Windows Vista

UrbanKhoja 0 478 Views

On Thursday I went to Oxfordshire for a training day on the much anticipated Windows Vista. Firstly the appearance of Windows Vista has many improvements and enhancements over XP, with the outstanding graphics and of course Windows Aero, you've found what Microsoft like to call `the Vista experience`.

The sku's:

There are currently four vista sku's; home, home premium, business and ultimate. There are 10 main features in Vista, but not all the sku's have all the features, so which one is best?

Home, comes with; Windows Defender & Windows firewall as well as instant search and Enternet Explorer 7.

Home premium, all features of home plus; Windows Aero & 3d flip, mobility center and tablet pc support, Windows meeting space, Windows Media Center, compatible with the xBox 360.

Business, comes with; Windows Defender & firewall, instant search & Internet Explorer 7, Windows Aero & 3d flip, mobility center and tablet pc support, Windows meeting space, advanced backup features, business networking and remote desktop.

Ultimate, as you've probably already guessed, is the ultimate Vista sku, therefore comes with everything I've mentioned so far as well as Windows bitlocker drive encryption with TPM (Trusted Platform Module).

I did mention the xBox 360, when used with a suitable Vista machine it is possible to stream media wirelessly throughout your home, when you also consider the BBC is working on a Vista website for Vista users to be able to stream their favorite programmes such as `Bleak House` whenever you want, currently you are unable to save the media just view it due to various DRM's, this new technology could mean trouble for services such as Sky+ and Sky by broadband, due to that fact that with the new service if there is a programme you feel a friend may like to watch, using the BBC's Vista page you can send a link to them for it, providing they are in your messenger / .net passport contact list.

Many people seem to be talking about 64bit Windows, and how they'll go and buy it as soon as it comes out - no they wont...

...Vista will only be shipped to retailers in 32bit, as this is a lot more cost effective than shipping both and not selling them, so in order to get 64bit you must, purchase a 32bit Vista pack from a retailer, then either online or via post service, apply for the Vista 64bit disk, which Microsoft will provide free of charge provide you cover p&p.

The requirements for Vista:

Home;

You'll need a 800mhz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor or higher.
at least 512mb ram, dx9 capable, 32mb graphics, 20gb hdd with 15gb free, dvd-rom drive, plus internet access.

Premium, Business and Ultimate (and Enterprise);

1ghz 32-bit or 64-bit processor, 1gb ram, Windows Aero capable, 128mb graphics, 40gb hdd with 15gb free, dvd-rom drive, and internet access. these are all minimum requirements.

For bitlocker you'll need an integrated TPM or a usb 2.0 key.

The current Office 2003 student and teacher package will be replaced by Office 2007 home and student, you do not need to be in education to use this. :cool:

Dani AI

Generated

The firsthand reports from and highlight two recurring patterns: instability and sluggishness blamed on the OS, and frustration with changed UI/behaviour. In many cases the root cause is not Vista itself but mismatched drivers, firmware or leftover XP-era utilities. The pragmatic approach below focuses on diagnostics and vendor-supplied fixes that most often convert a problem machine into a stable one.

Recommended checklist (most effective steps first):

  1. Make a full backup and create a System Restore point before driver/BIOS work.
  2. Update BIOS/firmware and chipset drivers from the laptop/motherboard vendor; then install vendor WHQL Vista graphics drivers.
  3. Install all Microsoft platform updates and vendor-supplied Vista hotfixes.
  4. Perform a clean boot via msconfig to isolate third-party services/startups.
  5. Inspect the System log with eventvwr and record STOP codes or driver filenames (these are the search terms vendors use).
  6. Run hardware tests: memtest86+ for RAM, chkdsk /f and vendor HDD diagnostics for disks.
  7. For fullscreen video BSODs, test with hardware acceleration off and try alternate players; roll GPU drivers forward/back to find a stable release.
  8. If sleep/hibernate fails, update power-management drivers, disable hybrid sleep and check ACPI settings in BIOS.
  9. If the system was an upgrade from XP, consider a clean Vista install — many odd behaviours vanish after a fresh image.

Additional tuning and cautions: reduce visual-effect load via Control Panel → System → Advanced → Performance Settings if GPU drivers are weak; remove vendor overlay utilities that auto-start (media managers, helper apps). Use Process Explorer to find resource hogs. Never flash BIOS or install unsigned drivers without a verified backup and vendor support contact. Where symptoms persist, capture precise Event Viewer entries and driver names before contacting hardware support — that evidence speeds resolution.

Member Avatar for goldeagle2005
goldeagle2005 33 Finkus Stinkalotus

I went through the entire Vista training module here at Dell too, and i must say I did not find Vista worth all the hype and delays. Sure, the Aero interface looks cool; sure, the animations are cool, but the price for all these is way too high in terms of system requirements, especially when you can use WindowBlinds to get most of these effects in XP. Vista RC1 brought my machine (Athlon64 2800+, 1 Gig, GeForce FX 5200 w/128 Meg to a crawl, even with Aero switched off. I also don't care for the new folder view. I kinda preferred XP's task oriented Task Panes. I also don't like Vista' Start Menu, and there seems to be no way to revert to the XP style menu. I think Vista'll have a steep learning curve, even for IT experts.

On the positive side, I do appreciate the security features, especially UAC, which though a tad annoying does work to keep youinformed about what's happening. I also think the protected mode in IE7 will help to keep viruses/trojans at bay.

Let's see what the final release will be like, but if it's anything like RC1, I'm gonna stick with Xp/Server 2003

Member Avatar for UrbanKhoja
UrbanKhoja 89 Practically a Posting Shark

After almost 7 months of use, and helping way to many customers with way to many issues, i've decided vista is not at all worth all the hype, i'm lucky enough to be running it on a fairly good spec media laptop, but if i watch TV fullscreen i get the blue screen of death, if it sleeps it won't wake up, it's now faster to walk to google than to surf there! overall, if i hadn't of got it so cheap there's no way i'd of bought it.

Dazza :cool:

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