Bye Bye Vista, Hello again XP Pro. :-)

Yeah, after using Windows Vista Business for 2 months I officially hate it.  After it lost (destroyed) my profile I had just had it.  Then I find out from another co-worker that is testing Vista on his laptop also that he had his profile lost just like I did one morning.  We both searched the web to find that it’s happening to others too.

I realize I can backup my profile but this is simply not acceptable.

After reloading my laptop with XP Pro w/SP2, and applying about 82 Windows Updates all feels good again.  I spent about 6 hours reloading applications and tweaking it and now it feels like home again.  I used Ghost™ of course when I was done building it to throw an image of my PC up to the network as a backup.  I didn’t Ghost™ it before I loaded Vista because I put waaaaaaay too much trust in Microsoft and their new operating system.  Yeah…..not going to do that again.

My next computer is going to be an Apple.  Microsoft helped push me in that direction even more with Windows Vista.

Windows Vista lost my profile

So this afternoon I fire up my laptop and log in. One big problem…..it looks like someone reloaded my laptop.

I used my laptop last night around 10pm and shut it down like normal. I had not used it since. There was nothing in my profile, except the default desktop icons. My favorites were all gone. My Firefox bookmarks were all gone. Everything in my “Documents” folder was gone.

The applications were still installed but my profile was gone. So for example, Outlook 2007 was there but it wasn’t set up for my email at all. So, all my email was also gone.

This is so awesome. I love this new feature of Windows Vista. What is it called? Windows Vista Super Data Protection Service?

Actually this sucks ass. Luckily since it’s my work laptop I can just rebuild it and I have all my email on the Exchange server at work. All my important documents etc, are on my network drive at work also. I know this because I’m the network analyst who manages the Exchange 2003 server cluster and also our home drives.

What’s funny is that previously I hated Windows Vista quite a bit. So do I reload my laptop with Windows XP Pro again or just redo everything in my profile? There are a few things I like about Vista so I may just keep it.

So far here is what I like about Vista:

1. I like how in my “Computer” it shows a bar graph for the fullness of the drives.

2. I like the widgets.

3. I like how pretty it all looks

4. I like that after I load it I don’t have to apply 82 Microsoft Updates like I do with Windows XP SP2.

5. I like that it finds more of my hardware so I have to install less drivers.

I know, it’s not much but what the heck.

Update on 5/9/2007

I noticed that I’m getting a lot of hits on this particular post.  I decided to update this post and give more information.

I am no longer running Vista, if you’ve not read any of my other entries.  I reloaded my laptop with Windows XP w/SP2.  It runs much better again and stuff works.

Funny thing, I came in to work the other day and was talking to my manager and we were just shooting the shit about Windows Vista and other things and I told him about how Vista lost my profile.  Suprised, he pipes up and says that the same thing just happened to him.  I’m like “are you kidding dude”?  He lost everything in his profile too and had to redo his profile again.  Now he backs his profile up just in case it happens again.

I have never had to backup a profile in Windows NT, Windows 2000, or Windows XP.  I have never had Windows lose my profile in any other OS other than Vista.  Obviously if it was a common thing in the past I would have known to backup my profile.  So I guess now if you run Vista, you should at least backup your profile once you have it all set like you like it.

Click here to see another person having the same problem.

I have searched Google, Yahoo, and the Microsoft knowledge base countless times and not even Microsoft has anything on this problem yet.  This is unacceptable for an operating system to lose your entire profile.

One last thing I should mention is that I had System Restore turned off.  In the past I have had nothing but problems with System Restore within Windows XP.  Maybe if I would have had System Restore running in Windows Vista when it lost my profile I could have restored my profile from an earlier date.  I don’t know.  I’m half tempted to reinstall Vista and leave System Restore on.  The problem is that System Restore usually is a problem because it hogs system resources and it can be a problem if your PC gets infected with a Virus or Malware.  Reason being is that it stores copies of the Virus or Malware in the restore points.

I’ll probably reinstall Windows Vista just because I can’t stand to not have the latest and greatest.  Then again, I’m just an anal retentive network/server guy.

Verizon store – designed by idiots

So I needed to get a new charger for my LG VX8300 phone.  My wife stopped at our local Verizon store to get one for me (which I really appreciate).

She had a very poopy experience.

She walked into the store and was greeted by an employee who asked what she needed help with.  She told the woman that she wanted a charger for an LG VX8300 phone.  The woman walked her over to a kiosk type terminal and said “Ok, just put your information here and it will give you a number.  We’ll help you when your number is called”.  My wife was like did the stupid thing and took a number.

My wife waited there for about 20 minutes and then went to tell the woman that if she waited there any longer and found out that they didn’t have the charger they would have to call the police because they would have one pissed off woman in the store.  The lady from Verizon then went in the back to confirm that they had the charger. 

So after about 35 minutes of just waiting my wife finally got the charger and was able to leave.

I would like to know who in blue hell designed this way of helping people?  It is a really beautiful way to treat your customers.  I’m sure that if there is a “new customer” that wants to buy a new phone and get a “plan” they are helped first.  Nice that existing customers just get the screw job.

There always seems to be about 4 Verizon employees working in the store.  How about you have one person that works on “billing questions/problems”, two that work on “new customers”, and another that works on “accessories”?  Would that make too much sense to do?  Instead you have 3 people that look like they have no idea what they are doing while 1 person sorta looks like they may know what they are doing.  All the while,15 customers just stand around like cattle.