Any-one familiar with Vista

[Carole]

The new laptop I bought recently is VISTA!!! I much prefer windows XP, wish I'd known they were bringing out Windows 7 and I'd have waited. 

Anyway, does any-one know how you safely remove hardware from Vista, i.e. memory sticks etc.  I don't have an icon on the task bar.  I have been into Help which says if you have an Icon on the task bar click on it.  So does this mean if I don't have an Icon I don't need to do anything?

I'm currently having to wait until I shut down before removing anything and sometimes it's rather inconvenient.

Thanks
Carole

[mickw]

Just pull the memory stick out - if Vista doesn't like it, it will beep at you and tell you how it would like you to do it 

[mickw]

I read somewhere that buyers of PCs with Vista are entitled to a free upgrade to W7

Amongst others, here's one link explaining -
http://www.softsailor.com/how-to/10550-how-to-get-a-free-upgrade-to-windows-7-if-you-recently-bought-windows-vista-or-a-vista-based-computer.html

However a well known phrase involving frying pans and fires springs to mind - Has anybody got any experience with W7

You could always check with the shop where you bought it.

[JohnP]

Carole - Mick's right - just pull out what you dont want to use... Obviously if its a memory stick make sure you have finished any write cycle befor doing so....

[Carole]

Thanks, I did just pull it out on one occasion, but got a beep, so was worried that I shouldn't be doing it.  But no box came up telling me what I should have done.

I agree with Mick about frying pans and fires, I think I'll wait until Windows 7 has been tried out before I try to upgrade.

Thanks
Carole

[Mac]

I agree with Mick about frying pans and fires, I think I'll wait until Windows 7 has been tried out before I try to upgrade.

You might want to downgrade to xp,

As for the beep problem, just press the mute button, works wonders,
as you dont know you've even upset vista.

Mac.

[Mike]

I bought a netbook recently with Vista and downgraded it to XP Pro the next day

Windows 7 is too early to use yet. Microsoft products never work properly until SP1 comes out at the earliest.

[JohnP]

Mike - Is it easy to downground a laptop. My wife has vista on her laptop & I've had to do 4 reinstalls in 18 months because of computer crashes....

John

[mickw]

I also have a desktop with Vista that I want to kill.  I assume it would require a "full" version of XP - I've seen XP advertised a few times but are there any preferred suppliers ?

[Mike]

Yes it is easy. You can't downgrade as in install XP to replace Vista and keep your settings. But it is easy enough to backup stuff you want to keep then migrate it back to XP afterwards.

Mick, yes you will need a full version of XP.

XP has been around a long time and is well supported and relatively bug free due to 3 major service packs. Vista is just a crock of sh*t.

It's too early yet to say if Windows 7 will be any better and I would advise to wait for it to be out a few months so full feedback from users can be obtained and perhaps a service pack is released.

[Ian]

Carole, how recently did you buy your laptop? It might  be worth checking that there isn't a voucher to upgrade to 7 cheaply, or talk to wherever you bought it from. I've put 7 on my work notebook and so far it is significantly better than Vista...

[Daniel]

Carole, in vista, you can safely unplug hardware by clicking down on an icon in the bottom right side of the toolbar, if you hang your mouse over the icons it'll tell you what they are, just look for the one that says "safely remove hardware" just make sure you don't have the hardware open when you do this, otherwise it won't allow you to unplug.

I run vista on quite a few machines and find nothing wrong with it to be honest, it was a pain when it first came out mainly because no drivers supported it, but now it's been a while and drivers have been released it's been great, if all your hardware is being recognised there's no need to downgrade, just make sure you turn off user account control and set the menu back to classsic mode (you can do this through the control panel, through the users and taskbar and start menu, menu's respectively.

Daniel
:O)

[Carole]

Carole, how recently did you buy your laptop?

end of September!!
Unfortunately I got it from on-line Tesco, so it's not like I will be talking to a computer specialist, but I'll give them a try.

if you hang your mouse over the icons it'll tell you what they are, just look for the one that says "safely remove hardware"

Daniel I've done this, but there isn't an ICON, which is why I started this post.  I'll bring the laptop over to you when I come for my "processing session".  I just wondered whether they had put this in a strange place. 

On the whole Vista has not been as bad as I thought it was going to be, but it does keep popping up boxes presuming I want to do certain things that I DON'T and it's very annoying.

Carole

[Daniel]

Hi Carole, are there any icons on the task baar at alll? if there are, it could be that you need to click on the little arrow icon on the far left of the icons to expand all the icons out, vista will only display a few of them.

Also, the user account control I mentioned earlier will get rid of those annoying pop up screens you get all the time with vista.

Daniel
:O)

[mickw]

but I'll give them a try.

Carole, the first line of defense is attack 

When you call Tescos ask "Why is it that everybody else who bought PCs as late as September get a FREE upgrade form Vista to W7 and I don't ?"

[Mac]

Vista is just a crock of sh*t.

Carol just bin Vista and get XP installed, its so much better,
Haven used Windows7 yet, but untill sp1 i wouldn't upgrade.

Having said that, its probably better then Vista anyway, even with the major bugs.

In fact a pen a paper is better then vista, i've never seen a piece of  paper crash yet.

[Daniel]

I just don''t get why people have such problems with vista, Im running both 32 and 64 bit versions on  6 machines here and don'tget any problems at all, and im running some pretty heavy software. It was definitely abysmal when it firsst came out and pretty much nothing supported or ran properly in it, but that was a long time ago, i'd say if your just running astro software that was written within the last 2 years and photoshop, vista performs excellently.

[mickw]

Personally, from first views, Vista and W7 seem to try and appeal to 8 year old girls with all the fancy toys, or for someone who wants to use the PC for the control centre for all your TV, Video, Music etc.

If you just want a PC to run the applications YOU want, it's way too bloated.

[Rocket Pooch]

We have 3 laptops with Vista and no problems.

[Carole]

Hi Daniel

it could be that you need to click on the little arrow icon on the far left of the icons to expand all the icons out, vista will only display a few of them.

Yup, I did that as well, but still no Icon.  Hovered over them all to see what they were incase they had changed the appearance of the ICON.

I never wanted to get VISTA as I heard so many people complain about it, which was why I hung on to the old laptop for so long, but it got to the point that I had to make a decision with my SC3 not doing long exposure, i.e. was it the laptop or the camera that was the problem?  Then I thought in any case the old laptop was probably not going to be up to running more than one lot of software at a time plus there was little space on the HD and the battery was non existent.   So thought I had better get a new one

My timing is making a habit of being crap, I bought a new car last year and a few months later every-one was being offered £2000 scappage!!!!

I have absolutely no idea how to downgrade to Windows XP pro which is what I have on my desktop and old Laptop.  However, I'll stick with what I've got for the time being, and if it really drives me mad, I'll find out how to do it.

Carole

[RobertM]

Don't forget your old laptop has a valid license of XP Pro so whatever you do don't just throw it away.  The license is worth more than twice the price of the hardware.

[Mike]

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2355703,00.asp

[doug]

      When I initially bought my laptop, it came with Vista and not having had a computer before, I was ignorant of the operating systems.  A lot of people who know have told me that Vista is rubbish, a load of c**p, and other defamatory statements, but I did not know how to offload Vista and reprogramme the laptop with ..... whatever.

     Sooooo .... I have had to persevere with Vista and it is the only system that I know, and as I don`t download videos, films and games, it`s fine with me.  I haven`t used it for astronomical purposes; that may come in the future when I perhaps start imaging, but as now, it`s okay.

     It ain`t quick and it can be a pain in the a**e occasionally when it gets sssslllloooooooww, but I shall persevere with it.  If I ever get another computer, it will probably have Windows 7 loaded, and that WILL be fun.  So all you people with XP, Linus and Grunglesystems, carry on.  I shall use the laptop and Vista for a few more years.

      Doug.  


       

[Rocket Pooch]

Doug,

I will be putting Windows 7 on my Vista PC because its a lot quicker, if it runs like XP on my currect PC it will be like getting a new PC.

Chris

[doug]

     I thought it was illegal to download Windows 7 or am I mistaken ......... as usual ????? 

      Let me know how you get on with it ..... and how you do it ..... please.

     Doug. 

[Mike]

Who said anything about downloading?!

Chris sue him for libel ! 

[Mac]

I thought it was illegal to download Windows 7 or am I mistaken

Yup.

Its illegal to download copyright material, to use on your machine without paying for a licence. (Piracy)

however here's a link to download windows 7 legally for a 90 day trial..

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=606AE07E-B7DB-405B-974B-DD61FC41ADD4&displaylang=en

MR POLICE IT IS A LEGAL DOWNLOAD. its from microsoft themselves!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

although at 1.1G its going to be a relatively long process.
If you like it you will then have to purchase a licence. after the 90 days.

Mac.


Not too sure how or if it will let you roll back if you decide not to use it.

[Ian]

Mac, yup it's legal.

However, it's probably not going to help very much. It's a virtual hard drive image, which is not a full install, won't replace your existing install, won't work with any existing hardware and probably the killer, needs Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V to host the VHD...

I've put Windows 7 on my work laptop, and so far I'm impressed, although that's mostly because Vista was a complete crock. When I'm feeling brave I might put the 64 bit version on it as I've got a gig of RAM sat doing sweet FA at the moment.

Doug, if you're happy, great. If you think spending 70 notes to speed your machine up is affordable, go for it. But it sticks in my throat a bit that I've paid Redmond money for a Vista service pack. On the up side, it was tax free, and I was feeling flush after paying 35 notes for Office 2007

[Carole]

I've managed to find this on the web and it worked.  The Icon had been hidden, but I would never have thought to right click on the Clock!!!

Web Quote

You are using your USB flash drive but u can't remove it because the safely remove icon has disappeared.
Sometimes Windows accidentally hides this icon all you have to do now:
• Right click on the clock in the notification area
• Click on Customize Notifications

On the next window:
• " Safely Remove Hardware " to scroll the list of columns, and choose Always show

[Mike]

#60137 +(879)- [X]

<Superpig> my uncle has a celeron
<Superpig> would XP run on it, do you think?
<ravuya> about as well as a dog runs with no legs or torso
<ravuya> and with bricks tied to its head
<ravuya> at the bottom of a solid concrete pool
<ravuya> filled with dead corpses and rocks
<Superpig> so, about the same as it runs on my P4 then
<ravuya> more or less

[Carole]

Don't forget your old laptop has a valid license of XP Pro so whatever you do don't just throw it away.  The license is worth more than twice the price of the hardware.

Just found your post Robert, one I must have missed with my

Show unread posts since last visit.

not working.

Hmm, I hadn't thought of that.  I do like Windows XP, but I really have no idea how to go about changing the operating system, let alone move the licence from one laptop to another.  Also having said that, I don't want to do anything to your old laptop until I've tried everything out with my new guiding set up, just in case I find I need a second laptop for any reason. 

I'm also biding my time to see what every-one thinks of Windows 7, and also to see whether I can manage with Vista.

Does changing the operating system negate the guarantee?

Incidentally even changing the "remove hardware safely" from being hidden to "show", it still flippin hides itself sometimes, it's very annoying as it means I can't safely remove things until I have shut down!!!

Carole

Carole

[Mike]

Why do you want to change at all? What is wrong with your current OS? Do you think it will be any better with a more up to date OS using the same technology you have that is n months or years old?

[Carole]

I just prefer Windows XP, it works well for me and Vista is frustrating, and annoying.  I am going to stick with it for now, perhaps I'll get used to it.

Carole

[Mike]

Then put XP on it

[Mike]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8388253.stm

[Mac]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8388253.stm

Well at least Microsoft has upgraded their Blue screen of death to a Black one. 

[mickw]

Is it cheaper in black and white ? 

[Rick]

Is it cheaper in black and white ?  

Who said anything about "white"?  I think they got their inspiration from Douglas Adams...

It's the weird color-scheme that freaks me. Every time you try to operate one of these weird black controls, which are labeled in black on a black background, a small black light lights up black to let you know you've done it!

[Rick]

So to recap - the "Black Screen of Death" is in fact a real thing, but it's not a recent thing, and you won't be seeing it as a result of applying any of the Microsoft patches to date.  It's still recommended to keep your Windows systems (and any other systems for that matter) as up to date as possible with vendor updates.

More: http://isc.sans.org/diary.html?storyid=7672

[Mac]

So to recap - the "Black Screen of Death" is in fact a real thing, but it's not a recent thing, and you won't be seeing it as a result of applying any of the Microsoft patches to date. 

It's still recommended to keep your Windows systems (and any other systems for that matter) as up to date as possible with vendor updates.

So true, except at the moment, im trying to sort out a Vista problem of endless reboots after an update.
This machine has been update automatically every night since the year dot.
Weird thing is Microsoft are aware of the problem as far back as 2008, which affected SP1 machines only, the machine i'm working on has SP2.
I've applied their patch and it dosent like it. I've got it working, but as soon as you try and do an update, the same result, ive even selected one install at a time to see if its
one of the update modules, but its doing it on all 17!!!!
So chances are its not one of the modules but something underlying.
Might have to get the old Microsoft support centre to look into this one.