Spooky

Well then, you may have found your problem...maybe. Some versions of the Nvidia nForce controller have problems with spi, the Vista firewall its self has a little problem with spi (that will be fixed in SP1). However, while the Vista firewall has a slight problem with spi I don't think its causing your problem. Take a closer look at the Nvidia (are you using any beta drivers from Nvidia?), try using a different NIC...also...the Scientific Atlanta cable modems might be having some issues with spi (because cable modems are basically routers). Of course, all these are guess's at this point. Its hard to trouble shoot a problem unless your looking at the entire system. Also it depends if your running the RTM or one of the previous builds prior to RTM. Builds prior to RTM had the issues you describe with the 'lockup' part. These are just suggestions for you.

ElAguila; I need to apologize to you, I'm using a version of Vista back-up that has been extensively modified and is still in beta and allows the things you mention. I'd gotten so used to using it i'd forgotten about the regular user version your seeing. Your correct in your observations. However, all is not lost for you. Open up an admin command prompt and type 'robocopy/?' (without the ' ) and see if that is of use to you.

LoL What 'Hex crap' does it give you and whats the key your refering to?

I'm not sure what your seeing, but I use the Vista backup all the time to backup files and folders. It lets you select files and folders for backup just fine. I also use Vista backup to make complete system backups also. It works fine, does what you want it to do, and does it well. If its not letting you select files and folders then something is wrong on your end. Are you using the RTM? Which versions are you using (business, enterprise, ultimate. etc...)

I posted something about this in the Vista Tweaks and Tips section, explaining what this event really is. See this post: About Event 4226 There is no fix for it because nothing is really wrong, its by design. The event is reported because its simply trying to tell you a limit was reached. As I post this reply I have 46 active connections going for various things and i'm able to establish new connections with no problem. Have you made any alterations to your TCP/IP stack, especially any changes that are supposed to 'tweak' your connection from any of the connection tweakers like the popular for XP cablenut tweaker...if you did you need to dump those changes, contrary to popular belief they don't actually help your connection at all in Vista. Have you disabled AutoTuning...if so re-enable it. Then see what happens. BTW, some torrent clients actually have more connections going in the backgroud then what the client shows, and some of them hold onto timed out connections (which should be available to you to make new connections with) and report them to the stack as active when they really aren't. Actually while some look like it, or say they 'work in Vista' I don't think many of them actually report accurately to Vista for the actual number of connection and the actual status of timed out connections.

sure it does, Vista backup does just what you want.

Did you by chance install something like Roxio? Some have reported problems after installing Roxio Cd creator 9. What codec packs do you have installed? Have you updated the firmware for your burner? Is the source file on another hard drive other than the one Vista is installed on? Some people report that their burning with DVD maker fails if the source file is on the same physical drive Vista is installed on. Is the media your burining to of good quality?

I think Vista RTM by default remembers 5000 folders. I'll have to check to make sure but i seem to remember that from somewhere.

In 2007 Daylight Savings Time has been extended by four weeks due to the Energy Policy Act for the United States. There is a Vista work around for the problem in setting Daylight Savings time when this happens, simply visit this knowledge base artical at MS, which is located at : How to configure daylight saving time for the United States in 2007

Some video card drivers for Vista from OEM's are beginning to appear. Some of these might not support the manner in which Windows Photo Gallery displays a pic on a DirectX surface. This might get some frustrated when they try to view their years of collected pics. There is a work around however that might work out for you if you are experiencing this problem. The below registry entries may help solve the problem for you: Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows Photo Gallery\Viewer] "ForceSoftwareRender"=dword:00000001 The 'Viewer' sub key does not exist by default, so if your not using a reg file to make the changes you will need to add the 'Viewer' sub key manually, then add the "ForceSoftwareRender"=dword:00000001 value. Or...copy and paste the above into a text file and save it as 'ForceSoftwareRender.reg' (or another 'anothernameyouchoose.reg'', after you save your new .reg file then merge it into the registry. After the changes are made you will need to restart the computer. This reg entry makes Vista use GDI instead of DirecX for redering the pics in Windows Photo Gallery. If you later decide to upgrade to drivers that do provide the proper support then delete the 'Viewer' sub key before you upgrade drivers and restart.

OK, finally found the problem, I think. The issue was with MS Office 2007 and not with Vista. He had installed MS Office 2007, The company he works for is a MS Partner and he got one of the Office 2007 DVD's MS sent to his company. He selected to do a custom install when installing the Office 2007 and made some selections for something (still as of yet un-determined) for the install and this killed the links in the Games Explorer folder capability to start the game in MCE by removing the associations. Un-installed Office 2007, rebooted, and everything works correctly now. Several installs and un-installs of Office 2007 later; Tried re-installing the Office 2007 to duplicate the issue, couldn't duplicate because we couldn't duplicate the exact settings he selected during the original custom install so removed it after the install. Did a second and third install with the Office 2007 and still no luck. However, on the fourth install managed to get the problem to re-occur but evidently I checked some combination of features during the install this time and can't remember exactly what I checked even tho I thought I was checking the same thing each time. Did six installs with just the typical settings (no custom selections) and problem doesn't happen, only happens with a custom install. Oh well, will get back to it later, at least theres a likely suspect now as it seems its some sort of weird problem with Office 2007 - install it custom the problem happens, un-install it and the problem doesn't happen, install it typical and the problem doesn't happen.

Try this; Log in as the Administrator, not a user in the Administrator group, then make sure the Administrator is the owner then delete it. You might also have problems deleteing it because theres a hidden file in the folder called desktop.ini which is active anytime anyone logs in not just the current user, so you might see a few complaints about it. I think desktop.ini is active for all users because of the capability to switch users. Just curious, why do you want to delete it anyway?

OK, found the difference. The games in the menu its self in All Programs\Menu , the shortcuts normally look like this: "%ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Games\Solitaire\Solitaire.exe" However, when the games menu is showing on the start menu its self (to the right of the pinned menu items under the user name - in the Aero theme) they use a different short cut located at "%ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Games\", so for example Solitaire would be at: "%ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Games\Solitaire\Solitaire.exe" -mce see the '-mce', thats for playing in Windows Media Center. Can't see anything in procmon because the WMC one never starts up. Anyway, the difference is not the problem. Any of the native game links in the Ultimate version C:\Users\*****\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\GameExplorer folder will not start up. (the ***** is my user name so I *****'d it out) Really odd. They start up fine on mine.

Yeah, mine work fine too (RTM here also, and his as well). thats whats driving me nuts about it. I'm beginning to think he might have done a few 'improvements' without remembering them. Everything else is fine tho.

On the contray I did get the point. I'm not saying that free software is without its encumberances, however, you will notice that those companies support the product them selves, not systems from other companies, and thats what matters because thats what the masses see, they buy systems (computers) from Dell for example. The masses buy complete systems, they don't just call Dell and say "hey I want to buy an OS"...no...they call Dell and say "I want to buy a computer", or they walk into a store somewhere and do the same thing....and thats where the sustaining profit base is from and thats what the companies will support and develope for, what the masses buy. Sorry, but you are missing a point here, FREE SOFTWARE means "free as in freedom", not necessarily "free of charge". Support for FREE SOFTWARE is normally offered as a "pay for service", as well as the actual software can be charged for the services of compiling and integrating it, companies like RedHat and Mandriva actually "live" with that: http://www.redhat.com/rhel/compare/client/ http://www.mandriva.com/en/linux/2007/discovery http://store.mandriva.com/product_info.php?products_id=336 The fact that the same or a very similar product is provided free of charge and WITHOUT support does not mean that companies cannot get paid for their work. jaclaz

They don't come on computers for sale to the masses because of a few important things. 1: The kernal was made to be modified at the user level (can you imagine the tech support nightmare of trying to support anyone's and everyone's changes), and ...2: Because they are free or open source. The tech support for a free product couldn't be aforded when you can't make any money on it. Besides, even if they put a version of Linux (or any other unix based system) on a system for wide spread sale to the masses there would still be too many free alternatives of that same OS that offered too much competition and you would end up with exactly the same conversations about it. Its not because they aren't popular, but instead because they are not wide spread to the masses because they aren't marketed, and they aren't marketed because there is no real profit to be made from them because they or the alternatives to them are free. It would be kind of difficult to base the profit for a company on a version of Linux for example when the competiton is free. It would be different if it could be marketed effectively to the masses but ya just can't do it. And it isn't because its inferior, its just not a marketable product that a company can base long term survival on, maybe in a niche market but not to the masses. Where there is profit, there is support, development, and products available to enhance the original product. And this is the reason that free ware type OS's are not a viable alternative to Windows for the masses because that comprehensive support and development base just isn't there and its not there because there is no long term sustainable profit base. If companies had figured out a way to base long term profit on a free OS don't you think they would have done it by now? Companies sell what makes them money, and Windows makes them money. It isn't the fault of MS as they just competed in the free enterprise system like everyone is able to do. Its actually the fault of the alternative OS system community, like the Linux/unix flavors, by trying to keep the systems open source or free that made them less attractive as a profit base.

Well then excuse me for trying to help. I don't know what you mean by the very general, un-described, and very general term 'windows glowing' .

The games in Vista, the solitair, freecell, etc....is anyone else having problems starting these up? Mine start up fine, but i've been trying to help a friend out today with his and we just can't get them to start up. It keeps coming up and saying it doesn't have a program associated with it. To repro: Start - Games - in window that opens up click on a game. But...if I drill down in the menu from Start - All Programs - Games, the games open up and run fine

right click the start button, choose properties, start menu tab - customize button - control panel - chck 'Display as a menu' - apply - OK

Try starting the game from Media center

I can't remember the exact reason right now but this happens because the XP checkdisk does something to the Vista partition that keeps it from being seen from XP. Marks something as a bad or something that makes XP not really recognize the partition. The correct order of install for the dual boot should have been to install XP first then install Vista on a seperate drive. If you install Vista in a partition on the same physical drive with XP this problem with checkdisk can arise. Create a new partition on the flash drive with Vista then format it, not the other way around with XP.

Maybe every one in the windows forum should start posting here: The Other White Meat

I forgot to post this earlier, so to be complete, this problem can be caused by nero or divx. Look at this link for a fix: http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost....80&SiteID=1

What can Vista do that XP can not do? Hmmm...let me think...uhhhh...OK, I got it...be better than XP.

Its been at least three years or more since I saw a blue screen with XP, and I haven't seen a one with Vista RTM yet and i've really abused it too. The last blue screen I saw with Vista was with one of the earlier beta 1 builds.