Category: Windows Vista

Windows Vista Desktops

~ rbonini ~ 2 Comments

If you browse the desktops that are included with Vista and you find it lacking, there is always the collection from Hamid Darwish to spice up your desktop.

He’s the Flickr photographer that Microsoft hired to do something special for  the desktop. These are the Photos that didn’t make it:

Lost Sensations( OH ) ZoneDestination - vol. IIBeyond ClarityThe Planet of LifeExplore The RomanceThe Endless Journeydaylight editionNorthwest.OutdoorsS!lkReign of FireA Peek [ at the ] PeakThe Living SymphonyImprisonedEndless HorizonsExplorer in a world of giantsColors [ of the ] NorthwestAlone ... and facing the stormMt. ShastaInvasion of the liquidWhispers Of The PacificAngry ShoresEssential Colors of Middle EarthWizard [ of the ] Northwestheavens of the northwestAging Lands of Middle EarthThe BeastEchoes of a DreamVisions of InspirationShores of FireBy A Snowy HillsideNo Steps FurtherThe Distant Mountain - vol. II

You can download  the whole collection as a ZIP file from  his site. I’d unzip it directly to C:\Windows\Web\Wallpaper\ so it’ll show up when you personalize your desktop.

I’m using this one on my Laptop at the moment:

http://www.hamaddarwish.com

Windows Vista- Day 4 On the Alien Planet

~ rbonini

I have to say, now that most things are working, my opinion of Vista has improved loads.

Its the little details that I appreciate now. How taskbar items light up when you hover over them, for example

Windows Live installed perfectly on its fifth try, so I’m using Writer to type this.

Norton LiveUpdate works like a charm.

Windows update works well. I like the fact that Update is integrated within Vista instead of having a website to get all the optional stuff from.

My Gmail Notifier works like a charm.

The Windows Home Server Console does not work ( can’t log me in).

The SageTv Client works fine as well.

The Console itself installed fine ( I installed it before installing anything else, including updates), but can’t open my shares. Backup, strangely, works fine.

And accessing my shares is a pain. I have to use the IP address instead of the Computer Name. Which means I have to change the IP address on my media library every time it changes. At least till I get the DHCP Add-In working again( last time I tried, my PC’s refused to connect to the Internet).

So. how did I get this far after my frustrating first 2 days with Vista?

I tried everything to get the laptop networking working again. Scott Hanselman had a post a few week back entitled: The Nuclear Option: Resetting The Crap Out Of Your Network Adapters in Vista

This is for when “Diagnose and Repair” isn’t cutting it. Thanks to JohnP for his help.

  • Go to the Start Menu, type cmd and right click, and select “Run As Administrator”
  • Type the following commands, each followed by pressing enter.
    • ipconfig /flushdns
    • nbtstat -R
    • nbtstat -RR
    • netsh int reset all
    • netsh int ip reset
    • netsh winsock reset

Now, reboot and pray. Possibly not in that order.

I tried this in vain, twice. Clearly something was wrong since none of the above list of applications were able to access the Internet or local network.

So I went one better: I re-installed Vista from scratch. Now granted, it might seem like overkill to sort out a few networking issues, but those very networking issues prevented me from using my laptop to its full potential. This is because the use the network is such that we might as well not have the computer/network-enabled-device if we can’t use the network to its full.

The install was surprisingly quick and easy. And everything ran like a swizz car from there.

The one thing to note is that my Console and Shares( via the WHS Connector)  were working fine before any updates were installed. In other words, I could type in \\SERVER and my shares would come up. Currently I have to type in the IP address. So I’m pretty sure that an update is the culprit. though I have neither the time nor the patience to rollback each one to find out which it is.

All that aside, the Dell Inspiron 6400 is a very nice machine. It keeps up with everything quite well. And it has up to 7 hours of battery time ( if you select the power saver plan). It has media keys  on the edge that left you control Windows Media Player from  the keyboard, which is nifty. The really good thing is that its not ablaze with advertising stickers like some laptops I’ve seen lately.

In the final analysis, I’m really starting to like Vista after spending several hours with it reading 1000+ RSS items this afternoon(Google Reader subscribers will know what I mean).

So its back to writing software and salvaging erratic ship dates.

Windows Vista – Day 2 On The Alien Planet

~ rbonini ~ 2 Comments

Now Vista has given me a ride over the last couple of days.

I can understand why people are happy with XP. Or why they want to downgrade.

OK here goes:

  • Getting the laptop to connect to the Internet through my router has been a bit challenging.
    • This affects Live Update and any other programs that download stuff  ( or need to communicate with a remote server -like registering office)- thought, curiously not IE or Firefox
  • Getting programs to install can be challenging too
    • My WHS Connector can’t install because it can’t find my server (see above and below)
    • Windows tells me that there is a compatibility problem with Visual Studio 2005. When I install the Visual studio 2005 Service Pack for Vista, it tells me I haven’t got VS installed
    • Live writer failed to download and install
  • Restore removed Office and Nortons for some inexplicable reason
  • The number one thing is that accessing my server is a pain in the butt. Connector can see the server but not verify my password. Explorer can see it via the IP address but not via the name “server”

Somebody please tell me what I should do.

Vista Desktop Manager

~ rbonini

Seriously, you have to ask yourself why Microsoft didn’t think of this:

[via Scott Hanselman]

I think its a testament to the legions of Windows developers the world over who wont take Redmond lack of design inspiration for an answer (compared to an unnamed Computer Company).

Get it here. I am so downloading it.

It also shows how much Microsoft left out of Vista (presumably under pressure to RTM it before it was ready).

Earth to WinFS. Where are you????????? 

Windows Home Server Install, Part 1

~ rbonini ~ 2 Comments

I actually havent started the install. But my rage is now building up. The reasons are

  1. that the 300Gb hardrive I wanted to use and that caome preinstalled with my PC physically can’t come out – I can’t reach the screws since only one side of the case opens.
  2. i can’t use the Xp recovery console as its password protected my the manufacturer ( I was trying to fix the MBR for when Vista Beta 2  expires, so no luck there)

So my plan for a 380 GB Home server stopped before it started.  I’ll have to settle for 2x 80Gb drives. Given the fact that i have at least 30GB worth of downloads and 10GB of music (all legal), It only gives me 180 GB to back up 2 PC’s. Not ideal. Then you have to factor in room for growth.

if worst somes to worst, I have my eye on a nice Dell Poweredge server that will do nicely. But I’d rather use the hardware collecting round my feet before it gets too ancient.

Now if Microsoft could just make a handly MBR restorer…..

And the name of the infernal manufacturer that built my PC with the 300Gb harddrive? You’d never guess: Pc World.

Vista

~ rbonini

Now over the past few days, I’ve seen a huge amount of people finding my blog posts on Windows Vista. Truth be told, I’ve still got the beta 2 installed, though don’t use it very much. The reason is simple. I never got round to it.

With the launch of Vista and Office 2007 i got a nastly surprise – Office 2007 Beta 2 stopped working. In the most literal sense of the Word. i had to re-install Office 2003. I’m insensed at this as it didn’t even give me the opportinutity of convert all my 2007 format documents and spreadsheets back to 2003 format. Wake up guys. So what on earth am i supposed to do now?

On to Vista.

I think its nothing less that pure brilliance. Stolen Mac OSX features or not, its great. The central question that Vista begs us to ask is “What do we want out of an OS?”. Seems Microsoft/Apple ( Depending who stole what from who) have asked themselves that and come out with an asnswer.

The times that i’ve used vista, I’ve never once failed to be impressed by some small but incredibly useful feature.  the integrated search in the start menu is amazing. The new layout of the programs is even better, avoising huge cascading menus that can end up taking up the whole screen.

The Network Centre is extremely useful for allowing you to instantly deduce the problem. It interfaces well with my router (XP tells me the Internet gateway is on, even when it isn’t).

The huge array of options to personalize your computer is extremly important.  The need to create somthing that’s distinctivly you is found everywhere, from the organisation of your desk to the decoration of your room.

The sidebar is extremely useful, as is the option to cconfigure which monitor it appears in in a multi-monitor setup (Microsoft is acknowledging the increasing populoarity of multi-monitor setups in a bid to boost productivity) . I’ve heard that developing Widgets is not every progrmmers cup of tea or coffee.

The way the file system is displayed is imortant. The new look and feel is extremly diferent to Xp, mainly being more userfriendly( while displaying more info) and givingthe user a great number of choices.

The parental controls are included out-of-the-box and are integrated with the accounts and games aspects of Vista. While i have not actually tested this, it seems pretty good. this is essentially Microsoft serving notice of its intention to expand into this tradtitionally third party domain.

The Account profiles are interesting. The new range of restrictions that can be leveled on an account is extremly extensive. This should  life easier on pleantly is network administrators.

The integrated Windows Defender is an inutive idea. The main question is about what advantages it offers over a third party product (ie Norton or McAffee).If Microsoft say greater OS integration, then Microoft open themselves up to a repeat of the EU Competition Commission debacle (only this time from those third-party developers as well). Microsoft need to ensure that all third-party developers have the opportunity to achive the same OS integration as Micorosofts own offerings.

The Aero Glass interface needs no explaination as it speaks for itself.

The irritating security popups become less irritating as time goes on and seem to appear less frequently as well ( did microsoft allow it to remember preferences?) .

Vista is a real RAM hog. On my machine  while doing nothing, it takes up a full 200MB more then XP running  a full set of services ( i.e nortons firewall, Ghost etc) and Visual Web Desingner. I can’t even get a DVD to play properly on  Vista. microsoft seems to have spotted this problem and allowd the use of memory keys as  RAM (“ReadyBoost”).

Vista is so large I’m probably missing a few things. Vista brings an entirely new .Net Framework for developers to work with ( formally Windows Presentation Foundation). I’ve yet to get round to using it since I’m only now getting to the height of my .Net version two programming powers.  I should give it a try.

Finally, I think the number of Vista Versions gives people more choices for their wallets. Coupled with the  ability to upgrade when you need to, its a huge plus for business procurement departments and people on a limited budget ( half with this months budget, half with next month’s) . The only thing missing here is the ability to download Vista from Microsoft ( saves shipping time and cost).

The only question left here is when to buy Vista. Now with all the bugs that are sure to be found.Of after the first Service Pack. It s a choice between too evils. Contend witht he bugs, or contend with the now obselete Windows XP. Which is the lesser of two evils ?

Vista Licenceing and Web 2.0

~ rbonini

I was scrolling though my feeds and came across this post over at the One Man Shouting blog.

MSFN is reporting that all Vista Editions will be included on the same DVD, but that the discs will be color coded to indicate which version the consumer purchased.  The good news is that consumers will be able to upgrade to a higher version of Vista if they decide they need more features.

I’m thinking. Perhaps Microsoft should go one better (or worse, you decide) and bill users according to the features not in their current license that they use. So, if I don’t usually use, say Media Centre, but suddenly need to use it one night when my friends come over, Microsoft could just bill my PayPal account for that time. So I would choose the features I want year round access to and anything extra gets billed ( at a higher rate, obviously, to encorage people to buy an Ultimate license). Sun Microsystems do something similar to this, I belive ( Salesforce.com?).

But then again, perhaps bothering people for their Paypal account details everytime they open Media Centre or send a fax mught just bring out the extremist side in Microsoft customers 😉 .

 Why I’m posting about a lame idea, I don’t know. Perhaps its just the novelty of it. Web 2.0 and the fact that most people are connected tot he internet 24/7 are the reasons why these kinds of things possible.  The idea is, in essence what Sun CEO Johnathan Schwartz calls “The Network is the Computer”, the idea that the exististance of a network beyond out immidiate hardrive  increases the amount of things that we can do.

So, although Web 2.0 is a concept, its a powerful concept. We use new tools and technologies to turn what uised to be a static web into an extension of an application. in other words, we can use web pages and services as if they we local applications running from a local hard drive.  

I think I’m going to spring for Vista Ultimate myself (Media Player definately included :) )

Windows Vista: Memory

~ rbonini

No wonder. No wonder all my memory is gone when running Vista. Turns out that Vista preloads alot of stuff that it thinks you might need. in other words, its trying to give you more bang for your buck ( or rather your RAM). Jeff Atwood explains this rather well in a follow up post to the one I touched on earlier.

Which is quite fine, until you decide to actually use all that preloaded memory for somthing else. Vista won’t even let me play a DVD for goodness sake. I suppose I should try Readyboost when I get another USB key ( the other one is kind of busy at the moment).

Now all I need to do is persuade someone to lend me their internet for a few hours to download Vista RC1.

Windows Vista: All I need is…

~ rbonini ~ 1 Comment

With all the hoohah going on about Vista RC1, I thought that this gravity-inducing post was rather good.

  Windows XP (2001) Windows Vista (2007)
CPU 233 MHz 800 MHz
(1 GHz recommended)
RAM 64 MB
(128 MB recommended)		 512 MB
(1 GB recommended)
Video Super VGA (800 x 600) display DirectX9 video card
(128 MB video RAM recommended)
HDD 1.5 GB 15 GB

Vista requires 10x the drive space, 8x the memory, and 4x the CPU power. It also substantially raises the bar for video; most integrated video solutions are no longer acceptable. The increase in minimum spec is not unreasonable, considering it’s been 6 long years since the last release of a mainstream desktop operating from Microsoft.

Since I havn’t had the chance to download RC1 due to a non-existant broadband connection, I’ll jusrt go by Beta 2 that I’m using.

Running only Media Player, nothing else, Vista uses nearly 650MB of RAM. Thats still 200Mb more that XP with all the bells and whistles running in the background (i.e.Nortons, Getright, etc). I can’t even, and this is ridiculous, play a DVD becuase most of my RAM is taken up.

I actually like Vista. Its great. Totally rebuilt. Now i thought, and correct me if I’m mistaken, that rebuilding the OS was supposed to strip out all the ancient, slow code and replace it with somthing rather more efficient. Sure, there is alot of extras in Vista that makes it impossible to to a straight comparison.

The simple fact is that the more demands placed on a pc the narrower the market becomes ( in the sense that it alienates pople who are unwilling or cannot replace or upgrade a pc to the new standards). I have a 1996 era pc running at home that requires a rebuild. What do a I do? Wait for Vista? Or go ahead and reinstall Windows and only to have it crash quickely and loudly? Can’t Microsoft release somthing lightweight to run on pre-XP pc’s? We don’t need all the bells and whistles somtimes.  All I need is a computer to share the harddrive space to the rest of the network.

Maybe Google can take up the slack?