Vista at one year: Progress and pain
Windows upgrade fuels revenue and frustrations


by Todd Bishop
SeattlePI.com
Wednesday, January 30, 2008



Microsoft released Windows Vista to the world one year ago with ads likening the new PC operating system to such awe-inspiring moments as the first American spaceflight and the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Charles Walling just wants it to work with his printer.

The retired Seattle warehouseman has spent hours on the Dell tech support line, installed all the drivers and, yes, double-checked all the cords and plugs. No luck. The cause of the problem isn't clear, but Walling knows one thing: The same printer worked with Windows Vista's predecessor, Windows XP.

  
"You can see the frustration," Walling said this week, sitting at his desk after Windows Vista displayed an error message in response to an attempt to print.

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates recently called Windows Vista the "best new product of the year." The company says more than 100 million copies of the operating system have been licensed since it became available. Outside experts say Windows Vista is a major advance in security, and some users say their experience has been smooth.

But a year after its glitzy retail launch, Windows Vista has developed a reputation as a source of frustration for others.

The effects of that reputation are apparent in the habits of PC buyers. At the computer store Quidnunc in West Seattle, for example, owner Bill Hibler estimates that 40 percent of people ordering computers through his shop still ask for Windows XP.

"I'm still stocking almost as much XP as I am Vista," Hibler said. Based on his experience, the only other time people have been so reluctant to choose a new Microsoft operating system was when the company released the widely panned Windows ME.

One of Vista's challenges is the explosion of hardware, software, devices and networks that the operating system has to work with nowadays, said Ed Bott, co-author of the book "Windows Vista Inside Out." Even if Microsoft offers a better rate of hardware and software compatibility than in past Windows versions, chances are good that any given user will encounter a problem, considering everything people ask their computers to do.

However, Bott said that in his experience, the situation has improved noticeably over the past year, as Microsoft has released a series of online updates to boost reliability and compatibility.

"The state of improvement -- the continuous, incremental improvement -- has been impressive," Bott said of Windows Vista. "That's been different from the way that it always was before."

But expectations for Windows Vista were particularly high upon launch -- in part because it had been more than five years since the Redmond company's last major Windows release.

One PC user who expected more was Yvonne Genovese, a Gartner Inc. analyst who got a chance to describe her Windows Vista struggles directly to Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer on stage during a Gartner symposium in Orlando, Fla., last year.

She explained to Ballmer that her 13-year-old daughter had been attracted by Vista's "gadgets" -- small, specialized programs -- and persuaded her to upgrade. But two days later, Genovese had encountered enough problems that she decided to go back to Windows XP. Among other things, her upgraded computer bogged down, and the gadgets wouldn't work.

"It ended up being so many things that wouldn't work, that you get to the point where you just say, this thing has failed," Genovese said last week.

On stage last year, Ballmer acknowledged initial challenges with Vista's device and application compatibility, but cited progress since the release and said he was encouraged by the fact that Genovese's daughter saw value in the new operating system.

Genovese, who has become known as the "Vista Mom" because of the exchange, said her experience taught her several rules of thumb -- including the need to wait for a Windows version's first big "service pack" update before adopting it, and to buy a new PC with the new operating system, rather than upgrading an existing machine.

Vista's significant system requirements also have proved a challenge to some people upgrading older machines.

One of Microsoft's big goals with Vista was to improve security, including reducing the number and severity of software bugs that can be exploited by online attackers. Microsoft says it has done well on that front, and outside computer security experts generally agree.



Windows Vista "has raised the bar for security," said Morey Haber, vice president of product management at eEye Digital Security. "Compared to Windows XP or any of the predecessors, there are a lot less operating system vulnerabilities in Windows Vista than previous releases."

However, he noted, some of the new security measures have resulted in trade-offs in the user experience -- intruding with pop-up dialogues and other prompts, for example, when PC users try to complete common tasks.

Security changes under the hood of Windows Vista also have contributed to the problems with application and device compatibility, said Barry Goffe, director of product management in Microsoft's Windows group.

"Because we made this conscious choice, to make architectural changes to improve security, we knew that there were going to be some things that broke," Goffe acknowledged. "We tried to fix many of those things before we shipped Windows Vista. But the way ecosystems work, we weren't able to fix everything, and our partners weren't able to fix everything."

Goffe cited "tremendous" improvements on that front in the year since the release.

But problems remain. At Kent-based Puget Systems, a builder of high-end custom computers, the big challenge has been getting computers running Windows Vista to reliably enter and exit standby mode -- a low-power state that keeps the system ready to reactivate quickly -- said Jon Bach, the company's president. In some cases, he said, Windows Vista systems in standby mode don't respond to efforts to resume full operation, requiring a reboot.

At one point, Puget Systems had a prominent statement on its Web site, warning customers about the Windows Vista standby problems. The situation has improved as Microsoft has made updates, Bach said. But as recently as last week, one Puget Systems customer was forced to have Windows Vista replaced with Windows XP on his computer because of standby problems.

"It has been frustrating, and I think it has been more rocky than in the past, just from the standpoint of Microsoft and what they're putting out," Bach said. He said he hopes that the first big service pack update for Windows Vista, due out this quarter, will fix the standby problem.

Despite those kinds of lingering issues, Microsoft's earnings in recent quarters have been fueled by Windows Vista's sales, demonstrating Microsoft's dominant position in the market.

"We're really pleased at what we're seeing," said Neil Charney, a general manager in the company's PC Windows division. "We know that it's an ongoing effort to make sure that our customers are happy and satisfied and enjoying that experience."

He cited improvements in Vista's support for hardware products -- more than 40,000 products supported, compared with about 23,000 upon launch -- and noted that compatibility issues are a common challenge with any new operating system release.

Walling, the retired Seattle warehouseman, moved to Windows Vista when he bought a new PC last fall. Despite the problems he has experienced, he's sticking with the operating system, figuring it would be too much hassle to go back at this point. He still hopes to fix his printer compatibility problems.

In the meantime, how does he print out his documents?

"I don't," he said.

P-I reporter Todd Bishop can be reached at 206-448-8221 or toddbishop@seattlepi.com. Read his Microsoft blog at blog.seattlepi.com/microsoft.


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