VistaJuice

There are many ways for you to determine if you are ready for Vista. One part of it is by saying yes, and second one is checking if your computer would say "yes" to Vista.

This is not that hard to check as Microsoft provides you with a nice tool for it, called Vista Update advisor, which you may get from the link below:

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=65926&clcid=0x409

This software will inspect your computer and inform you if you can upgrade. It will give you a nice detailed report about any hardware or software component of your system that may give you trouble.

If everything seems more-less OK, then your computer is ready for Vista. If not, you will know exactly what has to be done in order for everything to go smooth. Remember, Vista is a powerful new OS which will make a good use of a nice and fast machine, therefore there may be some hardware upgrades you will need to overcome before installing - if you are looking for the optimum experience.

Below you will find hardware requirements nicely compiled by leading tech site Engadget.com, which besides Microsoft's specs also shows you their recommendation for the best experience:

click to zoom

Now, if your PC falls into "Vista Capable" category rather than "Premium Ready", you should consider getting a hardware upgrade. I'd recommend a minimum of 1GB of RAM, a fast CPU - one of the new dual core ones, and definitely a graphics card with at least 128MB of RAM.

My computer is Sony Vaio SZ370 notebook, with 2GB of RAM, 120GB Hard Drive, not too shabby Nvidia GeForce Go 7400 graphics card with 128MB RAM - and a nice and fast Core 2 Duo T7200 CPU @ 2GHz (per core).

I must admit - Vista runs REALLY smooth on this. It actually performs a lot better than XP did. Macromedia Dreamweaver and Photoshop open up really quick - and the whole experience since I'm on Vista really makes me feel more productive.

Therefore, if you got those hardware requirements out of the way - it is definitely time to install Vista (finally).

You have a lot of choices here, but one important decision to make is - Should you upgrade, or Clean Install?

Most of these pretty-box Retail versions are Update Only - and these two words mean a lot. If you choose the Update Only path - you must have XP already installed on your PC. Vista will validate that your copy of XP is Genuine and if you follow the instructions everything should go smoothly; but remember: If you ever want to reinstall Vista "clean", you will have to install the XP back again, and then update it to Vista (again!).

My advice though is not to go this route. Even though Microsoft says that the update process is really smooth (and I believe them) - not like XP was 5 years ago, when you clean install an OS on your computer it's simply the nicest thing. Think about it this way, would you rather have your furniture reupholstered or would you rather have it brand new? It's almost like that ... Dust mites may stay.

In order to Clean Install - you will need to do couple of things:

1) Get a Full Version of your choice of Vista
2) Backup all of your files somewhere
3) Run the installation and install Vista.

Sure Vista costs a lot, but you may save a buck or $100 by getting an OEM version which comes at a really good price of about $200 bucks for a full Ultimate version, which beats the Retail version at $390. With OEM, you do not get a pretty box, you cannot transfer Vista from one computer to another - the one you install it on it's tied to it forever, and you do not get Microsoft phone support - but if you think you can live without that - then you're in luck.

This would complete the step #1 from the above quote. Step two consists in backing up your files. You can do this manually or using the software provided to you on Vista DVD itself.

One suggestion, something I found really useful since years ago even while I was testing the Longhorn versions, make a copy of your current Windows and Program Files directories form XP. Put them on a DVD or something and have them ready (I'll explain in a moment).

I will not go through the Installation process, it is really simple that a 7 year old could probably follow it through. You insert the DVD, start the process, enter your Serial Key, and that's it ... Next thing you know - Windows will ask you for your name and you can log in ... Simple as that!

People say, a picture is worth a thousand words, therefore, here you can see the full installation process in pictures and know exactly what to expect:

http://flickr.com/photos/freeed/sets/72157594490796701/

Tip, tip, tip:

Once you log in to Vista, even though it comes with over 1.5 million drivers out of the box, there is always a chance something you have may not be detected. Here come in play the Program Files and Windows folders from the old XP installation I told you to back-up. If Vista complains about a device - insert a DVD and point it to Windows folder on it. From my experience I found that 99.9% of times - Vista will find the driver from either one of those folders and make a really good use of it. Do not worry since if the driver is NOT compatible with Vista, it will complain and let you know. Therefore no harm can be done.

This way I got all of my devices running on Sony before Sony even shipped the updates. All I am waiting now for is Sony specific software since they include some of their proprietary apps which don't work on Vista yet.

Last thing left is for you to copy all those personal files of yours you backed up and install all of the software you may need. Surely, there are some apps which may not work (yet) - but pretty much all of the important ones seem to be ok. I had no trouble with Photoshop, AVG Free Antivirus from Grisoft, Adobe Reader, Google Talk, Skype, Azureus, Google Earth, Zen Cast Organizer, Flickr Uploader, AI RoboForm IE Add-in, Alcohol 120%, Counter Strike Source, etc ...

Also, the server software I run on the same machine works just fine: Apache 2 Web Server together with MySQL Database Server work like a charm.

So, I hope this quite-long of a read can help you decide if you are ready for Vista. Maybe it's a time for a computer upgrade, maybe even for a new computer. If you choose the latter route, you may even get Vista with the computer so - the choice is entirely yours.

If you are going to get a computer though, please, either wait until you can, or cash in immediately for a good machine that will make you happy - 1GB of RAM is OK, 2GB is really good, Single Core CPU is OK, Dual Core will rock your world... Also, make sure not to cheap out on the graphics card since this version of Windows will really make a good use of it - so if you can afford a nice 256MB card or even 512MB card - do so. You won't regret it.

If you are getting a laptop, you may want to wait just a little bit longer and see what comes out. As you may know, Vista supports SideShow (something I'll write about tomorrow), and many of the new laptops like ASUS come with integrated second screen with SideShow capabilities. This would be the way to go, so check it out:

Read about Asus W5Fe on Engadget.com

After browsing around the Internet for the past few hours I finally found couple of really nice tips every Vista user should know.

Network Map feature is great but are some of your Non-Vista PC's not placed on the map? Then you need the following download from Microsoft. It enables Windows XP users to be seen on a Network Map on Windows Vista.

• Get it here: Link Layer Topology Discovery (LLTD) Responder

Thanks VistaBase!

Don't you just love the ability in Mac OS where one click of that little tinny mouse wheel brings up all of the gadgets... I sure do...

If you want to do this in Vista, you do not have to minimize gazilion windows, simply click CTRL + SpaceBar (both at the same time) :)

Your gadgets will show immediately ...

Correction
it's the Windows button and the Space Bar ... Sorry about that ;)
Thanks Philip!

It's quite simple really. Thanks to a really great help-like free resource of information on-line (VistaBase.co.uk), here is how it's done:

Open the Run Dialog (type run in the Start Menu Search), and run the following command:

control userpasswords2

Press OK and you will be presented with a nice dialog. Right where it says "User must enter username and password to use this computer", uncheck the box, enter your credentials and you are done.

For more cool info about simple tasks like these and other help, contact me, comment, wait and read on this site or go to VistaBase.co.uk.

You may have noticed that in Vista, when you want to create another partition on a hard drive, you do not get options for choosing a primary or extended partition. This was actually implemented to assist the novice users and make it easier for them to create partitions without knowing should they create a primary or an extended one.

First four partitions you create with this tool will automatically be primary partitions, all subsequent will automatically be set as logical partitions.

Now, if you still need a finer control over this and create say one primary and one extended partitions and not two primary partitions, you can use a Diskpart Command-Line utility.

Head over to KB300415 and read on how to do so if you need.

If you can't wait for iTunes for Vista to come out, and why should you, here is a little tip, you can make it work good if you run it as an administrator.

1. Right click on the iTunes shortcut and go to Properties.
2. Under the Compatibility tab check the box saying "Run as an Administrator".
3. Click on the OK and you're done.

You can do this for any of the programs you trust. For example, Total Commander (which I cannot live without), needs this to function properly. I found that Dreamweaver behaves a lot better if run in the Admin mode too ... Photoshop is still OK in non elevated mode.

If you have to install Vista on numerous computers, or if you just want to create a special little Installation ISO for yourself with your own set of pre-installed drivers (even those uncertified for vista), you can do so, and more, with vLite.

It will allow you to remove all of the unwanted components so you can run Vista faster.

Nice about it is that it does not use any kind of Hacking or such, but rather it configures the installation directly but with your own configuration.

It's similar to the thing big companies use in order to install OS on all of the machines they make - but all that in a nicer, simpler, and easy to use app.

If you have a nice and fast machine - then you'll do just fine by using the default DVD you purchased. This is for those who like to play with configuring things ;)

Get it at: http://www.vlite.net/

With Aero there are couple of nice things you can do.

1. If your computer is not so much up-to-the-specs for running those transparent windows, you can easily turn the transparency off:

1. Right click on the desktop and choose "Personalize"
2. Click on the first option at the very top: "Window Color and Appearance"
3. Uncheck "Enable Transparency"

2. If you haven't noticed, Vista has some nice menu animations but for someone's taste - they may be a bit too fast or slow, or simply too much. There is something that we can do about this:

1. To turn them off completely go to Start menu and run the following: SystemPropertiesPerformance (for easy access), or if you like to click around right click on your Computer, choose Properties, click on "Advanced system settings", and under the "Advanced" tab you'll have the Performance Settings. (there are actually other ways of getting here too)
2. Once in Performance Settings, under "Visual Effects" uncheck "Animate windows when minimizing and maximizing".

3. If you like the animations so much, you can slow them down so you can see them longer (why would you want this?):

1. Click on Start menu. Type regedit then hit OK.
2. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\DWM
3. In the right hand pane, right click on an empty space and from the context menu that appears choose “New > DWORD (32-bit) Value”.
4. Give the new DWORD (32-bit) value a name of AnimationsShiftKey (be careful in spelling this!)
5. Double click on the new DWORD value and give it a value of 1. 
6. Close the Registry Editor and log off of Windows and log back in for this to take effect, OR run net stop uxsms at administrative rights command prompt followed by net start uxsms to restart the DWM engine. When you want to see the slow animations, hold the [Shift] key :)

For tip #3 and some more of these advanced registry tweaks go to - VistaBase!

I surely like to see what's going on and if there is any network traffic, so if you would like to animate your network icon simply right click on it and choose to either animate it or not to.

It is off by default.

If you do not need the instant search in Start menu to look through say all of your conversations or such, you can fine tune it.

1) Right click on the Start Button and choose "Properties". Under "Start Menu" tab, click on "Customize". You'll see something like this:

2) That's where your options are. Uncheck what you need and what you don't need: Search through files, Favorites and history, Communications? The choice is yours.

If you are still having issues with your iTunes in Vista after running the program with full admin privileges as suggested earlier, try getting the iTunes Repair Tool for Vista from Apple.

It can be downloaded here:
http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/itunesrepairtoolforvista10.html

For more info on it, check out apple's Knowledge Base here: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=305042

Straight from Chris Pirillo's site:

[...] since Windows Vista supports JPG wallpapers, you should no longer set your wallpaper through Internet Explorer (which converts images to BMP before they’re set to your desktop, totally nullifying any kind of improvement the Vista shell team did in respect to saving system resources). Here’s how I’d suggest doing it from this point forward.

1. When you find a suitable wallpaper image on the Web through Internet Explorer, don’t right-click and “Set as background” like you’ve done in the past.
2. Instead, right-click your desktop and “Personalize” - then select “Desktop Background” from the list of options in that panel.
3. Drag and drop the image you like in IE into the scrolling frame of the Desktop Background panel. It’ll automatically copy the image from your browser to your computer.
4. Consider browsing to a different folder on your machine before dragging and dropping images from IE to the Desktop Background applet.
5. From there, you can set the image as your wallpaper at will. It should remain in the JPG format, which is what you want.

If you like to tweak around Group Policy Settings, you may find this quite useful.

It's a huge 2495 Excel lines long Group Policy Reference for Vista ... A great thing to check out if you really want to know it all ;)

Get it by Clicking Here ...

Cheers.

Finally, a bright mind open to new things and the way things are done in Vista.

In this case, Brandon writes and makes a good point on why users will NOT just click OK to all those security warnings in Vista.

Here is his scenario:

1. Joe User starts up his Windows Vista machine and logs into an Administrator account with UAC [User Account Control] enabled.
2. Joe opens up Mail Program Express* - which automatically runs with reduced privileges because of UAC.
3. Joe clicks on a malicious HTML e-mail message that triggers a buffer overrun exploit against Mail Program Express, which executes some malicious code.  Perhaps this code includes instructions to delete important system files, muck with the registry, or access sensitive information about your computer or other users of the machine.
4. The attack against Mail Program Express succeeds, and the code is run - but the code fails to have any impact on the system because it is running in the context of Mail Program Express - which does not have Administrator privileges.

The user will never see the dialog Pop-up, everything is nice and secure.

Sure, there are many different scenarios, but I actually think that users will get used to the most common dialogs and why they usually pop-up, therefore, when a dialog pops-up thanks to some malicious app trying to get administrative privileges, most users will be like "Hey, WTF? This is odd."

Also, in my comment to his great post, I expressed that I also Love that my Internet Explorer runs in even more secure and restricted environment, and if IE, or a code within, tries to get access to anything other than typical things a page might need to render properly, user will be warned and asked if such action should be allowed.

Try viewing a source of a page in notepad or DreamWeaver - IE will ask you if that's something that should be allowed or not.

Leave the UAC on guys! Not that it may, but it will save you from trouble one day.

Check out his great site: BrandonLive.com

I just read on Brandon's web site (BrandonLive.com) that he bought a MacBook and followed a nice guide on how to install Vista onto it, which he found quite useful since Apple's BootCamp driver installer gets scared of Vista.

Here is the link to the instructions:
http://www.geocities.com/nja469/

In case this site runs out of bandwidth or something since the instructions are an image file, you can get them here from my site as a backup: click me.

And also visit Brandon's website when you get a chance: www.BrandonLive.com

... Update ...

Just couple of seconds ago, he also published a solution for Apple Trackpad driver giving you issues when computer resumes from sleep or hybernation where you have no way of using a mouse. He found a nice workaround for it:

Verbatim from This Post on his site:

1. Download DevCon.exe (free from Microsoft.com)
2. Save it somewhere (I put it in Program Files\DevCon, but it shouldn’t matter where).
3. Open the Task Scheduler (type “task” into the start menu to find it quickly).
4. Click “Create Task” and give it a name (like “Fix stupid Apple driver”)
5. Choose a user to run the task - should be a member of the machine’s Administrators group.
6. Check the box that says “Run with highest privileges”
7. Select the option to “Run whether user is logged on or not”
8. Go to the Triggers tab and click New…
9. Select “On Workstation Unlock” from the drop-down and click OK.
10. Go to the Actions tab and click New…
11. Point it at wherever you saved Devcon.exe
12. In the “Add Arguments” field, type:  restart USB\VID_05AC&PID_021A&MI_01
13. The above string was one of the two Hardware IDs listed for my Apple Trackpad device (NOT the filter device).  It’s possible yours might vary, so check in Device Manager to make sure it’s the same, especially if this one doesn’t work.
14. Go to the Conditions tab and uncheck the box that says “Start the task only if the computer is on AC power”
15. Click OK and verify the password for the account you chose for the task to run under.

A nice post I found today about that "insecurity" in Vista which deals with a possibility that an attacker could use the Voice Recognition in order to harm your computer. If you leave the computer as secure as it came by default, you'll pretty much be just fine!

I talked about it here, and this just raises one more reason to keep the UAC on:

Microsoft is aware of the issue but gives it little credit for the same reasons mentioned. The UAC (User Access Control) will prevent serious harm, because a password is required for several core functions requested by the operator. At best, this is a seriously funny gag. Imagine someone with Vista that leaves the computer unlocked as they step away from the desk. You setup all the things needed and, as you talk to them, call out commands. Another gag would be to set up the required features, then email them a ‘funny’ audio file for them to play. Windows Vista Business Edition has this feature, and you can be sure that office pranks will go to a new level.

Via: MonstersAndCritics.com

Straight from Windows-Now.com:

If you're a Media Center buff, than Aaron Stebner's blog is a good one to have in your blogroll. Today he posted about the MSN Remote Record service, and the issues it has installing on Windows Vista x64. It turns out that IE7 sends out different UserAgent strings depending on whether you're in 32-bit or 64-bit IE... which is really kind of a pain in the butt.

You see, when you start IE7 on X64, it's only running in 32-bit more, unless you open up the 64-bit version specifically from the start menu. The problem with that is, only the 64-bit version has Media Center in the UserAgent string, so come pages will fail to load properly, for example the MSN Remote Record installer page.

So Aaron suggests to open the site up in 64-bit IE. But I have a better solution. I've created a Registry fix that balances out the UserAgent strings between the two versions. It adds Media Center to the 32-bit string, and adds .NET 3.0 to the 64-bit string. After you run the .reg file, close and re-open IE and browse to this page. You should see the "Install MSN Remote Record" button.

Why Microsoft didn't do these things... I dunno. But at least this fixes the problem. Thanks for the heads-up, Aaron!

Source: Windows-Now.com

I started this website to show everything about Vista, this does not include only the good things - but also some bad decisions Microsoft made.

One of these is in the making of Windows Firewall.

I thought, before I read the article on ZDNet, that when Microsoft said they got both Inbound and Outbound protection in this new version - that I was protected in a conventional way all firewalls should work - but I was wrong.

It turns out that all of the Outbound connections from the computer are allowed by default!!! Now this is just crazy to me! All conventional firewall programs work in a different, and a lot more secure, way. They block all of the inbound/outbound traffic and then when any of the applications tries to access the net, firewall asks you if such thing should be allowed.

For a really good read and a lot more info about Windows Firewall  and why you probably should get a 3rd party application, check out ZDNet's article.

Source: ZDNet

Also, if you have a router with integrated Firewall - that should do it too. That's the way I keep my network secure :)

So, once again, Brandon got us some new tips. This time, he shows us the best way to turn off the annoying UAC, loose a bit of security - but still be secure.

This tells me just one more thing - and that is - the guys who actually work at Microsoft are also tired of UAC dialog windows popping up :)

Here is his post:

Since Brandon kindly requested I remove the full quote of the post, please go directly to his site for downloading of the registry change file and more up-to-date info on this.
You can read his coment below, and I also recommend you do run your system with full UAC - that's at least how I run it anyways.

Thanks for the tip Brandon!

Source: BrandonLive.com

It seems that Microsoft finally did it! ExtremeTech goes into detail in benchmarking the same system - first time after an Update, and second time after a Clean Install of Vista.

Surprisingly enough - it seems that an Upgrade does not slow down the system as it was widely know before with Windows XP.

Also, as they point out, this is by no means a recommendation to choose an upgrade over a clean installation, all they did was that they compared the two in terms of performance.

I would still suggest a clean install in any case if such is possible. It just makes things easier, and you finally get to install only the applications you really need. How many of you have a bunch of apps you just forget about and never get time to go and remove them? I know my system is breathing fresh air after a nice drive format :)

Head over to ExtremeTech for the complete article and benchmark results.

If you are looking for a good read and some truth for a change about Vista - head over to TechRepublic and read their article on the most common 10 myths about Vista. These days everyone seems to be an expert on how Vista sucks, but there are some people who actually give you the whole picture.

They go into detail about it all.

If you are interested, the article can be found here on TechRepublic.com

The sad truth is that there is just not that many gadgets available for our new and shiny Vista SideBar, while on the other side of the pond - Google, Yahoo and other's have a gazilion to choose from.

No fear my friends, Amnesty Widgets come to aid us with their new Amnesty Generator 0.5b. It allows you to easily convert millions of web widgets, games and videos into gadgets for your sidebar.

Now you can place Google gadgets, Grazr RSS readers, YouTube videos and more onto your Sidebar. Simply, copy and paste the HTML code for a web widget directly into Amnesty Generator and generate a new Sidebar gadget with the click of a button.

Get it here: Amnesty Generator @ AmnestyWidgets.com

How many times did you select a text on a web page, copied it to clipboard, went to your email program, started a new conversation, and pasted it in the body of the message to send off to a friend?

I do it every single day - and finally there is an easier way. Hey, it rhymes, anyway: get Snip-It Addon for IE.

It supports these email clients/apps:

• Web Based:
• Gmail
• HotMail
• Yahoo
• Desktop Based
• Default Mail Client for IE
• Outlook
  

It's available right here, from Microsoft, for free:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=4a0a5245-fbc6-4330-9b43-e31aa0e2a248&DisplayLang=en

Cheers.

I had no problems with running my games, and most important one - Counter Strike Source runs same as it does in XP, so I'm happy.

I also should note that my Sony Vaio SZ-370 laptop has only a 64MB Video Card (Nvidia 7400 Go) but everything - including full Aero experience and high-end games - run without a hitch! So, those reviews telling you that you HAVE to have 128MB graphics card to enjoy all of the Vista experience - are not true... 64MB does a really good job, and 128MB and more will just do even a better job in your gaming experience.

If you are interested in an in-depth review on how Games perform under Vista, head over to ExtremeTech and check out Jason Cross' review.

Source: click here