Archive for the ‘Windows Vista’ Category
The interesting (and by “interesting” I mean completely frustrating) thing about networking is that it involves so many pieces of hardware and software. Adapters, routers, firewall devices, operating system components, third-party tools, applications…the list goes on and on.
If you’re going to make sense of this sort of system, it helps to start with a reliable baseline, which is where the Internet Connectivity Evaluation Tool comes in. Visit this page using Internet Explorer on Windows XP or Windows Vista, accept a license agreement, download a little code, and click the Start Test button.
It’s not a speed test (other sites do that better). Instead, the results tell you about your router and how it works with Windows. It doesn’t make any permanent changes, and it doesn’t disclose any personally identifiable information.
Recommended.
A commenter on an earlier post (Ultimate Extras, MIA) asks, “Where are the extras?”
Only Microsoft knows what, if anything, is coming in this category. But you can find out which Ultimate Extras are currently installed on your system (delivered via Microsoft Update and, of course, only there if you’re running Vista Ultimate) by doing this:
1. Open Control Panel.
2. Click Programs.
3. Under the Programs and Features heading, click Turn Windows features on or off.
4. Scroll to the bottom of the Windows Features dialog box. Expand the Windows Ultimate Extras category to see the full listing, and note that you can enable or disable any item on the list by selecting or clearing its checkbox.
There’s some other interesting stuff in that dialog box, too, but don’t click unless you’re certain you know what you’re doing. For instance, that Indexing Service? That’s the old, basically useless one from pre-Vista days. It has nothing to do with Windows Desktop Search and you definitely don’t want it running. Trust me on this.
Last week both ATI and Nvidia released updated, WHQL-certified drivers for Windows Vista. The ATI drivers are working fine here on my main system, and I’m about to update the Nvidia drivers on a test machine.
I’ve got download links and more information over at ZDNet. I’m especially interested in feedback from the gaming community. Are these drivers an improvement?
More: Are ATI and Nvidia doing enough with their Vista drivers?
Five months after RTM, Microsoft has released the April 2007 Cumulative Update for Media Center for Windows Vista.
You’ll find several bug fixes and a few improvements, including Online Media support for 64-bit systems. My experience with Media Center rollups has been good, but your mileage may vary. Robert McLaws says he had some problems with IE7 and Outlook 2007 after installing it, so caution is, as always, in order.
This one is being delivered as a Recommended update, so if you check Windows Update on a supported system (Vista Home Premium or Ultimate), you’ll see it in the list of available updates.
I’ve read a bunch of complaints from people about how slow Windows Vista is. Frankly, I’m mystified by those complaints, because my experience is the exact opposite. Apparently I’m not alone. Carl Campos has documented his 10 weeks with Windows Vista:
After 10 years of supporting Windows systems, I have a good feel for how fast a system works, sort of like a mechanic who can listen to a car idle and identify its problems. Vista is quick, responsive and it seems to multitask better than XP. Vista, unlike XP, is still usable when applications hog the 100% of the CPU or constantly page the hard drive. Vista uses a tremendous amount of memory while not doing much, but it doesn’t appear to affect the feel of the system at all.
Overall, it’s an excellent piece of writing, with a well-rounded, balanced look at the pros and cons of Vista. Well worth reading.
Dreaming of building your own super-high-capacity flash drive? Addonics has this nifty-looking little adapter that lets you sandwich two flash drives together and then replace the 2.5” hard drive in a notebook.
It’s not cheap. Kevin Tofel at JKOnTheRun has priced out the pieces for a 32GB solid-state drive (two 16GB cards at $250 each) and has the details. I think I’ll wait until they’re down in the $50 range, which should be about this time next year. (I’m kidding, I think.)
I’d love to try it as the system partition on a Windows Vista machine. How wicked fast would it be? I’m guessing it would cut Vista’s load time to about 12 seconds. If anyone wants to donate the parts – or at least pitch in for the flash cards – I’ve got my stopwatch handy.
(via Gizmodo)