Windows Vista finally working
I am posting this blog entry from Vista, using Firefox 2.0.0.3. Before that, I read email with Thunderbird 2.0.0.0. The Dell Photo 926 printer now prints, and Joost works great.What did I do? Well, after upgrading the BIOS on my Intel 975 BX2 Express board, Vista 64 booted again. I activated it over the phone as it had expired and was deemed NOT GENUINE (Microsoft: having to enter eight groups of six digits first on the phone, then have them read out to you and then enter them into the activation screen is... excessive to say the least) and it Just Worked.
Windows Update pulled down some 103MB worth of updates, including security and compatibility fixes, device drivers and Extras like Dreamscene and Hold'Em Poker; the only one that didn't take was the SigmaTel High Definition Audio driver. Installing the update from Intel's site took care of that however, and all the hardware onboard my system is recognised by Vista64. No driver signing issues, in other words.
This is a fresh install of Vista on a powerful, Intel quad-core computer with 2GB of fast Corsair DDR-2 RAM; it's got enough grunt to run anything well. Nevertheless, I'm struck by how fast the OS feels. The multi-tasking seems much smoother than under XP SP2 and my favourite part of Vista, the DirectX-enabled user interface, is great for high-resolution screens. There's no lag or tearing as you move windows around on the screen, as Vista uses hardware acceleration to render them individually. It's hard to explain this in words but if you try it out on a high-resolution screen by moving windows around, you'll see what I mean - literally.
I'm quite chuffed about this as it means I can now use Vista for my day-to-day stuff, without having to boot back into XP.
Now of course I'm wondering what it is that's wedging some apps and the Dell 926 printer driver on my Vista x86 32-bit installation. What I haven't done on the Vista64 installation yet is to install Office 2007, try to set Firefox and Thunderbird as the default browser/email program, plus install iTunes and Hamachi. In theory, none of that should harm Vista but... stay tuned.
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Other related posts:
Windows Live Essentials betas seem good, but oh so flaky
Today’s incomprehensible Windows security warning
Today's strange Internet Explorer 8 error message
Comment by taniwha, on 21-Apr-2007 12:11
juha!!! write us an OLPC story?
pretty please with fairy sprinkles on top
Comment by Bryan Woldridge, on 21-Apr-2007 18:32
This is a joke? Right? I need an OS that works not an OS that needs worked ON.
--bw
Comment by bradstewart, on 21-Apr-2007 19:26
Its funny how people forget that XP was just like this when it came out, now they don't want to switch to Vista because it 'doesn't work right'
Comment by bradstewart, on 21-Apr-2007 19:27
Its funny how people forget that XP was just like this when it came out, now they don't want to switch to Vista because it 'doesn't work right' and XP is the 'reliable' one
Comment by John Ballinger, on 22-Apr-2007 00:00
Juha, I am waiting for a real blog entry to appear about the ever so controversial twitter site.
To make sure I don't miss out on exciting and up to the week posts, I have gone through computer worlds lovely "newsletter" sign up page to have "news" delivered to me via email. This is when it sort of struck me, how long will it be before computer world will have a twitter feed. I mean the BBC have 12 twitter feeds with other organisations like ESPN, CNN breaking news, Google News to the Wall Street Journal. And at some point in time we "may" (boy do I love my double quotes right now) even see Juha on twitter getting us to come and see his latest and greatest blog posts (would save me from hitting the refresh button constantly to see when he has posted.
So please post something about this, it would be great to have something more to blog about.
* Disclaimer, my wife is reporter for Computer World and Juha sometimes appears at BBQ's that I have also attended.
Comment by Hank Wells, on 22-Apr-2007 20:01
Yep, mine was like that for a few weeks, then hang-ups; next was 'Blue Screen Of death' followed by auto reboot and loss of what I been working on.
At first once or so a day then increasing to once an hour. Something to do with 'Avg Disk Queue Time 4? changed hard disks Samsung and W.D. Caviar both SATA " same fault. Also replaced motherboard, memory, power supplies etc. This fault was posted in January on Vista Communities and a few people have had it. No answer known and MSFT is not answering.
I am back to XP at least its stable!!
Comment by numfarr, on 22-Apr-2007 22:27
Can I comment on this one?
Comment by numfarr, on 22-Apr-2007 22:29
For some reason I can't comment on your Fisk blog entry, when I try it says "Please check you [sic] e-mail for a confirmation link." but there is none. Anyway I just wanted to point out that Fisk doesn't link Wikipedia to Hrant Dink's murder, he just blames "the internet", and if you read up on the background this doesn't seem to be correct either.
Comment by Smeagol, on 24-Apr-2007 11:35
Hey Juha
Had issues getting flash to work in your browser?
Are you using a 64-bit browser?
Comment by Smeagol, on 24-Apr-2007 11:51
Hey Juha
Had issues getting flash to work in your browser?
Are you using a 64-bit browser?
Comment by nathan, on 24-Apr-2007 16:06
Vista x64 ships with both 32bit IE7 and 64bit IE7
32bit is the defaultThe Internet Explorer shortcut in the Quick Launch toolbar and in the Start menu of Vista x64 will run the 32-bit version of Internet Explorer by default.
Internet Explorer
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe"
Internet Explorer (64-bit)
"C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe"
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Comment by chiefie, on 21-Apr-2007 10:56
Intel Quad-core... how do you be so privileged to be the owner of such fine processor?! Can I be your padawan?