Are you ready for Vista?

oobi

Getting Ready for MS Vista

Robin Raskin
The Boomer - Yahoo! Tech
Mon Jan 22, 2007 1:35PM EST


If you're thinking of upgrading your current machine to Vista, the first thing you're going to want to do is check out your current machine to see if it's up to speed. The basic requirements call for a recent CPU, a gigabyte of RAM, and 15 gigabytes of free space on your hard drive. You're also going to want a fast graphics processor, especially if you're going to use the 3D graphics interface, Aero. But there are countless other ways that your system might not be ready for the demands of Vista.

The easiest way to find out if you've got the stuff you need to upgrade is to use the free, downloadable Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor from Microsoft's web site. When it works correctly, the Advisor goes through all of your system components, telling you what will work and what you'll have trouble with. Of course, I found out that the Advisor is not without its share of problems. More here.

oobi

More Vista Pricing Options Unveiled

Christopher Null
The Working Guy - Yahoo! Tech
Fri Jan 19, 2007 3:30PM EST


Yesterday Microsoft unveiled more pricing options for Vista. While the price of shrinkwrapped copies and upgrades from XP had been previously announced (they're at the bottom of this post, for your reference), the company had not released prices for upgrading from one version of Vista to another.

Thanks to what it calls "Windows Anytime Upgrade," if you have a lower-end version of Vista like Vista Home Basic, you can upgrade the software to a higher-end version without having to buy additional DVDs: All versions of Vista are contained on every disc, so you can upgrade easily without having to run out to purchase another box. The upgrade process amounts to paying online for a new key, then using your Vista DVD to upgrade appropriately. More here.

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Here's a tool to see if your current system can handle Vista:

Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor

relaxjek

ape kelebihan vista ni..

http://while-money.blogspot.com/

GAMEOVER

Dulu ader try yg trial nyer. Bapak berat giler.

Bebaru nih try yg final nyer lak. Mmg improve. Tak berat dah mcm trial dulu.

Tapi pakai 3 hari jer. Tarak activation code.

Squall-Leonhart

Haku nyer PC cuma tinggal nak tambah lagi 1 GB RAM jer lagi... sekarang ni PC aku ada 1 GB RAM... bila dah ada 2 GB RAM baru la sedap nak pakai Vista... yang lelain sumer lepas...

nuckletight

yeah but ive try it on a platform yg guna 512 for 1 week
before i destroy the main structure of the system kerna
try jalankan Vmware tok activation server hehe x menjadi
pong.. but yeah.. its cool..

bdksempoi

dah penah cube gak 2 hari.... cantik & menarik.. tp dah format lain

darth_vader

aku tengah mencube nie...menarik

winamp05

dengar citer, nak run vista kene support RAM sampai 2GB, payah ler kalo camtu.

Comic_King

2GB kalau nak smooth... 1GB dah dikira ok laa... tapi aku baca review kat anandtech.. 2GB nie maybe tak cukup gak... tue belum game cam CYRSIS klaur.. mau 4GB of RAM kalau nak main game tue..

nuckletight

ada OEM version Home Basic for 2++ and for the black box (business) 4++.

...pls remove if its violate any of the rules...

oobi

for regular users, 2 GB of ram is recommended. for gamers, at least 4 GB.

oobi

Vista is not ready for the corporate world


Date: February 5th, 2007
Blogger: Steven Warren
TechRepublic

Link to original article

Reality has set in since I upgraded to Windows Vista last month; the jubilation I first felt running Windows Vista has gradually come to a frustrating halt.

Oh, VENDORS.

Yes, third party Vendors are ruining my Windows Vista experience. I can抰 even begin to tell you how many beta vista drivers I am currently running and the vast number of vendors that are not ready for Windows Vista -even though the Release to Manufacturing (RTM)  launch happened last month. Windows Vista has had multiple betas and release candidates; it is unacceptable for vendors not to have drivers when they have had 5 years to prepare.

Let me give you an example of my travails: I have a Sprint Wirless card that allows me to connect to the Internet wirelessly anywhere in the United States. These plans are pricey but well worth the money if you need constant access to the Internet as a road warrior.

After loading Vista last month, I went to Sprint抯 web site to download their Windows Vista driver and their connection manager software that allows you to dial access to the Internet. There is no driver on the website for Vista (and the Windows XP software absolutely doesn抰 work) so I called support. When I finally got to a manager after 35 minutes, I was told that they do not have compatible software for Windows Vista nor do they plan to for 3 months.

I politely reminded the manager that Windows Vista was released in November, that the general release was slated for the end of January, and that it is totally unacceptable to not provide a driver.  5 years in the making and no beta driver.  Mind boggling.

Well I did get this to work without the proper driver. I had to create a virtual machine of Windows XP and that allowed me to have Sprint Internet access. If you are determined to run Windows Vista as I am, then you will have to become quite creative to have the operating system meet your needs.

Is Windows Vista cool? Absolutely. But unless vendors either supply drivers in a reasonable time or inform consumers of delays in providing drivers, upgrading to it is a waste of time (unless you are a glutton for punishment like myself).

Many vendors just aren抰 ready for Windows Vista and I believe it has something to do with the tight security Windows Vista is implementing. Prior to Vista, the default in Windows was to run as administrator. So vendors just programmed their software to work as a computer administrator with full user rights. The door was open; Microsoft抯 lax security made writing code relatively simple for vendors.  In fact, if you try to run as a limited user in Windows XP, for example, a lot of software will not work properly as Windows XP wasn抰 truly designed to work this way.

But the most talked about, under-the-hood change with the release of Windows Vista is its incredible improvement in security.  And this has caused a challenge for vendors; they now have to rewrite their software to work as a user as opposed to an administrator.

The feature that is causing so much trouble for vendors is called User Account control (UAC) . UAC抯 main function is to protect users. In previous versions of the windows operating system, all users were administrators by default. And an administrator could make any change to system files they wanted.

With UAC, administrators will see an approval, dialog. This dialog requires the user to click a Continue button in order to resume the task at hand. Standard users, meanwhile, will receive a credentials dialog that forces them to enter the Administrator password.

Standard Windows users are so used to the administrator level of control that most of them don't even understand that it is unsafe. UAC is introduced in Windows Vista to secure the user. Unfortunately, vendors were snared in the same loophole as users in that they wrote their software with the administrator level of control and it is now biting them.

In all fairness, though, it is not just the vendors

oobi

10 things you'll miss when you upgrade to Vista (and how to get some of them back)


Deb Shinder
February 1, 2007
TechRepublic

Takeaway: Most of us expect a learning curve when we adopt a new OS--it comes with the territory. But Windows Vista may throw you a few curves, too. Along with its visual dazzle and assorted new features, Vista has jettisoned a lot of familiar functionality. Here's Deb Shinder's list of what she misses the most and the workarounds she's devised to close some of the gaps.

Windows Vista has lots of cool new features, eye candy, and security enhancements we didn't have with Windows XP. But as with any software upgrade, there are also some missing pieces--features or capabilities you may find yourself wishing for after the upgrade. Luckily, in many cases you can get back what's missing with a simple download, a registry edit, or an "undocumented" technique.

After I switched to Vista fulltime as my primary operating system, I missed several things. Here's how I got some of them back and worked around others. More here.