C
cozzmo1@hotmail.com
Here is my Vista experience.
As a Network Engineer I have worked with many hundreds of PC's with
multiple OS's.
Early May, I got a new Family PC.
Being the cutting edge Guy I went with Vista all the way.
I got a new custom PC, 500 Gig HD, 2-Gig RAM, The motherboard (ASRock
775Dual-Vista) even has Vista in its name.
I just wanted to be sure everything was compatible.
Vista (OEM 32-bit Home) installed nicely and after a little while I
was able to navigate it pretty easily. I liked the aero thingy, but
couldn't see much that XP didn't already provide.
It wasn't until I started installing and using my programs that I
realized what a draining process it would be. I simply had to learn
first hand how ugly and really frustrating an OS could be.
---------
Annoyance.
Find: Not nearly as good as PCWorld makes it sound.
I like google desktop search much better, but you can't turn off
Vista's indexing fuction.
This makes it a bad choice to use Googles search and have 2 such
processes running.
Googles sidebar is exactly the same as the one that comes with Vista.
---------
Problem:
AOL email crashes in mozilla and the client crashes, email only worked
using IE.
AOL Error Code: C0FE1702
AOL 9.0VR (Vista Ready), (Worked for a while)
Then my son put on i-tunes for his IPOD. (AOL started to crash
progressivly over the next week),
I tried these:
uninstalled mcafee
uninstalled aol,
printer driver
reload.
FIX:
I uninstalled itunes and that fixed the problem until he re-installed
it, with a newer version that still didn't help, (AOL+VISTA+itunes=AOL
Crashing).
Note: AOL was not completly fixed as it would always disco
occasionally after that.
---------
Anoyance:
The screen kept going momentarily black whenever I loaded a program
with the annoying button asking if I was sure I wanted to run the
program.
FIX:
I turned off UAC (user account control) to speed things up.
Told that it could be a security hole though.
---------
Problem
Mcafee will not install on Vista.
FIX.
To install my retail mcafee on vista.
http://us.mcafee.com/vista/
run sticker_update_1_2.exe
Be sure to keep your McAfee product CD that was included in the box.
You will need this CD for authentication to add the Vista-compatible
upgrade.
Note: Mcafee seems to run faster in XP
--------
Problem:
I could not access the C:/ drive on my new VISTA from my XP machine.
(just other subfolders)
Getting "not permitted" error.
\\COMPUTER\c$ is not accessible. You might not have permission to use
this network resource. Contact the administrator of this server to
find out if you have access permissions.
>From other web site, but this is the overly complex workaround.
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System and add
a new DWORD labeled "LocalAccountTokenFilterPolicy" and set it's value
to 1.
Reboot
I also had to R-click C: do "advanced sharing" add "everyone and
annonymous login" and give them full permissions. (even though I did
it before I had tweaked the registry).
------------
Problem:
unidentified device. "Yellow "?" in the device manager.
Still get error " Windows Vista does not support MPU-401 Compatible
MIDI Device"
When I remove the unidentified device.
Never fixed until I installed XP, then it went away.
-----
Problem:
Printer extremely slow.
HP PSC 1310 All-in-One series printer,
Trying to print from my Vista PC to the printer that is on my XP box.
?? tried updating the driver on xp and also installed driver on the
remote vista pc.
Nothing worked.
Cause:
HP will do nothing to fix the problem and I am not about to Buy a new
Printer just because HP will not ever make an XP driver that is also
Vista friendly.
FIX:
Ditched Vista (Works great on XP)
---------
Problem:
Second Copy won't take my registration code.
Thus I was stuck with the one month trial.
FIX:
Ditched Vista
--------
Problem:
Utorrent downloads don't work. (Yes there are legitimate uses)
FIX:
Vista has a greedy limit on TCP connections.
There is a crack for the "TCP concurrent connection limit in Vista".
but MS should have made it easier to adjust that.
This seems to work ok using XP.
--------
Problem:
Adobe premier 6.5 and MainConcept.
Not sure which, but when I render a video to MPEG2 now the resulting
video has a bad sound track that is out of sync with the video. this
results in Jerky DVD's and is a major issue for me.
The output MPEG 2 video (according to AVICodec) is intermittently
flawed.
-----
Problem,
Entrust encryption software (Client Software: Entrust Entelligence
6.1SP1)
Not Vista capable.
No workaround.
(this will at least keep my office from embracing Vista for a while)
------
Problem,
Nero 6.3, (this was on the MS site as a compatible product)
When installing, there was a warning that this was Vista incompatible,
and I chose to install anyway. Nero didn't work.
but worse, the DVD Drive completly vanished from my explorer!!
FIX: None,
I had to do a rollback to a previous time.
Uninstalled Nero. to this date, Nero of any flavor does not with
Vista.
--------
Problem:
Sonic My-DVD, simply does not work with Vista.
Cannot install or run.
Workaround: None, but...
I bought Video Show Expressions. This worked, but was really not as
good as Sonic and it doesn't take elementary streams for video input
like Sonic does.
So now I have sunk more money into the Vista incompatibility issue for
lesser software.
-----
Problem
Office XP, (office assistant)
You only get the paper clip, none of the other helper buddies work. no
dog/Cat/Wizard.
I didn't try all the other features, but Word/Excel worked ok.
I guess Microsoft wants me to buy the new office
--------
Problem:
Age of Empires/Conquerors expansion.
My favorite Game and it's by Microsoft, so it should work. (NOT)
You can't see any of the help files to see what units cost of what you
civilizations strengths/weakneses are.
I Verifeid this also using another Vista PC also.
------
Problem: (this time HW related)
after a few months and countless hours dealing with the above Vista
Annoyances.
I had a real HW problem.
Symptoms:
07/31
Crashed BSOD (Blue Screen of Death), while surfing walmart.com
Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: BlueScreen
OS Version: 6.0.6000.2.0.0.768.3
I restored the PC back to the (07/23/07)
Didn't work, still getting an inconsistent BSOD.
I put in a new 300 gig HD thinking that that was the problem, I
reinstalled Vista on that, but before ever connecting to the internet,
I was getting the BSOD.
To make a very long story short.
08/05/07 Problem solved, I found and removed a bad 1 GIG RAM chip.
Now the PC was working with the original HD and everything looked the
same but it wasnt'.
-------
Problem.
Issue that arose probably as a result of the nasty crashed with the
bad RAM chip.
windows update is no longer working. (all the other stuff seems to
work though)
error,
"Windows could not search for new update"
WindowsUpdate_C0150004 WindowsUpdate_dt000
Tried
Rename the C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution folder, but didn't work.
I Called Microsoft support. @800-936-5700 and got a tech named S.
Boopath, He was actually very dilligent and I don't hold him
personally responsible.
This is actually a call that lasted 5 hours the first day and then
took place for a couple of hours the next day only to end with a
completely innoperative PC.
The tech sent me an automatic decoder tool.
and I emailed him the output data so that he could go over that.
He Called back several hours later, He then logged in via remote
desktop.
This allows him to take total control of my PC, move the mouse and
type.
He stopped a bunch of processes and renamed a bunch of files.
such as windows/system32/catroot and windows/SoftwareDistribution
then restarted.
The PC now came up with a black screen.
after many unsuccessful attempts to revert by using the Vista-DVD, and
calling back the next day to see if we could fix this.
He said we would need to reformat and reinstall Vista.
I had to save my Data still and was able to get a DOS prompt using the
"repair reinstall" option on the DVD.
I put on that extra HD from earlier and made a careful batch file
using "xcopy /S /H /E /Y"
At this point I gave up.
I told the MS Tech that if I was going to reformat my HD, there was no
way Vista would ever go back on this machine.
He appologized and basically admitted that "this is a problem that is
Vista specific, meaning it wouldn't have happened on XP. and he said
that a lot of the software/HW manufacturers just aren't on the
bandwagon yet with Vista"
I then threw in the towel and ordered a new copy of XP.
There is no way I will put Vista back on.
-------
So here I am with an expensive OEM Vista that I don't use.
I have bought several programs to replace Vista incompatible programs
and I suspect that I put 60-80 hours into the learning and
troubleshooting process.
My XP works great on my "ASRock 775Dual-Vista" and even threads the
dual processors really well.
Not just some but all of the above issues where completely resolved
once I put on XP.
My question is... How is everyone so OK with this??
Am I going mad, is it just me?
Where is everyone with similar issues?
Why does PCWorld and all the other publications keep gushing about how
good this product is?
What is the reason, Is there any compelling reason for anyone to get
Vista in the first place?
Thanks,
Crzzy1
(Just for the record, Vista Sucks)
As a Network Engineer I have worked with many hundreds of PC's with
multiple OS's.
Early May, I got a new Family PC.
Being the cutting edge Guy I went with Vista all the way.
I got a new custom PC, 500 Gig HD, 2-Gig RAM, The motherboard (ASRock
775Dual-Vista) even has Vista in its name.
I just wanted to be sure everything was compatible.
Vista (OEM 32-bit Home) installed nicely and after a little while I
was able to navigate it pretty easily. I liked the aero thingy, but
couldn't see much that XP didn't already provide.
It wasn't until I started installing and using my programs that I
realized what a draining process it would be. I simply had to learn
first hand how ugly and really frustrating an OS could be.
---------
Annoyance.
Find: Not nearly as good as PCWorld makes it sound.
I like google desktop search much better, but you can't turn off
Vista's indexing fuction.
This makes it a bad choice to use Googles search and have 2 such
processes running.
Googles sidebar is exactly the same as the one that comes with Vista.
---------
Problem:
AOL email crashes in mozilla and the client crashes, email only worked
using IE.
AOL Error Code: C0FE1702
AOL 9.0VR (Vista Ready), (Worked for a while)
Then my son put on i-tunes for his IPOD. (AOL started to crash
progressivly over the next week),
I tried these:
uninstalled mcafee
uninstalled aol,
printer driver
reload.
FIX:
I uninstalled itunes and that fixed the problem until he re-installed
it, with a newer version that still didn't help, (AOL+VISTA+itunes=AOL
Crashing).
Note: AOL was not completly fixed as it would always disco
occasionally after that.
---------
Anoyance:
The screen kept going momentarily black whenever I loaded a program
with the annoying button asking if I was sure I wanted to run the
program.
FIX:
I turned off UAC (user account control) to speed things up.
Told that it could be a security hole though.
---------
Problem
Mcafee will not install on Vista.
FIX.
To install my retail mcafee on vista.
http://us.mcafee.com/vista/
run sticker_update_1_2.exe
Be sure to keep your McAfee product CD that was included in the box.
You will need this CD for authentication to add the Vista-compatible
upgrade.
Note: Mcafee seems to run faster in XP
--------
Problem:
I could not access the C:/ drive on my new VISTA from my XP machine.
(just other subfolders)
Getting "not permitted" error.
\\COMPUTER\c$ is not accessible. You might not have permission to use
this network resource. Contact the administrator of this server to
find out if you have access permissions.
>From other web site, but this is the overly complex workaround.
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System and add
a new DWORD labeled "LocalAccountTokenFilterPolicy" and set it's value
to 1.
Reboot
I also had to R-click C: do "advanced sharing" add "everyone and
annonymous login" and give them full permissions. (even though I did
it before I had tweaked the registry).
------------
Problem:
unidentified device. "Yellow "?" in the device manager.
Still get error " Windows Vista does not support MPU-401 Compatible
MIDI Device"
When I remove the unidentified device.
Never fixed until I installed XP, then it went away.
-----
Problem:
Printer extremely slow.
HP PSC 1310 All-in-One series printer,
Trying to print from my Vista PC to the printer that is on my XP box.
?? tried updating the driver on xp and also installed driver on the
remote vista pc.
Nothing worked.
Cause:
HP will do nothing to fix the problem and I am not about to Buy a new
Printer just because HP will not ever make an XP driver that is also
Vista friendly.
FIX:
Ditched Vista (Works great on XP)
---------
Problem:
Second Copy won't take my registration code.
Thus I was stuck with the one month trial.
FIX:
Ditched Vista
--------
Problem:
Utorrent downloads don't work. (Yes there are legitimate uses)
FIX:
Vista has a greedy limit on TCP connections.
There is a crack for the "TCP concurrent connection limit in Vista".
but MS should have made it easier to adjust that.
This seems to work ok using XP.
--------
Problem:
Adobe premier 6.5 and MainConcept.
Not sure which, but when I render a video to MPEG2 now the resulting
video has a bad sound track that is out of sync with the video. this
results in Jerky DVD's and is a major issue for me.
The output MPEG 2 video (according to AVICodec) is intermittently
flawed.
-----
Problem,
Entrust encryption software (Client Software: Entrust Entelligence
6.1SP1)
Not Vista capable.
No workaround.
(this will at least keep my office from embracing Vista for a while)
------
Problem,
Nero 6.3, (this was on the MS site as a compatible product)
When installing, there was a warning that this was Vista incompatible,
and I chose to install anyway. Nero didn't work.
but worse, the DVD Drive completly vanished from my explorer!!
FIX: None,
I had to do a rollback to a previous time.
Uninstalled Nero. to this date, Nero of any flavor does not with
Vista.
--------
Problem:
Sonic My-DVD, simply does not work with Vista.
Cannot install or run.
Workaround: None, but...
I bought Video Show Expressions. This worked, but was really not as
good as Sonic and it doesn't take elementary streams for video input
like Sonic does.
So now I have sunk more money into the Vista incompatibility issue for
lesser software.
-----
Problem
Office XP, (office assistant)
You only get the paper clip, none of the other helper buddies work. no
dog/Cat/Wizard.
I didn't try all the other features, but Word/Excel worked ok.
I guess Microsoft wants me to buy the new office
--------
Problem:
Age of Empires/Conquerors expansion.
My favorite Game and it's by Microsoft, so it should work. (NOT)
You can't see any of the help files to see what units cost of what you
civilizations strengths/weakneses are.
I Verifeid this also using another Vista PC also.
------
Problem: (this time HW related)
after a few months and countless hours dealing with the above Vista
Annoyances.
I had a real HW problem.
Symptoms:
07/31
Crashed BSOD (Blue Screen of Death), while surfing walmart.com
Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: BlueScreen
OS Version: 6.0.6000.2.0.0.768.3
I restored the PC back to the (07/23/07)
Didn't work, still getting an inconsistent BSOD.
I put in a new 300 gig HD thinking that that was the problem, I
reinstalled Vista on that, but before ever connecting to the internet,
I was getting the BSOD.
To make a very long story short.
08/05/07 Problem solved, I found and removed a bad 1 GIG RAM chip.
Now the PC was working with the original HD and everything looked the
same but it wasnt'.
-------
Problem.
Issue that arose probably as a result of the nasty crashed with the
bad RAM chip.
windows update is no longer working. (all the other stuff seems to
work though)
error,
"Windows could not search for new update"
WindowsUpdate_C0150004 WindowsUpdate_dt000
Tried
Rename the C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution folder, but didn't work.
I Called Microsoft support. @800-936-5700 and got a tech named S.
Boopath, He was actually very dilligent and I don't hold him
personally responsible.
This is actually a call that lasted 5 hours the first day and then
took place for a couple of hours the next day only to end with a
completely innoperative PC.
The tech sent me an automatic decoder tool.
and I emailed him the output data so that he could go over that.
He Called back several hours later, He then logged in via remote
desktop.
This allows him to take total control of my PC, move the mouse and
type.
He stopped a bunch of processes and renamed a bunch of files.
such as windows/system32/catroot and windows/SoftwareDistribution
then restarted.
The PC now came up with a black screen.
after many unsuccessful attempts to revert by using the Vista-DVD, and
calling back the next day to see if we could fix this.
He said we would need to reformat and reinstall Vista.
I had to save my Data still and was able to get a DOS prompt using the
"repair reinstall" option on the DVD.
I put on that extra HD from earlier and made a careful batch file
using "xcopy /S /H /E /Y"
At this point I gave up.
I told the MS Tech that if I was going to reformat my HD, there was no
way Vista would ever go back on this machine.
He appologized and basically admitted that "this is a problem that is
Vista specific, meaning it wouldn't have happened on XP. and he said
that a lot of the software/HW manufacturers just aren't on the
bandwagon yet with Vista"
I then threw in the towel and ordered a new copy of XP.
There is no way I will put Vista back on.
-------
So here I am with an expensive OEM Vista that I don't use.
I have bought several programs to replace Vista incompatible programs
and I suspect that I put 60-80 hours into the learning and
troubleshooting process.
My XP works great on my "ASRock 775Dual-Vista" and even threads the
dual processors really well.
Not just some but all of the above issues where completely resolved
once I put on XP.
My question is... How is everyone so OK with this??
Am I going mad, is it just me?
Where is everyone with similar issues?
Why does PCWorld and all the other publications keep gushing about how
good this product is?
What is the reason, Is there any compelling reason for anyone to get
Vista in the first place?
Thanks,
Crzzy1
(Just for the record, Vista Sucks)