Hasta la vista, Vista!

I am saying goodbye to an operating system that probably never should have been: Windows Vista. I was an early adopter running the release candidate and beta versions before moving to the full version after it was released. Then, in a moment of exasperation, I wiped my machine and moved to Windows XP x64. I did not go back to Vista until after the release of Service Pack 1 and still fought with Exchange 2003 management snap-ins even then. Back in August, I inserted a Windows 7 disk into my desktop at work and have thoroughly enjoyed the results. So much in fact I wiped out my Toshiba Portege M750 a few weeks later in favor of the new flavor of Windows.


What do I like best? I love being able to pin certain programs to the task bar. Pinning the Remote Desktop application is just pure awesomeness. You can save the login credentials (not a new feature) but then right-click on the pinned application and you get a list of the last 10 computers to which you have connected. I use that feature daily!

I also love the fact that the recent documents menu is gone. It has been moved to the individual applications, so if you goto notepad and hover on it, a list of recently opened TXT files will appear in a menu. It works for the Office products as well which is very handy for opening commonly accessed Excel spreadsheets. I don't know about you, but I hate a cluttered desktop - this feature allows me to get rid of every desktop icon except the recycle bin (the one thing I let stay on the desktop).

I like Windows 7 so much I actually signed up to host a Windows 7 Launch Party at my house - and I was chosen for one (I'm not sure that everyone that applied wasn't chosen, but I don't care I'm getting a free copy of Windows 7 Ultimate). So my wife and I sat down and she came up with a great theme for the party, which is the title of my post: Hasta la vista, Vista! So come October 24, my house will be the scene of the ultimate nerd party; sorry the guest list is full :D

BTW - I got the Exchange 2003 management snap-ins installed on my Windows 7 desktop :)