More on Vista

Follow-up to Operating System Nightmares from The Nomadic Manager

So I’ve now finished getting Vista to a useable point, which means the following:

1. Turn back on Ctrl-Alt-Del to Logon using Group Policy (Local Computer Policy/Windows Settings/Security Settings/Local Policy/Security Options. Disable ’’Do not require Ctrl-Alt-Del to Logon’‘)
2. Reduce icon size from toy town (32×32) to 16×16, but they are still double the size of Windows XP. Tweaking lower in the registry to 8 doesn’t work.
3. Reduce icon text size from 9 to 8
4. Turn off UAC – it does just piss you off. Microsoft take hint, you need to authorise for software installs. That’s it. If nothing installs that you don’t want to then your computer is safe. Having a user change a network setting is not a dangerous task and could easily be hidden via Parental controls anyway.
5. Turn off the notification icon for Security Centre which glows red because UAC is off
6. Turn on hidden files
7. Turn on showing file extensions
8. Icon on Start Menu linking to Network Connections

Things are now totally operable. Well I say totally operable the following do work:

1. ESET NOD32
2. Microsoft Office 2007
3. Windows Live Messenger
4. iTunes 7.1.1.5
5. Adobe Acrobat Reader 8
6. Nexo Geosoft2
7. XTA AudioCore 8.20
8. Yamaha PM1d Manager
9. Yamaha Studio Manager 2.1.7 with PM5d Editor, haven’t tried m7CL yet

However the following do not:

1. Dolby Lake Controller v4.2 (Error on exit, can’t confirm if Device control is possible)
2. Digico Offline Editors for D1 and D5 (Error on exit, can’t confirm if Device control is possible)
3. Crown SystemArchitect 1.3 (Failed to install)

Now interestingly of the applications I’ve tried to install, the ones that have errored are all ones that use the TCP/IP stack to communicate with an external device. Therefore it would seem it is because Windows Vista has a new TCP/IP stack in it that the errors are ocurring. I have had them working in virtual Windows XP machines before now so I’m relatively sure it’s not Virtual PC screwing things up.

For now Windows Vista seems operable if all you do is office based work, those specialist applications, especially those associated with controlling devices, do seem to have some issues currently. If I think of any more significant audio applications to try I will give them a go, if people wish to ask then I’m happy to trial.

Christopher Hinds : 06 May 2007 08:55 |  Tags: Microsoft Operating Systems Sound Vista Windows |  Comments (0) |  Report a problem