ReanimationLP's trails into the depths of Vista Beta 2!

[ReanimationLP]

Hey everyone!

I thought I'd post my thoughts and opinions on the newest version of you-know-whos next version of Windows, Vista Beta 2 (Build 5384), which I upgraded over my Windows XP Professional installation on my AMD Athlon 64 machine.

Installation -

Installation went smoothly. Well... almost. A pesky little driver (d347prt.sys) kept hanging up Vista from booting. Its from UltraISO, and I kept telling XP to disable it, but XPs pretty dumb at points. So after deinstalling it, boom, it continued to install then dropped me right into the OS.

First Thoughts on the new Aero Glass -

Nice. Very nicely polished, and is decent on my Radeon 9600XT, but could probably be snappier, just like everything else. (Geez this card is starting to show its age) I like a lot of the refinements to the UI, even though some of them were ripped straight out of the OSX handbook.

Almost all of my hardware works with Vista, save for a 3Com 905 NIC (which I dont really use anyway), and an anicent TV tuner card, that I havent really used either. Mr.iPod and Mr.Shuffle both dock up happily with it and work fine. All of my apps work perfectly except ones described in my annoyances.

And now for my annoyances with the OS -

-iTunes. -.-' iTunes DISABLES Aero Glass whenever its open, so it reverts to Aero Basic, which looks just like XP with... a black taskbar. >.<' I hope Apple does something about this soon. Then, I had to REAUTHORIZE my machine, for an UPGRADE. WTF?!??!?? Sure, I can boot back into XP, but why does the same machine running the SAME copy of iTunes need to be authorized twice? Seems kinda deedeedee to me. '

- Skippy audio in iTunes. I'm chalking this one up to either iTunes itself, or nVidias craptastic nForce 3 drivers. I'm still using the XP driver. The frigging Vista driver on their site doesnt even work. Hell, it wont even install. Cmon nVidia, I know you're mad at MS for going to ATi for the 360, but gimme some damn correct working drivers! >.< I'll see if it skips in *shivers* Windows Media Player, but I wont have it open for long because I cant stand WMP, I hate it with a fiery passion. >>'

Hardware that I can guarantee that does work -

ATi Radeon 9600XT 128MB, with full acceleration using ATis Vista driver
Apple iPod 4G 20GB Clickwheel using the drivers with the iPod software
Microsoft Xbox 360 controller, using XBCD (I dont use the MS driver, its bad)
Adaptec 3-port Firewire 400 PCI card
nVidia nForce 3 250 Network Controller
Promise Ultra66 card (The Ultra66 is a doozy, you use the Win2003 drivers for the Ultra133, but it actually, believely, and I'm telling the absolute truth, works, and even installs as "Win2003 Ultra66 ATA Controller Driver")
All of my mainboards hardware, sans the audio being glitchy.

Its definitely a beta though. They really, really, really need to work on the setup BADLY. It is clunky as hell. How bout giving us some progress bars that actually are accurate and dont fill up, start all over again, and repeat? That way I know if the computers stuck or not. o.o' How bout making it to where when apps like iTunes who dont get along with Aero Glass, dont turn it completely off?

Disk failure.... o.o' I just got a popup for Disk failure... DAMN IBM Deathstar!

If anyone else has tried this please post your results.

For the record, I still much prefer Mac OS X Tiger. Vista feels kinda like a cheap clone of it.

 

[netdog]

Thanks for the great review. Please keep them coming as you get to know Vista better.

 

[ReanimationLP]

Games and Windows Vista -

The Games folder is a very, very nice addition and touch to the operating system.

All of the MS games are now in FULL 3D with all sorts of shaders.

The Games folder also searches your entire computer for all of your games, then groups them all in the folder, looks up the box information, the rating, the release date, and the publisher off the net, and applys it, giving it a slick look. Like Starcraft was added to it while I upgraded, and it has the orginal box art, the genre, the publisher name, and the ESRB rating.

Vistas Solitaire... actually stresses my video card too. I'm ashamed now. T_T

 

[netdog]

Vistas Solitaire... actually stresses my video card too. I'm ashamed now. T_T

Perhaps Microsoft should be ashamed.

 

[matticus008]

-iTunes. -.-' iTunes DISABLES Aero Glass whenever its open, so it reverts to Aero Basic, which looks just like XP with... a black taskbar. >.<' I hope Apple does something about this soon. Then, I had to REAUTHORIZE my machine, for an UPGRADE. WTF?!??!?? Sure, I can boot back into XP, but why does the same machine running the SAME copy of iTunes need to be authorized twice? Seems kinda deedeedee to me. '

Very interesting, and troubling. While I imagine iTunes will be fixed by release time or shortly after, I hope that the Glass-breaking tendencies are limited to Apple's toolkit or that Microsoft sandboxes the non-compliant apps if this is a more widespread problem. Many smaller apps might be extremely frustrating to use otherwise. The reauthorization isn't surprising--multiple XP installs on the same computer act as different computers as well, presumably because there's no universal hardware identifier for iTunes to use on the PC side of things. Is iTunes the only program that breaks Glass to your knowledge?

 

[ReanimationLP]

Very interesting, and troubling. While I imagine iTunes will be fixed by release time or shortly after, I hope that the Glass-breaking tendencies are limited to Apple's toolkit or that Microsoft sandboxes the non-compliant apps if this is a more widespread problem. Many smaller apps might be extremely frustrating to use otherwise. The reauthorization isn't surprising--multiple XP installs on the same computer act as different computers as well, presumably because there's no universal hardware identifier for iTunes to use on the PC side of things. Is iTunes the only program that breaks Glass to your knowledge?

No, Media Player Classic does as well. :/

Perhaps Microsoft should be ashamed.

I should be ashamed for still using a 9600XT.

 

[matticus008]

No, Media Player Classic does as well. :/

Hopefully it's just a beta jitter, then. If I were Microsoft, I'd hate to have spent so much time working to create Aero Glass all to have it broken by older apps. In an unrelated show of empathy, I just restarted an XP box and it has decided to switch to "classic" on me. Maybe there's some kind of strike in the post-1998 themes union.

 

[ReanimationLP]

Whatever you do, be careful what drivers you use.

I tried to install ATI Tool, and it completely broke everything.

Luckily after rebooting again, Windows reinstalled ALL drivers, including my personal favorite : AMD Athlon 64 3200+.

 

[Lixivial]

I guess I've been fortunate. Every beta/milestone of Longhorn/Vista I tried has work straight away with no fuss. It's nice that they've finally refined the installation process to be on par with OS X. I must say, though, I'm happy they rolled more drivers into this beta. Beta 1, for instance, stalled me out for five minutes on the post-installation (when choosing a desktop, I chose to move the window) because it did not recognize the video card.

-iTunes. -.-' iTunes DISABLES Aero Glass whenever its open, so it reverts to Aero Basic, which looks just like XP with... a black taskbar. >.<'

I didn't encounter this error. iTunes loads up just fine for me and Aero Glass is still in place. Did you disable themes or something to get it to run? (Run it in compatibility mode?) Anyway, I'll just add my thoughts, as well. Not hijacking, just adding my impressions.

Quick thoughts:
There is no excuse for Vista + Office 2007 to run like a dog on an Athlon 64 3000+ with a GeForce 6600 and 1 gigabyte of RAM. I'm a bit split on the "authentication" thing.

It's so simple to run an app as admin, and I haven't once been prompted for my password, instead the screen blacks ala Expose (and accepts no input other than the authorization window) and all I have to do is click okay or deny. The blocking out other programs is ridiculous -- I've always had a loathing for modal windows and this just takes that whole theory to an insane level. Beta 1 didn't do it this way, and I can't say I was any more or less pleased. At least it let me do other things...

And whatever you do? Do not run the classic theme in Vista, lest you wish to lose your eyesight. Dear Lord.

AntiVir's updater software does not function at all, though it was fully rewritten in .NET. I am quite the fan of WU being a standalone client now instead of a web-based app. Media center finally works, it did not in Beta 1. About to take a dive into "Windows Collaboration."

Windows Mail still does not support Search Folders (Smart Folders in Apple terminology), yet its hulkier brother, Outlook, does and has for quite some time. Windows Defender is a nice addition, though not exclusive to Vista.

Interestingly, comparing Windows Calendar to iCal shows just how different the two companies' philosophies are when it comes to UI design. In WCal, the View is hidden in a drop down, while in iCal it is three or four separate buttons. And here I thought Microsoft was trying to get away from that menu shebang.

The "iLife-killer" suite bundled with Vista lacks one very important thing that iLife has. Cohesiveness. Photo Gallery looks like Media Player, while WCal looks like Outlook Calendar, while DVD maker is a wizard and Movie Maker is just as clunky as it ever has been. They're like a bunch of apps bolted together with no real advantages of a suite.

 

[ReanimationLP]

I deinstalled Vista because it was getting annoyingly slow.

Go to your Users tab under Control Panel, go to Change Security Settings, and declick the UMC box. That'll end the boxes.

I have no idea how you got iTunes to run with Glass on, but consider me jealous.

 

[Lixivial]

That's true, but I still find it strange that, even as an administrator, it doesn't prompt for a password. Even Linux/OS X do that, and it's not relegated to simply "standard users."

I noticed that when disabling the UAC, it doesn't warn me about committing system settings or any suchnot. It still prompts (a bit) for installing applications, but it's a lot looser. This is the most compelling reason to upgrade to Vista in my opinion and to disable it so easily? I don't know...

And just to show you that I'm not lying about iTunes and Glass. (I hope I didn't misunderstand you -- iTunes does not take the Glass look, nor would I expect it to.)

 

[ReanimationLP]

*sniffled and cried*

WHY WOULDNT IT DO IT FOR MINE!? :'(

I guess my video card really does suck that bad.

What kind of video card are you using? Whenever I opened iTunes, it'd revert back to Aero Basic.

 

[matticus008]

*sniffled and cried*

WHY WOULDNT IT DO IT FOR MINE!? :'(

I guess my video card really does suck that bad.

What kind of video card are you using? Whenever I opened iTunes, it'd revert back to Aero Basic.

Might be a video driver issue, not necessarily a card age problem. They're probably working on it, and didn't you mention that you had trouble installing/finding the proper fully functional driver? I haven't used Vista on anything since 5074 because my subscription expired, but back then they were allowing XP drivers because they hadn't gotten around to Aero yet...and as you can imagine, without any pressure to start work on Vista drivers (and unfinished specs), ATI probably didn't get much of a head start on Beta 2 drivers, and they have a LOT of Radeon ground to cover.

PS - Lixivial, what is the icon in your tray to the left of QuickTime? Is it a new Vista icon or just a third-party app?

 

[Lixivial]

What kind of video card are you using? Whenever I opened iTunes, it'd revert back to Aero Basic.

It can't be any better than your video card, actually. It's an nVidia GeForce 6600LE with 256 MB of RAM, though that RAM is a bit wasted on that low-end card. It was cheap, and Vista can run a little sluggish on it.

PS - Lixivial, what is the icon in your tray to the left of QuickTime? Is it a new Vista icon or just a third-party app?

That would be Windows SideBar (aka supposed Dashboard clone) minimized.

 

[canoe2078]

iTunes + Vista + GEAR Software Drivers = NO DVD-Rom/RW drives

Hi all.

I am having a weird issue with iTunes and Windows Vista, it runs fine (yes even with the Aero Theme). The problem is the GEAR Software DVD/CD drivers it installs (GEARAspiWDM.sys), it is not Vista compatable, and they make my DVD-Rom and DVD-RW disappear. I tried looking on the GEAR Software forums, but they do not have any information on iTunes. I really hope that someone out there has a tip, or can point me in the correct direction, because I really want to use iTunes, and not WMP11

Thank you.

Chuck