Poor Microsoft. Everyone expects them to be super-perfect at doing everything. Little wonder when I got my key to the Windows Vista Beta 2, I downloaded both the 32 and 64-bit versions to two of my last three blank DVDs.

The first thing I thought of when I saw the welcome screen was a Mac — those rounded blue buttons and gleaming … what are they called [close, minimize, maximize] — reminded me of Mac screenshots (I haven’t used a Mac before).

Let’s face it — Microsoft has some of the very best designers working for them, but I think Vista is primarily bug-ridden pretty bloatware. The fact that it only fits on a DVD is ample proof of that.

At first I oohed and aahed over the cool effects I saw. After a few minutes of that, I was completely annoyed, especially when I noticed the lag everytime I performed any resizing or hiding of windows. My system meets all the specs of the Vista requirement, save the 1GB memory but I have the minimum 512MB RAM.

Prowling within the new Windows Explorer, I loved the icons but I think Microsoft’s breaking a lot of things. One thing I had come to respect in Windows is that there is consistency while browsing files and folders in all versions I’ve used (95 to XP), so I was quite miffed when I couldn’t find any button to view the files in an Explorer tree — I don’t know if that’s the name, but you get the point.

I finally had to use the good ole Start Menu to explore my DVD disc where my sound drivers were. I prefer Windows XP’s start menu better.

While browsing my DVD, I discovered that the my DVD drive was displayed twice and each expanded when I cliicked on one. It then became a matter of probability. I’d click one folder and it’d expand. The duplicate doesn’t expand — it only shows the folders inside it. I’m sorry if I’m not being very candid.

I had to rush back to the library to resume my shift [most of my exploration was done during my 30-minute break]. My boss noticed how bored I was sitting behind the computer lab desk and granted me a fifteen minute break.

I rushed off to the dorm and met a blank screen. I shifted my mouse a few times, then tapped angrily on different keys. It took about five minutes before the system purred and something came on my screen:

Windows is waking up from sleep…

I stared at my screen in disbelief. After about three minutes, Vista exited in grand style — with the infamous ‘Blue Screen of Death.’

I simply restarted and booted to good ol’ XP. As usual, my system was up and running in less than two minutes. With little time to spare, I sent some messages to friends and rushed back to the library where I currently type this.

Give me a fast system anyday — it’s going to take some bravery for me to boot to my second hard disk again.