I was going through internet news, and I came across this link
http://www.zdnet.com.au/insight/software/soa/Windows-Vista-10-top-tricks-and-tips/0,139023769,339274675,00.htm

it's from zdnet au, so quite a respectible source imho.

They list the top 10 trics, I thought hell I need to check this out, let me relist them here:

1: create a dvd menu in a minute: Wow a task that average users almost never do, got optimized whoooopie,
a dvd menu, is nothing more than an mpeg2 stream, with some meta data for the buttons, there is a multitude of software/tutorials out there
2: soft command bar : (printing/burning folders is easier) If any of you get this burning to work properly, cool I sure cant. Printing groups of files
was already possible in XP
3:minimize all windows instantly: Really widowskey+M is considered a top 10 vista trick, needless to say this simple WM feature was
already in XP. just to illustrate how poor the other WM features are I guess
4: fewer files lost with desktop search: I don't know about you, but I never loose files. furthermore google desktop search does the same on XP
5: breadcrums, no need to know the filestructure on your drive:
6: resize photo's: come on I'll let you ponder on this one, why it doesn't justify 500$
7: ReadyBoost: If you run a different non bloated/crappy resource hogging OS you don't need this fixup
8: sticky keys: it's in XP already
9: tabbed browsing: hum it's in XP already it's in firefox
10: shadow copy: if you need this functionality, use a versioning system like svn, cvs, git, ... over some limited windows version

Conclusion: other than 5 and 10, for which you might argue, It's clear to, me that these top tricks are nothing new,
were either already in XP, or just plain trivial. The quality of articles like these even by zdnet people! The little testing
experience I have had, the other specs/stories/articles I read. Make me believe vista is really just a big hoax.

To me, the only modifications they included were..

1. irritating protections for low-level writing to hardware
2. a better-looking (in general) interface.

If you just want vista because of the design: Vista Inspirat for XP

Lets face it, the only reason that people would begin to consider the OS is for the look. The driver issues, coupled with the system requirements needed to run the damn thing will send most people packing. I think this is the biggest Microsoft screw-up ever.

I think this is the biggest Microsoft screw-up ever

Well, right up there with DOS 4 at least. Most companies and indinviduals stayed with 3.3 until 5.0 came out, 4 used more memory with bugger all real reason to upgrade. Interestingly enought it was based off IBM's code base and not their own.

Unofortunatly I think we will see the same thing happen with Vista that happened with XP. When XP came out it was given crap by a lot of people (a hell of a lot) but as the years went by a lot of these people switched to xp (probably because it came with the new computer) and now it has gotten to the stage where people are used to it's pathetic interface. Remember when XP first came out we were all saying it was a fisherprice looking childrens layout? Of course a lot of people on this board probably were actually children 6 or 7 years ago so maybe they never noticed

What do I hate most about vista? DRM! I don't need a piece of software telling me what I can and can't do with my own stuff. Secondly, To install this rediculously memory hungry piece of rubbish, I have to already have XP on the system. What this means is when the invariable reinstall needs to take place, you can't just reinstall Vista, you need to reinstall XP, and THEN wack vista on top of that. This only applies to off the shelf versions I guess, but I can't believe they couldn't find an easier way.

As a side note, where I live a lot of the hardware vendors and OEM's are advertising in the manner of "upgrade now and be ready for vista" or "upgrade now so you too can run the best OS around" etc etc.. correct me if I am wrong, but since when do we buy hardware purely to run a specific OS - I always thought it was the other way around.

I have been quoted to have said XP has a "teletubbie interface". And I still stand by it.
The main reason I see for people upgrading to XP, is because a lot of new software
was written specifically for XP, certain things were deliberatly released only for xp

Vista took 5 long years, people are indoctrinated to upgrade. I was using 98se at the
time. after 3 years xp not much still worked on 98se.

and after many many patchups, XP is now acceptible. There are still plenty things
wrong with it. And I still get errors on my XP platforms but

I noticed a BIG improvement in performance when I switched from Windows 98 to XP. Please don't get me wrong - I'm not saying Micro$oft did anything right, just that 98 sucked big time. NT, by the way, wasn't much better as far as I could tell. I was running make to build fairly big programs (compilers) at the time. Building on Linux was an order of magnitude faster. Unfortunately, I do not expect much improvement in performance, if any, with Vista.

Also, the upgrade version of Vista is the one that requires XP to be installed first. My advice is don't upgrade unless there is a compelling reason.

Rhican: "I have been quoted to have said XP has a "teletubbie interface". And I still stand by it."
What do you exactly mean? Do you mean, its that easy to use that every idiot could use it?

no all the excessively rounded corners with a radix of 10px or so, just to make sure you don't cut yourself.
the default color scheme,
the round start button that appears to be made out of clay many more details like that.

Also nowadays the XP windowmanager is extremely limited in comparison with macOSX' or even
the majority of linux WM's.

the only advance feature -nobody probably knows about- is that if you leftclick a titlebar, and while still holding
down let mouse, also pressing right mouse. and then releasing the buttons. the window sticks to the cursor
withouth you needing to "drag" something.

The XP ui really isn't that great. But as there was no alternative to speak off in de windows world, it had
to make do.

ok They are really making it too easy

http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=199203346

you know how vista has a backup system built in. that site has tips on how to exclude something from it.
A common task, for the computer savy people, if they know a lot of junk would otherwise be backed up.

The solutions are just hillarious.

- move those directories to other drive/partition
- make it a subfolder of /windows
- don't use it. Use something else

I think those 3 solutions are actually valid for a much larger range of windows software. Perhaps entire Vista