Vista users, please read : some advice.

[Kryten]

We ain't taking all the credit for this on our own mate, it's a team effort, you included

 

[SawTooTH]

Oooh that's fun. I didn't experience this but I don't think I ever let Vista format any drive other than C: (my data is on other drives) so when I went back I nuked C: to get XP on.

Interestingly the reason I went back had nothing to do with drivers etc. I just got annoyed that games ran slower and alt-tabbing when ingame often took about 45 seconds as Vista re-enabled the Aero shizzles.

I downgraded tonight. I just couldnt resolve issues with my XFi card and games in Vista.

I've put XP prof on and hell it all works

If it aint broke is now firmly burned into my brain.

 

[Kryten]

Damned good motto

 

[ford prefect]

I recently rolled back to XP on my gaming machines and noticed around a 15% performance improvement on both of them, despite having reasonably high spec machines, both with 3gig of ram. I can't think of a good reason for me to use vista at the moment.

I see Vista as very much along the same lines as Windows ME to be honest. MS have a new version of windows in the pipeline for release within the next two years, andXP SP3 is on the doorstep too, so I think I will stick with XP for now. Vista has just been one hassle after another for me, especially at work.

 

[soze]

After a trouble free relationship woth Vista so far we installed the RTM SP1 so the one that going live on about 40 machines over the weekend and this moring around 10 of them are taking ages to boot. Its a strange problem where they boot but then pause almost untill the user hits a key at which point they start loading start up programmes ect. But its taking 10 minutes for them to boot. Uninstalled on 2 and they are fine now so we are going to roll back the rest tonight and leave SP1 for a while. Worst thing is on all the test machines it showed improvements.

 

[dysfunction]

I get that on the occassion when My PC takes ages to startup. But then on all other reboots its quick again.

Got no idea what causes that though...Unless its the updates installing or something...

 

[Jonty]

Hi soze

That's a strange problem, and it must be frustrating given that you're losing the other benefits of SP1 because of it. dysfunction is right that, after installing updates, the next boot can be slower whilst the configuration process is completed. However, once this is done it shouldn't reoccur, and pressing keys shouldn't speed things up.

Oh well, the wait for Windows 7 continues

Kind regards

 

[soze]

Hi soze

That's a strange problem, and it must be frustrating given that you're losing the other benefits of SP1 because of it. dysfunction is right that, after installing updates, the next boot can be slower whilst the configuration process is completed. However, once this is done it shouldn't reoccur, and pressing keys shouldn't speed things up.

Oh well, the wait for Windows 7 continues

Kind regards

Hi yes is is a strage little proplem i took a ghost of one of the machines affected last night so we can test it. So far the only difference seems to be one of the pre req patches missing but that may have uninstalled with the SP.

 

[Kryten]

ford prefect : I know exactly what you mean, regarding the Windows Me analogy - it does feel someone "imposed" on us while the next version is waiting in the wings. But who knows, that could be no better, or worse

I've been quite happy here, have tried SP1 in a virtual machine and it seems alright. It was indeed slow on first restart as Jonty mentioned and afterwards is fine. I'll risk installing it properly upon release on the main system

Right, it's snowing rather heavily at the moment, so I suppose I should go and dust off the car for work. I've been biking into work most of the last couple of weeks to try and lose some weight/save the planet/save petrol costs - but it's like a blizzard this morning :/

 

[Jonty]

Right, it's snowing rather heavily at the moment, so I suppose I should go and dust off the car for work. I've been biking into work most of the last couple of weeks to try and lose some weight/save the planet/save petrol costs - but it's like a blizzard this morning :/

I guess now wouldn't be a good time to mention it's 21°C and sunshine here I'm impressed with your work and fitness ethic, though; you put me to shame!

Regarding Vista SP1, have you noticed any improvements with the file copying operations? This was a big problem for me, because it was always cringingly slow, and I've heard mixed reports about any improvements in SP1.

And question two, if I format an external HDD using NTFS in Windows XP (SP3), I am correct in assuming that Vista plays nicely with it? I've never had this problem before, but I'm somewhat paranoid now. I hope to buy a Centrino 2 notebook in the summer, which will mean going back to Vista, so I want everything to go smoothly Thanks in advance!

Kind regards

 

[Kryten]

Well, lets just see how long the biking lasts Willpower required!

File copying/general transfers/network performance on SP1 is lightyears ahead of plain Vista, I'm very pleased with it, well worth the move.

As far as the external drive goes you SHOULD be fine - I'm going to assume the obvious, that there's no filesystem changes in SP3 (which is one thing I've not yet played with in a VM or otherwise). On an external drive the best thing you can do is format it in XP, stick a largish exe setup file or something on it, stick it in the Vista machine, copy it over and run it, see if it plays. I hope (and think!) this is something that has actually been fixed in the numerous updates to Vista. Will test it myself a little later on

 

[Cyradix]

Been using SP1 for about 2 weeks now and the file copy to/from network resources is noticeably faster (alot actually)
I haven't had the big file problem for a while now so I think it was fixed before SP1

 

[KevinUK]

Jonty I always thought file transfers were slow but then I read this!

Coding Horror: Actual Performance, Perceived Performance

 

[Jonty]

Hi guys

Thanks for the information, it's reassuring I guess if Microsoft ever did get things right then these forums would be a quieter place

Kind regards

Jonty

P.S. KevinUK, thanks, that's an interesting article.

 

[PLightstar]

Just got Vista Ultimate for my new PC and I have to say I like it. There are a few niggles when it comes to some programs but the BC software is alot better than XP's and solves most of the problems and I have found work arounds for other problems. Some of the features are not needed but are fun to use such as Speech recognition and the windows + tab feature, I don't know what is wrong with alt-tab. Haven't bought any games that run Direct X 10 yet so I can't comment on that.

 

[Chronictank]

If you partition using XP/Ultimate boot disc or something similar the issues havent occured... yet

 

[dysfunction]

I have just tried to install SP1 for Vista. It has just told me that it only works if you have the following languages installed (and no others!!): English, French, German, Japanese and Spanish.

Now I always install the updates that Vista tells me are available. Since I don't like clutter in the "Available Updates" section I attempted to install the optional language updates. I did quite a few and then they added a whole lot more so gave up on the idea.

I do, however, have about 10 languages other than the ones mentioned above. I now have to uninstall everyone of them individually and do a reboot after every one!!

edit: It also has to configure Vista after the reboot so takes a lot longer to reboot than normal!

Serves me right I guess but this is a warning to anyone who decides to install any other language packs before SP1!

I guess this is also why Windows update never offered me SP1...

 

[Jonty]

Hi dysfunction

That's right, Windows Update will only offer SP1 to 'compatible' systems (based on locale, language, drivers etc.). I'm surprised it's such a hassle having to uninstall the other language packs; it sounds like a real pain! That said, Microsoft were open about this, and announced that only the five languages would be supported at first, and then the 20-some will be rolled out in stages.

I'm about to buy a copy of Vista in Traditional Chinese, so thanks for the heads up about being unable to install SP1 right now. Not good

Kind regards

Jonty

P.S. If you use Office, did its language packs 'survive'?

 

[KevinUK]

Is anyone else not seeing SP1 yet? I thought that it got pulled after reports of it being so buggy?

But if some of you are seeing it then I'm not sure now

 

[JingleBells]

Is anyone else not seeing SP1 yet? I thought that it got pulled after reports of it being so buggy?

But if some of you are seeing it then I'm not sure now

It's not appeared on windows update on my laptop yet.

 

[Jonty]

Hi guys

SP1 is available, but it's being rolled out in stages.To be honest, the release schedule a mess, and Microsoft haven't communicated things well. WinSuperSite has an overview. Most people are free to download the update from Microsoft Download, but the file size is much larger since it's not a tailored download like Microsoft/Windows Update.

Kind regards

 

[dysfunction]

P.S. If you use Office, did its language packs 'survive'?

Yes it was a real pain. It allows you to select multiple languages to uninstall but only one does and the others fail!

I will check Office out to see if the language packs have survived!

 

[Jonty]

Hi guys

Thanks dysfunction I hope everything goes smoothly after all your trouble!

For those using Windows XP (myself included), the leaked release schedule is as follows:

• 
  April 2008
• 14th: Support available for SP3 (e.g. for system admins to begin preparing).
• 21st: Released to OEM, Volume License, Connect, and MSDN and TechNet subscribers.
• 29th: Available via Microsoft Update, Windows Update, and Microsoft Download Center.
  
  June 2008
• 10th: Rolled out via Automatic Updates.

So basically, Tuesday 29th April is the date to watch out for if you're desperate to upgrade.

Kind regards

 

[Jonty]

Hi dysfunction

I don't know if this is good news or bad, but as of yesterday, Microsoft rolled out Vista SP1 in all the 36 supported languages.

Kind regards

 

[dysfunction]

Hi dysfunction

I don't know if this is good news or bad, but as of yesterday, Microsoft rolled out Vista SP1 in all the 36 supported languages.

Kind regards

Ah well never mind!
At least I got some 9GB of HD space back!

So all is not lost!

 

[chipper]

had a nightmare last night with vista it ran great without updates banged the updates on and boom big trouble id login and the screen would remain black you ctrl alt del but you could pretty much only close down, taskmaster wouldnt pop up, i formatted wih a xp disc and then banged vista on again and its fine now so its not a hardware issuse however im scared to put hte updates on now as ive spent about 2 hours searching the net for a solution or workaround none of which are satisfactory should it happen again

anyone else had experiences of this and found a solution?

 

[Jonty]

Hi Chipper

Did you try to install Vista SP1? This includes all (well, most) of the updates in a single package. Your best bet is to boot Vista, disable any anti-virus or other programs running in the background, and then run Windows Update in Vista and let it install SP1. Don't do anything whilst it's installing, just relax and let the process complete. It may take a while, and the first reboot after installing may be slow, but otherwise it should all go smoothly.

Kind regards

 

[dysfunction]

SP1 can take a good hour or maybe 2-3 so make sure you have stuff to do in the mean time!!