I want to like Windows Vista. I really do! Not that I’m a Microsoft fanboy. In fact, I pride myself in the fact that after using personal computers since 1980 and email almost daily for about 20 years, this Monday when our IT staff migrates my corporate email account to Exchange, I will be using a Microsoft email client for the first time. The real reason I want to like the latest Windows release is that I’ve grown attached to too many small but extremely useful software programs that I can’t bear the thought of using a computer without them.

I’m not talking about big office-type applications, I’m talking about little programs like StrokeIt, SideSlide, Launchy, Total Commander, Sandboxie, CLCL and my favorite text editor or two. I understand that as you’re reading this you might find it hard to believe that these programs can be essential but the fact is, giving them up would be a big productivity hit for me and I won’t want to use a PC without them.

A few months back I did a fresh install of Microsoft Vista Ultimate on my primary home PC. I did experience some of the annoyances that made many hate this new Windows OS, but I’ve learned, mostly from searching the Web and reading PC Magazine, tricks to fix those annoyances and to a degree, I managed to make Vista not get in the way. However, for the past two weeks I kept getting random BSOD’s with a bad_pool_caller error and finally yesterday, Vista won’t boot. Using System Restore was no help. I kept going back from one point to an earlier one without success and when I finally restored to the earliest available point from 4 days earlier, the PC won’t start!

This really pisses me off especially considering the following:

• I have very few Windows applications installed as 90% of the software I use is portable. No Registry entries, no files in the Windows or System directories.
• I use a virtual machine to test software. Installing and uninstalling software on my PC is not something I do frequently.
• Windows Update, as well as a 3rd party firewall and AV software are installed and regularly updated.
• I am an IT professional. I know what I’m doing.

So on this Independence Day I sat watching the Yankees-Red Sox game and reinstalled Vista on my PC. Sad that I can’t get myself independence from Windows!

When the poll started, the WSJ listed the Microsoft Zune Media Player and the Apple iPhone among the eight options on the poll.  Missing was the Apple iPod.  Later, after reader demands and write-ins, the WSJ changed iPhone to iPhone or iPod. 

The iPhone or iPod turned out to be the big winner of the poll grabbing 62% of the vote but the real story for me is that the voting for the Microsoft Zune, according to the Journal, surged from less than 1% for most of the polling to 28% at the end!

In Daniel’s blog entry he reports that with 123,000 votes in, the Microsoft Zune had registered 0% interest.  Inexplicably, a day later, 14,999 out of 16,481 new votes came in for the Zune!  Daniel attributes this to “Microsoft discovering the embarrassment”.

This sheds some new light on how mighty the Microsoft PR machine is and how swiftly it springs into action.  Sadly, it also makes me more skeptical of online poll results and unregistered public voting in general.

Click on the links above to visit Daniel’s entry and the WSJ story.