So after the Vista episode - I started reinstalling Windows XP.. but ran into an interesting windows update issue. Don’t know what caused it - but the symptom was it downloaded a few updates like IE7 and a few security updates, but wouldn’t install them. It said it couldn’t install - no real error details. The problem was the same through IE windows updates, or automatic updates. The solution was rather odd but it worked:

regsvr32 wuapi.dll
regsvr32 wuaueng.dll
regsvr32 wuaueng1.dll
regsvr32 wucltui.dll
regsvr32 wups.dll
regsvr32 wups2.dll
regsvr32 wuweb.dll

As soon as I registered the dll’s and went back to Windows Update, immediately it installed the updates. I don’t know if it was a windows installation issue or if me running updating some other drivers while windows update was running caused the issue (hey, I’m a multitasker). Hope it helps someone else out there.

Well I decided to fire up PowerISO and mount a few ISO images. After installing PowerISO, and rebooting, the Vista Sidebar started crashing on boot. I can no longer get it to work. I did also change my drive letter for one of my drives, maybe the photo slideshow (which used that drive) is causing the whole sidebar to crash. If so, well, chalk another one up for MS programmers.

I mounted one of my favorite apps in anticipation of installing it. Wait for it - BSOD! As soon as I mounted the image Vista dumped. That was about the end of it for me, I’ve had enough. I enjoy it’s interface, it’s prettier than XP, but I just don’t have any more patience for fixing it’s problems. My Vista conclusion is as follows: f*ck Vista and anything resembling it.

I decided since my XP box was getting fairly slow and needed a re-install, I would give Vista a go. I figured if it worked ok I’d stick with it provided my apps played nicely with it. Here’s how the story went so far:

I installed Vista Ultimate SP1 (most recent MSDN version) on my Dell P4 3Ghz HT machine with 2GB of ram and a Radeon 9800XT. The installation was pretty smooth although it took a really long time to install. Once it was up and running, I first noticed there were no Windows Updates available which was possibly a good sign. I thought the first thing to do would be to grab a copy of AVG and install it, so I went to the website with IE7. Crash. IE7 closed because of an error - no stack trace / details to look at. So I tried again. And again it crashed on the same webpage - and many others I tried. Since it didn’t crash on Firefox’s website, I decided that was my best option.

Next was Messenger 8.1. I tried using the online installer which downloads the binaries while installing. It simply said the installation was canceled and to retry later. I tried about 5 times before finding a copy of the standalone installer - which installed. But unfortunately Messenger constantly crashes with the following error:

Duplicate Memory Free operation. Get a stack trace and report bug against the calling app (not against OLE Automation). File d:\rtm\com\oleaut32\typelib\oautil.cpp, line 634

It first started doing it right on startup, now it just does it randomly every once in a while. Often enough that it’s making me already want to go back to XP just so the basic apps work. I haven’t even started to install any real apps like Photoshop/Premiere/Games.

So I thought - what if it’s the video drivers? I went straight to ATI’s website and got the most recent Catalyst driver for Vista. Nay, it didn’t help. I also upgraded sound drivers. Nada. I posted on Microsoft’s forums looking for suggestions and immediately got back the following from several people - “head back to XP”. What? Not even Microsoft is wanting to keep me on board with Vista? They even suggested 2GB of ram is not enough to run Vista - ok wait, Vista can’t run stable when doing next to nothing on 2GB of ram? I don’t buy that. Sure, it’s resource hungry, but I’m not even trying to run games yet here, I’m running friggen’ Messenger.

Now, for the positives, I find that it looks nice and the performance is actually pretty good on my machine. I get a 4.3 on the Windows Experience Index. According to Windows documentation, a score between 4-5 can run all Vista functionality such as Aero, gaming, etc. and should run fine with all Vista features. Even the graphics gets a 5.8. Good to hear considering my machine isn’t brand new.

So after all that, my experience hasn’t been positive. I mean, I can’t run the basic things like a web browser and chat client right off the bat - so what hopes do I have for my regular every day applications? I suppose I’ll give it one more day and see if my apps work at all.