Technobabble: Windows Vista and 3d Apps/Games - Nightmare time!

I’ve made a point of generally avoiding Windows Vista since it lanched. The hassles of saying YES to everything you click in the attempt to be secure quickly drove me crazy (unlike the Mac which asked you on install, but then lets you be). I’ve kept a machine running Vista for testing purposes but recently decided to move it upstream for some of my 3d needs due to a much better CPU than my main desktop. I upgraded to an Nvidia BFG 8800GT OC2, 512MB and all booted/installed fine. Then the nightmare began…

Of course the real test is with the 3d apps. I finally got around to installing Bioshock which has been sitting unloved on my shelf for months. Upon running I kept getting freezeups, crashes, and general nastiness. I found how to run in DX9 mode (right click on the icon in the ‘Game View Window’ and select DX9) and it ran a little longer but then gave me screen garbage at the end of the 1st stage of the game, eventually a BSoD (Blue Screen of Death). So where was the problem? Vista? The new Graphics Card? Bioshock?

I tried looking on bioshock forums but no obvious/useful help was to be found though it reminded me (as every tech site does) to install the latest drivers. When I got these from Nvidia, their site pointed out all of these Vista ‘hotfixes’ that are needed/recommended to make BASIC 3D of a game like this run. I’ve finally done the small handful of patches and updates and it seems to operate better, but WHAT A PAINFUL EXPERIENCE. I don’t know what a non-techy user would do other than simply cry. Microsoft has a lot to cleanup A YEAR LATER, to even make a simple operation like running a game work well. Aren’t games one of the reasons people still use Windows??

Stay with XP for now if you can! Hope Vista SP1 gets its act together!