This day, 365 days ago to be precises, the date was Monday, the 19th of February 2007. This day marks the day I purchased my very own personal computer, which happened to be a Compaq Presario notebook. 3 weeks before my purchase, Microsoft’s new operating system, Vista hit the retail stores. My laptop had Windows Vista pre-installed, just like eighty to ninety percent of the computers on sale at that point in time. Today, I have used Vista for a whole year.

I instantly fell in love with its shinyness and smoothness. I was extremely happy to be using Vista instead of Windows XP. This was until I was welcomed with a nice bright blue screen, known to all as the Blue Screen of Death. I knew that i would be seeing that screen quite frequently, and when I did, I either welcomed it, or ripped my hair out in frustration. To be honest, a BSoD is so common in Vista, that it is more of a feature of the operating system. Vista wouldn’t be Vista without the occasional death screen.

Luckily, at least once a month, patches and updates arrived via Windows Update. To this date, updating that operating system still scares me. Whenever there is an update, half of the time it fixes problems and makes your computer crash less, while other times it completely breaks everything and you start seeing more of that blue screen. Even if it does make your system more stable, it probably broke a driver or something else wouldn’t work right. On the subject of Windows Update, I do have to point out how much I like that it is a part of the operating system, and not some website you visit when you think about it.

My Vista experience has been a pleasant nightmare. Do I regret being an early adopter of this operation system? No, of course not. I love Windows Vista. It does have its downsides like the regular blue screens and the driver issues and the software issues and all the other issues that I haven’t mentioned because I have forgotten. But there is one upside of this poor little operating system and should be the reason that everyone using a PC should upgrade to Vista, its damn shiny!