Yes it is. It works quite fine.

 

don't understand though why it can't handle '.pls' that shoutcast.com along with many others use

 

I just read an article on Readyboost and it looks pretty slick.
My computer is starting to take forever to start up, and this looks like it should really help. It's not unlike using a ramdisk, really.

 

I have yet to throw vlc an (unencrypted) file that it couldn't deal with, so until WMP can match that I think I'll pass. Its nothing against M$, I wouldn't use QT either.

 

What's readyboost?

 

You plug in a USB memory stick and it instantly is used as a disc cache.

 

Wouldn't that slow down things even more when you consider the usb 2.0 transfer rates...

 

From wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Readyboost

 

Transfer rates are slow (10-30mb/s), but access times are practically instantaneous.

 

Interesting, I'm gonna try this out with SD flash memory instead of USB in my lappy tonight

 

It depends on what you are doing.

A better solution would be something like gigabyte's i-ram, although that is
more expensive. If I upgrade to a new pc, though, I will likely buy one, so I
can use my old pc's memory as a kick ass ram disk type of thing.

Ram-disks are underrated. I keep a 64 meg ramdisk on my work-machine.
It greatly speeds things up when running apps that do a lot of disk-writes.
(debug logs, etc)

- Frank

 

Out of curiousity, has anyone run across a way to prevent the screen dimming that occurs when the UAC prompt comes up? I know those prompts run from a "secure desktop" but the screen dimming is absolutely annonying as f*ck. More so than the actual prompt itself IMO.

 

Get a mac. You're trying to pick the lesser of two evils.

 

Ahh yes, the inevitable cure of all computer ills.

 

you can turn off UAC in the Security Center and I heard you can turn off the secure desktop also. I've turned off UAC before but not the secure desktop so I don't know how to do that. souldn't be to hard to find out though.

 

HAHA I know right!! I started out using a mac and still use one almost daily since both my parents and my sister have one and I'm very glad I switched, that shit sucks. I love being able to watch TV while surfing the internet (in fact I'm doing it right now) and record and watch shows I've never got a chance to watch. Do that with your iLife programs, OH wait that's right you can't, ok then do it with your Apple TV oh wait you can't watch live TV with it!!! Why do they call it the Apple TV if you can't watch TV on it?

 

I dunno about macs, but I was able to watch tv on the comp while surfing the internet for many years with the software the comes with tv tuner cards.

 

this works though: http://members.cox.net/jongalloway/OpenPlsInWM.exe

 

Vista is just a big pain in the ass to use It seems like they haven't thought through the major interface changes.

 

I've been using it for 2 weeks now with no major problems, it actually runs really smooth if you set it up correctly...

 

It's not that it doesn't run smoothly, it just makes everything a big pain and the ass to configure and set (such as the new networking panel design) that just isn't as efficient as it was before. It feels like they have dumbed down the system for a more osx-like experience without giving more advanced users a powerful back end.

Apparently I can't run ipconfig as my default user anymore (perfect example of removing power). I know I heard there was a way to get around this, anyone know offhand?

To get back to the original thread question, I would say get vista but don't expect anything good until sp1...just like every other windows

 

you should be able to do this but if it doesn't work, go to start>all programs>accessories then right click on command prompt and choose "run as administrator" ...click yes or allow or whatever and then everything should work just as it did in XP.

 

thanks!!

 

Anyone get Vista running in a vm session?

 

We've got 4 people running it that way here right now for evaluation purposes and it seems to be working fine. I'm just going to dual-boot my laptop next week though, since I really don't need to run a VM session.

 

For whatever reason, VM won't load the Vista files

Im gonna dual boot too, but I can't find a good free partition tool and Im not having luck with stealing one...

 

Anything to do with the M$ limitaion on running only Enterprise or Ultimate in a VM?

I've read about that but I honestly have no clue if that's only a paper EULA limitaion or if there is something in the other editions that aactually causes problems when trying to run them in a VM.

 

I don't know what version it is (got it off bitorrent)

 

I might want to upgrade to Vista, but if it really is significantly different than XP just like XP was way different than Windows 98, I would upgrade.

 

Actually, here's a question I haven't been able to get an answer for:

I have a boxed copy of Ultimate on the way for my destop, and I'd like to run it in 64-bit. I know drivers can be an issue, but by the looks of things, there are drivers for all my hardware. The next issue is not being able to run 16-bit applications. That shouldn't be an issue for anything major that I'd run, but I might have a handful of utilities that are 16-bit and I don't want to lose them.

The question I have is would it be possible to dual boot vista, one copy in 32-bit and the other in 64-bit while only using a single license? It's the same machine, so I'm not sure if that would be a problem.

 

That's a damn good question. I'd be willing to bet that M$'s activation system will view each copy independantly so your answer will effectively be no.

 

I imagine you're right. I guess I could just install it for 30 days to see if everything works before I choose to activate it...

 

Why are they shipping Vista 32bit with computers that have 64bit processors? I got a HP notebook with AMD Turion 64 x2 that came with Vista Home Premium 32bit. I checked the Dell site, same story there...

 

Because a 64-bit OS is unnecessary for 99% of people.

I had XP 64 bit, it was ONLY useful for 64 bit apps and for people who needed 8 or 16 GB of RAM

 

That raises another interesting question. I wonder if any of the OEM's are shipping their system discs with both code bases on them like the retail boxed products. For that matter, I wonder if Microsoft even allows them to. I have to believe the answer is no simply from the increased tech support issues 64-bit could cause.

 

Most companies are still trying to figure out if their systems are "Vista Ready"

You're just making a lot more work for yourself if you offer 64 bit systems and the associated drivers that are necessary.

 

They OEM stuff you can purchase yourself via newegg is only 32 bit or 64 bit, can't get both with one license I would imagine thats the way the big companies do it too.

 

god... Vista is getting so much bad press and reviews - I'm a bit surprised, actually. I have to admit I am finding some kind of dark humour out of it all, seeing how I have been against it from the start. Funny thing is, Vista is actually helping Apple. On a related note, I watched "Pirates of Silicon Valley" last week and that viewing makes all of these happenings even more funny. Great f'ing movie, btw. It's out there on Google video.

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/finan.../D8NAEOPO0.htm
http://www.forbes.com/security/2007/...0212vista.html
http://www.digitmag.co.uk/blogs/inde...d=225&blogid=2

great title - "WINDOWS VISTA: WHY NOBODY CARES" -
http://www.time.com/time/business/ar...582415,00.html

http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=37291
http://www.twincities.com/mld/twinci...g/16555680.htm

 

another good one... this is how I felt about Flip3D from the first time I read about it. Vista is like a Mac emulator for PC. What happens when you run a Nintendo or other emulator on your PC or PSP. You get sometimes buggy, weird behavior. Why? Because the machine isn't designed to run those things.

http://www.anandtech.com/systems/sho...spx?i=2780&p=5

oops Im crapping up this thread aren't I. ill shadup now

 

i have yet to try vista, is it that much of a big leap from xp?