With news that Microsoft will no longer ship Windows XP by the end of the year, the pressure is on to get Windows Vista on an even keel.

Yesterday we replaced all our XP-based computers with brand new Vista ones. So, how’s the “experience” going?

Like all software projects it’s a bit of a curate’s egg. The good bits are very, very good, the bad bits, horrible.

First off, it’s over-engineered, as I knew it would be after writing about it for two years. I’ve long made my peace with XP, even its dodgy bits, like USB handling — there seem to be two conflicting systems at work as soon as you add new hardware through USB ports. On XP, I’ve arranged for all files and folders to be available from the desktop through shortcuts and know where to find anything I want.

In Vista they’ve tried to make it fashionably intuitive, so nothing can be found — unless, of course, you have an abundance of intuition (guesswork), and even then I doubt it’s that easy. Jim Allchin was dead right back in 2004 to scrap the Vista project as it stood, put aside the new file handling system, and rewrite the basic code around a kernel, a bit like Linux.

However, to my mind, it’s still too darned clever by half. It’s the product of geeks coding for geeks, but trying to make it easy for the hoi-polloi, like me.

I should point out that I’ve only been at it for around three hours, and we’re currently running the XP systems alongside the Vista boxes.

Worryingly, BT broadband has no new software discs for Vista, which is odd, especially as it took me six hours to get XP working on their new 8Mbs service. By the time I’d cleared off all the childish Yahoo material they showered onto our office computers — fuming with murderous intent — I’d damaged the registers and had to start again.

Unbelievably, I now have to do the same all over for Vista, even using the old disc. Why don’t these prize boobies realize that usability is more important than features?

I also had to turn off the main protection feature of Windows Vista, the User Account system, in order to get the broadband disc even to begin. The disc couldn’t see any admin powers with which to set the thing up. This, of course, is deliberately intended to stop enemy attacks — preventing intruders from scooping up admin powers. Trouble is, it also stops you doing the things that computers are meant to do, like making changes, improving settings etc. Each time I attempt to do anything beyond clicking on programs, the defence system asks me to override the defence. Crazy, or what? By turning off User Account protection, I can now do anything I want, but have dumped Vista’s main line of defence.

I expect I’ll turn it on again once I’ve wrestled the BT software into submission, opened up the computer to an avalanche of malicious grungeware, and become a nervous wreck. Come to think of it, I may have succeeded in that already.

Now some plus points : the computer manufacturer (MESH) has added some extra USB ports on the front of the box, and they work brilliantly. Both my flash memory pod and my digicam card reader worked so smoothly they might have been soaked in baby oil.

I might just get used to this — when I’ve gone through the learning curve, got online and remembered all my passwords for the Web-as-computer stuff.

Update : My query to British Telecom (BT) about the old broadband disc has resulted in a phone call informing me that there is no disc currently available for setting up their broadband service for Windows Vista computers. Inexplicable.

The call came from a foreign call centre and was delivered in an impenetrable accent so that the woman caller had to spell out each word out using a system of pronunciation completely unknown to me. By using a great deal of imagination I finally got the gist of my username and new password. I am soon to receive an email explaining how to get the software for Vista connection to BT’s broadband service — some sort of hasty workaround, I think. It just gets better and better.

Update : I take it all back. While I was waiting for the clunky BT software to take effect, Vista had done it all for me. I was online all the time without knowing it. Ah well, I was never cut out to be a geek.

I’m now enjoying the Vista experience enormously. OFFICIAL.