Running Vista; Part 3

SQL Server 2005 problem solved. The ISO’s I used were probably corrupted. I installed from cd and everything installed like a charm. I’m running SQL Server 2005 Developer Edition without problems now.

Vista isn’t the most stable OS I’ve had so far. I keep running into small problems.

• C++ Runtime error when starting Internet Explorer.
  For some reason, this sometimes occurs. I start IE7 and a popup appears that the C++ runtime ran into problems. I have to reboot for it to disappear.
  
• Complete lockups
  Internet Explorer sometimes hangs and completely locks up the OS. They had this fixed in WinXP with some service pack by separating the OS and IE a bit more. If I’m not mistaken, because of some EU demand. I liked the update very much!
• Another weird problem I had recently was some .dll it could not load. I’ve forgotten what .dll it was, but I think it had something to do with the graphics system inside Vista. I don’t mind dll’s not loading, but that wasn’t the only thing. The taskmanager gave the exact same error and would not load anymore!!! Now that sucked! Together with the BSOD because of my USB Drive, the complete lockups and this problem make me wonder why Vista isn’t more stable!
• For some reason IIS7 isn’t working as it should. The Sidebar widget to report on IIS activity doesn’t work and also IIS6 compatibility doesn’t work either. I still can’t get it to work with Visual Studio 2005 web development.
• Another small glitch is that full-screen videos are a lot slower than in WinXP. No idea why, probably because the heavy graphics system kicks in.

So no major problems anymore. I’m working at least 8 hours a day with Visual Studio 2005, SQL Server 2005 and other tools to enhance my development experience. (Yes Alex, this includes NUnit, TestDriven.NET, NCover, etc 😉

However, what are my positive experiences? Only on the graphical side. I absolutely LOVE the new graphics system. Watching a video, hovering over the video in the taskbar and seeing a 2nd window playing the video and then pressing alt-tab to see a third window playing the video just gives me warm feelings. I love those kind of things. So when that’s working, it really makes me wonder why in full-screen the video is so much slower.

I’m keeping my Vista though, love it! And love to be one of the first.