The Vista Virus

Nearly everyone in business relies on computers, and real estate management is no exception. We operate a website, communicate with tenants and prospects via email, prepare statements and legal documents, etc. etc. So, while my focus is not primarily on technology, sometimes we have to look at it and how it affects us. So, I will occasionally pass along some of our experiences and suggestions. The first and most important suggestion I can give to PC users is this: stay as far, far away from Windows Vista as you can. While it is supposed to be the most secure version of Windows yet, it is – in effect – pre-loaded with a bunch of viruses and malware created by Microsoft which are guaranteed to waste many hours of your time and cause you frustration to no end. Of course, when I talk with the folks at Microsoft, they are offended at the suggestion that they put viruses in Windows, but just because the virus comes from them, that makes it no less a virus, which most would define as unwanted software which intentionally infects your computer causing it to have poor performance, data loss and even loss of functionality.

Understand also, that I’m not a Microsoft hater or Apple fanatic. I’ve used every version of Windows since 3.1 and was reasonably satisfied with XP, so these are not rantings from the fringe, but rather honest assessments from someone who simply depends on computers functioning properly in order to make a living. Here are a few of the lowlights (covering all of them would turn this into a book) of Vista:

Incompatibility: this massive bug is pretty well known, but a lot of folks thought that if they waited for the first service pack (where Microsoft supposedly patches bugs), maybe that would help. Forget it. If you change to Vista, you can count on having to waste money replacing perfectly good software and peripherals that simply will not now, nor ever, work with Vista – perhaps starting with your printer and going from there. Every change in Windows produces some incompatibility with older software and peripherals, but there has never been anything on this massive a scale. Even some very current software and peripherals will not work with Vista.

UAC: This stands for User Account Control, which is supposed to be the biggest security feature of Vista. Instead, it should stand for Under Alien Control, which is what you will think is happening to your computer. Most people get irritated at the UAC constantly asking stupid questions like whether you want to open or install a program when you just clicked to do so, but it goes much deeper. The UAC will literally lock you out of your own files at times for no reason, refusing to let you do simple things like rename them, or even refusing to let you open your own files, especially if you have brought these files over from another computer or hard drive. This will cause you to delve into an unbelievable labyrinth of administrative control level settings, trying everything, only to discover that nothing helps (occasionally rebooting will help with the renaming). Eventually most serious users and small businesses learn to turn off the UAC – which generates all kinds of warnings from Vista. Even that doesn’t help with all of the file lock-out problems caused by the Vista virus, though. All of my wife’s old files from her XP computer which died, and some files which I have even created under Vista are still beyond the reach of Vista and the most able of Microsoft technicians. Unfortunately, there are some legitimate security functions of the UAC, so turning it off makes your computer less secure than XP, but ultimately most find that they have to turn off the UAC to get any reasonable function from their machine.

Windows Genuine: Microsoft has loaded Vista with aggressive anti-piracy measures. The problem is it doesn’t work well, gets fooled all the time, and in some cases simply shuts your computer down (remember the definition of a virus). Vista checks for hardware changes to determine if it is genuine (which, when you think about it, makes no sense for the consumer). Say your motherboard goes bad and has to be replaced, for example. Vista will shut you down. It will force you to “prove” that it is “genuine” at their website, and then almost always incorrectly decide that your copy of Vista isn’t genuine, and insult you further by asking you to take a survey where they ask you questions like “how did it make you feel to find out you had an illegal copy of Windows?”. It will put you in a great mood for when you finally get that poor tech support person in India on the phone. Sometimes Vista just randomly decides that it isn’t “genuine”, even without hardware changes. Note: the Office 2007 suites of software are even more aggressive (and more malfunctioning) in this area than Vista itself is.

DRM: This stands for Digital Rights Management, which is fancy for software that is supposed to prevent you from playing pirated copies of movies and music on your computer. Of course, like the previous, it acts more as a virus. The DRM data link libraries are easily corrupted, and when that happens your Windows Media Player and Media Center will mysteriously start having strange malfunctions. And, of course, the DRM malfunctions regularly. Even when you are playing legitimate copies, the DMR can easily think they aren’t legitimate, in which case it will either shut you down, or force your sound and video cards to play back in a degraded level. Reading the specs on this software is really scary stuff. It’s beyond Big Brother.

Aero: Microsoft bragged and bragged about how wonderful all the new graphics features would be under Vista. It was apparently a red herring to distract from all the viruses they were loading it with. In fact, the graphics changes are very minor, yet are a tremendous resource hog that will noticeably slow down even dual core machines. Most everyone who hates waiting on their computer eventually gives up and turns the graphics enhancements off.

So, Vista is just about the worst thing to happen to PC’s in years. What are the options?

1) Stick with XP. Of course, Microsoft is fighting this by ending support for XP, and if you need a new computer it’s hard to find one that still has XP. However, the backlash against Vista has been so strong, and demand for new computers that still have XP so great, that most Manufacturers still offer it, though you probably have to special order it.
2) If you already have Vista, downgrade to XP. A lot of folks are doing it. The problem is that in some cases Microsoft will charge you money to return your machine to XP, and the downgrade can be complicated. However, consider what your time is worth, and how much of it Vista is wasting, and you may find it worthwhile to pay whatever it takes, hire a techie, etc. to get away from Vista.

3) Get an Apple. Apple can run various incarnations of Windows and PC software. This isn't a good solution if your hardware isn't in need of upgrading, but if it's about time for you to move up from your old PC, you'd be better off buying an Apple before buying anything with Vista on it (don't think, though, that Apple has a perfect OS either).
4) Move to Linux. Linux is an open-source operating system that is free. Really. I won’t go into the history behind Linux, but it is interesting and has always been there as an alternative to Windows. There are a number of issues with doing this, though. Linux isn’t supported by a company, so there isn’t a tech support line to call. It is supported by a community of users and authors. Often this isn’t so bad, because in my experience I’ve found most solutions to Windows problems not from Microsoft, which seems to often be clueless about common bugs experienced by wide numbers of users, but from the community of Windows users. However, expect a lot of driver and other issues with Linux, including the fact that not everything which runs under Windows will run successfully on Linux. Most will, but often with some tweaking required. If you aren’t at least a little technically oriented in using your computer, Linux may be something of a struggle. However, there are some real payoffs if you can make the switch. Linux doesn’t care about piracy issues (it’s free, after all), and while Microsoft deliberately writes Windows to be permanently attached to one machine, Linux doesn’t care what it boots on. This means you could back up your desktop to an external hard drive when you travel, then plug that hard drive into your laptop and have everything right there, booting up just like you were in front of the desktop. Linux also allows for multiple simultaneous users. In other words, Windows forces you to have a separate computer if there is someone else in your home or office who wants to work at the same time you do. With Linux they just need their own monitor and keyboard, not a whole computer. Support for Linux is growing, and has already been popular with some businesses. The Vista debacle is causing a lot of others to take a look at Linux. It is possible to set up a “dual boot” where you can have both Linux and Windows on the same machine (though Vista was intentionally designed by Microsoft to try and prevent this – there are work-arounds, but they aren’t simple). This would allow you to move what you can now to Linux, and then over time work on the rest, but still be able to run them under Windows as needed.

None of these four solutions is perfect, but for many of us there is almost no choice but to move away from Vista, even after many years of using Windows products. In our case, we’re trying a transition to Linux. If that doesn’t work, it will make my Apple dealer happy. I’ve had long conversations with managers at Microsoft about the problems with Vista. Initially they are trained to try and convince you that it’s just because you aren’t used to the “enhancements”. After a few minutes though, it finally gets through to them that I’m talking about serious systemic flaws in the operating system design and they will quit pretending. Some of them even get pretty honest about the huge blow-back they’ve had in response to Vista and promise that they are already working on the successor to Vista and things will get better. The problem is, though, that Microsoft has lost my trust. The design behind Vista and Office 2007 shows that they forgot who actually owns the hardware and operating systems that we pay our hard-earned money for, and they feel free to take great liberties with my property. That’s a violation that gets a little bit personal, and I’ve seen nothing out of Redmond yet which indicates remorse or a direction away from such invasive design. Microsoft has a right to try and prevent piracy, but they don’t have the right to do it by invading my machine and causing it to deliberately malfunction, especially when their systems for invoking these malfunctions malfunction themselves so regularly.