10 Features of Windows XP Not Appearing in Vista

 

 

 

Okay, so the title alone is enough to make your eyebrows knit over. How is it possible that five year old XP can still hold good features that are not in Vista? Isn’t the release of a new operating system a guarantee that this new one always has more new features than an older one? Theoretically, this may be true. Objective comparisons between the two operating systems have always resulted in Vista winning over XP. The truth is however, Vista has received such brutal lashings since its release, making consumers wonder if there’s anything wrong.

 

For some people, it is the loss or the revision of some useful XP features that they have found disagreeable. Many of the new Vista features replacing XP features have not been thoroughly met with approval. Users complain over a vast majority or things, ranging from the highly technical to the highly shallow. In any case, some of the arguments put forth are somewhat amusing, but may make some sense after all. Here are some of them.

 

1. The loud and grand entrance and exit sounds of XP have been replaced in Vista. In place of the embarrassingly loud sounds are more subtle, airy ones. Surprisingly, many people do not like this at all. They find XP sounds better because they convey more of what the on screen message is really about such as critical warnings.


2. The XP static icons are no longer in Vista. Although a lot of people love the live thumbnails, others see this as a superficial attempt to sell Vista. It seems as if the 3D effects and all the live fireworks are intended to mask real system deficiencies and kinks. The “dead” icons in XP worked just fine.


3. The search function in XP does not have the benefit of functioning with an index. Vista may be considered better in this respect because of the user determined indexing criteria.


4. The Luna shell in XP has been replaced by Vista’s Aero. Again, this is seen as something that is superficial. Some users feel that if you go beyond the glass-like graphics, you’ll still basically have an operating system that is not significantly better than XP.


5. The XP Outlook Express is no longer in Vista. In its place are Windows Mail and Windows Contacts. Yes the new one sounds better especially with junk mail filtering capabilities. It is still under dispute however, if the filtering really works 100% of the time.


6. XPs Picture and Fax Viewer are no longer in Vista because the latter now has Photo Gallery. Again, the advantage of the latter is still under dispute. This is especially since many users still prefer to use other kinds and types of software for better photo editing results. If you just want to keep your pictures, there’s no reason why XP can’t do that properly.


7. Surprisingly, in tests comparing XP and Vista, XP seemed to promote longer battery life than Vista. This is probably because Vista’s high end super duper graphics and user interface functions need more power to function well.


8. Vista has often been regarded as the ultimate operating system to use for avid gamers. One thing in XP that is not in Vista however, is that XP can still run games fairly well in computers with lower graphics support capabilities.


9. Users will continue to love XP because it has lower hardware requirements than Vista. Don’t buy Vista if your present hardware can’t cope. It’s like asking users to buy new computers with Vista’s requirements for a high class graphics card, an 800 MHz processor and a 512 MB capacity RAM.


10. Some people also swear that XP boots faster than Vista. Again, this may be because Vista is really top heavy. Lower end units probably cannot run well with Vista at all.