A very Pleasant surprise Installing and Upgrading Vista Discuss A very Pleasant surprise in the Windows Vista forums; When I installed Vista, I took the approach that this would be a beta test until I was comfortable with issues which were inevitable. The reason for this statement is ...

When I installed Vista, I took the approach that this would be a beta test until I was comfortable with issues which were inevitable. The reason for this statement is that I chose to turn on "Install Updates Automatically" in
the security console.

This is something I never have done before. (Paranoia is sometimes a very good thing) But given that Vista may not have worked out for me, I thought
what the heck. Let's see how it works out.

RESULTS - The primary reason for this post is to PRAISE the Install Updates
Automatically function. I have followed a number of posts where users downloaded and installed security patches and had a number of problems after the patches were installed. I have not specifically (manually) downloaded and installed any patches from Microsoft - I put the task totally on their updater. A number of times I logged on to my computer to find a message which stated that the update installed required a reboot of my computer - but the reboot was totally transparent to me as the update was done while I was sleeping. I regularly check the patch logs and verify that the patches for the latest security alerts have been installed - and they have. I still feel a level of risk in allowing updates to happen this way, and it may not be the method for you to update your system, BUT to date it appears to be more productive than the alternatives.

WHY - What prompted this post? Well - a couple of days ago I bit the bullet and purchased Office 2007 Professional. It was late in the day when I did the install, and the Business Contact Manager disk installed Express Edition of SQL Server 2005. When I brought up the Configuration Tool for the SQL server, it complained that SQL Server 2005 was not compatible with Vista and presented me with a link to an update which must be installed to continue. I followed the link and read the instructions. It appeared to be more complicated than I wanted to deal with at the late hour. Being tired usually leads to mistakes which take longer to fix than to do over - so I opted to wait until the next day. (NOTE: I tried several months back to install the Express Edition of SQL Server 2005 with nothing but pain - so I pushed the task down on my list until I had enough time to deal with it)

THE SURPRISE - This morning was my designated time to deal with the SQL update. When I brought up the configuration tool, it was no longer presenting me with the version not supported error. My immediate reaction was - I should have saved the link that was presented before. I then reviewed the configuration information and to my surprise the service was running. I then reviewed the Update log and discovered that the SQL update had been downloaded and installed by the update service. Needless to say that I am impressed by the functionality.

[Znod]

I too have been impressed by everything that I have tried in Vista--not at your level--but still very impressive. e.g., networking (wired/wireless XPs, Vistas, OS Xs, and printers; dual and triple booting; number of properly working programs; 64-bit support for the things I want/need; Windows updates; support for handhelds; control panel items; and reliability, etc., etc.