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Moon Rabbits
04-07-2007, 08:08 PM
I'm on a new system running Windows Vista and I'm a bit lost.

Every time I open Windows Live Messenger it gives me an error message and closes the program. Why is this happening?

Also, is there any sort of security optimization or settings I should set on a new Vista install?

atlanteay
04-07-2007, 08:43 PM
is it an error about needing to install flash in order to run properly? I just click cancel and Windows Live Messenger runs perfectly.

Discord
04-07-2007, 10:37 PM
I'm on a new system running Windows Vista and I'm a bit lost.

Every time I open Windows Live Messenger it gives me an error message and closes the program. Why is this happening?

Also, is there any sort of security optimization or settings I should set on a new Vista install?

Could you maybe quote the error messege? Can't do much without it.

Vyk
04-07-2007, 10:49 PM
I bet I know. Go to messenger's folder in Program Files and right click the .exe and select "Run as Administrator". Bet it works. If so we'll go from there. If not, then I can't help and I'll bow out

Rostum
04-08-2007, 01:06 AM
Yeah, what's the error message?

Moon Rabbits
04-08-2007, 01:12 AM
Patched it and it's fixed.

Why can't I save files to Program Files even though I am an administrator?

Discord
04-08-2007, 02:03 AM
Patched it and it's fixed.

Why can't I save files to Program Files even though I am an administrator?

Could be some anti-stupid-user protection. Vista loves that sort of thing. Check the properties.

Moon Rabbits
04-08-2007, 07:48 PM
Should I bother getting Vista Home Premium, or should I just stick with Home Basic?

Discord
04-08-2007, 10:50 PM
Should I bother getting Vista Home Premium, or should I just stick with Home Basic?

I'd stick with the one you've got. It's just an OS.

And if you're concerned about Premium being any better in this regard, I doubt it.

o_O
04-09-2007, 12:27 AM
If you want Aero, then get Premium. Home basic will look like XP or won't have the special compositing effects in the other versions of Vista since it doesn't have Aero.

If you really want a pretty desktop, install <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xC5uEe5OzNQ">Linux, Beryl and Emerald</a>. :p

Discord
04-09-2007, 02:45 AM
Out of pure curiousity, does Vista Premium or Ultimate have any useful features that Basic lacks? Fancy 3d desktops excluded.

o_O
04-09-2007, 05:50 AM
Microsoft periodically release updates under the category of "Extras" which potentially will be made available only to specific versions of Vista.

<a href="http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/editions/choose.mspx">Here</a>'s the official comparison chart; I personally haven't used Home Basic, only Ultimate, so I don't know about the differences there actually are. Knowing Microsoft, the cheaper the version, the more unreasonable the limitations get. :p

Discord
04-10-2007, 04:32 AM
Well Aero surely looks pretty, but I'm not buying a new OS just because of it.:p

Rostum
04-10-2007, 07:27 AM
If you really want a pretty desktop, install <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xC5uEe5OzNQ">Linux, Beryl and Emerald</a>. :p

It does certainly have a lot of flashy things, but I think it's a bit much. I do like the effect you get when closing a window though, that's probably the best bit.

o_O
04-10-2007, 12:13 PM
If you really want a pretty desktop, install <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xC5uEe5OzNQ">Linux, Beryl and Emerald</a>. :p

It does certainly have a lot of flashy things, but I think it's a bit much. I do like the effect you get when closing a window though, that's probably the best bit.

A lot of it is just for show, but many of the desktop effects are very functional. IF you ever use Linux, I definitely recommend trying it out. The problem is that it's not stable enough to run as a full time desktop environment.

Discord
04-10-2007, 02:52 PM
If you really want a pretty desktop, install <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xC5uEe5OzNQ">Linux, Beryl and Emerald</a>. :p

It does certainly have a lot of flashy things, but I think it's a bit much. I do like the effect you get when closing a window though, that's probably the best bit.

A lot of it is just for show, but many of the desktop effects are very functional. IF you ever use Linux, I definitely recommend trying it out. The problem is that it's not stable enough to run as a full time desktop environment.

How about the CPU/Memory usage? It looks bloody costy to be blunt.

Endless
04-10-2007, 04:24 PM
How about the CPU/Memory usage? It looks bloody costy to be blunt.

OpenGL makes CPUs smile. The GPU, on the other hand...

Renmiri
04-10-2007, 04:42 PM
I hate Vista!!! Mine is the Home Premium edition and it is still buggy as hell.

What is Aero ? How do I benefit from it ?

And does anyone know how to override the bloody Windows Sound Mixer ? It sucks!!!

Odaisé Gaelach
04-10-2007, 06:20 PM
If you really want a pretty desktop, install <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xC5uEe5OzNQ">Linux, Beryl and Emerald</a>. :p

Wow, some of that looks incredibly like OS X. The Dock bar at the top of the screen, the way that windows minimize with sloping sides...

crono_logical
04-10-2007, 10:31 PM
I didn't realise there was software for linux capable of doing such fancy effects already - that's what happens when you only use linux with the command line interface most of the time - although some of the messing about with the dock bar looked more like an eye-candy toy than something vaguely useful or sensible :p Now I need to find a half decent machine to test it out on myself :p

Mirage
04-10-2007, 10:42 PM
If you really want a pretty desktop, install Linux, Beryl and Emerald (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xC5uEe5OzNQ). :p

It does certainly have a lot of flashy things, but I think it's a bit much. I do like the effect you get when closing a window though, that's probably the best bit.

A lot of it is just for show, but many of the desktop effects are very functional. IF you ever use Linux, I definitely recommend trying it out. The problem is that it's not stable enough to run as a full time desktop environment.
In my experience, everything that looks fancy in the opensource community is also unstable.

Renmiri
04-11-2007, 12:41 AM
Aero is the fancy name for transparent windows and animated thumbnails ?

Much ado about nothing if you ask me. I found the transparent window edges pretty annoying and the animated thumbnails overkill.

Give me my good sound mixer back!!!! :mad:

o_O
04-11-2007, 01:47 AM
That's pretty much all Aero is. Very overrated. :p

How about the CPU/Memory usage? It looks bloody costy to be blunt.

To be honest, you would be very surprised at what can run Beryl. As Endless said, you're definitely better off with a dedicated GPU, but my laptop with an integrated SiS and 64MB of shared VRAM runs it very acceptably.

Yamaneko
04-11-2007, 04:31 AM
I run Beryl on my main workspace. If it ever crashes it falls back to metacity (or kwin). As long as you stay modest with the plugins (stay away from rain effects, blur effetcs, etc.) it's stable enough to work with. Further, the Compiz and Beryl communities are getting back together, so we'll see the stability of Compiz and for those who want the extra plugins, the eye candy of Beryl (named Composite Community).

Beryl and the Beryl manager tend to take up anywhere between 20-50MB of RAM on my system. Blur is the only real plugin that kills cpu cycles. I always disable it.

Discord
04-11-2007, 05:00 AM
Aero is the fancy name for transparent windows and animated thumbnails ?

Much ado about nothing if you ask me. I found the transparent window edges pretty annoying and the animated thumbnails overkill.

Give me my good sound mixer back!!!! :mad:

No, no! Aero is NOT ONLY the fancy name for transparent windows, it's also a fancy name for the completely useless 3d version of ALT+TAB... START+TAB if I'm not mistaken shows it up... well, at least it looks nice.

On the matter of pretty looks, isn't it great that MS went for the formal black design in Vista rather then the XP-vegetables soup one. A*

Mirage
04-11-2007, 05:03 AM
XP Silver never looked very vegetably to me, and I haven't seen a lot of blue vegetables either.

Yamaneko
04-11-2007, 05:25 AM
XP's default theme looks like a three-year-old went at it with some crayons.

crono_logical
04-11-2007, 08:51 AM
XP's default background made me think Teletubbies when I first saw it :p

Renmiri
04-11-2007, 07:13 PM
Vista's "transparent" windows make me think I need glasses :mad:

Mirage
04-11-2007, 07:48 PM
Good thing all those things can easily be changed then.

Rostum
04-12-2007, 12:42 AM
Yeah my dad recently got a new laptop, and Dell only sell Vista, so he had to get the business pack. He pretty much disabled any fancy stuff because it lagged his system, even with 2GB RAM, a decent onboard video card and dual core processor.

Now that's screwed. =\

o_O
04-12-2007, 05:23 AM
Yeah my dad recently got a new laptop, and Dell only sell Vista, so he had to get the business pack. He pretty much disabled any fancy stuff because it lagged his system, even with 2GB RAM, a decent onboard video card and dual core processor.

Now that's screwed. =\

That's probably because it's a Dell. :p
They'll install XP for you instead of Vista if you make a bit of noise, get in their faces, you know. :p

But really, Vista uses far more resources than it needs to. I always thought of XP Silver as something that grows in the garden too. :p

Wow, some of that looks incredibly like OS X. The Dock bar at the top of the screen, the way that windows minimize with sloping sides...

Most of the widgets you see aren't part of Beryl itself, but third-party programs. Some, including the various dockers are written specifically to emulate other operating systems' programs, like OSX.

Yamaneko
04-12-2007, 05:35 AM
The one in the video is kiba dock. It has a "physics" engine that determines the placement of the icons on the dock. It's still pretty buggy.

o_O
04-12-2007, 06:41 AM
kiba-dock was horrendous for me. The physics engine was so bad it wasn't even slightly functional.

Yamaneko
04-12-2007, 06:47 AM
Yeah, I'm using AWN (http://awn.wetpaint.com/page/Ubuntu+Feisty+Repository) currently. It's nice in that it's not only a launcher, but also acts as place where windows minimize to, I guess kind of like the OSX dock. I haven't built the latest SVN, but the stable binary doesn't allow you to customize icons in the dock, so I'm stuck with some ugly default icons. Sometimes it doesn't play nice with Beryl's window preview plugin either, but I can live with it. :p

Discord
04-13-2007, 03:02 AM
Needless to say, I like XP. Absolutely no problem with it. The design might be a bit too colourful, but I prefer it to Windows Classic (and I know that many people are still in love with classic). But the Vista black is just quite a bit prettier. Running XP with a Vista-like shell myself.

Renmiri
04-13-2007, 06:39 AM
XP Color scheme ruled!

They don't have an XP theme on Vista. Meanies! :mad:

Rostum
04-13-2007, 08:57 AM
I don't like how they're not releasing DirectX10 for Windows XP. So I'll have to eventually upgrade to Vista next year when most newer PC games are running DirectX10. =\

Mirage
04-13-2007, 09:31 AM
That's part of their plan~

Also, I sort of had hoped they would keep a few of the XP themes. After all, XP had several themes from the earlier versions too.

Discord
04-13-2007, 01:44 PM
[...]They don't have an XP theme on Vista. Meanies! :mad:

Thank God!

I think we'll get some substitute for DX10. They can't simply force us to buy a new OS in order to play newer games. I mean, generally speaking the games support the OS which are up to 8 years old. And they definitely support the previous OS. I doubt that MS would get through with this. I mean, most laptops you get from mass-retailers today still run XP on them, are you trying to tell me that I won't be able to play a brand new game on a one year old system?

Odaisé Gaelach
04-13-2007, 01:45 PM
Oh, hell no...


Windows XP to be retired in 2008

Windows XP will stop being available on new PCs from the end of January 2008.

Microsoft is keeping to a plan to stop selling the operating system even though surveys show a lukewarm response to Windows Vista among consumers.

A poll by US market research firm Harris Interactive found that only 10% of those questioned were planning to upgrade to Vista in the near future.

All versions of XP, including those made for media centre or tablet PCs, are affected by the decision.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6551429.stm

Discord
04-13-2007, 02:00 PM
Oh, hell no...


Windows XP to be retired in 2008

Windows XP will stop being available on new PCs from the end of January 2008.

Microsoft is keeping to a plan to stop selling the operating system even though surveys show a lukewarm response to Windows Vista among consumers.

A poll by US market research firm Harris Interactive found that only 10% of those questioned were planning to upgrade to Vista in the near future.

All versions of XP, including those made for media centre or tablet PCs, are affected by the decision.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6551429.stm

Exactly! This means that the system will be completely up to date until 2008. After that they'll probably support it for good 5 years.

Renmiri
04-13-2007, 05:14 PM
My new HP laptop came with Vista pre-installed. (Curses Billg ). Hate it so far

Discord
04-13-2007, 09:33 PM
My new HP laptop came with Vista pre-installed. (Curses Billg ). Hate it so far

I've used Vista for... um... 5 minutes. Well, it's bloody hard to find anything anywhere and the drivers are still to be updated for it. However in a longterm, it's a win.:tongue:

Yamaneko
04-13-2007, 09:47 PM
I don't think Microsoft cares that your DX10 hardware won't work natively in XP. You're expected to upgrade. Most OEMs are shipping their machines with Vista now, although there's still the option of sticking with XP (sometimes at added prices, which doesn't make any sense).

Discord
04-13-2007, 10:08 PM
I don't think Microsoft cares that your DX10 hardware won't work natively in XP. You're expected to upgrade. Most OEMs are shipping their machines with Vista now, although there's still the option of sticking with XP (sometimes at added prices, which doesn't make any sense).

Umm.. a friend of mine got a laptop just last week. That and an other machine were the only ones out of 15 sold models that had Vista on them. That was one of the leading mass-retailer chains...

We've got 2007 now and MS will only stop supporting Win2x from July onwards. That's quite some time. If the marketing concept of Microsoft was an economic one, they'd stop supporting Win2x right after the release of XP, thus forcing an upgrade as well.

However, they've got an image to keep up to and shall they stop supporting XP's multimedia capabilities to simply receive a gross cashflow in the next couple of month, the trademark's image restoration costs, that being that of Windows and all other products of MS, would be far larger than they could win with a single product. Their focus is OEM trade. This is basic marketing.

Little Blue
04-13-2007, 10:15 PM
However, they've got an image to keep up to and shall they stop supporting XP's multimedia capabilities to simply receive a gross cashflow in the next couple of month, the trademark's image restoration costs, that being that of Windows and all other products of MS, would be far larger than they could win with a single product. Their focus is OEM trade. This is basic marketing.

Fortunately, according to that link, microsoft only plan to stop selling XP rather than stop supporting it altogether.

o_O
04-13-2007, 11:16 PM
They supported 98 for a good 7 or 8 years from its release. XP was out around 2001 so I think we can expect another 3 or so years' support for XP.

Umm.. a friend of mine got a laptop just last week. That and an other machine were the only ones out of 15 sold models that had Vista on them. That was one of the leading mass-retailer chains...

Big chain stores are often some of the last to change their ways. They have a lot of economic inertia, so in some ways it will delay or slow the release of new products.

Moon Rabbits
04-14-2007, 02:57 PM
I'm starting to ponder if I should just re-install my copy of Windows XP.

I like Vista and all, it hasn't crashed a single time, it's pretty, it was easy to setup and configure my connection, I like the way things are organized and whatnot so on and so forth.

But the compatibility with games is terrible. Civilization 4 is all messed, Half Life 2 stutters and the sound is all messed up. :(

Renmiri
04-14-2007, 06:44 PM
Sound reeks. Firefox get's all messy with some sites (a stylesheet processing problem I think). Half of the programs now have to be right clicked to run on Admin mode or they won't run. The screen turns dark every five seconds to ask you for permission (I'm almost turning the darn UAC off!). Even with Admin permissions and UAC off some programs crash because they need to lock memory or they need to write to a priviledged folder... The whole security thing is a nightmare!

And the smudgy blurry window edges make me think I need glasses, while the 3D alt-tab is cool, it ain't worth it.

I want my XP !!!! :cry: :mad: :cry:

o_O
04-15-2007, 01:10 AM
I have UAC permanently turned off. It keeps warning me that it's turned off, but it really is a tradeoff between constantly giving permission to do things and having a tooltip box pop up every so often.

Moon Rabbits, if you format your drive, install XP and then install Vista from within XP, you'll be able to dual-boot both.

Odaisé Gaelach
04-15-2007, 01:38 AM
I have UAC permanently turned off. It keeps warning me that it's turned off, but it really is a tradeoff between constantly giving permission to do things and having a tooltip box pop up every so often.

Don't you always have to input a root password on Linux if you want to change the settings? I know you have to on Mac OS X...

Discord
04-15-2007, 02:07 AM
[...]I like Vista and all, it hasn't crashed a single time, it's pretty, it was easy to setup and configure my connection, I like the way things are organized and whatnot so on and so forth.[...]

Organised is the wrong word for Vista. Finding anything takes 'bout half a days time. Even the RUN button isn't there.:(

I like the graphical toys though.

Yamaneko
04-15-2007, 02:10 AM
The only time you need root access in Linux is if you're making changes beyond /home. Settings in Gnome/KDE/Xfce, etc. are stored in the user's home folder so no root access is necessary. It's only when you make system-side changes like GDM settings or network settings that you need to sudo or just input a password through a pop-up prompt. apt-get (or the equivalents in other distros) also require root access.

Odaisé Gaelach
04-15-2007, 02:35 AM
Organised is the wrong word for Vista. Finding anything takes 'bout half a days time. Even the RUN button isn't there.:(

I think the Start Search box doubles as Run...

EDIT: Hang on...


It seems that some people think we got rid of this altogether, when in fact we just removed it from the default settings since most people won't need it any longer. The quick way to get at it is to use the Win+R shortcut key combination at any time - this is what I tend to use most of the time.

If you want to restore it permanently to your Start menu, here's what you do:

1. Right-click on the Start menu and choose Properties;
2. Select the Start Menu tab and click on the Customize... button;
3. Ensure the "Run command" option is checked.

Now the Start / Run command will be restored to its full glory. Of course, you can swap in and out a bunch of other choices (I like the Administrative Tools to be right there, but I don't much care for Pictures, Games and Music to be top-level items on my work machine.) Here's how I have my default menu configured - you'll see it's also docked to the left-hand side of the screen:

http://blogs.msdn.com/tims/archive/2006/09/18/windows-vista-secret-3-bringing-back-start-run.aspx

Discord
04-15-2007, 02:39 AM
Organised is the wrong word for Vista. Finding anything takes 'bout half a days time. Even the RUN button isn't there.:(

I think the Start Search box doubles as Run...


Not if you want to run a programs with specific customised parameters.:mad:

Odaisé Gaelach
04-15-2007, 02:46 AM
Not if you want to run a programs with specific customised parameters.:mad:

Either bring up the command prompt, or try bringing back the Run box again.

o_O
04-15-2007, 02:52 AM
I have UAC permanently turned off. It keeps warning me that it's turned off, but it really is a tradeoff between constantly giving permission to do things and having a tooltip box pop up every so often.

Don't you always have to input a root password on Linux if you want to change the settings? I know you have to on Mac OS X...

I have it set up so that anyone on my network in the "wheel" group can sudo without a password.

Discord
04-15-2007, 02:55 AM
Not if you want to run a programs with specific customised parameters.:mad:

Either bring up the command prompt, or try bringing back the Run box again.

Well, you can run the RUN from the search by searching fom RUN, but it's really quite a bit of a way.

Odaisé Gaelach
04-15-2007, 02:59 AM
I have it set up so that anyone on my network in the "wheel" group can sudo without a password.

Ah, that works! :)


Well, you can run the RUN from the search by searching fom RUN, but it's really quite a bit of a way.

Was the blog I linked to in post #55 no help?

Discord
04-15-2007, 02:12 PM
Oh right, sorry, overlooked it. Nice, nice. Thanks for the info.;)

Odaisé Gaelach
04-15-2007, 02:24 PM
No problem. Glad I could help. :)

Moon Rabbits
04-15-2007, 04:20 PM
Sound reeks.

That is 100% true. The sound sucks, when I'm playing Half-Life 2 it gets static and stuff. Etherlords II is all funny with some sounds, and Halo stutters a bit too.

Thankfully, Silent Hill 3 is unaffected <3

atlanteay
04-15-2007, 06:05 PM
seeing how this is like a windows vista thread, i have a question about vista. I installed WinRAR and that is a widely used program. However, every time i use it, a pop up comes out and says that it is an unauthorized program because it doesn't have a publisher. So then i have to allow it every time i use it. Is there a way to stop that pop up message?

Renmiri
04-15-2007, 06:37 PM
Disable the UAC - User Acces Control and this popups will stop. BUT this means you will be disabling windows built in security.

I have lived with the popups so far, rather than disabling UAC, but it is getting mighty annoying!