Windows Vista Video Drivers Sure Break a Lot
I run Vista on three different physical boxes (two notebooks and one desktop). They each have different graphic chip/card configurations. And, yet, I often see all kinds of weird display glitches (screen blanks out, switches from aero to basic, etc.) on each of them.
One of the improved features of Vista compared to earlier versions of Windows is the way it recovers from video driver panics. On older Windows boxes, this would result in a non-functional display that would require, at the least, a reboot. Vista detects this and restarts the video subsystem without requiring a reboot. However, the real question is why Vista video drivers crash so much more than XP video drivers. I see the message in the figure above several times a week (if not even more often). This doesn't leave me with a warm and fuzzy feeling. Especially since I NEVER see this kind of problem when I use a computer running Linux (assuming X11 is running at all) or a Mac.
I read earlier this week that the so-called Windows 7 that will replace Vista may emerge as early as 2009. Honestly, this isn't early enough for me. I generally like Vista and miss the program search feature when I use the Start Menu in XP. But, Vista's glitchiness is annoying.