I’m writing this post on a freshly restored HP Pavilion laptop. It’s freshly restored because after a recent auto-update, Vista decided to stop loading. Two of the updates worked just fine, installing in seconds. The third update started, but got stuck in a Ground Hog Day of install attempts and reboots. After digging up my laptop’s restoration DVD (cleverly disguised as a Windows Anytime Upgrade DVD) I was able to restore to an earlier save point. Of course, two restore points failed with some “file already exists” error and another simply led to the same loop out of which I was trying to get… Finally a fourth restore point from a week ago worked. Oddly enough, Vista started even though my battery died mid-restore.
I’ve tried to avoid jumping on the Vista bashing bandwagon, but this is pretty bad. My laptop nearly became a paperweight thanks to a poorly tested update. Had my laptop been some strangely configured off-brand, I’d get it. I mean, we’ve all written code that has choked in the wild. But this is an HP Pavilion CompUSA/Best Buy/Circuit City special. It’s off the shelf and totally OEM. If you don’t run your code in the most common settings…
I’d be in a more forgiving mood if it weren’t for the fact that 1) my system wouldn’t start after the bad bits and 2) the repair option wasn’t so hit or miss (I’m still worried about my next reboot). I’ve tolerated Vista for about ten months now. SlickRun has made the clunky UI livable, but I’ve been too patient with underperforming explorer operations. It’s time to consider Vista alternatives.
The obvious choice is to “upgrade” to XP Pro. Apple has cleverly used this scenario as a marketing tool. But there’s truth to this advertising. OK, so the guy who plays the Mac is the son of one of my favorite philosophy professors. Maybe I have a bias… But breaking the boot is worse than breaking the build.