First things first. I just have to mention how eye pleasing Vista is compared to XP. When I install XP, I either install the UXTheme patch or just go back to the classic view. However, in Vista the eye candy is really nice and stays out of your way. That said, let me highlight some of my observations from this weekend. For the sake of not boring the non-techies, all the tenical stuff is after the jump.

Application compatibility

So far everything I have thrown at it worked. Granted that I have been prepared for Vista due to the times I have used it during the beta cycles. However, software that did not work even in RC2 worked fine. Besides, things actually working, there were cases where you actually get surprised from the information Vista provides you about the non-compatible programs. For example, GOM Player is apparently not compatible, however, when I told it to run anyway, I did not see any problems, not that I ran it too much anyway.

The more interesting one was Adobe Audition. For people who used Audtion, they know that Audition runs it’s own components or skinning engine. So when I ran Audition in Vista, Aero turned off automatically with a note saying that the software caused it to switch modes for compatibility. Once you quit Audition, it switches back to Aero.

Enhanced security

Security could a blessing or a pain. Like I always say, to have proper security to have to give up on something. Vista’s security meassures actually stops applications to change critical registry values when not running in previleged (a.k.a. “Administrator”) mode. Due to which file associations for Foobar would not work. But run it as Administrator and try setting it, wala! Same goes for initial settings for Audition. Which of course tells me that there are updates that I would just have to wait for before the complete switch.

Even installers are properly cared for. You know how some installers would start other installers in the back end. Unfortunately, those installers all get started off in non-previleged mode, which is something you may or may not like. However, once the background installer fails, Vista would ask you if you want to try that again in previleged mode, as it realizes that the installation failed. So no hunting down and figuring out which installers to run in previlegded mode.

Video codecs

Many of us already that the wide array of videos floating around in the net (not on video sharing sites like YouTube, etc.) are usually using the million different codecs. Due to which, one of the first things that I install in a new system is K-Lite Mega Codec Pack. However, I didn’t need to for Vista. The various files that I had saved thru my PVR all worked, which meant that Vista already supported XviD and DivX at the least.

Aero, oh Aero!

As I mentioned earlier, Vista is just freaking cute. Specially when Aero is running. Flip3D, that many of you may or may not know about is just awesome. Sadly on slower systems like my laptop, you can feel the lag due to the animation, however, on my desktop things were rocking. The best thing is that all the windows are updating live when you are in Flip3D, so technically if you don’t have to interact with a window, you can keep switching between apps and check on their status. Even videos are running in that mode. The same goes for the small thumbnail when you put your mouse over the taskbar item.

And finally the not so good things

Not everything was high flying. Just like any other version revision there are bugs that have managed to slip thru. First thing I noticed was during installation when I switched the DVD with my driver DVD, the installer failed to realize that the DVD changed. Second, on my laptop when I sent it to hibernate when I was at work and resumed at home, the network failed to connect until I restarted. In fact, until the restart Vista did not even realize that we were now plugged in.

Not to mention that I have already seem the blue screen thrice in the period of 2 days. Though that’s a problem that might be caused by my X-Fi drivers (which are still in beta). It was great, however, that the drivers installed without much issue.

Windows Vista is cute!

In conclusion, I know I would be switching to Vista. Having the free copy seriously helps making that decision However, I would keep on using it on the laptop that does not see that many applications, until some new versions of drivers and applications are out. Or may be some Vista patches. After that I can deactivate my laptop and activate my desktop