Why You Might Want to Uninstall Vista

Windows was launched in January 2007 with the usual fanfare of trumpets that we expect from Microsoft. It was billed as the next big thing in operating systems, with its revamped interface, unique Aero desktop, improved security and lots of new features. In truth, it has not lived up to Microsoft’s expectations in terms of sales and general acceptance. Many people, in fact, hate it with a passion and have clung on to its predecessor, Windows XP, despite Microsoft’s best efforts to persuade them to change.

There are many reasons put forward as to why Vista users might want to downgrade to XP or why non-users should avoid it. Some of these reasons have more truth in them than others but there is, without doubt, a good case to persuade people to install XP instead of Vista.

Reasons to Uninstall Vista

Windows Vista is, without doubt, a big operating system with lots of features. Because of this, it is resource hungry and needs a reasonably powerful PC to run it with decent performance. Prior to Vista’s launch, Microsoft set out the minimum system requirements for Vista but the general opinion is that they rather underestimated its needs. Many people were persuaded, however, and installed Vista only to find that it either limped along or wouldn’t run at all on their machine. Their only option then was to buy a new and better equipped PC to run Vista or to downgrade to XP.

One of the big issues with XP, and Microsoft operating systems in general, has been their perceived security vulnerabilities. Microsoft decided to address this issue and claimed that Vista would be the most secure of operating systems. As a result of this, User Account Control was introduced to ensure that users didn’t make unauthorized changes to their system that would have an adverse effect.

Vista users are classed as either the administrator or standard users, with the former being the person authorized to make system changes. Consequently, certain actions are prevented unless the user is logged in as an administrator. Whilst the intention might be admirable, the general view seems to be that Vista simply interferes too much, with a succession of annoying ‘Are you sure…’ prompts and an insistence on getting authorization to do various things.

Understandably, many people find it irritating to have to log on under different guises when they’re the only user of a machine. Of course, User Account Control can be switched off and all the interference magically stops. This action is, however, not recommended and does reduce the system’s security, which defeats one of the main reasons for having Vista.

Another aim for Vista was that it would be a more stable operating system, although there are reports of crashes and other problems. This stability was to be achieved in part by making sure that third party applications and devices were compatible with the operating system. A process was established to ensure that everything would work with Vista.

Unfortunately, many manufacturers had insufficient time to develop Vista drivers and get them approved. The result was that early adapters of Vista found that some of their applications and devices just wouldn’t work anymore. Some had to wait months before the necessary drivers were approved.

Even worse, if you have an old device or application that is no longer supported, there is probably no prospect of it ever working under Vista. There is the option to run in ‘compatibility mode’, which supposedly works as though in XP or similar, but this appears to have limited benefit. The result is that, if people want to use their old applications and devices, they sometimes have to downgrade to XP.

The furore over Vista has persuaded Microsoft to support XP longer than it had originally planned. This has given disgruntled Vista the users the opportunity to install XP again and go back to where they were.