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In this issue:
Windows Vista: First Three Months
by Arie Slob
Hello Windows users,
 Windows Vista has been available for consumers for three months now, how is Microsoft's new flagship OS doing?
If you look at the (financial) numbers, it seems that Vista is doing just fine. Microsoft just released record breaking profits for its first quarter (ending March 31st). The Windows Client division brought in $5.27 billion, up 67 percent from a year ago. According to Microsoft, roughly 85 percent of its client sales were Windows Vista, the remaining 15 percent Windows XP.
The financial data seem to contradict the reception Vista has received in the press, and the often lack-luster reception from computer users. There seem to be a few factors that contribute to this. First, Windows Vista doesn't have a 'must have' feature. When Windows XP was released, the Internet was 'booming ' and digital media started to take off. Windows XP made great improvements in working with digital media. It also greatly improved on networking, specially wireless networking, which also started to become more popular around the time XP was released.
Another reason for Vista's reception by end users is the fact that Windows XP (SP2) seems to be doing the job just fine, so users don't see the need to change. Windows XP can run all the current hard- and software so again there's no need to change. This will most likely change in the near future, and gaming will be at the forefront, but again, gamers using Windows as their gaming platform are only a small group.
Yet another reason for Vista's reception has to be blamed on a group of people Microsoft doesn't (seem to) have much influence on: hardware manufacturers. They have had liberally years to build new drivers for Vista, but have chosen (with maybe a few exceptions) not to do so. You'll be hard-pressed to find drivers for any hardware that's not popular or fairly recent. And don't even think about 64-bit drivers!
Lastly: when was the last time you've seen a Windows Vista commercial? I've been in the US for the past two months, and the only OS ads I've seen are those annoying Macintosh ads.
It looks like users that are currently running Windows XP are quite happy with it, and the majority doesn't intend to upgrade their PC's OS to Vista. In our Windows Vista poll, nearly 49% of respondents indicated they intend to run Windows XP for as long as possible.
Does this all matter? Nope. Windows Vista will become a success. Sooner or later Vista will be on nearly all PC's that users have. Even though Dell has decided to start offering Windows XP again as an option on some consumer PC's/Laptops citing consumer demand, after January 31th 2008 OEM licenses will no longer be available for Windows XP, a year later followed by the retirement of system builder licenses. From that point on only Vista will be available to be installed on new systems.
Uptake in the corporate world is quite low right now. Most corporate PC's don't have the hardware to run the majority of Vista's features, and the lack of driver support for older and less popular hardware is also hindering Vista's uptake. Corporate IT departments will probably starting to evaluate Vista after Service Pack 1 is released, which we can probably expect around October/November this year (according to Intel's CEO Paul Otellini).
What's your take on Windows Vista? Visit our WindowsBBS.com forum and post your thoughts/comments (registration required).
Windows Updates
This month, Microsoft issued a number of updates for Windows Vista & Windows XP:
Windows Vista
- KB933872 - Install this update to resolve an issue where the default gateway setting is lost when you wake a computer running Windows Vista from a sleep state.
- KB933590 - Install this update to resolve an issue where your display flashes and becomes corrupt when Flight Simulator X is run in multi-monitor mode and the monitor configurations are not identical.
- Cumulative Update for Windows Media Center for Windows Vista (KB932818) - This update addresses issues with Windows Media Center.
- Definition Update for Windows Mail [April 2007] (KB905866) - Install this update for Windows Mail to revise the definition files used to detect e-mail messages that should be considered junk e-mail or that may contain phishing content.
Windows XP
- KB930916 - This is a reliability update. Install this update to resolve an issue where a third-party driver installed on a computer that is running Windows XP may prevent you from opening files successfully on a NTFS file system volume.
- Update for Windows XP x64 Edition (KB927885) - Install this update to resolve an issue where you cannot close a Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in.
- KB935843 - Install this update to resolve an issue where you receive a 0x0000007f Stop error after installing security update KB925902 (MS07-017).
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