciate the amount of effort it takes to make a subtle change.

And so skinning returned to the niche it was prior to Windows XP’s release.

WindowBlinds 7 changes that.  Of course, it still supports all manner of total Windows makeovers. But WindowBlinds 7 also supports skinning Aero itself. That means no worries about compatibility, performance, or memory because it’s still Aero.  And, best of all, the effort involved is dramatically less.

WindowBlinds 7 is due out in early November for everyone but if you have Object Desktop, you can play with the late betas now.

The spooky Halloween weekend is upon us, and before you get dressed up in your favorite costume, lets take a look at what’s been happening on Impulse this week.

Articles to check out:

• Tweak7 Walkthrough
• Elemental Beta 1-B update
• The Demon Assassin in action
• Object Desktop 2010 Preview

New Releases on Impulse:

• World of Zoo
• Tweak7
• East India Company: Privateer
• CSI: Crime Scene Investigation – Deadly Intent
• City Rain
• Sacraboar (beta)
• Divine Divinity

Updates:

• Machinarium v2
• Trine

This weeks Impulse Buys!

$37.49	$9.99	$12.99
$8.00	$9.99	$19.99

Tweak7 was released this week.  If you are Windows 7, and I recommend that you should be, Tweak7 will quickly prove to be one of the must have applications.  Lets take a visual walkthrough of Tweak7 and highlight just some of its features.  Today we will focus on Resources and Misc. Tweaks.

You can get more info at www.tweak7.com.

Resources

The Resources section lets you manage all types of items that could be using up precious resources.  The screenshot above shows the start up programs running.  Not only does it show you the name of the entry, clicking the question mark button will give you a detail explanation of what that item is.  Then you can have an informed decision on whether to disable or keep it.

Tweak7 can also show you what Services are running.  You can review the Services in Tweak7 and turn off ones that are not needed.

Misc. Tweaks

Tweak7 also has a bunch of additional tweaks in the Misc. Tweaks section. 

How annoying is it to have a locked file and not know what process is locking it?  Well just drag and drop the file into Tweak7 and it will tell you what process, if any, is locking it.

If you need to view an Event on your PC, it’s very easy to do with Tweak7.  You can narrow down an issue in startup, shutdown, or sleep/resume, and you can select dates and times for even further investigation.

Take more control of Internet Explorer as well.  Easily add or remove search engines from the search box in IE.

www.tweak7.com

Stardock is excited to announce the release of Tweak7!  Tweak7 is an application designed to help users meet their personal needs by configuring Windows 7 to improve and enhance performance.  Tweak7 was created with both casual and power users in mind.  Changes made can be easily rolled back using Microsoft own system-restore technology, so experimenting with different settings is harmless to your PC.

What’s new:

• Remove common, annoying dialogs – Windows is full of dialogs that are unnecessary.  Tweak7 lets you select and disable the most common ones.
• Move user directories – Windows sets the default location of all user documents and settings to the C drive.  Tweak7 allows you to move your files or any other user’s files to another location; even another drive.  This can greatly improve transportability and backup options.

Current features:

• Security (User Access Control) Management - Tweak7 has easy to configure security settings for managing the new security features of Windows 7. Other security settings can also be configured with one-click. If you've found some of the security prompts in Windows 7 getting in your way, Tweak7 offers relief.
• Start-Up Manager - See what programs are being launched on start-up (even ones that you may not be aware of) and quickly find out what they are doing and whether you need them. By utilizing the startup monitor built into Windows 7 to analyze problems; processes that take longer to start or shutdown are flagged for review.
• Recommendations - Automatically evaluate all aspects of your Windows 7 configuration with detailed, yet easy to understand, suggestions provided to help you get more control over your Windows 7 PC.
• Process Identification - Leveraging the community, users can read and create information regarding each process currently running. When a user clicks on a program name Tweak7 returns information about that process to help in deciding what to leave running and what to shut off.
• Performance Optimization - Tweak7 knows all the default services on Windows 7 and many of them are not needed for most people. Tweak7 can safely guide users through common user configurations to optimize performance and memory use.
• Internet Optimization - Tweak7 can improve your Internet surfing performance by changing the underlying Internet settings on Windows 7 to fit the capabilities of your PC.
• Cost of Use and Carbon Footprint Analysis - Tweak7 calculates the cost of running your PC. In addition a Carbon Footprint index is calculated. How "Green" is your PC?

Tweak7 is available with a subscription to Object Desktop, or stand-alone for $19.95.  More information is available at www.tweak7.com.