With the release of Windows 7 drawing ever closer, there is definitely no shortage of articles about it and Windows Vista as well.

Let’s start off with a post about a version of windows Vista I didn’t know existed “Vista Starter. Apparently this version is about as stripped down as it gets, and was designed for “developing nations”. In other words “the poor”. If you don’t have money – then you can browse the web, and that’s about it. And people wonder why Linux is popular in these countries.

I was surprised to read on Slashdot (of all places), that the Windows 7 beta seems to be going amazingly well, purportedly the most solid beta version of Windows put out to date. It looks like it’s so popular that some people are installing Windows 7 on their netbooks.

Another surprising post this week comes from Gizmodo where they answer the question “Why should you go 64 bit with Windows 7?“. Apparently the answer is memory. Like I always said – why would you want to use 4GB of memory in your box when Windows Vista (or XP, or whatever) can only use 3.3GB of it anyway in a 32 bit version. That coupled with the fact that like a year ago all kinds of devices and drivers didn’t work for squat in 64 bit windows. No more is the case I guess, and guess what? With 64 bit Windows you can use up to a Terabyte of RAM!! If you’re considering Windows 7, I guess you should be trying the 64 bit version unless you have all kinds of legacy gadgets.

Another unusual post was the one about the Microsoft REC (Retail Experience Center) store. They have setup a 20,000 square foot store (that you can’t shop at) to show retailers how their products should be displayed.

And if you’re sick of all this Windows Vista and 7 Hype, read How to make windows XP last 7 more years – you’ll be glad you did!

There’s all kinds of Windows news about this week, including the new version of Mac OS – Snow Leopard. It seems there was no mention of it at MacWorld, and it was Apple’s chance to beat the Windows 7 launch in mid-2009.
It seems as though in an attempt to foster good thoughts after the bungled “Vista Ready” campaigns, Microsoft will offer free Windows 2007 upgrades for anyone that buys a PC after June 2009. Is that really a deal? I mean come on – windows 7 is supposed to be out by that date. They should offer Windows 7 for free to anyone who buys a PC in 2009 period. Looks like there are 2 restrictions to the upgrades, you have to upgrade to the same language version, and you have to upgrade to the straight path (ultimate to ultimate, etc).

You know, this recent article reminds me of one Vista quirk I never wrote about, the fact the IE stores all it’s downloads in My documents -> Downloads folder. It’s funny I think that Windows seems to remind you about every GD thing in the universe you don’t want to know about (storing passwords, visiting secure sites) – but it never bothers to tell you where the downloads go. New users are just confused until they figure it out.

I read a post about Michael Dunner comparing Vista and Windows 7 security, bringing to the surface once again the problems with the evil UAC (User Account Control) in Vista. This is by far the most annonying feature that Microsoft has ever invented. I’ve blogged about this before – but how come each and every time that the IT rags write about UAC they don’t just come out and say that Microsoft was blatantly copying Linux (Ubuntu) when they created UAC? I mean, come on – in Ubuntu Linux even if you were the one that setup the PC you have your own account separate from root. If you try to do something on Ubuntu that your privelege does not allow, it prompts you for the “root” password So many things in Vista are blatant rip-offs of both Mac OS X (based on UNIX anyway) and Linux it’s not funny – from UAC, to the sidebar, Aero, screen and window effects, and more…the “new” versions of Windows are oh so….COPIED!

I came across another feature I didn’t know about in Vista this week, it’s the hidden checkboxes feature. Wish I’d known about this one awhile back.

You might also like to know about the new “Pre-Boot shells” that are coming available with some newer laptops. You can surf the web without ever entering windows and save up to 25% of your battery life at the same time. Pretty cool. My laptop has a Linux/Vista dual boot – and 95% of my time is spent in Linux anyway.

I’ve read quite a few Windows articles this week, and there is definitely a buzz about Windows 7 in the air. It just seems like nobody knows what is going on. This post Windows 7: A New Vista or a New Operating System lists some features of Windows 7 that sound pretty cool. The new taskbar and jump list features sound great, but why in the hell MS still insists on making Calendar, windows mail, movie maker, contacts, and photo gallery downloadable is beyond me. They also seem to have taken the stance that they need to remove things that Vista had that pissed people off. Like incessant UAC notifications and alerts, hardware requirements, and connection speeds.

In the meantime we are all reminded what a turd Vista is by having to remember the whole “Vista capable” debaucle in posts like there’s a class action lawsuit saying Microsoft misled consumers – where HP is highly pissed at Microsoft because the chipset they were using for “Vista capable” machines couldn’t run Vista at all. In otherwords, HP was practically forced into selling Junk PC’s! Yet another post reveals how Intel Benefited from Vista capable.

Something I had forgotten since my Windows Vista journey started (and this blog started) 2 years ago was the fact that “Windows Vista Ultimate” was supposed to contain “elite cutting edge extras” that you couldn’t get in the lesser versions. According to this post on Tom’s Hardware one was released a year ago, and this week one game and some sound schemes were released. Wow. That was really worth paying $400 for wasn’t it? According to that post, people who bought Vista Ultimate are getting pretty pissed off. This post reiterates more of the same.

Maybe Microsoft should stick to operating system development and leave cutting edge software to third parties. Tivo has partered with Nero and released a PC version of the Tivo that ships with a TV tuner card and remove for $199. This includes the Tivo montly service and guide for one year. You can also buy just the software if you already have a TV tuner card for only $99.

I have to say after 2 years of using Vista home on my laptop it’s becoming pretty damned bogged down. I came across this Vista Optimization Guide today which I will be using to see if I can get it to be responsive once again.

In Windows 7 – will Microsoft pry open your wallet and start taking out cash on a regular basis?? I’m not so sure….

In my last post I talked about the fact that Microsoft is going to try and release the next version of Windows (Windows 7) as early as June 2009. Then today I read that Windows 7 will replace some Native Windows app with “Live.com” services.

Whaa?? I mean, WTF??

For YEARS Microsoft has been jamming every known feature they could think of into Windows. A CD burning app, a calendar, an e-Mail client, a web browser, a media player, a video editor, an instant messaging app, and more. They have labored long and hard wtih millions of dollars and lots of lawyers to get courts worldwide to believe all these functions were “meant to be native in Windows” and it was OK to CRUSH or put out of business companies like Netscape, Eudora, ICQ, Ulead, Nero, and more.

They are going to tell you that by putting these apps on live.com customers will benefit by getting the latest version sooner (without bugs) – but they forget to tell you their entire decisive evil plan. Microsoft search is DEAD LAST in the search engine wars, and MSN has failed for years, MSN Spaces is NOTHING like WordPress.com, LiveJournal, MySpace, or Facebook, and even Hotmail has fallen to the mighty gmail.

By forcing you to go to Live.com – Microsoft can shove whatever advertisements they want down your throat will you use their “FREE” apps. They can’t shove an ad on your desktop just yet for the latest NBC sit-coms when you open Outlook Express – so in Windows 7 you’ll just get no email program and when you click the icon go to “live.com” where you will be FORCEFED ADS until you puke whether you like it or not!

Do you think it will stop there? Oh hell no!! With Outlook Express you can store UNLIMITED amounts of email on your local hard drive. You can keep the last 5 years of messages of you want. Get a new PC next summer and all your email will be stored in Live.com’s servers, and when you use up too much space you will be forced to either delete old emails OR pay them a MONTHLY FEE for what was previously FREE as part of Windows on your local computer.

Now – they will also say that your email is “safer” (against hard drives crashes and being lost forever) on Live.com’s servers – but it’s also now not in your hands and “could” be hacked from the public Internet by someone anywhere in the world (as Sarah Palin just found out!).

Guess what – in Windows 7 you also won’t have a Photo Gallery or Movie maker either! Oh – and you won’t have Windows Writer (Wordpad) either! This all (in my opinion) works into Microsoft’s evil plan to force you to store ALL YOUR MEDIA, documents, digital pictures, and movies ON THEIR SERVERS. This way when you have too much you WILL HAVE TO PAY THEM A MONTHLY FEE TO STORE IT!

They may boast security, backup, ability to access your files from any PC and Internet connection, but in MY HONEST OPINION it’s a blatant attempt to get Microsoft into your wallet EACH AND EVERY MONTH!! If you thought that Windows Vista was expensive – do the math if you’re paying Microsoft $29.95 per month for functionality that was previously PART of WINDOWS!! You might as well buy a screen, keyboard, and mouse and say you’re going to lease Windows by the month!

F-U Windows, I am so ready to go Ubuntu from here on out it’s not even funny! If you’re going to do what I think you are – the next version of Windows might even be a BIGGER FLOP than Vista!

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?

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!

US $49.95 End Date: Monday Aug-02-2010 12:37:06 PDT Buy It Now for only: US $49.95 Buy it now | Add to watch list

US $3.95 End Date: Friday Aug-06-2010 10:09:19 PDT Buy It Now for only: US $3.95 Buy it now | Add to watch list

US $0.01 (0 Bid) End Date: Saturday Aug-07-2010 13:33:33 PDT Bid now | Add to watch list

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…

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!

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 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.

When I read this article today about “Vista won’t be any faster, it got me thinking. You now, I have a dual-core processor laptop with 2GB of ram. It really got me thinking, 2GB of ram is more than I’ve ever had on any computer I’ve ever owned. I work on PC’s day and night, but previous to the laptop I never had a need to have more than 512MB of ram. I mean, of course I had a need, I just never spent the $$. So the laptop has 4 times the amount of ram that my previous system had – and the only difference is that the old laptop (and my old PC) was running Windows XP Professional. Well, that and the fact that the laptop has a “dual-core” processing, a significant improvement over a single core. Windows Vista was supposed to be so much more “responsive”, and make my life so much easier. I’ve realized today that it’s just as slow as both XP systems.

What happenned? 2GB of RAM? That should be like the difference between a 4 and 8 cylinder engine! The difference between a moped and a motorcycle. And yet sometimes I find myself “waiting” for it to delete files, access a folder, login, reload a browser window. Sometimes it gets real laggy – so I just know it’s time to reboot. That sounds like what previous versions of Windows were like, and what they told us would be fixed in Vista. Now that I’ve had this Vista Premium Toshiba laptop for a year, sometimes I’m so busy working I forget how badly we were screwed over by the promises of what Vista would bring. It brough squat! It’s like having a shiny new jackhammer and only being able to use it like a staplegun. Do you feel the same way? Comment now!

Engadget recently put out a huge Vista vs. Leopard Showdown review in score card format. You should check it out – it’s a good real. But, if you’re interested in Windows Vista, but also in Mac’s Leopard OS, let me synopsize what I think you should know in a nutshell.

• Leopard has a better User Interface, BUT only Vista can do tablet and touch screens
• Leopard has a better Calendar, Contacts, and Email, but Vista has a way better Explorer
• IM, RSS, Text Editing, and File Transfer all better in Mac Leopard
• Leopard is hands down better at authoring DVD’s, editing video, and managing pictures
• Vista is hands down better at media hardware and extenders, and recording live tv
• Leopard has better system tools, remote desktop and no activation. Vista requires activation, no automation tools, and no remote desktop unless you have Vista Business or Ultimate
• Vista is better at filtering spam from email, but both are neck in neck in regards to security
• Gaming is better on Vista – period
• Leopard better at 64 but support and drive partitioning
• Vista is better at network storage and optimization

There are other features I’m sure you’ll want to read about in the checklist in that article. But I think my little laundry list clearly shows that if you are really going to make some kind of a decision between Mac Leopard and Windows Vista it really depends on your profile and what your main use of the machine really is. You can see for obvious reasons, that for the most part Vista is better for business users. Leopard can be great for people that wish to create dvd’s and edit video, and manage pictures. But if your more into gaming and want to do lots of tv recording or network storage Vista is definitely the one for you. I think that the main thing you get from this list is that Mac is finally some decent competition for Microsoft! You don’t have to be a photographer, graphic designer, or artist to want to use the Mac. But Mac users are still kind of “premium customers” in my book. Hardware costs more, support costs more, and you can’t always just jot off to Wal-Mart and pick up a new keyboard or mouse. Many things are interchangeable with PC’s, many are not. You’re not going to just run off to Staples and get a memory stick and slap it in your Mac. Caveat Emptor my friend, do a little research and reading before you buy!

Windows Vista is getting to be the strangest version of Windows I have ever used.  I’ve had my Toshiba Satellite laptop for about 11 months now, and as you know it came installed with Vista on it from the factory.  The weird thing is I can’t remember ever telling it to automatically download and install updates from Windows Update, and yet it has been faithfully for 11 months now. It has told me once or twice that I had two “optional” driver updates, but I never approved anything else.  Today out of the blue I saw a little bubble appear above the tray “updates available” so I clicked on it and 9 updates were displayed.  7 were moderate to critical, and 2 were optional drivers – one for the wireless and the other for ‘Intel Mobile processor’.  I told it to install all 9, and then it minized to the tray – and it said it would continue to download and install updates in the background and I could go about my work.  So I did.

Boy was that a mistake.  I had Firefox open and Thunderbird Email.  I was surfing the web, a few tabs open, and in one of the tabs I was watching a YouTube video.  Then it happenned.  First my screen went black, which I might add happens frequently on this laptop, but it always flickers and comes right back.  I read recently in another article that problem should be fixed when Vista Service Pack 1 is released in 2008 (among other bug fixes).  So, I’m waiting for the screen to come back, and waiting, and then it starts to come back, but in a small box 1/4 the size of my screen (but the full display).  Then it flickers again and goes to some 640×480 resolution with absolutely HUGE icons, and then back to normal.  All the time my youtube video is choppily playing somehow in the background.  So I start to watch it again, and then the screen and mouse locks, and then everything comes back, and this whole process happens again and again like 3-5 times.  Eventually the screen goes to some kind of crazy huge pixelated number display, kind of like the Matrix, and then it goes black.  I tried to turn it off, and it wouldn’t.  I kept watching the hard drive light, and it just kep flickering, so I let it go.

I went to make dinner, and came back 25 minutes later and it was still flickering with a black screen.  After I ate it still was, so I watched a show on tv, and then out of the blue it stopped and my power light was red (indicating standby).  So I pressed power, and it came alive again as if nothing had happenned.  It said “updates completed – would you like to reboot” so I did.  Everything has been fine since then.  But why, Microsoft – did Windows Vista cripple my laptop and made it completely unusable for 48 minutes and make my display black??  Why didn’t it tell me first to close my programs??  Why do I own a piece of modern hardware with supposedly the best version of Windows ever created – and have Vista treat me worse than Windows 95 ever did?!  I just don’t get it.

Has this ever happenned to you?  Comment now and let us all know what you’re experiences have been.  I do with this laptop had shipped with Windows XP.

Here’s an interesting article over at ExtremeTech about The Five Broken Promises of Windows Vista. Are you using Windows Vista? Do you feel it’s performed to your expectations based on what Microsoft promised before it came out? I sure don’t. And neither does Loyd Case. He believe that 5 key things MS promised are not even in Windows Vista at the moment: Font Compositing, Easier Networking, Faster Startup (booting), Improved Stability, and Longer time between Reboots. Read the article…….I also seem to remember Microsoft touting “RSS Everywhere” in Vista, and they had some meetings with Dave Winer (*pretty much the inventor of RSS) about it – but then I never saw ANYTHING more about it. In fact, other than the smidgen in IE7 – I really don’t see any operating level support anywhere for RSS at all. Then again, they scrapped their mini-MSSQL version file system as well I believe. You would think that in 5 years – they would have had plenty of time to get this all right. Thoughts? Please, comment now!

I was doing a little web surfing, and came across this lovely post over at the Stern Fan Network Forums…

I HATE WINDOWS VISTA, I HATE MY SONY VAIO AND WILL NEVER SHOP AT BEST BUY AGAIN

For years I’ve worked on SFN from a brick of a laptop. It’s a 10lb 17″ widescreen monster that I’ve loved. It’s made working on the site from a hotel easy and never done me wrong. The only thing wrong with it was it was too big. too big to use on the plane, too heavy to lug back & forth to Manhattan, hell, it was just too big for doing anything but sitting on my desk at home.

After a month of comparison shopping and discussions here on SFN, I picked up what i though was the perfect replacement. I grabbed a Sony Vaio VGN-SZ430 from Best Buy. It was the fastest lightest, most featured packed thing I could find. I got it home and immediately realized I hated Windows Vista. None of my software works with it and when I looked for updated software that’s compatible, I didn’t have much luck. On top of that, even though I’ve set myself up as the admin and told it to always give me admin privileges, I still get bombarded constantly with popups asking me if I really want to do the crap I just told the computer to do. it’s like every step is now 5 steps. Worse yet, I think my old laptop was faster. Everything seems to take sooo long.

I searched the web and found out that it’s nearly impossible to uninstall Vista and put XP on it, especially on these Sonys. I don’t understand why. I seems like I should just be able to wipe the drive and install it but every writeup I’ve found has said don’t do it because I’ll have all kinds of driver issues. I shopped online and found an IBM Lenovo with the same specs that I could buy with Windows XP Pro. I went in to Best Buy less than 24hrs after purchasing it and they wouldn’t take it back. They just kept insisting that there’s nothing wrong with it. I told them “I don’t want it. I hate it. Your sales person told me that all of my Vista concerns were not valid and that I’d be happy with this one. Well, I’m not happy with it and I want to return it.” They finally agreed but said there would be a 10% restocking fee. I’ve had the thing for less than a day but they wanted a $190 restocking fee. After going back and forth, I finally spoke to the manager. He explained that there would be a 15% restocking fee. We’re up to $285 now!! He explained that their policy is posted but when I asked him to show me where, he pointed over to the registers on the opposite side of the building and said it’s by the registers. the registers where you can’t possibly buy a laptop. they bring it right to customer service and have you pay for it there and the wall is blank at that desk. there’s no return policy posted.

They put me on the phone with cooperate where a person just repeated the policy over and over and said there’s nothing I can do. I explained how the policy is not posted at the registers where you purchase a laptop and the sales person never said anything about it even though I made it very clear that I was leery about buying a laptop with Vista and he explained how it’s in the fine print on the back of the receipt. back the receipt?!!?! I’ve already bought the thing by the time I have the receipt. What good is telling me about it after I already purchased it? When I asked to speak to his supervisor, he hung up on me.

I told the manager to install Windows XP on it. Buying XP & having the geek squad install it had to be cheaper than the $280 they were going to charge me to return it. They wouldn’t do it. They just kept telling me that there’s no reason to do that because Vista is better. I told them I didn’t care, I want to pay you to install Windows XP. Even though they had the software and a rate listed in their book to install the OS, they said they couldn’t do it because that’s not for new PCs. it’s for PCs that are damaged and need a OS install. This laptop does not need one.

By this time, I’m pulling the few hairs that I have left out of my head. This is all going down Wednesday night and I’m flying to Tampa in the morning. I don’t have time to stand here dealing with all of this. The geek squad guy tells me that I should have had them optimize the laptop when I bought it. It’s a $25 service they do to uninstall all the junk and set custom settings so the laptop runs smooth. I said fine do that. He took the laptop and essentially did nothing to it. Vista is so new, he didn’t know what needed to be done. They usually run some software that changes settings but he didn’t have one for Vista. He used the add/remove applet to uninstall 3 things. He was clear he had never been on a Sony with Vista and there was nothing he was going to be able to do to help me. When I asked him to uninstall Windows Defender, he did some crap to stop it from loading on startup. FYI, that doesn’t work. All that did was give me errors every time I boot the computer. I’ve since found out that you can’t uninstall it but you can turn it off. just start it up and change the options so nothing is automatic.

I called my credit card company and told them to stop the payment. Since I use a debit visa, it was too late. I left Best Buy with the laptop feeling completely disgusted with their company and my purchase. I figured, I see if I could get used to it. After all, it was good looking and I like the keyboard. I charged it all night, loaded my software and SFN stuff on it and left for Tampa. Sitting in the airport, I started installing some of the software. About 45 minutes into it, I noticed the little battery icon the the try was getting low. It said I only had 1 hour 45 minutes left of battery time. I’m not even on the plane yet!! I felt like throwing it across the airport. It just gets worse and worse. I picked it up and carried it over to a table near a receptacle. When I sat it down, it was off. When I started it back up, I got a black screen with white letters telling me there was an error and I didn’t shut down correctly. I assumed I must have bumped the power button or something and ignored it. On the plane, I got that black screen 5 more times. Every time I’d pick it up or tilt it a little the thing crashed and shut down. What good is a laptop that you can’t move? Worse yet, it’s got a finger print reader so when I’d go to log back in, I had to tilt the laptop to get my finger in the right position to swipe it and that would be enough to turn it off again.

When I got the hotel, i plugged it in and turned it on. I got a message saying the hard drive had errors and it would take over and hour to fix it. I don’t know if that fixed the problem with it shutting off or not because I’m afraid to move the laptop to see. I’m trying to upload the pics from last nights Killers of Comedy Show with Bubba & the crew and I’m having nothing but trouble. The WinXP image resizer power toy is not compatible with Vista. I tired using Paint Shop Pro but it’s having issues too. I can resize the pics but saving them with the web optimizer fails. I’m very slowly getting some ready. oh, did I mention that Vista will corrupt your ipod too? Yep, when you go to disconnect it. Unfortunately, I didn’t read about it until after I plugged my ipod in to the laptop to charge it. I felt like one of those bomb squad guys working on diffusing the bomb knowing that at any moment it could blow. After not finding any solutions that would work, I shut the laptop off and crossed my fingers. Once the computer was off, the ipod lit up and I was able to disconnect it without hurting it. FYI, you need to install the newest itunes and ALWAYS us itunes to eject the ipod. NEVER use windows to do it. Also, when I first plugged it in, Vista gave me an option to play the music with media player which I thought was very cool. meanwhile when it opened, none of the music was there. Just album art. What a mess.

Bottom line, I’m going to try and return it again when I get home. I may even take the $280 hit if it’s my only option but it’s complete bullshit. this thing is broken. It’s not supposed to crash every time you tilt it 10 degrees. I’ll probably order the Lenovo. Jaeger says I should grab an Alienware. who knows. As long as it’s not this. I may even resort to a Mac. I mean if I already have a laptop that completely incompatible with all my current software so what’s the difference? The mac will at least let me install WinXP which ironically is something this Vista laptop won’t.

Looks like I’m not the only one with bad luck on laptops with Windows Vista!

So the other day I needed to create a DVD on my new Windows Vista installed Toshiba laptop. I had taken some video with my awesome new Panasonic Lumix FZ7 digital camera, and I wanted to publish it to a DVD to watch on my television. My Lumix FZ7 camera takes great video, but it’s in the Quicktime (.mov) format. I know how I would have gotten this done on my old Windows XP system – now I need to figure out how (and if) I can get it done in Windows Vista.

I noticed on my shiny new start menu that my new Toshiba Laptop came with something called “Toshiba DVD Authoring” and I thought I’d check that out. I know Windows XP used to come with Windows Movie Maker, I wanted not just to edit a movie, but to publish it to a DVD. The included Toshiba DVD Authoring software that came with the laptop turned out to be Ulead Video Studio with a little “creation wizard”. I fired that up and was able to import the quicktime .mov files just fine. I chose a custom menu, added some text – point, click, burn, and 20 odd minutes later I had a DVD. I popped it in my home DVD player and the menu and videos were great, but the audio was completely static and white noise for everything. It turns out that Ulead could import the quicktime video files from the Panasonic FZ7 digital camera just fine, but couldn’t decode the audio tracks at all.

Then I remembered when I popped in the blank DVD just before I burned it in Ulead Video Studio, I got one of those “what do you want to do” Windows prompts…only this time there was an option I hadn’t seen before called “Windows DVD Maker”. Ok – cool, Windows Vista has a new tool to create and author DVD’s with – but will it work? Here’s what I found…

Problem #1 with Windows DVD Maker in Windows Vista

You can only import Windows Media (wmv, asf), MPEG, or AVI video files. I guess I should have figured this, but don’t plan on sucking in any quicktime .mov, DivX, xVid, or other non-supported types of file formats into Windows DVD Maker. If your video files aren’t already in one of these formats, you’ll have to convert them (like I did) using software….I usually use IMToo. If you prefer a hand-holding easy to follow picture based tutorial, read here about how to convert your DivX, xVid, and WMV file to DVD using Windows DVD Maker in Windows Vista at DVD-Guides.com.

Problem #2 with Windows DVD Maker in Windows Vista

You can’t edit anything. You can drag in video files, picture files, or mp3 files for background music – but that’s it. You can change some fonts and colors for the menus and nothing more. I was more than a little pissed off that I couldn’t even add title text to the imported video clips, or add any fade-in or fade-out transitions. If you just drag in video clips and choose a menu and burn the dvd, the end result will be a really choppy dvd that jumps directly from one clip to the next.

Problem #3 with Windows DVD Maker in Windows Vista

If you want your video files edited (in advance) to import into Windows DVD Maker, your only choice (using software that comes with Vista) is Windows Movie Maker. You have to add all of your transitions and title text there, and then export that movie, and then exit Windows Movie Maker. Then, you fire up Windows DVD Maker, import the movie you just created, choose your menu, and burn – but you’re going to have to wait to Windows DVD Maker to “render” your DVD. What this means is – you’re export of the edited movie in Windows Movie Maker could take 30 minutes+, and then your “rendering” of the movie before burn in Windows DVD Maker could take 30 minutes+, possibly doubling the time it takes to get the finished playable DVD burned and ready for your home entertainment dvd player, and that’s only if you “render your movie in DVD quality”. If you choose to render your movie in any of the new Hi-def HD high definition options, like 1080i, 1080p, or 780p, you could be waiting 3+ hours for that movie to export. Windows DVD Maker could have been a killer , but it’s pretty apparent that they didn’t have the time to integrate Movie Maker and DVD Maker before Vista launched. This makes Apple and OS X look pretty good, and Microsoft look pretty stupid.

<h2>Problem #4 with Windows DVD Maker in Windows Vista</h2>
It seems only to be for making and authoring DVD’s to play as video or a video-slideshow. I didn’t find a single option for creating a DVD data disc, not even for archival or backup (a big mistake in my opinion). If you read this article about 30 days with Windows Vista over at Free Republic, the have this to say:

My DVD burner technically worked in 32-bit Vista, but Vista uses a new file system on burned CDs and DVD which prevents them from being used in even Windows XP computers. There’s a mode that is supposed to make these discs compatible, but it didn’t work for us.

I haven’t tested this yet, but if I can’t make a data DVD and be able to open it up on all my XP and Linux boxes to use – I am going to be really, really pissed off!!

Problem #5 with Windows DVD Maker in Windows Vista

Last night I wanted to create a new dvd picture slideshow. I added 250 jpg pictures from our digital camera, choose a nice animated dvd menu, chose the “slideshow” option, and added 3 mp3 files for background music. The dvd failed to preview or burn. I removed the mp3 files and preview worked just fine. I added just one mp3 for background music and it failed to preview or burn again. I began to play around with different mp3 files to see what would and wouldn’t work and found that some mp3 files worked fine, and some wouldn’t work at all. They were all good mp3 file that played without problems in Windows Media Player. Was Windows Vista trying to not allow me to use certain files it thought I had no license for? I don’t know, but I can tell you that while figuring out which mp3 files would and wouldn’t work – I did get the Windows DVD Maker to just outright crash and close (without any error at all) several times. So much for bulletproof stable Vista software.

Some people would have you believe that every little issue you have is because of Vista’s evil new DRM, but others like some of the posters to this topic over at Vista Forums believe that DRM in Vista is not a problem at all.

What I actually did like about Windows DVD Maker

• If you don’t have to edit your video clips – it’s fast and easy to use
• The included (animated) library of menus to use for your dvd are killer, much better than what Ulead had
• It seemed to render my DVD pretty quick
• You can create a DVD slideshow with pictures and background music pretty fast as well

What Other People are Saying about Windows DVD Maker in Windows Vista

• Christopher Null at Yahoo! Tech Windows DVD Maker is pretty useless
• Erik has problems trying to import mpg files into Windows DVD Maker…
• Geo and Lon are both trying to figure out how to create multiple slideshows on the same dvd using Windows DVD Maker…
• “New to Vista” is wants to Make a Copy of a DVD using Windows DVD Maker in Vista…
• And Bob has Problems with Vista DVD Maker Burning and Playback on set top TV boxes…
• If you like your kool-aid straight from the source, you can read the official Microsoft Windows Vista Blog

In Windows Vista, the UAC is “User Access Control”. This is basically where you can have fine grained control (finally) over what users can do when they are logged into your PC. What you get to is based on your access priveleges, and part of UAC is the basis for those hilarious Mac vs. PC commercials where ‘Vista’ keeps asking PC “Allow or Deny” to every single thing he wants to do.

While UAC allows you to restrict other users, even though you (as the owner) are an ‘administrator’ – you are constantly plagued with the “allow or deny” prompts over and over again. If you read this ZDNet article it talks about people disabling the UAC because it’s so annoying. Basically – for many users Vista will be less secure than Windows XP was for them because they can’t stand the annoying UAC prompts. So a “security feature” is so non-user-friendly that it makes people take adverse action!!

I have to say though – I had to turn UAC off, and it had nothing to do with all the crazy prompts. I login to work through VPN, and the work using “remote desktop” the browser has to download a very small (signed) java file to securely connect. The browser WOULD NOT install and run the java applet unless I turned all security down to low and turned off UAC. In other words – I HAD TO BE MORE INSECURE just to CONNECT to WORK the same way I had in XP for years.

So I guess – Windows Vista is now less secure for me too!

So it turns out that one of the most popular software programs on the planet “iTunes” is having multiple conflicts with Microsoft Windows Vista.? For the last month Apple had a warning against upgrading to Vista on it’s web site, but this week it changed to an update stating that “itunes is recommended for use with most versions of Windows Vista”.

This, despite the fact that there are still all kinds of problems with iPod synching with iTunes intstalled on Windows Vista.? Like possible corruption of an iPod on ejection from a PC!? That’s like one of those drug commercials that advertise a pill to completely clear your sinus, but fine print that says “may cause heart attack, stroke, or outright death…”.

Who knows how long it will be until iTunes is completely Vista ready and compatible.? Apple also says that the text and graphics may not display properly and that iTunes is still completely unsupported on 64-bit versions of both Windows XP and Windows Vista.