Vista Review

I’m wondering how many people out there (on average) have updated their Vista laptops and desktops to SP1 not that it’s been available quite awhile. I have to say - I haven’t updated my laptop yet at all, especially since I read that (despite the initial hype) machines aren’t running faster at all post-upgrade, they’re (mostly) in fact running slower!

This guy at TechIMO reports his system running squirrelly after the upgrade, so he backed it out with system restore.

Then again - it’s a double edged sword, since if I don’t upgrade in the near future my machine might be vulnerable to new exploits, the one recently announced that renders Windows Vista security useless.

It looks like I’m damned if I do and damned if I don’t, and I may have to make a choice this year. Have you upgraded your Vista yet? What have you experienced?

Microsoft is running an ad campaign called Mojave. They tell testers that they are testing the new version of Windows (after Vista) code named “Mojave”, and then they actually show them Vista instead. Then the users “all love it (yay!)” - and Microsoft is like “we pwned you - Vista rocks”!

Idiot Microsoft - Vista STILL SUCKS!

Everybody knows that Windows Vista is a dud and Windows XP is still viable. The hilarity of the “downgrade” option is absurd. How ironic is it then that Windows Vista good enough for new OEM PC’s to consumers, but it’s not good enough for Intel employees. Intel has more than 80,000 computers, but is only meagerly testing in a few departments Vista. The rest of the company is waiting until 2010 when Windows 7 comes out according to an anonymous source in The New York Times. If the failure of Windows Vista weren’t evident before, glaring examples come out more each day.

WTF is going on Microsoft? In my last post I talked about “Vista’s Second Life, and how the confirmed release date of Windows 7 is Jan 2010. OEM’s can sell XP Professional until Jan 2009, so that leaves people screwed for about a year if they buy a new PC - doesn’t it?

Well, just a couple days about Microsoft officially ended sales of Windows XP - you can’t just walk into Office Max and pickup a copy anymore. As previously mentioned, you can still get it from OEM computer builders until Jan 2009, but after that they can’t even get it from Microsoft.

So, the really screwy thing I just read about was that Dell was now offer it’s new Windows Vista Bonus Program for only $99. What’s the bonus?? You get a computer with Windows XP Professional installed on it, and a disc with Vista on it. WTF Microsoft - and WTF dell?!? Now we have to PAY AN EXTRA HUNDRED BUCKS to not get Vista? F*CK YOU!

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The register article Microsoft says ‘hasta la vista XP’ is so timely. It loos like Windows 7 (to be released in Jan 2010) is really gonna be Vista mock 2, and built on the same “core architecture”. Basically they’re saying - no surprised, we’re gonna fix it this time - really! In addition, OEM’s can still sell XP Professional until early 2009. So what happens between 2009 and 2010 is what I want to know! I guess, just don’t buy a PC or laptop that year at all.

I would hash out all the BS in Vista they should fix, but why when Let’s Not Repeat the Vista Mistakes in Windows 7 does it so well already!

It was important that Microsoft confirmed the Jan 2010 release date, but more importantly MS - can you clue us in along the way on what you’ll actually be doing with it? What’s included? Will you take ANY of our millions of suggestions into consideration? I doubt it.

It’s time to review what’s new with Windows Vista in the news! First up is the $1,632 copy of Windows Vista that’s just insane. Bill ordered Vista online and each time he tried to pay it gave him an error screen and he had to go back. Each time he went back and tried again it billed him $233. Months later he still doesn’t have all his money back - and the Vista Ultimate Upgrade license he was charged for wasn’t even the one he ordered! Oh - did I mention he was an IT manager at a large university? Unbelieveable.

This is horrible Vista Promo video is like something out of a bad Saturday Night Live sketch. It’s soooo bad you’ll be rolling on the floor howling in laughter! To make matters worse, they probably blew millions on this clip with really bad fake Bruce Springsteen. If they were going to drive a bad idea that far into the ground shouldn’t they at least have gotten a REAL celebrity?

Ask the Admin had the pic above, and you know come to think of it - I have seen this Vista error (”you do not have permission to view the current permission settings”). How redundant is this? It’s incredibly stupid, I mean this isn’t even “permissions” in the normal sense like read and write. It’s “you don’t have permission to view the freakin’ permissions!!!”. AND - to add insult to injury it gives you the ability to give yourself permission to change those permissions! I think that the layers of BS in Vista permissions are approaching the ways that government has so seamlessly impacted my life…

Well, to everyone that was waiting for SP1 to come out - guess what, the “official release” that was initially posted on the web was full of errors that made machines reboot and reboot and reboot and reboot! And now they’re saying that it’s 40% slower than XP!

In other Vista news this week, turns out that almost no one is buying Vista Ultimate and 75% of all Vista shipments are Vista Home Premium. Redmond is sniffing out pirates in SP1, but for some reason only seems to be nagging them to death.

There is hope as Geekywood shows you how to speed up your Vista, and if that weren’t enough - I’ll cap it off with “How to install Vista in 2 minutes” (which is hilarious - lol)!

Did Microsoft lie about “Vista Capable” machines being able to upgrade from XP?

When I was reading this article today in Bit-Tech I suddenly remembered the problems that people had with their “Vista Capable” systems when Vista first came out. Apparently most of those systems were barely capable of running “Vista Basic” and most didn’t hard the processor or memory to run Aero, etc. So, of course there’s a “clasa action” suit against MS for it. The funny thing about it this time is that the lawyer seems to have done some pretty good (email) discovery, because he dug out some awesome things written in internal emails by Microsoft employees the public never heard about, like such gems as:

“Even a piece of junk will qualify”

“You guys have to do a better job with our customers”

I PERSONALLY got burnt. … Are we seeing this from a lot of customers? … I now have a $2,100 e-mail machine.

Now that’s why they say to watch what you type in an email!

If that isn’t enough in the original article Joseph Tartakoff was there first hand and heard during the court testimony that “Another e-mail chain presented in court showed that Wal-Mart was concerned about the impact the campaign could have, and Tilden hinted that other retailers had similar concerns.” So, even companies (selling systems with the “Vista Capable” sticker) were concerned about customer education (of what they were buying). Is all this surprising? I certainly don’t think so…

If you’re looking to remove optional components of Vista that you might not need, “the How-To geek” can tell you how to get that done. Actually, I was surprised by not only how easy it was, but by how many crazy unnecessary things were running all over the place.

Indexing Service, IIS, .NET framework, UNIX Subsystem, Windows Powershell, Windows Meeting Space - all garbage you may not need running (and much, much more on their list). It’s no wonder that you need 2GB to run Vista when all this garbage is running in the background!

The official release of Vista SP1 can’t be far off, because anyone can register and download the official SP1 release from Microsoft’s OEM site. There are so many improvements and to exising Vista features that I just can’t wait for this thing. I’m about to download that OEM version and install it and be done because it’s so damn slow when transfering files, even emptying the recycle bin is a pain. I have the display driver bug too, and anytime I login I have to wait 5 seconds for he screen to quit flickering before I can work. For the most part Windows Vista has been pretty “stable”, but as I’ve written before - for a system with 2GB of RAM you’d think it’d be a hell of a lot less sluggish than it is. I hope when I intstall SP1 it will be - you’ll be the first to read about my experiences with SP1 here.

ZDNet gives SP1 “7 out of 10″.

What are they highlighting in SP1?

- new windows Firewall
- improved Windows update
- preventive data loss when ejecting removable media
- improved sleep and wake-up times
- improved Readyboost
- smart card enhancements
- read/writing files is faster

Their advice? Wait until SP1 is offered through Windows “Automatic Updates” service. I think I might just do that.

It looks like Microsoft Vista Service Pack 1 isn’t much better at stopping pirates than the original release. Wired confirms that there are still several exploits available that bypass Vista activation that aren’t that complicated at all.

PC World has reported that Windows Vista Service Pack 1 or SP1 will be officially available to everyone on February 15th, 2008! Or will it? That date has been reported by Taiwanese news agency, and some sources close to Microsoft say that’s a “target date”, but Microsoft won’t comment. Some believe that SP1 will bring a new wave of adoption to Vista, espcially businesses. I just want my “blackout screen glitch” to go away everytime I log in. I read last year that this (among other video drivers fixes) should be fixed by installing SP1.

As many look for SP1 to make their Vista experience better, IBM is preying on the fact that so many people are having difficulty with Vista and businesses that are dragging their feet to upgrade from Windows XP. The are starting to swing the Linux hammer in an attempt to get people out of “Vista Hell”. They announced that they will offer an “Open Collaboration Client Solution with support for Ubuntu”. What is Ubuntu? Ubuntu is the most mainstream version of Linux I’ve ever seen, and IBM touts it as “personal computing software that is based on open standards, providing businesses with a cost-effective and security-rich alternative to Microsoft desktops”.

The timing is good for IBM, because Vista has a poor reputation among many. Can they re-brand themselves? I don’t know, being an IT person myself I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, anyone support open source standards and Ubuntu has got my attention. But we all know IBM is self-serving, and the proof in the pudding is that their “Open Collaboration Client” software manifest nothing but proprietary IBM apps based on Lotus Notes and Websphere. When you first read “Ubuntu” you expect to see things like “Open Office” on the list.

If you were doubtful about the fact that not only does Windows Vista have a poor reputation - but that Microsoft knows it and is worried about it, read this article announcing that Windows 7 may be released next year. Windows 7 is the next version of Windows, and Microsoft now has on it’s roadmap a release date in mid-2009. What will an early (3 year) release of Windows do to their 5 year release cycle? Will it make people angry (having to upgrade so soon), or will it placate all those who Vista pissed off? It’s a real catch-22 for business who may have been putting off a Vista upgrade, and now many surely put off until Windows 7. The only thing we can be sure of are Microsoft’s claims that Windows 7 will be the last 32 bit version of Windows. From that point forward, all versions of Windows will be 64 bit. What does that mean? It means that millions and millions of old PC’s will live on for years and years on Linux once older versions of Microsoft are no longer supported. It means (in my opinion) that Ubuntu will become even more popular among those with older or dontated hardware.

Windows Vista has many complaints of being slow for the amount of memory it requires. Can you speed it up? Sure you can…

One of the things that I’ve not done with Windows Vista is try to speed it up using the ReadyBoost technology that comes with it. What is ReadyBoost? Essentially you use a USB memory stick as a “cache”, which is of course faster than a disk cache (in access time), and unlike regular memory (which loses it’s contents when you shut the PC down), the contents of USB flash used as memory are immediately available when a PC boots up - making it more “ready” (and giving it a ‘boost’, doh!).

If you thinking that you could use any old memory stick you had lying around - that’s not the case. You have to have 256MB or more free space, so those old 128MB flash drives you got for free at the technology fair or with a spindle or CDRom’s aren’t going to cut it. Also (like regular memory and hard drives) believe it or not different USB sticks have different speeds. You need a memory stick that has at least 1.75MB per second read time and 512KB write time. What - you didn’t save the original blister pack from your USB stick with the specs? You might be able to get that information online at the manufacturer’s web site, or maybe online from the place you bought it. If not (or if you’re buying a new memory stick for this purpose), just be sure to get one that says “<b>Enhanced for Readyboost</b>”, and you’ll know it’s got the specs you need.

Believe it or not, you could use just about anything (you can plug in USB) for this technique, including SD Cards and things you plug in a card reader, like MMC Cards, MS Cards, Sony Memory Sticks, etc - as long as they meet the read/write requirements. So how does Readyboost work? When you plugin a new usb stick (or card reader), you’ll get a dialog box asking you what you want to do (open folder, run, Autoplay, etc.), and you want to choose “Speed up my System with Readyboost”.

Windows Vista isn’t just going to let you use memory that is insufficient or incompatible, it’s going to do a benchmark first. If the memory meets requirements after the benchmark, Readyboost will create a file on your drive or card called “ReadyBoost.sfcache”. That’s it! Your Windows Vista system should be running faster now! Think about how much easier this is than buying more memory for your notebook or PC. You can get a 1 or 2GB flash stick for under $20 online, and that could dramatically increase the speed of your computer!

The Fotomoto Virus has become prevalent lately - especially on Windows Vista PC’s. Don’t think it not just as bad (or worse) infecting Windows XP as well. I’m going to show you how to remove the Fotomoto virus, also known as Win32/Fotomoto, Trojan.Fotomoto.h, TR.Fotomoto.F.1, and Trojan.Fotomoto.f.

In the last year I’ve been pretty lucky on my Windows Vista laptop. I removed McAfee Internet Security because the trial expired and I refused to pay money for a product that both slowed down my PC and was inadequate. I opted instead to go with Windows Firewall, AVG Free AntiVirus, and nothing else. My family and I use this living room laptop for most everything, and the four of us know what “NOT” to click on. I can’t remember really getting any virus on a PC in the household over the last 3-4 years. But there are drawbacks to having a “living room laptop” - and that is when people come over they also use it.

So I’m not sure when or how it happenned, but sometime in the last 2 weeks one of the people that came over used the laptop and clicked on something bad. I didn’t know about it for a few days after they left - and there were multiple people in the house that weekend. Two things occured, and one was that I know (the teens) were watching some of the most horrid little videos online from some NSFW (not safe for work) type video sites. I also know that someone downloaded some type of video on a torrent behind my back. Either one of these events could have caused some BS to infect my nice little Vista laptop.

I normally don’t use IE at all, but I noticed I had a problem when every time I opened an explorer window or a folder a got an IE popup with an ad. This is of course no problem in Firefox, but since IE is tied so closely to the OS - especially in Vista, you can’t even open the control panel without getting a popup ad. I open Windows Defender and it’s telling me that I have the “Win32/Fotomoto” virus, or trojan, malware, adware, whatever - it’s officially a problem. When you tell Windows Defender to remove or quarantine Win32/Fotomoto it says it does. And than later in the day you get popups again (it can’t remove it). Since I don’t use IE much at all I just lived with this problem for about a week. It was no bother in Firefox or my Thunderbird email. But anytime I upzipped a file, opened a folder, control panel, advert popups displayed again.

I downloaded the old trusty Spyware Search & Destroy - and it also said it removed Fotomoto, but it did not. I downloaded Hijack This from Trend Micro and removed the startup lines (for advanced users only) that I believed to be the problem, and it only made matters worse. On reboot, when the virus tried to load (when you opened IE, or a folder) all the desktop icons disappeared and the windows taskbar, startbar, and tray all completely disappeared. You could still use the programs open, but when you closed them you just had the desktop background with nothing else. You could only ctl-alt-del to “log off” (which brought everything back) or reboot.

So now I have an official problem. I do some more research and find that Win32/Fotomoto, Trojan.Fotomoto.h, and TR.Fotomoto.F.1, and Trojan.Fotomoto.f, Vundo, and Virtumonde, are all related variants. Fotomoto is listed as variant of “B2Search” or eZula. Basically something convinved a user on my computer to install malicious software to popup ads from various sources. Yep - that described it alright. Read this definition of Trojan.Fotomoto.H - isn’t that nasty?? Nasty as hell! This Fotomoto thing turns out to just be the latest in the never ending versions of the Virtumonde virus or trojan.

If you get Fotomoto or any of it’s variants you would have symptoms like this:

• browser hijacks
• desktop hijacks
• incessant pop-ups and redirects
• desktop disappearing
• lost of ctl-alt-del functionality
• completely PC or system shutdown
• Windows defender warning: Win32/Fotomoto
• “can’t delete this virus” warning from various products
• the inability to save or print

you can’t display files from emails

So, now that you’ve been following my plight you want to know how to remove Fotomoto virus or trojan? I can tell you what won’t work (according to the best forums and what I tried), and Spyware Search and Destroy, Windows Defender, Avast, Panda, McAfee, Norton, SuperAntiSpyware, Hijack This, ALL DON’T WORK!

I was at my wit’s end. I’ve been building and repairing PC’s for over 10 years now, and I’ve removed some of the worse viruses, trojans, and malicious software from PC’s at least a dozen times (for other people) in the last 6 months. All the “Known” methods online were coming up empty (the usual list of progs I tried - listed earlier), and most of the forum postings about Fotomoto didn’t look too good. Then I read one from Yahoo! Answers where the guy said he was like me (long time PC builder and geek) and he tried all (the same) software with no luck. He offered advice that I hadn’t heard before - he said to try a product by Webroot called “Spyware Sweeper”. He said it had a database four to five times the size of all the competitors combined, and it had a fix for Fotomoto, Vundo, virtumonde, Win32/Fotomoto, Trojan.fotomoto, and on and on. The only drawback - it costs money.

I have never paid for anti-spyware software before now. Never. But I’ve never had something like this that I just absolutely could not remove before. I purchased a license for SpywareSweeper (that was Vista compatible - the latest one, previous versions are not) - and rebooted. It scanned for 20 minutes or so, I logged on and the problem is completely gone now! Yay Webroot SpySweeper! I don’t often endorse purchasing software - especially when there are alternatives that are just as good that are free. But with all these assanine virii, trojans, and malicious adverts - you just can’t keep up with all this sh*! anymore. I’m sorry - I’m glad I bought this, and I’m glad I have it in my arsenal now. I’ve tried it on the other PC’s in my house, and it works great with Windows XP and Windows Vista. That’s how I removed Fotomoto. If you have a better way, or a question, please comment now!

Windows Vista Service Pack 1 or SP1 is now available to the general public (Release Candidate 1 or RC1), and Microsoft has prepared a 17 page document describing the changes that Vista SP1 will include. Looks like one of the biggest bug fixed we can look forward to is support for “exFAT” which will greatly speed up file transfers to flash drives (much needed!). These tidbits were courtesy Internet News. Meanwhile, many people may decide to remain on Windows XP - because Service Pack 3 or SP3 for XP is coming…and the exo-blog posted benchmark results that show Windows XP3 update gaining 10% performance gain over Windows Vista and Vista SP1.

I’ve been very surprised that the “performance improvements” listed in that 17 page MS RC1 document don’t seem to be posted in any of the articles I read announcing Vista SP1 RC1 at all. Is it Microsoft propaganda - or are these numbers real? I can only hope that one of you installing RC1 will comment back and let us all know. Here are the ones that intrigued me:

• Improves the speed of adding and extracting files to and from a compressed (zipped) folder
• Significantly improves the speed of moving a directory with many files underneath
• 25% faster when copying files locally on the same disk on the same machine
• 45% faster when copying files from a remote non-Windows Vista system to a SP1 system
• 50% faster when copying files from a remote SP1 system to a local SP1 system
• Improves the time to read large images by approximately 50%
• Removes the delay that sometimes occurs when a user unlocks their PC
• Improves overall media performance by reducing many glitches

Ready to download and install Windows Vista Release Candidate 1? Here’s you go…

Vista SP1 RC1 links you need

Offical MS Doc: Notable changes in Vista SP1 RC1
Instructions to install Vista SP1
Microsoft Official download link to Vista SP1

Oh, and for your “Vista Sucks” fix of the day, just read The Vista is not so Grand. My favorite quote from that article is:

As innovative as Apple is and as free as open source is, Microsoft still commands about 90 percent plus of the desktop computer market. The question that analysts, commentators and our own software pioneer Mark Shuttleworth keep asking is: for how long?

If you just love Windows Vista so far - I guess you should go and read Windows Vista: Official Magazine.

Well, according to this PC World article, once you get Windows Vista Service Pack 1 or SP1 - your PC will be just as slow as the original version of Vista. That kinda sucks, like I wrote in other posts here on Vista Review - this OS was touted as being “snappy, responsive, and fast”, and it’s been slow, buggy, and sluggish. I think we were all expecting to get some kind of performance boost with SP1 - but it doesn’t really look like that’s going to happen.

Microsoft has announced it will disengage the kill switch. You remember the kill switch don’t you? When you have a Windows Vista system you have to validate you have a legal copy with Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA). If you don’t or WGA fails - after a certain period of time Windows Vista activates it’s “Kill Switch” and turns off nearly everything except very limited browsing (probably only to activate Windows). Is that good? Yes, I suppose that it is. Because we all know that Windows (and Vista) can and will mistakenly identify you (a person with a legal license to use Windows) as a criminal at some point. Get a new hard drive? You’re a pirate. Have to reformat and reinstall and activate Windows more than 4 times? You’re a pirate. Like the article I linked to reads - disabling the kill switch is a good start, but they have a long ways to go before you don’t feel like a criminal every time you need to reinstall Windows.

Wow - if the tv commercials of Mac vs. PC where the PC says even he “downgraded to Windows XP” weren’t enough, today I catch this headline from c|Net where Windows Vista made their list of Top 10 Terrible Tech Products of ALL TIME! Microsoft is really taking a beating on this one. Vista comes in at #10 (out of 10) - so at least 9 things placed before it on the list of terrible tech, but the opening line says it all “Any operating system that provokes a campaign for its predecessor’s reintroduction deserves to be classed as terrible technology.”

While I knew people had been doing this - this article actually has links about downgrading, like “Dell Offers Windows XP again (April 2007), and Microsoft allows Vista ‘downgrade’ (Sept 24, 2007) where it talks of Microsoft allowing PC manufacturers and OEM’s offer an downgrade option for customers who want to switch to Windows XP. The quote I love best from that article is “Fujitsu has been among the most aggressive, starting last month to include an XP disc in the box with its laptops and tablets.”

Fujitsu is putting an XP disc “IN THE BOX” with PC’s and laptops that have Vista installed…… HAHA HAHA HAHA HAHAHA HAHA HAHA HAHA HAHAHA HAHA HAHA HAHA HAHAHA HAHA HAHA HAHA HAHAHA HAHA HAHA HAHA HAHAHA HAHA HAHA HAHA HAHAHA HAHA HAHA HAHA HAHAHA HAHA HAHA HAHA HAHAHA HAHA HAHA HAHA HAHAHA!!!

I knew that people were having issues with Vista and that many thought it sucked, and there are legions of people wanting to see it fail for various reasons (Mac zealots and Linux minions)…..but truth be told it seems to be failing on it’s own merits after all. I mean, come on - the search term “Vista downgrade” has over 2 million results so far!

And of those results look what we find:

• Microsoft to simplify downgrades from Vista to XP: comes from ZDNet! In June 2007 they told about Microsoft making it much easier for their top-tier OEM’s to downgrade customers to XP. I guess before this they had to call MS with each serial number being downgraded and they were going to an easier submission system. Just the fact that they had to do this shows customers were bitching up a storm.
• How to downgrade to Windows XP from Vista: is a guide from Computerworld written on October 2nd, 2007. The first paragraph suprises me, because it points to an article from the week before where it says Microsoft will sell Windows XP until June of 2008! Microsoft’s own PR team says: “So we’re responding to feedback we have gotten from our OEM partners that some customers will benefit by extending availability of Windows XP.” Read between the lines: “too many people are bitching!”
• Downgrade Your Vista to XP: is an article from cNet Asia that says that not only OEM’s and PC manufacturers can downgrade to Windows XP - ANYONE WITH A VISTA LICENSE can!

Other Vista Downgrade links

• Official Windows Vista Downgrade Rights: Microsoft Reference Sheet
• Lenovo Vista to XP downgrade page
• Microsoft Malaysia Vista to XP downgrade rights
• The XP Alternative for Vista PC’s“>Windows Vista Downgrade Rights
• HP Vista Downgrade FAQ
• Vista license downgrade rights for volume licensing
• The XP Alternative for Vista PC’s

Do you live in or near the Microsoft campus in Mountain View California? If so, take advantage of the Vista SP1 Deployment Team’s “Install Fair” December 8th and 9th, 2007. Take your desktop or laptop (registration in advance required) and they’ll upgrade (trial and error at your expense) your system to “BETA” Vista Service Pack 1. You get snacks and beverages (while they fry your PC) - and just to keep the complainers at bay - you’ll get a free copy of MS Office 2007 just for playing nicey-nice!