Unbelievable Vista

It's really unbelievable that Vista comes with a "complimentary" .Net Framework 1.1 plus SP1 which will cause an "endless" installation of a mysterious patch KB929729, given that actually Vista gives you another .Net Framework 3.5 at the same time!

The problem appears when I got my new laptop, with a pre-installed WindowsVista Business version, which is with this notorious .Net Framework 1.1. This version of .Net Framework was known for its stability on Windows XP before, but when it appeared that it was not compatible with the later .Net Framework 2.0 (or I should say it the other way round?), it turned into a nightmare of many developers and even some casual users. One example is the Paint.Net tool (btw I really love this free and handly tool, as a alternative for the expensive and complicated PhotoShop), which swang between these two versions of .Net Framework for quite a long time, and even gave some releases with a .Net Framework 1.1 embedded. Finally those Paint.Net guys chose to follow the latest one, just as most rational developers will do.

After several unsuccessful tries (I got a lot of help from Peter, but sorry I still could not make it...), I had to remove the whole .Net Framework 1.1, so that the "genius" Windows Update will not prompt me for this patch update any more. And guess what, none of my application SW complained about that! Obviously those latest versions of the tools I use have already tuned themselves to the latest version of .Net Framework, which I assume to be 3.5 on my Vista. So, why bother stick to the troublesome 1.1?

Still in a headache period with my new laptop and this new OS:

1. I cannot see the defragmentation report before do the actual defragment, nor can I see the progress of it.
2. I cannot find the plain "Add/Remove SW" button anymore.
3. The "Windows Live Messenger Installation" always fails. (I had to manually download it and install it to bring back my MSN...)
4. The Windows Media Player 11 still does not include any meaningful codec. I have to download a free codec package to play a traditional DVD. (Microsoft insists that ppl should "purchase" these codec, but pls tell me, how many ppl really did that?)
5. ...

Just cannot understand Microsoft

Microsoft just released the 2008 version of Visual Studio Express, which requires installation of .NET Framework 3.5. Since the Express series is free of charge, many ppl fancy to use it as a costless code editor (esp. in embedded area, even the expensive full version could not do the compiling or debugging job, which have to be done with some specific tools, most likely to be linked to some HW). So I tried to install it on company PC for evaluation, and guess what? It triggered a 87MB downloading from Microsoft website and was blocked by the company's firewall! Thanks to Microsoft, now I have to take the laptop back home, and use my own cable, AND MY OWN TIME, to finish the installation so that I could submit an evaluation report to my boss.

One very simple question to Microsoft: Since you have already released the whole thing FOC, why you just put the full set of installation files on website for downloading? You always assume that users will have high speed and fully "open" Internet connection when they do any SW installation. Is it because that you guys back there in the cubicles took it for granted, or you actually wanna utilize this chance to do some "back-door" things, like you always do?

I sincerely call for some masters to hack this problem and share a full-size installation file with the whole world!