Vista upgrade nets so-so grade

Well, it has been a few weeks with Microsoft Vista, and I have some impressions to share with those of you thinking of taking the plunge.

First of all, this is an upgrade best purchased with a new computer. That's because there are still quite a few missing device drivers out there, and without drivers your devices either won't work or won't work to their best capacity.

I am frankly surprised by the volume of e-mail I have received from people still looking for drivers for their printers, their scanners and their monitors. A couple of people have asked me who is to blame when drivers are missing. Is it Microsoft or the manufacturer of the device? The simple answer is both.

The manufacturer has known for years that a new operating system was coming. The question of drivers then becomes: Does the manufacturer focus its attention on new devices currently in the pipeline or take its resources and focus on legacy devices already in the field?

After all, if your printer doesn't work, odds are you are going to head off to the store and buy another printer. Of course, I may have a cynical view.

But that does leave people in the lurch in many ways.

Another griping group, with good cause, are gamers. They have been waiting for a new gaming platform for years, and when it came some key games still don't work or don't work well with Vista. (Don't get me wrong ... some games work fine.)

Another interesting gripe is the disappearing CD-ROM drive. Some folks have called my computer repair company complaining that their CD drive disappeared after they installed another device.

This one has perplexed users all over the world (the fix, by the way, is in Microsoft Knowledge Base article 320553, no charge). But one has to wonder why Microsoft hasn't released the fix as a patch or update or why it makes it so hard to find.

As for sales, Microsoft claims it has sold 20 million copies at release, which is one of those numbers that no one believes, especially since so many Windows XP machines were sold since November 2006 with free Vista upgrade coupons. However, there's no question that most new PCs are coming with Vista now, so the installed base has to expand.

Just don't buy the Basic version of Vista, which doesn't give you much more than XP Home. Pop for the Premium version assuming you have the hardware to support it; get the Ultimate version if you have the hardware and the coin to pay for it.