cluberti

Beta1 was for web devs, and had very few features that will (are) in B2 and will make the release (hopefully in November). You can't judge IE8 B1 against Firefox, as that was a rendering engine update only, really. Take a look at B2 when it releases.

Correct - especially if you're using Vista (and doubly-so for x64), watch out for nvidia drivers. I've actually seen the driver talking to an 8800GT completely hard-lock a Vista box when playing a video. I couldn't even crash it with a PS/2 keyboard or break in with a debugger on the COM port - completely, utterly hard-locked. Epic Fail.

Nvidia's hardware has always been at least as good, or superior too, ATI's. However, their driver support for the most part is awful. That is enough for me to stick with ATI, for now. They've been as bad or worse as ATI used to be (and those of you who used ATI cards 2.5 - 5+ years ago know what I mean).

So what worthwhile benefits does x64 have for those with less than 4gb memory? Well, a larger kernel memory space, larger process VA space (for native x64 apps), access to 32 additional CPU registers (for native x64 apps, including the OS itself - 32bit apps are limited to the lower 32 registers on the CPU, x64 apps can access all 64), and it's more future-proof (not sure if Win7 will have an x86 flavor or not - current projections are that it actually may not). You also get patchguard, signed driver requirements, and larger RAM headroom if at some point you do want to add more than 4GB (if you do want to upgrade in the future, you cannot upgrade from x86 to x64 - you'd need a clean install). Remember, though, driver support means you need to make sure you have x64 drivers for your hardware before jumping, not to mention you would need x64 versions of any antivirus or firewall product you might use (you can't load 32bit filter drivers in an x64 OS) - I've not found this to be a problem with mainstream apps in this category, but your mileage may vary. 32bit apps will likely not be faster under x64, and you should always check app compat before jumping - however, if you do have 32bit apps that will run, a good video card and CPU, and you can find x64 versions of apps you use if possible, you will find x64 to be just as good, if not better, than x86.

One person's shortcoming list is another person's not important list . Anyway, I liked your list and wanted to touch on it (forgot that thread existed after awhile ):[*]virtual desktops/workspaces/viewports or whatever you wanna call those things - I'm pretty sure the Windows desktop is gonna stay one per user, just because of the userbase. The kinds of users who would use/understand this and not get confused is pretty small. [*]make aero more like compiz fusion (pretty much all of the features) - Hard to say how Aero will go, long term, but it probably isn't gonna change much if at all anytime soon. Once there's a desktop "feel" people get used to, it takes a long time to change (hey, 6 years from 95 to XP's "lego", and 6 years from XP to Vista's "Aero". Expect maybe another 6 years? [*]a built-in SSH server (yeah, I do know about PowerShell remoting) and a client too - Microsoft uses telnet for some reason over SSH, and I would love to see security get into the OS here, as it could be well used. The OpenSSH implementation is a BSD licensed product, so it could be done. I guess we'll have to see if Microsoft will replace telnet with OpenSSH. [*]utils like process explorer, process monitor and autoruns should be part of the OS/default install - Give it time, I'm guessing this will happen. Although keeping them updated as Russinovich updates them might be a problem, it is still a good goal. [*]make the zip file handling not suck (and handle more than .zip, that thing is useless; just add .7z support, and no one would use zip anymore in a couple years) [*]make the CD burning not suck (a real burning app for a change, like nero) [*]also add a CD image app that does iso read/write, and editing them too (like imgburn + ultraiso) - *cough*antitrust*cough*. Microsoft has to be VERY careful what they do, and do not, include. If they step on ANY public vendor products (like Roxio, Nero, et al) they tread on very thin ice. Especially with Nero being housed in an EU country, I think they err on the side of non-inclusion when there's any chance of another huge lawsuit. [*]a decent ftp client (and server for the server OS, IIS is great and all... but not as a FTP server), sftp/scp would be real nice too Indeed, although killing FTP over SFTP/SCP would be great... [*]a nice rss feed reader like FeedDemon (perhaps with podcast support) - Win7 currently has a much nicer RSS app, so you might get your wish here. [*]a good downloader manager app - Actually, given the design of IE, this might actually be *necessary*. This may actually show up (the MSDN downloader used for connect, licensing sites, etc is actually quite good and fast). [*]similarly, leave mspaint alone, but add a not completely useless app i.e. with more features (perhaps like an older paint shop pro) - I think this falls under the Expression products umbrella, so doubt it makes it into the OS anytime soon. [*]music/video players worth using (like MPC & winamp, none of this WMP garbage) - One man's garbage is another man's just fine app, so to speak (actually, MCE - but it runs on top of WMP, so...). [*]make MCE not suck so badly (it could hardly be worse) - Again, your wish might be granted. MCE gets an upgrade (well, so far). [*]a better disk defragmenter - I find the Vista defrag just fine for the majority of users, including myself. [*]maybe some admin/power user-only tools (like regsnap & what not -- and why not a ramdisk? and a hex editor? a MSI repackaging/authoring tool?) - Microsoft doesn't support repackaging MSIs (only straight builds with an editor like Orca or 3rd party), so that'll never happen. Ramdisk might, although SSHDs might have a better shot (and be cheaper) and they won't lose data on shutdown (well, if the battery is working, anyway ). [*]add even more command line utils (wget/sed/awg/grep/...-like apps, imagex & such, etc) - Gotta wait for powershell to become more mature, I'm expecting these to come as powershell gets older. [*]include the latest versions of all your runtimes & frameworks & such stuff (like silverlight) - Nigh impossible with the way things change (like silverlight and .net). I think the best you'll get is a snapshot in time and then you'll have to do like you currently do, download updates or let WU deliver them. [*]make their mail app not suck (be it named outlook express or otherwise) - I doubt that MS will kill Outlook. Ever. [*]more "basic" apps, like perhaps a html editor (or blog "editor" these days...) - Maybe, although again, these fall under the Expression studio products, so it's doubtful these will make the OS anytime soon. [*]more config options on most things (options for the screensavers would be a start) - Maybe, maybe not. Depends on how usability testing goes - if it seems "too hard" for the test users, it'll get hidden or removed or changed, whatever. [*]a system-wide dictionary that would work in all apps (much like firefox's built-in one) - With the amount of languages supported, this is currently not financially or code-wise feasible. [*]something good to sync files (rsync-ish, with a front end?) - Live Mesh, it's coming. It's a live product, but it (shock) actually *works*. [*]keep improving the firewall (not that I use one, but there shouldn't be a need for 3rd party tools for this) - Win7's firewall is pretty darn good. [*]some kind of universal/unified update mechanism for all your apps would rock for sure - This might happen in time, but not soon. All kinds of legal issues. [*]a web browser that doesn't suck this badly (I've long given up even wishing for this one actually) - Again, one man's trash... IE8 B2 is fantastic, at least as good as FF3 (personally I find it better, but I'm slightly biased - however, being a web dev, it really is at least as good as FF3). [*]more filesystems supported - Nope. NTFS or whatever they replace it with in the future, but that'll be it. Choice isn't good for large-scale deployments or large customers, and that's where the bread is buttered (although having WinFS will be nice, eventually). Again, it's nice to think about, but if the majority won't or can't use it, it isn't going to happen. Besides, what really are the benefits for the average Windows user (not you or I, but the *average* user)? [*]a good font manager (long overdue) - Hard to say if this will happen, but probably not. Adobe's got this locked up, and it'll be hard to compete and not see the inside of a courtroom.

But Windows is expensive to produce (man hours == $), so who pays for it? I have heard quite a few here say Windows is too expensive already - so who pays for the optimization? /totally a devil's advocate post/

If you mean upgrade from within Windows, you can't upgrade from 32bit to 64bit, it has to be a clean install.

Try booting in safe mode, and if it works, then it's likely a driver (and from the symptoms, a network driver - could be the NIC driver, or a firewall or antivirus LSP driver).

To remove filter drivers, you MUST uninstall. Disabling leaves the drivers intact and enabled, just without any work to do from the controlling application in user-mode. Since the problem with a filter driver can happen regardless of whether the app is enabled or not, you have to actually uninstall to do a valid test.

You will have to contact Microsoft and request more MAK keys. MAK keys can be activated once, and only once, and then they are gone. If you rebuild the same box with the exact same MAK key and activate, it will use another MAK activation. This is actually documented in the VA 2.0 Technical Guidance papers, here.

Actually, untrue. When you dump the box it only reads the "Initial size" number, and as such this has the possibility for not being large enough for a kernel dump (can be up to 2GB, if this is x86), and definitely not enough for a complete dump. I would suggest changing the initial size to at least 2200 and rebooting before expecting this to work properly.

The problem is Broadcom's implementation of offloading against the spec, not the code that allows access to it from the service pack, but you blame whomever you'd like if it makes you feel better .

The problem is, desktop composition is a part of the desktop window management (dwm) "Aero" features. If you do not enable the Vista Aero theme, you don't get desktop compositing because dwm isn't loaded/running. You can do what you did and just disable the Themes service, but this will only work temporarily - once a change comes along that would impact dwm, or a reboot or logoff event, dwm gets unloaded and compositing stops working.

I am assuming you configured the proxy settings in the Internet Explorer Maintenance section of the user configuration container. If you look at the user's brandlog, you can see what policies were applied from the IEM, what policies were not, and why the iedkcs32 engine decided which policies should/should not be applied. Also, if you used IEAK to configure either IE6 or IE7, custom policies in place by the IEAK in \Program Files\Internet Explorer\Custom (if they exist) can also cause wierd policy behaviors. Take a look at the logs and data stored in the following locations to start your investigation: %userprofile%\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer %userprofile%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer %ProgramFiles%\Internet Explorer\Custom

CD keys are not dependant on the service pack level.

Meh. It doesn't really matter. It was a moot point in the first place.I agree with you - I used an onboard ATI M200 chip for the last few years in my desktop with shared memory because I just write code, do some web browsing/email, and run some VMs. No point in paying for anything but the bare minimum, and onboard is fine with me. My new box doesn't have an onboard video like the last, but I still bought a relatively low-end ATI Radeon video card that runs aero just fine, and while there are some here who would say it's underpowered, I say, "for what?". I do 2D only, like yourself, and a GMA950 would be fine for what I do as well. I was merely pointing out some of the inaccuracies in the threadline.I actually did look for a box with onboard video too, but couldn't get a motherboard that met my needs with an onboard video, or I'd probably be running an onboard Intel or AMD again.

1. The Intel GMA950 (940GML, 945G<x> chipsets) can NOT do hardware transform and lighting nor advanced vertex shading *in hardware*. This was not added to the chip hardwre until the GMA X3000/X3100 (GL960 and GM965 chipsets). It can be done in software, but it's not done in hardware on a GMA950 chip. 2. LCDs do have a refresh rate, but it's not as important as response time. The equivalent response time (from dark to bright and back to darkness) from an LCD to equal a CRT refresh of ~120Hz is 8.33ms. The reason this is not as important is that unlike a CRT, which uses the refresh rate both as a way to image and illuminate the screen, an LCD uses the shutter (no refresh rate) to illuminate a pixel, and thus the response time is what measures this. The reason a CRT needs to refresh (refresh rate) is that otherwise you'd get "flicker", the result of the phosphor decay on the screen after the energy from the electron gun that transferred to the phosphor material behind the screen starts to decay (slowly) until it is refreshed when the electron beam from the gun hits that phosphor location again. Since LCD monitors do not use phosphors to display on their screen, refresh rate is not of real concern to most people. The LCD transistors used to illuminate the pixels stay open or closed until told to switch. However, the refresh rate of an LCD does matter in some instances, if the hardware supports it. A refresh rate of 60Hz means that you are capped at refreshing a pixel 60 times a second, which is usually fast enough. Saying it doesn't matter at all is not correct, but saying it's just as important as response time is also incorrect, for almost all applications. Since some of you guys are gamers I'd assume you will end up eventually havng an application fall outside that "almost all applications" bucket , but for everyday use 60 or 75Hz (again, check your hardware specs for the optimal refresh rate for the LCD and the card) should be perfect.

Yes, the drivers are provided by the manufactuers prior to RTM, and these are tested thoroughly to work properly. After that, driver updates provided from Microsoft are pushed down from Windows Update, but these are also provided by the vendor. Microsoft only provides Microsoft drivers for Microsoft-branded hardware and for generic print drivers (like generic/text).

If your machine is configured for a complete dump (and since you gathered a manual one properly, it certainly is), it will take a memory dump automatically after the bugcheck (it's been awhile since I've dumped a w2k box, but you will probably see a status stating "dumping physical memory..." with a percentage number counting up to 100 at the bluescreen). Once that is done, if "Automatically restart" is checked, the box will reboot back into Windows, and memory.dmp in %systemroot% (unless you changed the dump file path) will contain info about the crash within about 5 minutes of booting up.

No, you need the dump of the crash, otherwise it's lost. A manual dump only captures the system at the exact time the dump was performed (and other than being heavily stripped down, this box was working fine wen you dumped it, from what I can find in the E2).

Well, this is not that dump. This is a manually-initiated (E2) crash. Do you have the D1 dump?

Question - you took a memory dump of your system (Windows 2000) on August 15th. What were the exact symptoms that caused you to create the dump? You say you had a "problem", but I noticed (just now) that you didn't state what the "problem" was. The stop error is E2 (user-initiated memory dump), but what was happening when you took the dump. I need at least a starting point (I'll do a health check here, but I can't be sure of what I'm even looking for right now).

It's not peak wattage, it's efficiency. Hopefully the next time you build a PC you'll do research into which PSU is the most efficient AC unit and use that, not just purchase the lowest wattage unit you can find and assume you're being efficient.

And SPCR was the site that convinced me that the Enermax was what to use in my new PC this past week, due to it's efficiency and relative quiet. All around a nice PSU.

Honestly that doesn't make sense. The only other way to really see it would be to take a complete memory dump of the box and see where the memory has been allocated.