Do You Approve? NO!

I love the new Apple ad with the PC guy and the security “agent” behind him, constantly asking, “Do you approve?” to do something. The truth is, I do not approve of Vista.

As many know here I own, in addition to my 12 or so Macintosh computers, a PC. In fact, I own two, a desktop and a Sony Viao portable (as close as a PC will EVER come to being a Mac!)

And I was (am?) an MSDN (Microsoft Developer Network) member through my previous job. And through MSDN one can get the lastest and greatest? from Microsoft. So, being very curious, I downloaded Vista and installed it on a SECOND drive onto my PC.

Sorry Microsoft, there is not “WOW” as your new commercial would have us believe (great commercial for such a lousy ending.) It is good looking and all, in a OS-X kind of way, (I wonder where they got that idea?) and it has all the cool stuff they stole right out of OS-X over the last 3 to 4 years when you use it. And, in Microsoft’s wonderful way, everything you knew about Windows, like where controls are located, or how to change an option, are all moved some place new. Strangely, even FILE and EDIT menus are nowhere to be found on most applications…oh wait, there they are, under the new “Tool” drop down that looks just like OS-X’s tool menu, another menu hidden down. The two most used menus in the system, and they moved them to a secondary pop-down off to the right of the window, and make no hint as to where they are. Sheesh! But it goes to the learning curve I guess, everythign you knew is wrong now. Godd work Microsoft, make everyone start over.

But it DOES contain this awful security feature, which, as far as I can tell, is either all on or all off. When on, if you try to install a program, open a control panel, launch an updater, change your screen resolution, or do any of 100 other things you might want to do on a regular basis, the screen goes gray and everything stops. It goes gray in the same way the Mac does on rare occasion when a kernel panic occurs. In fact, EXACTLY the same way, freezing the computer from doing anything else. A small box in the center of the Vista screen pops up, describes the action you are trying to take, in a very unfriendly Windows kind of way as well, and asks you to approve or reject the action. As far as I can tell, there is no way to say, for example, trust this decision from now on and do not ask me again, or trust this application to do anything it wants, but rather happens EVER time you try and do something. Do you approve? No, I do not approve of this feature.

And lets be real, people will start getting so annoyed, they will be knee jerking at the YES button so quickly they simply stop reading the messages. Microsoft says this is for your safety to stop ad-ware or viruses from installing stuff. But count on it, as soon as you become annoyed with this constant interruption (which took me about an hour or less) you will either turn it off completly, or simply start hiting YES without reading the message. It is no protection at all in the long run. Do you approve?

But this HAVING to approve everything is one LARGE item short. On my system, I have auto-updates set to “ask me” rather than automatic, just like I did in XP. Those I WANT to approve, I can, but that is my choice. But for the second time is such a short time, and maybe 10 times on XP before that, Microsoft can decide that an update is really important, and decide for you to download and install it, and then decide for you to restart your computer, WITHOUT asking you.

Gee, if I was going to exploit the system, maybe I could write something that looks like a Microsoft download and restart, and bypass the whole approval mess? (there is a free idea for you.) But besides that, what gives Microsoft the right to decide that my machine needs to be rebooted? I have had servers rebooted, I’ve had nightly build machines rebooted, and I have had my home computer rebooted, while each and every one of them was busy with some overnight task who’s results were lost or interrupted because Microsoft thinks they have the right to download, update, and reboot my machine without my permission when THEY want it to happen.

Listen up Microsoft, I DO NOT APPROVE! Please, give us an option to turn off this annoying agent on things we trust. Please give us an option to stop you from rebooting our machines without permission. I read where Vista sales were not as large as they hopped. Gee, now there is a surprise, people are not running out to buy a completely new, really annoying operating system. Who would have guessed?

PC people, now is your time to switch to Mac. If you have to learn a new system, buy a Mac. To properly get everythign out of Vista, you will need a new computer anyway, so make it a Mac. Mac is still fairly easy to learn, and with Parallels, you can still run all your old XP, Windows 2000, or earlier software IF you even need to. You will not have to worry as much about viruses and ad-ware, and you certainly do not have to approve every small action you take. Make your life easier, swicth to Mac, and see why Mac users are always smiling when they use their computer. They just work!