- Joined
- Dec 19, 2000
- Location
- Lawrenceville, GA
Considering the massive amounts of Vista threads being generated in this section, I have decided to start a wiki-type thread concerning as many aspects of the Vista release as possible. It is a humble start, but with your help, I'd like to see it grow to a definitive source of Vista information on this forum. This is your thread, so please contribute as much information to it as possible.
**All contributory posts will be deleted after they have been added to the info guide. All nonsense posts will be deleted immediately - SO DON'T POST CRAP! Everyone will be given full credit for their submissions within this post. Also, no questions - start a new thread (search first!). If you see a correction that needs to be made, please post it (we all make mistakes!).**
Vista Editions - (Source: Windows Vista Editions Overview)
Home Basic - Windows Vista Home Basic is the edition of Windows for basic home computing needs. If you only want to use your PC for tasks like browsing the Internet, using e-mail, or viewing photos, then Windows Vista Home Basic may be the right edition for you. While it won't provide as many benefits as Windows Vista Home Premium, it will help you use your PC more easily and more safely than you could with Windows XP.
The first thing you'll notice about Windows Vista Home Basic is how easy it is to find the programs and files you're looking for. The instant desktop search feature looks across all of your documents, e-mails, photos, and other files, organizing the results in the way that you want to view them. When coupled with the built-in web search of Windows Internet Explorer 7 in Windows Vista, you'll spend less time looking for the things that you need and more time on the activities that you care about.
With automatic defenses against malicious software and fraudulent websites, Windows Vista Home Basic enables you and your family to use your computer with greater confidence. Plus, parents can use built-in controls to help ensure their children's computer use is protected and appropriate.
Windows Vista Home Basic makes it easier than ever to set up your new PC, with features that easily transfer all of your data and settings from your old PC to your new one. What's more, you can have peace of mind for years to come with technology that keeps your system running quickly and reliably over time.
Simply put, Windows Vista Home Basic provides you with just the essentials you need for home computing.
Home Premium - Here it is: the preferred edition of Windows for home desktop and mobile PCs. Windows Vista Home Premium delivers the productivity and entertainment that you need from your PC at home or on the go. It includes Windows Media Center, which helps you more easily enjoy your digital photos, TV, movies, and music. Plus, you'll have the peace of mind of knowing that your PC has a whole new level of security and reliability. All together, Windows Vista Home Premium redefines enjoyment in home computing.
It starts with a breakthrough design that makes your PC easier to use every day. With Windows Aero, you'll experience dynamic reflections, smooth gliding animations, transparent glass-like menu bars, and the ability to switch between your open windows in a new three-dimensional layout. Instant desktop search capabilities, coupled with powerful new ways to organize and visualize your information, means you can instantly find and use the e-mails, documents, photos, music, and the other information you want, when you need it.
Windows Vista Home Premium also helps keep your personal information, your PC, and your family computing experience safer than in previous versions of Windows. For example, Windows Internet Explorer 7 in Windows Vista includes automated defenses against malicious software and fraudulent websites so you can use your PC online with greater confidence. Windows Vista Home Premium also provides automatic backup of your files, such as your valuable digital photos, music, movies, documents, and other files, so you can relax and focus on the things you care about most. And, by using the built-in parental controls, parents can help ensure their children's computer use is appropriate and safer.
And what about fun? A major advance in Windows Vista Home Premium is the dramatically improved digital entertainment experience. Windows Media Center makes organizing and enjoying photos, music, DVDs, recorded TV, and home movies easier and more fun. Enjoy the entertainment on your PC or even on your TV in the living room with an Xbox 360 wirelessly networked to your PC. Windows Vista Home Premium makes it easier to burn your photo slide shows and home movies to a professional-looking video DVD that your friends and family can watch on a DVD player or PC whenever they like. Combined with unbeatable support for gaming and music, Windows Vista Home Premium delivers a complete home entertainment experience.
If you want a PC that can keep up with you while you're on the go, then you'll appreciate how Windows Vista Home Premium helps you get the most from your mobile PC. It provides simplified power management, easier wireless networking, and streamlined ways to sync with the devices that keep you connected. Because it's incredibly flexible, you can even draw and write by hand on a Tablet PC, and enjoy all of your entertainment through Windows Media Center when you're on the road, in a coffee shop, or relaxing on the couch. Mobile computing has never been like this before.
Finally, Windows Vista Home Premium makes it easier than ever to set up and maintain your new PC. There are new features that make it easier to transfer all of your data and settings from your old PC to your new one and technology that helps keep your system running quickly and reliably over time.
Whether you're balancing your checkbook, studying for school on your mobile PC, watching a downloaded or recorded movie at home, or sharing your favorite photos with friends on a custom DVD, the experience is much better on a PC running Windows Vista Home Premium.
Business - Windows Vista Business is the first Windows operating system designed specifically to meet the needs of small businesses. You'll empower your entire business to work more efficiently with a stunning and improved, simple-to-use interface that makes it easier to search and find the information you need quickly and easily, both on your PCs and on the web. With powerful new safety features, you're in control and can better protect the key information that is the life of your business and that builds the trust of your customers.
And, for the growing business that always seems to be on the go, the mobile computing enhancements make it easier to stay connected to the rhythm of your business, both in and out of the office. Windows Vista Business makes all of this work for you while helping you spend less time on technology support-related issues—so you can spend more time making your business successful. Windows Vista Business simply makes it easier to manage how your employees connect to your network and to ensure that they get more out of their PCs, both in and out of the office. Be future-ready and lay the IT foundation that your business needs for today and tomorrow.
Enterprise - Windows Vista Enterprise was designed to help global organizations and enterprises with complex IT infrastructures lower IT costs, reduce risk, and stay connected. Building on the features in Windows Vista Business, Windows Vista Enterprise provides higher levels of data protection using hardware-based encryption technology. It also includes tools to improve application compatibility and enables organizations to standardize by using a single worldwide deployment image.
Windows Vista Enterprise is available only to Volume License customers who have PCs covered by Microsoft Software Assurance. These customers are also eligible to acquire an optional subscription license for the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack for Software Assurance. This software extends the value of Windows Vista Enterprise by reducing application deployment costs, enabling delivery of applications as services, and allowing for better management and control of enterprise desktop environments. Together these technologies deliver the most cost-effective and flexible Windows desktop management solution.
Data protection
Windows Vista Enterprise includes Windows BitLocker Drive Encryption, a new technology which helps prevent sensitive data and intellectual property from falling into the wrong hands if a computer is lost or stolen. Windows BitLocker uses hardware-based data encryption technology that gives you greater peace of mind knowing that your corporate intellectual property is safer and will remain your strategic asset. Also, since the entire hard drive is encrypted, Windows BitLocker reduces the cost associated with decommissioning old PCs.
Application compatibility
Windows Vista Enterprise includes built-in tools to improve application compatibility with previous versions of Microsoft operating systems, as well as with UNIX operating systems. It also provides the right to run four virtual operating system sessions, which enables you to run a legacy application in a virtual environment on top of Windows Vista Enterprise. This feature saves you time and money if you are unable to easily migrate a legacy application directly to Windows Vista.
Additionally, Windows Vista Enterprise includes Subsystem for UNIX-based Applications (SUA), which enables you to run UNIX applications unchanged on a Windows Vista Enterprise-based PC. Whereas today a UNIX database administrator or system administrator needs to have a UNIX workstation in addition to a Windows-based PC, Windows Vista Enterprise enables you to consolidate both functions into a single Windows Vista-based PC.
Windows Vista Enterprise customers that subscribe to the Desktop Optimization Pack for Software Assurance have additional options for minimizing application compatibility challenges. This service can accelerate deployment with tools such as SoftGrid for application virtualization, which can reduce application-to-application conflicts, and with Asset Inventory Services, to help you more quickly compile information about applications running inside your organization.
Multi-language support
An interface language controls which language a user sees in the Windows Start menu, in the help system, in built-in management tools, and in Windows dialog boxes. Windows Vista Enterprise includes all available interface languages in one offering. Access to all worldwide Windows interface languages enables organizations to build a single deployment image that can be used worldwide and to deploy individual PCs that simultaneously offer different interface languages for different users.
Windows Vista Enterprise is designed to meet the needs of large global organizations and those with highly complex IT infrastructures. If your organization has these requirements, Windows Vista Enterprise will help you lower your IT costs and will provide additional layers of protection for your sensitive data.
Ultimate - When you want to have it all, including the ability to shift smoothly between the worlds of play and productivity, there's Windows Vista Ultimate. You'll never have to worry about having the most advanced capabilities - they're all here. This edition of Windows Vista offers an advanced, business-focused infrastructure, mobile productivity, and a premium home digital entertainment experience, all in a single offering.
Specifically, Windows Vista Ultimate offers all of the features found in Windows Vista Home Premium, including Windows Media Center, Windows Movie Maker with high-definition support, and Windows DVD Maker. It also offers all of the features found in Windows Vista Business, including business networking, centralized management tools, and advanced system backup features. And Windows Vista Ultimate has all of the new security and data protection features that help take Windows Vista to a whole new level of dependability.
In addition, Windows Vista Ultimate includes support for all of the new mobility features in Windows Vista, including Windows Tablet and Touch Technology, Windows SideShow, Windows Mobility Center, and other new, advanced mobility features.
Exclusive to Windows Vista are Windows Ultimate Extras. These cutting-edge programs, innovative services, and unique publications provide a richer computing experience for Windows Vista Ultimate users. Windows Ultimate Extras currently available include:
If you want a single PC that fulfills all of your work, travel, and entertainment needs, or if you simply want to be confident that you have the very best, Windows Vista Ultimate is the no-compromise edition for you.
Retail vs. OEM vs. Upgrade
Retail versions are typically your boxed copies and are what you'll see on store shelves. They include the box (pf course, CD/DVDs, manuals, and whatever else Microsoft decides to put in there. You will be able to install this repeatedly, so long as each individual license is in use per individual machine (1:1). Activation is generally regarded as being unlimited. The retail version is good for 32-bit and 64-bit installs.
OEM versions are what usually come with pre-built systems, or what can be ordered with hardware purchases from most online retailers. They are typically cheaper, because they are limited in some respects. The OS itself will be identical to the retail version, except the install is normally bound to the motherboard/system it is installed to. Major hardware changes usually require reactivation, which may fail if the system change is drastic enough. Microsoft may, or may not, grant reactivation depending on how they feel that day. OEM versions can be considered to last only as long as the system it's installed on. OEM version usually come in plain box/envelope with CD/DVD key and nothing else. OEM comes in either 32-bit or 64-bit...you get a key for either/or - not both. Some good discussions regarding OEM versions can be found here (mbigna's thread), here (started by {ace of spades}), and here (JenBell's thread).
Upgrade versions are just that - you upgrade your current OS to the Vista upgrade you have purchased. Upgrade-only versions will require you to have a previous Windows install that is within the upgrade path (chart is here. Full retail and OEM versions will allow for upgrades and in-place installations to take place following the same chart. Many XP purchases include (free and for purchase) upgrade coupons for certain Vista editions. There is also a Family Discount available for the upgrade of multiple systems.
32-bit and 64-bit
Vista is available in both 32-bit and 64-bit editions. Refer to the above for purchasing options (retail vs. OEM). I will not push either version on you as you will all make your own decisions and choices for whatever reasons, but keep some key points in mind:
This will be a repository for various tips, tricks, & tools of the trade that pertain to Vista. Links to forum articles, guides, software lists will also show up here. If you have something to add, post it, I'll add it, and then your post will be deleted (to keep things clean - you will be credited for your contribution, however).
FAQ
Please submit entries for FAQs by posting below. Be sure to identify that you are submitting an FAQ so that it does not get skipped over and deleted when the thread is cleaned up. You will be credited for your contribution.
**All contributory posts will be deleted after they have been added to the info guide. All nonsense posts will be deleted immediately - SO DON'T POST CRAP! Everyone will be given full credit for their submissions within this post. Also, no questions - start a new thread (search first!). If you see a correction that needs to be made, please post it (we all make mistakes!).**
Vista Editions - (Source: Windows Vista Editions Overview)
Home Basic - Windows Vista Home Basic is the edition of Windows for basic home computing needs. If you only want to use your PC for tasks like browsing the Internet, using e-mail, or viewing photos, then Windows Vista Home Basic may be the right edition for you. While it won't provide as many benefits as Windows Vista Home Premium, it will help you use your PC more easily and more safely than you could with Windows XP.
The first thing you'll notice about Windows Vista Home Basic is how easy it is to find the programs and files you're looking for. The instant desktop search feature looks across all of your documents, e-mails, photos, and other files, organizing the results in the way that you want to view them. When coupled with the built-in web search of Windows Internet Explorer 7 in Windows Vista, you'll spend less time looking for the things that you need and more time on the activities that you care about.
With automatic defenses against malicious software and fraudulent websites, Windows Vista Home Basic enables you and your family to use your computer with greater confidence. Plus, parents can use built-in controls to help ensure their children's computer use is protected and appropriate.
Windows Vista Home Basic makes it easier than ever to set up your new PC, with features that easily transfer all of your data and settings from your old PC to your new one. What's more, you can have peace of mind for years to come with technology that keeps your system running quickly and reliably over time.
Simply put, Windows Vista Home Basic provides you with just the essentials you need for home computing.
Home Premium - Here it is: the preferred edition of Windows for home desktop and mobile PCs. Windows Vista Home Premium delivers the productivity and entertainment that you need from your PC at home or on the go. It includes Windows Media Center, which helps you more easily enjoy your digital photos, TV, movies, and music. Plus, you'll have the peace of mind of knowing that your PC has a whole new level of security and reliability. All together, Windows Vista Home Premium redefines enjoyment in home computing.
It starts with a breakthrough design that makes your PC easier to use every day. With Windows Aero, you'll experience dynamic reflections, smooth gliding animations, transparent glass-like menu bars, and the ability to switch between your open windows in a new three-dimensional layout. Instant desktop search capabilities, coupled with powerful new ways to organize and visualize your information, means you can instantly find and use the e-mails, documents, photos, music, and the other information you want, when you need it.
Windows Vista Home Premium also helps keep your personal information, your PC, and your family computing experience safer than in previous versions of Windows. For example, Windows Internet Explorer 7 in Windows Vista includes automated defenses against malicious software and fraudulent websites so you can use your PC online with greater confidence. Windows Vista Home Premium also provides automatic backup of your files, such as your valuable digital photos, music, movies, documents, and other files, so you can relax and focus on the things you care about most. And, by using the built-in parental controls, parents can help ensure their children's computer use is appropriate and safer.
And what about fun? A major advance in Windows Vista Home Premium is the dramatically improved digital entertainment experience. Windows Media Center makes organizing and enjoying photos, music, DVDs, recorded TV, and home movies easier and more fun. Enjoy the entertainment on your PC or even on your TV in the living room with an Xbox 360 wirelessly networked to your PC. Windows Vista Home Premium makes it easier to burn your photo slide shows and home movies to a professional-looking video DVD that your friends and family can watch on a DVD player or PC whenever they like. Combined with unbeatable support for gaming and music, Windows Vista Home Premium delivers a complete home entertainment experience.
If you want a PC that can keep up with you while you're on the go, then you'll appreciate how Windows Vista Home Premium helps you get the most from your mobile PC. It provides simplified power management, easier wireless networking, and streamlined ways to sync with the devices that keep you connected. Because it's incredibly flexible, you can even draw and write by hand on a Tablet PC, and enjoy all of your entertainment through Windows Media Center when you're on the road, in a coffee shop, or relaxing on the couch. Mobile computing has never been like this before.
Finally, Windows Vista Home Premium makes it easier than ever to set up and maintain your new PC. There are new features that make it easier to transfer all of your data and settings from your old PC to your new one and technology that helps keep your system running quickly and reliably over time.
Whether you're balancing your checkbook, studying for school on your mobile PC, watching a downloaded or recorded movie at home, or sharing your favorite photos with friends on a custom DVD, the experience is much better on a PC running Windows Vista Home Premium.
Business - Windows Vista Business is the first Windows operating system designed specifically to meet the needs of small businesses. You'll empower your entire business to work more efficiently with a stunning and improved, simple-to-use interface that makes it easier to search and find the information you need quickly and easily, both on your PCs and on the web. With powerful new safety features, you're in control and can better protect the key information that is the life of your business and that builds the trust of your customers.
And, for the growing business that always seems to be on the go, the mobile computing enhancements make it easier to stay connected to the rhythm of your business, both in and out of the office. Windows Vista Business makes all of this work for you while helping you spend less time on technology support-related issues—so you can spend more time making your business successful. Windows Vista Business simply makes it easier to manage how your employees connect to your network and to ensure that they get more out of their PCs, both in and out of the office. Be future-ready and lay the IT foundation that your business needs for today and tomorrow.
Enterprise - Windows Vista Enterprise was designed to help global organizations and enterprises with complex IT infrastructures lower IT costs, reduce risk, and stay connected. Building on the features in Windows Vista Business, Windows Vista Enterprise provides higher levels of data protection using hardware-based encryption technology. It also includes tools to improve application compatibility and enables organizations to standardize by using a single worldwide deployment image.
Windows Vista Enterprise is available only to Volume License customers who have PCs covered by Microsoft Software Assurance. These customers are also eligible to acquire an optional subscription license for the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack for Software Assurance. This software extends the value of Windows Vista Enterprise by reducing application deployment costs, enabling delivery of applications as services, and allowing for better management and control of enterprise desktop environments. Together these technologies deliver the most cost-effective and flexible Windows desktop management solution.
Data protection
Windows Vista Enterprise includes Windows BitLocker Drive Encryption, a new technology which helps prevent sensitive data and intellectual property from falling into the wrong hands if a computer is lost or stolen. Windows BitLocker uses hardware-based data encryption technology that gives you greater peace of mind knowing that your corporate intellectual property is safer and will remain your strategic asset. Also, since the entire hard drive is encrypted, Windows BitLocker reduces the cost associated with decommissioning old PCs.
Application compatibility
Windows Vista Enterprise includes built-in tools to improve application compatibility with previous versions of Microsoft operating systems, as well as with UNIX operating systems. It also provides the right to run four virtual operating system sessions, which enables you to run a legacy application in a virtual environment on top of Windows Vista Enterprise. This feature saves you time and money if you are unable to easily migrate a legacy application directly to Windows Vista.
Additionally, Windows Vista Enterprise includes Subsystem for UNIX-based Applications (SUA), which enables you to run UNIX applications unchanged on a Windows Vista Enterprise-based PC. Whereas today a UNIX database administrator or system administrator needs to have a UNIX workstation in addition to a Windows-based PC, Windows Vista Enterprise enables you to consolidate both functions into a single Windows Vista-based PC.
Windows Vista Enterprise customers that subscribe to the Desktop Optimization Pack for Software Assurance have additional options for minimizing application compatibility challenges. This service can accelerate deployment with tools such as SoftGrid for application virtualization, which can reduce application-to-application conflicts, and with Asset Inventory Services, to help you more quickly compile information about applications running inside your organization.
Multi-language support
An interface language controls which language a user sees in the Windows Start menu, in the help system, in built-in management tools, and in Windows dialog boxes. Windows Vista Enterprise includes all available interface languages in one offering. Access to all worldwide Windows interface languages enables organizations to build a single deployment image that can be used worldwide and to deploy individual PCs that simultaneously offer different interface languages for different users.
Windows Vista Enterprise is designed to meet the needs of large global organizations and those with highly complex IT infrastructures. If your organization has these requirements, Windows Vista Enterprise will help you lower your IT costs and will provide additional layers of protection for your sensitive data.
Ultimate - When you want to have it all, including the ability to shift smoothly between the worlds of play and productivity, there's Windows Vista Ultimate. You'll never have to worry about having the most advanced capabilities - they're all here. This edition of Windows Vista offers an advanced, business-focused infrastructure, mobile productivity, and a premium home digital entertainment experience, all in a single offering.
Specifically, Windows Vista Ultimate offers all of the features found in Windows Vista Home Premium, including Windows Media Center, Windows Movie Maker with high-definition support, and Windows DVD Maker. It also offers all of the features found in Windows Vista Business, including business networking, centralized management tools, and advanced system backup features. And Windows Vista Ultimate has all of the new security and data protection features that help take Windows Vista to a whole new level of dependability.
In addition, Windows Vista Ultimate includes support for all of the new mobility features in Windows Vista, including Windows Tablet and Touch Technology, Windows SideShow, Windows Mobility Center, and other new, advanced mobility features.
Exclusive to Windows Vista are Windows Ultimate Extras. These cutting-edge programs, innovative services, and unique publications provide a richer computing experience for Windows Vista Ultimate users. Windows Ultimate Extras currently available include:
- Windows Hold’em, a poker game for players of all skill levels
- Language packs for Windows multi-language interface, where users can install and use multiple languages on a single PC. Great for multi-lingual households or if you are learning a new language.
- Secure Online Key Backup, where Ultimate users can store their BitLocker recovery password and Encrypting File System certificate on Windows Marketplace’s Digital Locker website for access to the key anytime, anyplace, and from any computer that has an Internet connection
- BitLocker Drive Preparation Tool, an automated tool which removes the complexity of setting up your PC to use this exclusive data security feature.
- Windows DreamScene, an Extra that enables you to use looped, full-motion video as your desktop wallpaper instead of a static image
If you want a single PC that fulfills all of your work, travel, and entertainment needs, or if you simply want to be confident that you have the very best, Windows Vista Ultimate is the no-compromise edition for you.
Retail vs. OEM vs. Upgrade
Retail versions are typically your boxed copies and are what you'll see on store shelves. They include the box (pf course, CD/DVDs, manuals, and whatever else Microsoft decides to put in there. You will be able to install this repeatedly, so long as each individual license is in use per individual machine (1:1). Activation is generally regarded as being unlimited. The retail version is good for 32-bit and 64-bit installs.
OEM versions are what usually come with pre-built systems, or what can be ordered with hardware purchases from most online retailers. They are typically cheaper, because they are limited in some respects. The OS itself will be identical to the retail version, except the install is normally bound to the motherboard/system it is installed to. Major hardware changes usually require reactivation, which may fail if the system change is drastic enough. Microsoft may, or may not, grant reactivation depending on how they feel that day. OEM versions can be considered to last only as long as the system it's installed on. OEM version usually come in plain box/envelope with CD/DVD key and nothing else. OEM comes in either 32-bit or 64-bit...you get a key for either/or - not both. Some good discussions regarding OEM versions can be found here (mbigna's thread), here (started by {ace of spades}), and here (JenBell's thread).
Upgrade versions are just that - you upgrade your current OS to the Vista upgrade you have purchased. Upgrade-only versions will require you to have a previous Windows install that is within the upgrade path (chart is here. Full retail and OEM versions will allow for upgrades and in-place installations to take place following the same chart. Many XP purchases include (free and for purchase) upgrade coupons for certain Vista editions. There is also a Family Discount available for the upgrade of multiple systems.
32-bit and 64-bit
Vista is available in both 32-bit and 64-bit editions. Refer to the above for purchasing options (retail vs. OEM). I will not push either version on you as you will all make your own decisions and choices for whatever reasons, but keep some key points in mind:
- 64-bit Vista-compatible applications and drivers can be even harder to find than XP x64 drivers and applications.
- Many applications that work in XP still are not Vista-compatible, regardless of the edition.
- You cannot perform an upgrade to Vista x64. A clean install is necessary.
- 32-bit Vista will still only address up to 4GB of memory with 1GB being set aside for the kernel. If you're OS only shows 3GB, then don't freak - it's correct. If you want to use the full 4GB or more, you'll need to install the 64-bit version. If you'd like to share your experience/disgust with this issue, visit nikhsub1's thread concerning it here
- To be continued...
This will be a repository for various tips, tricks, & tools of the trade that pertain to Vista. Links to forum articles, guides, software lists will also show up here. If you have something to add, post it, I'll add it, and then your post will be deleted (to keep things clean - you will be credited for your contribution, however).
- vLite - vLite is a tool for customizing the Windows Vista installation before actually installing it. Link. deathman20's thread about his experience using vLite here. Please contribute to his thread, and not this one, regarding vLite.
- eaglescouter's clean install method using Upgrade version here. Please contribute to his thread, and not this one, regarding the clean install using upgrade versions.
- Vista has the User Account Control (UAC) feature that, I guess, was implemented because some users are not adept enough at being a systems administrator by default (i.e. default user on all previous Windows versions). However, for those of us who are (everyone here, hopefully!), UAC can be a huge pain-in-the-***. There are some methods for disabling it here
- Share your Windows System Assessment score in this thread, started by leaddraft.
- Is your system compatible? Vista has some pretty hefty requirements. Get the Vista Upgrade Advisor here.
- Go here to see Silversinksam's thread on running Norton 2006, Cloudmark Anti-Spam, and disabling UAC on Vista. Please make thread contributions in his thread and not this one.
- Have trouble with text in Vista using nVidia drivers? Try Cheator's advise and vixro's instructions in this thread and turn off TrueType fonts.
- The Run box isn't in its customary place, but is now located in Start->Programs-
>Accessories (thanks hafa)! The new Search box within the Start Menu can be used for the same purpose (i.e. starting MSCONFIG, .msc applets, etc.). Also, the new Disk Management console allows for the resizing of partitions! Tips contributed by stang8118. - To add the Run box back to the Start menu, enter Start menu properties (right-click the taskbar), and tick the "Run command" box under the Start menu/Customize. Tip contributed by redduc900.
- Check out vixro's thread here about moving the Documents folder in Vista.
- mbigna has provided an excellent link from eWeek that compares the features of all Vista editions. Check it out here!
- Xtreme Barton has submitted this link, which contains Microsoft-hosted high-definition video clips that can be used with DreamScene. Only big-time GPUs need apply!
- Want to disable the requirement for signed drivers in Vista? See nikhsub1's post here.
- Deanzo has a thread that might get some of your older software to run on Vista. Try compatibility mode!
Gautam has provided this link for those of you who are having difficulties installing Adobe Acrobate 8.0. Or, take d.chatten's advice and enable UAC until Adobe is installed, then disable it. redduc900 has confirmed that Adobe 8.1 installs fine with UAC disabled.- Another tip submitted by Gautam. If you're getting The specified print monitor is unknown error messages when attempting to install a network printer, try enabling UAC. Once installed, you may then disable it again.
- Want to know how to install Vista in a "flash". I've got a couple of guides that show how to install Vista using USB thumb drives. TollHouseFrank has linked a guide here and mbigna has linked a guide here.
nikhsub1has submitted this important FYI, "FYI for all 64 bit vista users and nod32! Nod32 can and will break all 32 bit internet apps! IE, firefox etc. The fix is to see linked thread!". pas then submitted that a reinstall may not be necessary as he states that repairing the winsock and performing a reboot fixed the issue and has been fine since. Please post your experiences with this matter so we can come to a conclusion.vixro pointed out that NOD32 is now fully functional in the 32 and 64-bit versions of Vista...should have updated that myself as I've been running it a couple of months now
- SybrClocK has provided the following important information regarding Vista Backup (quote has been edited):
- Another tip from SybrCLocK addresses issues with installing Vista and HDD/array boot orders. If you get an error like this, Windows is unable to find a system volume that meets its criteria for installation, then you may want to go here.
- Jeepguy_1980 gives these steps to configure a shortcut to run an application as Administrator (quote has been edited):
- To be continued...
FAQ
Please submit entries for FAQs by posting below. Be sure to identify that you are submitting an FAQ so that it does not get skipped over and deleted when the thread is cleaned up. You will be credited for your contribution.
- Q. Will my software work on Vista?
A. I have no idea. The best place to look would be official site of the software. More than likely they will state compatibility with Vista (to include 32/64-bit). If not, there's only one way left to find out. You can also check out Deanzo's thread here, on 64-bit software compatibility with Vista. Silversinksam provided a link to Microsoft's Vista-verified software list here. - Q. Will my hardware work with Vista?
A. Microsoft has published their Hardware Compatibility List (HCL). I doubt very seriously this is an all-inclusive source for supported hardware, but it's probably the best initial reference. NT-Compatible also has a Compatibility Database, but it's not really updated for Vista yet (registration required for searching). A lot of hardware is coming out logoed as being "Vista-Certified", and Microsoft outlines a "Vista-Capable System" here. Also, see this concerning disabling the requirement for driver signing (may allow some hardware to work with unapproved drivers). - Q. I'm thinking of going to Vista, but am unsure. What is everyone else's opinion on upgrading?
A. There is a thread/poll started by Midnight Dream here. There is also a discussion started by Cyberfed in GCRD here. - Q. Is 1GB of RAM really enough to run Vista?
A. Microsoft recommends 1GB and says that 512MB is enough to be Vista-capable. However, performance-hungry users like ourselves have very different thoughts. Join in vixro's thread here about Vista and personal RAM requirement suggestions/comments. - Q. Vista tells me DX9 isn't installed and my game/program won't work. What's up with that?
A. According to Microsoft, DX10 is not backwards compatible with DX9 and must be installed alongside it. Check out ntgeek's thread here and vixro's recommended fix. - Q. What are the changes to the kernel in Vista? How does it work?
A. For these answers and more, visit redduc900's thread here. - To be continued...
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