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 ?"