Vista..ARRRGGHH

[TW1]

File this under "No Good Deed Goes Unpunished"

For Christmas we bought our parents their first computer. A shiny new Dell laptop.

Of course it comes loaded with Vista and my siblings and I, all of which live hundreds of miles from the parents, all use XP, or something else.

Not only have our parents had issues learning how to use the friggin' thing, the gosh darn Vista means I have an impossible time trying to walk them through anything over the phone. Everytime I ask them to try something, they can't find the thing I'm trying to direct them to, or if they do, it behaves differently then it does on my office pc. (thank G*d I use a Mac at home.)

ARRRRGGGHHHH!

Sign me,

Venting in Philly

[BWV Dreamin]

File this under "No Good Deed Goes Unpunished"

For Christmas we bought our parents their first computer. A shiny new Dell laptop.

Of course it comes loaded with Vista and my siblings and I, all of which live hundreds of miles from the parents, all use XP, or something else.

Not only have our parents had issues learning how to use the friggin' thing, the gosh darn Vista means I have an impossible time trying to walk them through anything over the phone. Everytime I ask them to try something, they can't find the thing I'm trying to direct them to, or if they do, it behaves differently then it does on my office pc. (thank G*d I use a Mac at home.)

ARRRRGGGHHHH!

Sign me,

Venting in Philly

You can set the desktop so that it looks like Windows XP.

[DVC Mike]

It took me a couple days to get used to Vista, but I now find that I enjoy the new Aero GUI better than XP.

[carolina_yankee]

File this under "No Good Deed Goes Unpunished"

For Christmas we bought our parents their first computer. A shiny new Dell laptop.
----------

(thank G*d I use a Mac at home.)

ARRRRGGGHHHH!

Sign me,

Venting in Philly

My 53 y.o brother, never having used a computer in his life, finally wanted to get one last fall. I put the fear of G*d in him that if he bought a PC he was totally on his own and there would be no assistance or sympathy from me. I left that world and i am NOT going back.

He relented and bought a Macbook and $99 annual one-on-one plan and has become quite the computer guru (and made Apple significantly richer in the process).

My secretary bought a brand new über-powerful Vista PC for her home - and quite often does her personal stuff on our much older office XP machine. It's just something about Microsoft these days - especially for computer novices or dabblers. Each purchase should come with its own IT department . . .

Dirk

[JimP]

It took me a couple days to get used to Vista, but I now find that I enjoy the new Aero GUI better than XP.

Mike,

I am with you. I also like the Vista user interface. My work laptop has XP and I do not get a choice there. I keep one old PC set up with XP and use it as a storage and backup server in the house. All the rest of the machines (1 desktop and 3 laptops) all use Vista now.

What I really LOVE... is my new 30" LCD monitor on the home desktop PC. I am running it at 2560 X 1600 resolution. It is really sweet! I previously was using dual 19" monitors... and the 30" is nicer.

/Jim (the geek)

[minniekissedme]

I can see TW's point but I have to admit I'm a Vista buff, too. At first I wanted to toss it out the window. I had some goofy problems with Outlook and shutting down and screamed enough that I got a new one. Still some quirks but this one runs much better than the first.

I think it's like anything else that changes...and I do agree on each user getting a personal tech support included.

[disneyfreak89]

Of course it comes loaded with Vista and my siblings and I, all of which live hundreds of miles from the parents, all use XP, or something else.

We feel your pain. :headbrick Same thing happened to us when we bought my sister and nephew a new computer (Vista) last year and

we have XP, it was VERY frustrating trying to 'help' her over the phone. She made the 3hr trip down to our place, computer in tow,

just so DH could take a look at it and work the bugs out. :worried:

[bruinfan]

We've had Vista side by side with XP for over a year. My wife wanted Vista and I was nervous but I must say I prefer the Vista machine because (I can't believe I'm saying this) things work. Like 'switch user' which has never worked with our XP machine; like remembering my left handed mouse settings; like faster boot times; like faster logon times; like only crashing once in over a year (unlike the XP machine) etc.

[TW1]

We feel your pain. :headbrick Same thing happened to us when we bought my sister and nephew a new computer (Vista) last year and

we have XP, it was VERY frustrating trying to 'help' her over the phone. She made the 3hr trip down to our place, computer in tow,

just so DH could take a look at it and work the bugs out. :worried:

Yes, this is really the issue. I have yet to use Vista, own a Mac at home and simply don't have the patience to deal with the issues over the phone.

I have a call in to my guide to see what he can do.

[BWV Dreamin]

We've had Vista side by side with XP for over a year. My wife wanted Vista and I was nervous but I must say I prefer the Vista machine because (I can't believe I'm saying this) things work. Like 'switch user' which has never worked with our XP machine; like remembering my left handed mouse settings; like faster boot times; like faster logon times; like only crashing once in over a year (unlike the XP machine) etc.

I like it when it asks me if I want "it" to correct my problem! I say "yes" and boom, issue resolved! For those who haven't seen it, a little window pops up telling you there is a problem. It asks if you would like the problem fixed. Its great when it does this, only downer is it doesn't tell you HOW it fixed the problem!:D