Spooky

Briefly; Actually that key we call the Windows key is not a MS invention at all. Its actually an Apple invention. Many years ago before keyboards were standardized into what we use today, very early computers used a modified version of the old teletype keyboards, there was a key present in the location that today we call the Windows key. When the very first apple computers hit the market many years ago (no I don't mean the MAC, this was wayyyy pre-MAC), the first key boards used on those systems were made just for Apple computers and were an adpatation of the older teletype keyboards and the key was there. As a result of Apple's insistance that their keyboards be used as a standard the key was left in place for 'future use'. MS saw the key and as a result of feed back that wanted a single key to hit to bring up a menu or do something else MS decided to put the key in use and today we have the Windows Key.

Maybe it heard that the MSFN crew was on the case and that you had posted here, and it feared what would happen and decided to stop acting up. Who knows

I think by 'user's ineptitude' he means that even though the person knew that coffee is served hot she still put the cup between her own legs and when it spilled out she got burned. The point being, if you know its hot and likely to burn you then common sense would tell you not to expose sensitive parts of your body to it. I don't think he's sympatizing with the company, he's making the point that MS took steps to account for people who are having difficulty with an OS, as in "Wer'e going to tell you how to do what you want and then show you how to do it, and help you along the way" - A valid instruction method called a 'Guided Approach' (or at least it used to be called that, don't know what they call it now a days)

Its what she burned that makes one go 'Ouch!' There is just so much hype about Vista right now, and 99% of it is just that - hype. There are so many mis-conceptions that it boggles the mind. Tried to help someone on another forum with a problem he was having, he tried to load a hacked (supposedly for performance) version of that old XP USB driver thing in Vista because he read somewhere that the drivers in Vista were crap, his machine slowed down to a crawl and for two weeks he was complaining about how Vista was crap until I asked him a question.."Did Vista work fine before you loaded those drivers?" His response was "Yeah it worked great, no problems at all until I put those drivers on." I asked him why he used those drivers and he said that someone on a forum had posted them and said that the Vista USB drivers were crap and didn't do such and such. I asked him if he believed that, his response was "Well, everyone can't be wrong about the drivers in Vista being crap". I asked him if he was going to change the drivers back to the in-box drivers and he said "No i'm not, Vista is crap, its not the drivers!" ...ahhh the things that make you go DuH!. My own theory is: If one doesn't like something then don't use it, but just because one doesn't like it or doesn't want to use it doesn't necessarly mean thats true for others. A law of physics and nature: Water tends to seek its own level. As such in reference to OS's, people who want to use a ceratin operating system tend to seek others with similar interest instead of hanging out in places where others don't share their interest. Another law of physics and nature: Nature abhors a vacuum. As such in reference to OS's a windows forum might be a vacuum for one who uses a Linux system.

<Hmmm...note to self, suggest to MS they add an 'Anti-Fat Finger' feature. >

Yes, MS does give what people want...but stop to consider for a second, if Apple or Linux had the forsight to act just a couple of years earlier then MS did with its first version of windows then most of the world would be using one of those systems now. As it was Apple was not flexible enough in the earlier days and unix was restricted to the rhelm of business and techie/hobby types. Neither one were willing to cede their dominance in their own niches to reach out to the rest of the world until too late as both were founded on providing for the business world in the beginning and us common folk came later, where as Microsoft captured the common person market from the beginning and concentrated more on business later. And that is why MS is the most common OS system used today, simply because it captured minds and hearts first.

Ahhhh...100 - 200 MB just by closing Firefox? That seems a bit excessive. Something might be wrong there. Ya know what i'd suggest for you to isolate the problem, a fresh clean install then look at the performance and see where the problems are with the core OS first before adding stuff, and don't disable anything especially any services (windows services is another story that the rest of the world is not willing to accept for Vista just because the common preception from previous windows OS's is that services are bad, not so for Vista). There are just too many variables and you need to start somewhere. If the adverse activity continues with just the core OS then the problem is between the OS and your system. If that doesn't point out any problems then start adding stuff and watch the activity of each item and its effects on your system. It may be something you installed that loads up something thats not needed all the time, like adobe products for example and adobe reader or pro - they load that acroread thing all the time in the run key in your registry regardless if the adobe reader or pro is active or not and its not needed but it consumes resources. Anything that consumes resources when its not needed thats not part of the core OS operation will cause activity like this in Vista. Another problem becoming an issue for Vista is OEM drivers, a lot of these drivers right now don't add anything that the Vista in-box drivers don't already have for more common items, and some of the OEM drivers appearing now are really designed just for XP and not Vista even tho the OEM's say they are for Vista. There is a big difference between 'will work with Vista' and 'designed for Vista'. Some of these OEM drivers the OEM's say are for Vista are just re-branded XP drivers that appear to work, and they do, but also consume resources because they don't fully support Vista. Also take a look in the performance monitor and see where the hard faults are occuring (BTW, its normal for some native Vista components to show some hard faults) and whts using the most memory while using the most CPU resources.

I had this same problem with nero installed.

No, I don't think thats with superfetch disabled. Mine is like his but a little better on CPU usage at 2 - 3%, and a little better on memory (i'm probably not running stuff he is). dAbReAkA, are you having some sort of problem with superfetch?

Using Ctrl-Alt-Del brings up the Vista screen where you can choose to start up Task Manager if you wish. Its different from the more traditional manner that caused Task Manager to start up in windows in the past, the thing just started up and there was no big screen pop up. You can get the same type of more traditional activity with Vista also, but you just can't use Ctrl-Alt-Del to get there from here, so heres what you do: 1. Create a shortcut on your desktop and give it a target of 'C:\Windows\System32\taskmgr.exe', call this shortcut 'Task Manager' (or anything else you choose) 2. After the shortcut is created, right click on it and choose 'Properties' then click on the 'Shortcut' tab. 3. Click in the 'Shortcut key' field (it should say 'None' at this point), and when your cursor starts flashing in the field enter the key combination you want to use to start up Task Manager (without the big Vista screen) by pressing the actual key combination to be used. You can't use Ctrl-Alt-Del, but you can use something like Ctrl-Alt-T. 4. Click 'Apply' then 'OK' and your all done. Now the next time you hit the key combination you assigned the task manager will start up instead of the Vista choice screen.

keytotime; You just described 100% of the problems with 100% of every operating system in existance as viewed by anyone at any certain time depending on their requirements. Can you be a little more specific for Vista please? Thank You

What islamic phrase would you like to put? Your using an english system? although this is off topic , but i love to put an arabic islamic phrase, instead of "Start"

In case anyone wants it, XML Notepad 2007 is available for download here: XML Notepad 2007 Since Vista uses XML a lot this might come in handy.

who made the KVM?

I agree, it will drive you nuts. Look in the Tweaks and Tips section for a reg twek i posted that lets you keep it turned on so it can work with things like Protected Mode in IE but will supress the prompts.

Heres some small security tips if using the IE7 browser in Vista. It turns out the numerous tracking sites and services on the internet may be specifically targeting IE7 users in some way, places like ad-tracker and click-tracker, those places that load up cookies to keep track of your activity on the net when you visit a site. Its a good idea to use the pop-up blocker in IE7 set to high. These tracking sites have may have found a way to place their selfs in your 'Trusted Sites' list thru the use of a cookie or other methods. In IE7, click on 'Tools' - the 'Security Tab' , then click the 'Trusted Sites' icon, then click the 'Sites' button and take a look and make sure nothing in in your Trusted Sites that you don't want. If you click on each zone you will find that you need to enable 'Protected Mode' for each zone, its a good thing to go ahead and do this. If youv'e disabled UAC, even if you have the 'Protected Mode' selected then protection is not really enabled. Protected Mode will not really be enabled if you disable UAC, even though it appears to be because the box is checked. To see if you actually have Protected Mode enabled look at the lower right of the browser in the status bar, if it says that Protected Mode is on then its working, if it says that protected mode is off even if youv'e checked the box to turn it on then it is not working. If the UAC prompts bother you then see my post for the reg tweak about enabling UAC but supressing the UAC prompts. You might also consider placing these tracking sites in your 'Restricted Sites' list and ensuring the 'Restricted Sites' security level is set to high.

For AV i'm using the latest version of Avast, works great in Vista For the firewall i'm using the built in Vista firewall and configuring thru the Advanced Firewall properties, works great.

"the built-in Administrator is the only account who does bypass UAC." Hmmm...not exactly...even the admin account has trouble taking full control of some areas, even the admin account receives prompts for install of software some times - this is UAC interaction, it just doesn't look like it. Just FYI, the built-in Administrator is the only account who does bypass UAC.By default this account is disabled except in Safe Mode, but can be enabled if you need "unhindered" access to the various tools. If you need all members of the Administrators group to have this kind of freedom, then launch an Explorer or CMD prompt elevated and run your tools from there, as the split tokens are inherited from the parent process. (The translucency of windows is controlled by the application I think - try running "perfmon /sys" and then click "Compare" / "Set Transparency" and select one of the predefined options to see an example.)

I've been fortunate enough to have gained the attention of a group of people dealing with Vista who are willing to listen to suggestions for improvements to Vista and possibly take action to have these improvements included in future patches, add-ons, or 'power toy' type items. I'd like to gather comments from this community (i'm already getting feed back from others). This is not a rant thread, its for real information gathering purposes. The rules are simple; list 6 items that satisfy the following criteria in the context of things that should have been but wern't done properly, should have been better, or could be better (you don't have to give 6 but 6 is the max - this doesn't mean you don't have more then 6 but please limit to 6); A. An item dealing with the Vista shell, limited to 60 words or less. B. An item dealing with the Vista UI, limited to 60 words or less. C. An item dealing with the core functionality of Vista, limited to 60 words or less. D. An item dealing with Vista networking features, limited to 60 words or less. E. An item dealing with Vista anti-piracy/activation, limited to 60 words or less. F. An item dealing with Digital Rights Management (DRM), limited to 60 words or less. THIS IS NOT A RANT THREAD - THIS IS NOT A CRITIC THREAD - SO PLEASE STAY ON TOPIC AND WITHIN THE CONFINES OF THE REQUESTED INFORMATION -PLEASE DO NOT BE CRITICAL OF ANOTHERS POST Thank You To start off heres a few of mine; 1. The ability to customize small things like having the ability of making 'Advanced Search' as default view instead of having to click the 'Advanced Search' button each time. A good example of the admin account not having full control is in the registry - key: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows Search\CatalogNames\Windows\SystemIndex] - right click on the key and choose 'Permissions' and you will quickly find that only WSearch and TrustedInstaller have full control and not the admin accout - then try to edit the 'IgnoreShortcuts' value (which would speed up search if it would ignore shortcuts if you have a ton of them). 2. The ability to effectively Admin a system without UAC intervention without having to disable UAC. The Administrator needs to have true un-restricted access to the system. 3. The ability to choose upon install IPv4, IPv6, or both, networking attributes and the ability to choose which one you do or do not want to install while maintaining the capability to install either later after Vista install. 4. Vista Anti-Piracy/activation requirements are too limiting, assumes the user is basically dishonest and has too much control over, and indeed at times may violate a persons legal rights, concerning their property rights over their computer. It could have been done better. Its kind of insulting the way it is now. Anti-Piracy is a MS problem, we shouldn't have to pay for their problem. 5. DRM doesn't take into account a persons legal right to duplicate a music CD for their own home use, or d/l'd music legitimately purchased prior to the birth of DRM. 6. Finally, the Aero Glass theme should have been advertised as 'Aero Translucent Glass'. Its not transparent its translucent - there is a difference. There should be more control for customizing the visual aspects of the Aero Glass theme such as being able to adjust the transparency of the whole window. Thank You for your participation.

Good question.

Well, see its things like this that are not definative. They aren't so because Network Connections, in your pics on the left, was intended for those that may be less techncally adept with windows. Its difficult to design a GUI that has a little of something for the majority, and the technophobe is not in the majority. MS is trying to appeal to different groups, ages, levels of ability, etc...and the GUI is an outgrowth from that appeal effort. What you see in Vista is what the majority wanted, unfortunately the majority doesn't include everyone for MS, but just includes a sampling of all ranges. The range with the most votes for a feature wins and thats whats in Vista. It isn't like MS set out to deliberately say "hey, Marthax doesn't like this feature so lets leave it in to p*** him off" (j/k ) They did what any company does when its developing a new product, they cross section sample the public to determine what the public wants and the product will finally look like or be, its called market research. they do the same thing for cars, detergent, toothpaste, no matter what it is companies do market research to determine what the majority of people want. MS just simply did the same thing. This is why also that there are so many different products available, to the point that its just about difficult not to find something you can use or like. OS's are no different, theres XP, the linux/unix flavors, etc...it just so happens that windows is the most used so of course its always going to be a target for critique, or someone is always not going to be happy with it for some reason. So, you balance functionality with eye candy with simple plain language things with what the majority wants with something thats usable with new stuff and technology built in and package it up into what we see as Vista (in your pics with the Aero theme), and then again someone might view it differently and from a different perspective if they for example have the classic theme going instead of Aero. You will notice how on the Vista side the whole basic status of a persons network is layed right out in front of them, where in the XP side you still have to dig to get the same information. So its nothing upon which to base a definative decision just by reading someone elses interpetation of how they think it should be, because someone else might look at it and think "Hey, I like how they put the basic information in front of me in context with the connection so I can tell at a glance from the basic indicators if stuff is working". It would be different if there wasn't anything useful showing that could give a person a clue as to what to do if they had never done it before, but that isn't the case here as the information is right there in front of anyone who wants to look. It goes back to what I said earlier, if Vista is right for a person then do it, if XP is right for a person then stay with XP.

Is that all, just enterprise and consumer/home? No business (yet), or is that what you mean by 'consumer' or 'enterprise' ?

The 'BillGates' version is a pre-RTM, thats true. However, its only a pre-RTM in the sense that it is the actual RTM that was warezed before the actual RTM was actually sent to manufacturing, with a few chages added so you can activate it (at least for a while). It's warez. So no, it's not like using a Beta or Release Candidate, because its neither a Beta or Release Candidate. If your not legitimately licensed for it then its warezed. So if you are using it and your not legitimately licensed for it then you are condoning the use of warez.

Isn't there a licensing restriction on installing Vista like this?

Oh well