windows vista

[Discord]

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]

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]

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.

[q=Grinenshire]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...[/q]

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]

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]

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 !!!!

[o_O]

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]

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]

[...]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]

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]

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/2...start-run.aspx

[Discord]

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.

[Odaisé Gaelach]

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

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

[o_O]

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]

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

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]

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?