First, Vista evidently does not know what NICs are. Granted this is beta software, but when you're up to a Release Candidate, you really should be piling in the hardware support. The installer didn't know what to do with the Intel Pro 100 NIC in the machine, and didn't know what to do with the 3Com 3c905 I stuck in later. Um, hello? The 3c905 family is just about the most prolific line of NICs in the history of networking. Thankfully Vista shows its roots and will use the XP driver. So, I now have a PC with network access.
Second, you cannot, apparently, set one folder view and then force it down onto every other folder. I like a simple list. I don't like being flooded with details, unless I actually want to see them. This is irksome and tiring.
Third, there is something deeply broken about the Start Menu. I can't drop a shortcut into the Startup folder for All Users. In fact, I can't modify the Start Menu at all. Not for All Users, not even for myself. Something may just be wrong under the hood (25% probability), or Microsoft in pursuit of some mind-bendingly absurd security model has decided that the Start Menu is a critical resource in need of ultimate protection; that giving Administrator the right to drop a shortcut into the Start Menu is tantamount to giving Osama Bin Laden an "all access" pass to the Pentagon (75% probability). Sheeze.
If gripes #2 and #3 do not prove to have handy remedies, this OS will have a short life indeed at the House of Hum.
