Is Vista replacing XP or Not?

[randyjg]

I have had Windows Vista (TM) Ultimate 64 bit for about a month now. In the first couple of weeks, I regularly rebuilt my machine as I learned what not to do.

I haven't rebuilt it in a while I learned that

1. If you have any possibility of installing to another location, do not install to Program files or Program Files(x86). Vista has this neat little feature of shadowing those directories so System programs see different files than you do. And if you think spaces in a directory name are a problem, try seeing what parentheses do to code. I created a C:\bin directory and put everything I could into there instead.
2. Never, ever install the Logitech Setpoint driver. Every program that uses the mouse suddenly can't find anything on the screen (That one cost me a whole week, I thought it was an Eclipse bug)
3. Most everything you could ever want to do is somewhere, but it is not obvious, and poorly documented. For example, if the default desktop icons are too large. just hold down the control key and scroll your mouse wheel to change their size. Of course, simply adding (or even mentioning) that option to any of the display control windows never occurred to Microsoft.
4. Just because you are an administrator, does not meant you are an ADMINISTRATOR. you have to elevate your privilege to do most things as an admin. You can do this by selecting "run as administrator" on the context popup or checking the "run as administrator" option on the compatiblity tab of the properties page.
5. If you are running an EXE program that was written for 32 bit (most of them, apparently) check the run as WIndows XP SP2 option on the compatiblity tab of the properties page.
6. Most antiviriii are pretty bad. Get NOD32, its the only one that works properly.
7. Use the Vista firewall until Comodo 3 is released. Nobody makes a properly working firewall for Vista Ultimate 64 bit yet.
8. You need to use Visual Studio 2008, 2005 has issues.
9. I can't get Python to work with the MSSQL driver. Python is built with Visual Studio.net 2003, and, as I said, you can only use Visual Studio 2008 (and no, it has to be 2003, they check).And Python doesn't compile properly on VS2008. Python itself does seem to work properly, but since I replaced Trac with Redmine, I had no need for it.
10. I am having trouble getting DB2 users added. For some reason, DB2 isn't finding the user database in the native OS properly.
11. Rhapsody doesn't work (DRM issues with Helix.) use Rhapsody.com or run XP in a Virtual PC instead.
12. DIsk defrag is crippled. Run Auslogics free disk defrag (incredibly fast) instead.

On the other hand, the features like automatic backup are to die for. You don't need to shut off User Account Control, after a while, it stops being a bother.

And compatibility is not a problem in most cases., I have gotten MySQL, MS SQL Server 2005 and Oracle 10g working properly. I have apache httpd (64 bit ) with PHP 64 bit working properly. I have Tomcat and JBoss Portal working properly.I have Eclipse and MyEclipse running properly with a 64 bit Java 6 JDK from Sun.

If you do have a problem, run XP MIcrosofts latest Virtual PC 2007. It runs like a charm, and it gives you a true XP environment. I am currently running Windows XP(TM) Pro on a HP dv9260nr T2999 with 2 gigs (768 allocated to Windows XP (TM) Pro and it seems to run everything properly. I would suggest a 4gig machine though (unfortunately, a dv9260nr is limited to 2 gig, and it was all I could afford) I was able to even get 1400x960 resolution at 32 bits, though I probably would not try using it for games....

If you want to run Linux, use Virtualbox (VMWare has problems with unsigned drivers) I have Centos 5 running in a virtualbox with no problems. Well, I have to use NAT networking..I haven't had any luck with direct access yet, but then again, I didn't try very hard)

I have not noticed any issues with Java, Ruby, C# or PHP programming. C++ is, well, not exactly an issue, you expect problems with a language that has relative byte sizes for primitives and pointers, and so you have to be careful with that.

I haven't tried games (except for Google Flight Simulator on Google Earth (Which would have cut into my programming time if I hadn't learned not to sleep) but it seemed to run fast, considering the video card is only an old geforce. ) I do use the Hauppauge 1500 expresscard Analog/Digital TC DVR to Tivo a lot, works with my Comcast cablebox quite nicely, and barely registers on my CPU or disk.

I have heard reports that you may have problems with accessing over 4 gigs even on 64 bit, but I can't testify to that, I am stuck at 2 gigs max. Some people, I know, claim to have successfully used 8 gig of memory, so who knows?

Randy Gordon
Email: *************** ***
Websites: randyjg.selfip. org and there.thruhere. net (among others)

[drhowarddrfine]

Ok but can it still play solitaire?

[Shashi Sadasivan]

Ok but can it still play solitaire?

I did not install solitare, but its got chess (in 3d, woohoo), its got a paintbrush ball (kinda weird), and some purple poofy game (it will freak you out) :P

the chess is good (its got an undo action :D)