The business version of Vista has just been released and is briefly reviewed in this article, including features like Vista’s voice recognition. Curiously titled ‘Windows Vista Ultimate’ even though no ‘Ultimate Extras’ have yet been revealed, while it’s miles better than RC1, I can’t help but feel this latest version is really just RC3.

  

November 30. The day that Microsoft decided to launch the so-called ‘business version’ of Vista to volume license customers. The day that Steve Ballmer said, at the New York launch, that it was the biggest launch he’d ever done.

Of course he meant the biggest launch in terms of the amount of money, time and effort that has gone into getting Vista to the stage it is today. But it still has bugs – I remember reading something along the lines that once Vista had less than 500 bugs, it was going to be ‘good to go’.

I can’t remember how many bugs there officially are in the Vista RTM, but one thing’s for sure: it’s not zero.

Even by January 30, when Steve Ballmer will be on stage again, this time really unveiling ‘his biggest launch’, as we will have the true consumer and business releases of Vista with whatever they’ve been able to fix and update between now and whatever the cut-off point is to get the consumer versions burning onto DVD in a legitimate CD/DVD manufacturing factory.

I can’t imagine that that process has already begun – it’s still only early in December and surely Microsoft still have some time up their sleeves before they get the boxed copies on the production line. And even so, there are likely to still be bugs in Vista. But with the world now able to receive automatic updates, I’m certainly hoping that whatever bugs still remain will be fixed, as will the future ‘bugs’ of security updates, patches and whatever else needs to be updated in Vista.

Of course, Microsoft already does this with its service packs, which roll up all of the updates – and more, as we saw with Windows XP SP2 – into a nice official service pack.

But companies like anti-virus vendors have finally seen the light, and no longer ask their customers to wait until the following year’s update to the software to get the new features. If there are new features, you’ll get them with the auto updates.

While an operating system is much more complicated that an Internet security package, Microsoft should continue fixing whatever needs fixing and roll out the updates in a manner that doesn’t cause chaos.

Given that they’ve said they will be updating Windows much more regularly, I’m expecting these regular updates to be more than critical security patches, but a continual updating of the software where necessary.

Of course Steve Ballmer did talk about the ‘next’ version of Windows, which will supposedly have some of the features (like the next generation WinFS file system) that was slated for inclusion in Vista. There’ll be even more integration with the online worlds of information and software as a service. And Microsoft say they will continue down the path of releasing major new OS versions in the future.

So with those observations out of the way, what is Vista RTM like from my perspective? Read on for more…

So far, it’s been a godsend. In use for the last forty eight hours, a lot of the little niggly things in RC1 are gone. Hibernation and sleep modes work properly. Websites that once triggered a jump into ‘Windows Vista Basic’ mode don’t seem to be doing it any more. The random crashes with Internet Explorer 7 that’d I’d get if I had too many tabs open seem to have gone as well.

My soundcard is back with sound coming from the speakers again, but the 3.5mm headphone jack still isn’t working, and neither is the internal microphone – I need to use a Logitech USB headset to get ‘a full soundcard’ with recording capabilities and sound directly to my ears.

The proper Windows Vista sounds are finally loaded, although anyone expecting a Robert Fripp soundtrack to be playing will be surprised to discover that the sounds are mostly the same sounds we’ve heard for a decade, only ‘Vista-fied’ to sound softer, smoother and calmer.

Perhaps there’ll be some more Robert Fripp action in the true ‘Ultimate’ version of Vista for those who are hanging out. But exactly why they needed Robert Fripp to make these sounds is unclear – maybe it was just cool to say that he was part of the audio team for Vista.

I did suffer one crash, where the system informed me it had restarted after I came back to the computer after an extended period of time, but it hasn’t happened again -yet . I’m thinking it might have been something to do with the sleep mode, but I’ll have to check this again, and I turned off any sleep/hibernate modes while the computer is on and plugged into mains power.

Vista, on my 2Gb, dual core equipped Tablet PC, runs very smoothly. Heck, RC1 ran very smoothly, but the RTM version is, as you’d expect, a lot better.

The inbuilt search seems to be faster too. I didn’t put a stopwatch on it but the search feature seems improved, and for me, that’s an excellent thing, especially as I use it extensively.

But I still have two drivers with yellow exclamation marks in the device manager which Windows Update hasn’t yet fixed – I think these are what is preventing my internal soundcard from working properly.

With Vista RTM, I was finally able to get a Telstra Next-G (HSDPA) PCMCIA card working successfully. What I’m not so happy about is the fact that it, like other PCMCIA cards out there, really seems to heat up the palm rest on a notebook computer quite a lot. After a while, even though you won’t get burned, it’s still quite annoying.

So what should one do then? Read on for more…

For this reason, if you’re looking to get an HSDPA or other PCMCIA attachment into your computer, getting a similar version through a USB port, if available, is a great idea. Consumer electronics doesn’t like heat, and what with exploding batteries out there and all, I’m not a big fan of making my notebook hotter, temperature-wise, than it should be.

DVDs now play properly, whereas in RC1 they would play, but would be very stutter, making watching an impossibility. But RTM has fixed this, and it’s fantastic to see.

As mentioned previously, there are no ‘Vista Ultimate Extras’ to be downloaded as yet. Microsoft is keeping them up their sleeves for now, with Jim Allchin suggesting on a couple of recent previous occasions that there will be some big surprises and hidden features for Vista Ultimate customers beyond, I’m guessing, what they’ve already slated for release as part of the Vista Ultimate package.

Seeing as my Logitech USB headset works perfectly well with Skype, I decided to try it with Vista’s inbuilt voice recognition technology. While I am certain that Nuance Dragon Naturally Speaking would do a better job, especially once it is released to work with Vista, Microsoft’s own software and training wizard has certainly be done with style.

I probably spent at least 15 minutes going through the mini training procedure of Vista’s voice-rec, but it was very slick and smooth. I was dictating into wordprocessing software, moving between open applications and using a grid system to pinpoint precisely where on the screen you want to ‘click’ something by voice. It all works very well indeed.

Of course you can always use a mouse to do this, or just speak a command. But the voice control of the mouse cursor is a very cool little trick and must be seen. It’s very reminiscent of the way Deckert (Harrison Ford in Bladerunner) was able to look at a photo and zoom into a certain part of the photo all by voice.

As stated, Nuance has more experience at this and is no doubt busily working on a Vista compatible version. But if you want voice recognition, it’s now a standard part of the operating system and works more than well enough for me. For now, anyway.

My SD card slot doesn’t seem to be working either, but I am using a 2Gb USB flash memory drive for the purposes of ‘ReadyBoost’, new software from Microsoft that allows space on a separate USB drive to be used for improving system performance. I’ll need to use Vista for more than 24 hours to see what kind of additional speed increases I really notice when the USB flash drive is plugged in and when it isn’t.

Also with my tablet, the screen doesn’t automatically rotate when I swivel the screen around and fold it face up over the keyboard, but I’m guessing this is due to video drivers which need to be released by their manufacturer, which in this case is Intel. I haven’t yet checked to see if any upgrades for Tablet PC fix this, but for now I am happy enough using the ‘Windows Mobiliy Center’ to rotate the screen as necessary, a process which does indeed work nicely.

Also, in my previous article, I mentioned that I’d turned off the UAC. But now that I’m using the final version, I’ve left the UAC on, and while it does pop up every now and then when I’m trying to do what is usually a ’system task’, it actually hasn’t been quite the bugbear I’d expected, and is definitely a lot better than what I’d experienced in RC1 which made me turn it off. So, leave the UAC on – it’s a good idea.

Vista RTM is definitely a polished, release-worthy version of Windows. But with many developers using Vista RTM, legally downloaded from the MSDN website, and with business people with access to the software if they are part of Microsoft’s volume licensing program, there can be no mistake: Microsoft still has to be working on Vista in the background, using the next two or three weeks at least as a final launchpad to correct those errors before being burnt to millions of DVDs.

Windows Vista is my new favourite operating system, even more than Mac OS X, of which I’ve had extensive use, and it’s certainly a lot more fun and definitely much cooler than W95/98/ME/XP, along with other versions I missed out on typing (like WIindows 2000) and other operating systems like Linux.

But with the true consumer and business launch slated for January 30, the current release feels like an excellent RC3 than the true finished product.

That said, I’m very, very happy to finally have it. But it’s only piqued my interest in what the real ‘Vista’ will be like with the updates they’re untertaking between now, then and into the future.

For some, the problems I’ve encountered will be potentially showstoppers. But I haven’t had any such issues, thankfully! Vista Final RTM. It may be just an RC3 in disguise, but it’s the best version of Vista yet (after years of stops, starts, beta versions and RC versions). Are you, dear reader, itching to try Vista now (or very soon), or do you have the patience to wait another 7 weeks, or even longer if you want Vista with the inevitable SP1?

Related:

Vista final has more problems?!

Windows Vista RC2 is released

Microsoft releases Windows Vista RC1

Vista RTM gold edition leaks onto pirate sites

A dark side to Windows Vista RC1?

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Entry was posted on Sunday, December 3rd, 2006 at 3:44 am under Microsoft, Opinion, Technology, Vista.

Read more entries by Alex Zaharov-Reutt.
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