Marthax

I assume you're talking about making it automated. In that case, http://unattended.msfn.org/unattended.xp/ is the way to go.

Actually, it can be done. Google for a program called "junction", created by Microsoft. What junction does is that it makes a shortcut out of the folder of your choice and makes it point to another catalog. Instead of actually having files in it, it points to a different location so that when a programs comes and says "I wanna put some things here", the junction answers "I'm sorry, this folder is no longer available. You'll have to put it over there." This way, you'll get exactly what you want. It's what Vista uses to accomplish the "Documents and Settings" -> "User" folders conversion. Remember, you won't be able to use "Programs" for anything else besides the junction. Hope this helps! Cheers, Marthax

If the above help doesn't solve it, just use the search function. You'll stumble around all kinds of questions here.

What's your question?

That sounds like a lot more work. Just copy everything to some folder inside $1 and make your UA installation copy everything back. Worked perfectly for me.

Glad it worked out

Flat menus? Are you talking about those you get when using classic style?

Paste all the links into "%allusersprofile%\Favorites". Should do the trick. Regards, Marthax

Hi laze! I used to have exactly the same problem as you, but I solved it using the method cumminbk described. What you want to do is extract your own settings from the registry rather then copying someone else's. Go to [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\StartPage] and extract it when you have your Start Menu set up the way you want. Delete everything from the created file except Favorites, FavoritesChanges and FavoritesResolve. When applied, you should see your pinned programs the way you like them. I tried this out in Windows and it worked great, but it should work during T-12 too. Regards, Marthax

Unfortunately, the VB won't work for me as I've disabled VB support in XP. That registry method worked great though. Thanks for the help guys!

Hi Everybody! Does anyone know how to pin a program to the Start-Menu UA? Thanks in advance! Marthax

The worst thing is that it affects your computer's performance by for example degrading your overall performance when gaming.

Hey, I'm not alone. Vista =

I agree with you, everything is based on what the people wants. The thing is when it comes to what you said, when you want to customize something based on your own liking. That's when Vista sucks, because if MS really cared about this they'd create the possibility for people to adjust it to whatever they like. Just like everyone doesn't appreciate Aero Glass and prefer Windows Classic, some don't enjoy Network Sharing Center or something else for that matter. They should have the possibility to adjust it if they want. I mean seriously, it wouldn't be that hard for MS to make it possible for users to choose whether they want the Network Sharing Center or the standard Network Connections. That'd be enough the get me satisfied on that point and there'd be one person less nagging. I know I know, I'm nagging about the Network Sharing Center, but I'm just trying to make a point and this happends to be a good thing to compare. Then again, they could've customized the different Windows versions to match the users. For example, if you choose to use the "Home edition", MS assumes you are a newbie and bundles all those user friendly features to make you grow accustomed to Vista. If you instead choose to use the "Ultimate Edition", they could assume that you know better and want to get rid of all those user friendly things and cut to the chase. I'm sure there'd still be plenty of people nagging about the interface, but that'd atleast give us some sort of choice to pick what suits our needs. It may perhaps not be the best way to do it, but it's a thought.

That's one of the reasons we're discussing it, so people like you can have a chance of figuring out whether Vista is for you or not. You've gotta be kidding me? Just look at the picture and tell me what's easier for the "home user" if he/she determines that they wanna access their network connections. Searching through all the options you have on the screen or right clicking your connection, which by the way is something that we have been doing for ages by now. Look up "easy on the eyes" in the dictionary and I'm sure it's not gonna be Vista's version of it. It still gets me everytime. Call me stupid, but Network and Sharing Center overloads your head with information in comparison with the good ol' Network Connections. Look how nice and clean the old version is compared to the new one. Of course. If you get forced into eating dirt, it's gonna turn out real good eventually because that's all you can taste. I guess that's how it is. You get used to your surroundings, but you struggle for as long as you can.

Yeah, but you're wrong there. If you let MS decide, there is a requirement because they've spent money on the OS and now they wanna get it back. I've had it for a couple of weeks now and it still gets to me every single day. Well then you have to be doing something seriously wrong because I have IBM Think R40 whose hardware is twice as bad as yours and I get it to boot into XP ~35 sec.Spooky, the biggest problem according to me isn't the fact that Vista might have lousy drivers support or Application compatibility right now, becuase I know that those are things that are gonna go away soon. What's bugging me is the fact that Vista has lost it's simplicity. The Network Connections tab is just an perfect illustration of it. I don't know who came up with such an idea, because it's honestly now helping. It's just making things worse. If something used to be great, why change it? Focus on the things that people are gonna notice in a positive way.

Exactly, but right now I'm running single-boot Vista which has turned out to be an nightmare in some cases. The OS is not ready for it. Let me guess why? Becuase XP has everything you need. That's exactly my point. As long as they are gonna keep running that policy, people are gonna stick with XP because they really rely on some programs. Sure, I agree with you that drivers are very important inorder to maintain system stability and performance, but when happends when all of a sudden some companies crap out and refuse to make drivers because that hardware is too old? Sure, people could adapt old drivers and make them run in Vista. OH WAIT! No they can't because someone installed a Drivers Signature Enforcement. In the end, you find a way to work around it, just like with everything else that's bugging you so why even bother with the enforcement? Simplicity MS! Simplicity. That's what people wants. I assume you mean what OS code it's based on. W2K3 in that case. As I stated in my starting post, I've already tried that. I've tried all the drivers that are available right now, but it's still not working. Probably because the drivers are for XP x64, which causes the Driver Signature Enforcement to deny them. You say that you don't have any problem when and the same time you wish that Nvidia and Creative could release some good drivers for Vista. The reason they're stalling is because of the..? Guess what? Driver Signature Enforcement! I totally agree with you. They just haven't thought this through. As soon as my computer starts up, my HDD starts working like it's on the highway going way to fast. That's just wrong..

No, I mean regular RAID support. I had no trouble running RAID0 during XP Setup with the proper drivers integrated, but I just couldn't get it to work with Vista. I downloaded all the x64 drivers I could find, but it didn't help at all. My RAID was nowhere to be found. I absolutely DON'T agree with you on this point because ever since I switched to Vista I've been feeling the opposite of faster Windows usage. I'm running on 1GB right now and it seems like it's just not enough. It honestly seems as if XP handled the memory better than Vista does. That's on of the reasons I'm switching back. I'm so freakin' tired of all the shortcut and GUI mumbo jumbo. Let's cut to the chase and do what we are supposed to. You ask for your Network adapters, but all you get is a bunch of network options. What's that all about?

I think that MS is gonna have a hard time converting people from XP to Vista because of the fact that XP does it for most people. Sure if they want all of that Anti-phishing and Windows defender crap then perhaps they'll upgrade, but I just don't see a reason why Vista would be better then XP. The fact that XP has been around for a while makes it possible to slim it down (thanks to nlite) to just the size you want, with just the features you want. Sure, just give it some time and Vista is gonna have allt that too, but until then I'm sticking with XP because this just isn't working out. It's all the little things that make out the entirety and I think that these things are just to many right now. It seems like XP's got it all thanks to enthusiasts so why upgrade? As for the "Vista only" programs, that's just stupid MS because people are gonna find different ways..

Oh come on! I couldn't bare with it for more than 10 minues! It should atleast be a little more intelligent than to alarm everytime you initiate the setup. My point is that they are forcing people to a certain folder management. Perhaps I don't like to use "My Music" or "My Pictures"? Perhaps I don't appreciate the fact that WMP creates a "My Music" folder everytime it starts up? So long time has passed that they should've improved this. I mean, that's what Vista is, right? An Improvment. Now there's a reason to buy a new OS! Seriously..As far as the Win98 thing goes I'm with you because I agree on the fact that it's less stable. I wouldn't want to go back to it either. What I'm talking about is that MS has created a few OS's by now and they should've learned from their mistakes. The pros and the cons. Win98 doesn't stand performance wise, but it's simple folder management rocks. Exactly! Five years and for what? They started out with the XP base and developed it for three years only to realize that it wasn't that good so they ditched it and started over. You've gotta be kidding me? Mistakes like that are done my some small companies perhaps, but by MS?

Hi Everybody! I've been looking for a thread like this to see what everybody thinks of these to competitors, but I didn't find one so I thought that creating one could be useful to everyone that are considering whether or not to get Vista and at the same time share some experiences. Let me start with what annoys the crap out of me in Vista and makes me wanna go back to XP: 1.Some XP programs don't work in Vista 2.No RAID support during setup 3.SuperFetch 4.Crappy folder management 5.Driver Signature Enforcement 6.Windows Resource Protection 7. No BOOT logo 1. I know that this will get better in time, but right now it's just not how I want it. Programs you're used to are all of a sudden not working. 2. This is got be some kind of joke. I mean seriously MS.. you've had 5 years to develop a OS and for what? For a Windows Setup that doesn't even support RAID? I had to kill my RAID just to get Vista installed. 3. SuperFetch. It sounds nice on the paper, but in reality I just don't see what it's good for because when my comp. is stressed I still get the same performance problems as before, if not worse. 4. This is something that they didn't fully think through either. I guess that the saying "Think before you act" is something they haven't heard of because this just doesn't make any sense. First, in XP they create folders which all start with "My ...", but apperently that didn't do it so they ditch the "My" and stick with the name itself. The strange thing is that when you look into the registry, you find that MS haven't really changed a lot of things because it's all the same there. You see "My" everywhere you look. The worst part is that because all old programs rely on the "Documents and Settings" structure, they had to create junctions to make the programs Vista compatible. What happened to the simple solution back in Win98 when you simply had all of your folders where you wanted them to be without any freakin' "My Music" or "My Documents"? 5. Driver Signature Enforcement. Why force people into using only certified drivers? I'm pretty sure that people who temper with their drivers know what they are doing so that can't be it. The worst part? No other way to disable the enforcement then by choosing it from the boot option. 6. Windows Resource Protection. If you don't even supply your own boot logo by default, then atleast let people do their own logos! Pure and simple, I miss the simplicity where you actually got "Network Connections" when you pressed the Network button inside Control Panel and not a bunch of options. Instead, all you have is load of options which just make you go What do you guys think of Vista? Marthax

What about the registry solution for this? I've tracked it with regshot, but all it gives me is a load of Hex crap that doesn't say anything. I figured that it would be something like the "old" XP would have with a simple Dword, but apperently it's not. Anyway, has anyone figured this out?

I totally agree with cluberti, but somehow the geniuses at MS didn't realise that until now when they made Vista. Funny..

Because they've been on there usual places (sound bar -> sounds) for so long in WinXP. When you get used to something and then all of a sudden it gets changed, it doesn't matter if the new place is even better then it used to because you can't find it. Sounds logical to me that if you want a "the speaker" in the taskbar, the you should look for it in the sounds department.

What an odd place to put it on. Thanks for the help