I couldn't wait to test Windows 98, 2000, XP, and Server 2003. They were all significant improvements over the products they succeeded, and the Betas were relatively bug-free.

Above all, they worked.

I never had to uninstall, or worse yet, reformat my drive and start over. In fact, in every case, I rode the early trials through to the final release.

Not so with Windows Vista.

The July Beta 2 was unusable. It's worst feature was the Windows Explorer replacement. I never realized how much I depended on that simple program, which hadn't changed very much since Windows 3.1. It was elegant in its simplicity and speed, making it easy to cruise through the file structure with a solid dependability that most users take totally for granted.

The Vista version of Windows Explorer destroyed that feeling of dependability. The icons in the default setting were much too big, so I did what I always do - switch to the "Details" view. Only none of the files showed up - suddenly the directory looked like it was empty. The same thing happened when I tried to use the new sorting and filtering features. When I tried to copy or move files, the machine always hung and had to be rebooted.

The new media manager looked really slick, too, but didn't work much better. Playing songs from my digital library caused it to crash and force a reboot. The same occurred while attempting to view videos. When the Media Manager hung, the only solution was to reboot. Subsequent betas and updates failed to fix the problem.

My copies of both the Beta 2 and later versions shared a smothering security setup that forced me to approve every program I started, and refused to run a lot of the programs that ran fine under XP, notably Visual Studio 2005, the Microsoft software development program. Being a developer, that is kind of important to me..

Worse, there was no way to turn the security off!

All attempts to ease the security resulted in messages explaining that I did not have the authority to do so, even when logged on as a local or domain administrator.

In addition, I had to throttle back my 2800+ Sempron to the lowest possible setting to get Vista to run, insuring frustratingly slow performance.

Then I loaded the Beta version of Office 2007 and experienced more non-functioning software, but whether it was due to the Office software or Vista I couldn't tell.

But that was enough. I couldn't reload XP, and I certainly couldn't wait for the production version with a PC that didn't work at all, so I formatted the disk and reinstalled XP, which for some reason wouldn't run on the Sempron without crippling the processor to the slowest speed, too. So, I loaded Windows Server 2003 RS1, which runs at full processor speed, and I'm using that as my desktop.

I miss the beautiful graphics of the Windows Vista Beta, but I need my computer to work. I don't think I will be loading Vista on any of my machines until the first service pack. Or, maybe I'll wait for Vista SE. FreshBaked.com recommends you run Beta versions of Vista on a virtual machine, if at all. If you can wait, which also means you'll have to buy a copy, the best idea would be to hold out for the released version, at least.