Vista a Boon or Bloat?: The Bloat

Satisfied as i am with Vista, i can't deny that there are some Vista features which i detest to the boot...Microsoft added more functionalities & features which make us take our hats off in respect. Nevertheless, they seemed to have over-pushed something a teensy bit- which left users screaming in verbal retaliation (including me).

1. Windows Defender

Here's the deal. Microsoft, whom we all know to have always experimented on other areas apart from architecturing OS, came up with a pretty decent idea of integrating a security software in its release of Vista. That should have make us users happy, that Microsoft impresses us with yet another huge release but hey...after using the software, we are not impressed any longer.

Let's admit it: Windows Defender is not even on par with the current sea of security solutions! That has to be the worst stuff Microsoft has ever come out with in my opinion; i don't care about its stability-no real anti-spyware solutions could match up with Windows Defender in terms of ineffectiveness!!!

Windows Defender: Nice to See, Bad to Use...

I conducted a simple evaluation of anti-spywares between Windows Defender and an antispyware call SUPERAntispyware Free Edition (Notice the word 'FREE'). (After updating both antispywares to the latest definition) By using some rogue malwares pose as legitimate softwares which i purposely downloaded through the internet, i run a separate scan with both antispyware engines. Out of the 32 malwares, SUPERAntispyware Free caught about 23 of them (minus one which it only rates as a suspicious item), while Windows Defender come in at a pathetic score of 15/32. That detection rate is lower than 50%!!! How are we suppose to trust our security to an antispyware like Windows Defender??? And SUPERAntispyware is not even the best antispyware out there!!! I thought my case was the only case, but my consultation with others prove me wrong; lots of folks out there had a problem with its mediocre detection rate.

In the end i scrapped Windows Defender altogether by disabling it permanently; no updates, no running services whatsoever. Let's hope that Microsoft will do some homework before releasing another security solution, or please, just collaborate with experts in that area if you really meant to improve security....

2. Compression & File Unit size

With only 77GB of hard disk space on my laptop, it feels bad to have Vista installed. Vista's installation file is so huge...that after its initial installation approximately 1.5/5 of my local C Drive is used (my partitioned D drive contains all my stored musics & pictures & miscellaneous stuffs). It takes off chunks of space again when i install the updates up to SP1, another chunk off for Microsoft Office 2007 including its updates and another 1.5 GB of free space off due to installing Adobe Acrobat & Adobe Flash CS3 (For PDF & Flash building purpose). At the end of the day after every single intended installation are completed, my C drive's free space only stands at 18++GB over the initial 55 GB allocated for that drive. It was only after doing some junk cleanup that it shows the real free space at 34. something. Still, it was a massive installation inclusive of some of the features i do NOT need on the machine (Let's say, the windows sideshow & windows mail), in comparison to XP or earlier versions.

It would be nothing if we are given the bonus option to compress our file to save disk space, as what Microsoft has done with XP. But Microsoft instead, discarded the option of compressing independant files/folders in Vista. As if it was not enough, Vista provided a deceiving option on the Sytem Drive properties to compress files & folders...which i tried thrice....and eventually corrupted the bootmgr driver thrice, making the OS unable to start during boot. I am no longer mad over it (since i can restore my pc back through the Vista Boot CD), but why offer the obsolete option of compressing files if it's not working in the first place? Microsoft should have abandon the features altogether when designing the OS! (>_<)

3. Windows Ultimate Extras

Microsoft is very smart on marketing Vista OS by offering Ultimate Extras only for the Ultimate Version of Vista...or is it? Why do Microsoft do that?....when it is obvious that hardly anyone are truly interested in those stuffs? Poker Game, for example? (I detest Poker, anyway...)

The only thing that i craved for is Windows DreamScene, the feature which offers stunning video images as your desktop wallpaper. However, as stunning as its qualities are, how is Microsoft going to make me use and enjoy it when it is such a resource hog?? If someone ask me to give an example of a favorable software on Vista which aggravates users, DreamScene will be on the top of my list, followed by Windows Sidebar & Windows Movie Maker. That feature is something like a beautiful yet resource-hogging model which provides only momentary pleasures (given that when you have all your windows closed to stare at the naked desktop). I abondoned Vista Business once to test on Ultimate Extras, and it disappoints me so deeply, adding on the fact that Vista Ultimate consumes more memory than Vista Business.

4. Licensing Terms

This will attract those believing in human freedom rights. Microsoft had resricted user license so tightly, that i consider it unnecessary. I did not take particular notice towards the licensing terms & agreements at first, but later when i came across a narration about it, i was pretty annoyed with some of them. Here are some of the licensing terms:

• If your copy of Vista came with the purchase of a new computer, that copy of Vista may only be legally used on that machine, forever.
• If you bought Vista in a retail store and installed it on a machine you already owned, you have to completely delete it on that machine before you can install it on another machine.
• You give Microsoft the right, through programs like Windows Defender, to delete programs from your system that it decides are spyware. (...and Windows Defender is a helpless software...T_T)
  
• You consent to being spied upon by Microsoft, through the “Windows Genuine Advantage” system. This system tries to identify instances of copying that Microsoft thinks are illegitimate. (Unfortunately, a recent study indicated that this system has already screwed up in over 500,000 cases)

Information extracted from:
http://badvista.fsf.org/what-s-wrong-with-microsoft-windows-vista

The second and fourth point are understandable, but what's with the rest??? Look at point 1 for example. Imagine that you buy a Vista with a PC this year and if your PC was damaged beyond repair in the next year, you cannot use that copy of Vista you bought ever again! For God's sake!!! An expensive, brand new Vista installation software rendered useless just like that!!!

Part of Vista's Licensing Terms can be read from the Boot CD installations

No wonder business organizations nowadays are trying their best to stick with Windows XP. Microsoft had now legally irked its customers for almost nothing, i must say...:(


To be continued: Vista a Boon or Bloat?: The Uncertain Factor