17 posts tagged “vista”
A week or two ago I decided to take a Lacie mobile external usb drive and reformat it to use as backup for my Macbook Bootcamp Vista partition. I booted into Vista, connected the drive, and using the built in features in Vista, reformated the connected USB drive to NTFS. Upon completion of the formatting, a notice popped up on my screen stating that my hardware had changed and Vista needed to be activated.
I ignored this, unplugged the USB drive and rebooted. For a number of days saw nothing related to the reactivation until the other day. Again I got the notice to activate Windows. So I tried. It did not work. So I had to call India, I mean Microsoft, and walk through an automated voice response system with no success and finally a person. It is strange as it involves the user to enter or speak 8-9 4 digit codes. I had to do this 4 times in order to finally complete the process and get the new code to activate. The Microsoft person also asked me a couple of times how many computers this version of Vista was installed on. I guess the first time I told her only "1" was not good enough.
But what bothers me the most was why by reformatting an external USB drive cause this????
After listening to episode 25 of Windows Weekly with Leo Laporte and Paul Thurrott and their discussion of tech bloggers, and people in general, who only blog and speak about the bad experiences they have had with Vista, I thought to add my two cents worth.
First, if you have read my earlier posts, I had mentioned I have been using Vista since RC1. You will also know I use Mac more than Windows. I have 3 Mac's and 1 Vista box. However, I do run Vista on Bootcamp on my Macbook. And yes, I run Vista using the new aero-glass interface. I also pretty much tell everyone I know to buy Mac. That said, I have had no real issues with Vista and actually like it.
I started with the Beta on my old XP box, running dual boot. I was concerned about how well it would run and documented that on a previous post, but it did run with little problem - one blue screen of death. The worst problem was that my webcam and scanner would not work, and that followed when I purchased Vista Ultimate on my new computer. However, within a few weeks, all hardware now works.
I also decided to try to run Vista Ultimate on my Macbook and mentioned the issues here. However, since, Apple updated bootcamp and all works like a dream (other than DreamScene which pushes the processor). I have had only one issue since when the battery meter did not work, but has since worked out.
The "Windows Experience" scores for all 3 systems (old PC, new PC and Macbook) are here.
I am one who has enjoyed Vista. Yes, you need a newer computer, but I have had no major software or hardware issues and find compatability to not be an issue. Heck, it works fine on my Macbook.
I am with you Paul!
Now back to my Macbook and OSX where I am safe.
I have not been impressed. Many of the shows never start to play, or the start, then I get a message stating they are unavailable. Definitely BETA. What will happen when the masses sign up???
I have installed it on my Macbook, both in OS X and Vista. Also installed on my home Vista box. On each Vista install, I have gotten the following message which makes no sense to me:
I regret to inform everyone, but I am a Twitter. If you do not know what it is, you have to check it out. The fake celebs are the best (Darth Vader is my fav). I do post every now and then, but mostly I am a stalker..hm...I mean a follower. Anyway, on OSX I use Twitterrific, and for Vista, I found a sidebar gadget (twadget) that works pretty good.
I downloaded to my Macbook (running Vista Ultimate via Bootcamp) this weekend the Windows DreamScene. For those who do not know what this is, it is a Microsoft Vista Ultimate Extra that adds the ability to use motion or video as your desktop background. I was listening to Windows Weekly from last week in which Paul said that it did not look like it added much overhead to your system. However, on my Macbook, which has on-board video, it does add a lot of CPU usage.
I am running a Macbook with 2GHz Core2 Duo and 2 Gig of Ram.
When my system has a normal background and is sitting idle, Core 1 is at 0% and Core 2 fluctuates between 2-4%.
Switch to DreamScene, and when the computer is idle, Core 1 is between 25-30% and Core 2 is between 15-20%.
That is quite a lot of CPU usage for just a background. Quite the Hog.
My recommendation if you are running Vista on a Macbook, stay away.
Perhaps tonight I will test on my dedicated Vista desktop. Keep an eye out for that.
This is an update to a previous post I did back in December. In that post I talk about building my own Vista PC and I posted the "Windows Experience" scores of my current PC.
I have also since, installed vista on my Macbook. Here is the "Windows Experience" score for the Macbook.
Last night I finished upgrading my home PC and ran the "Windows Experience" to see the difference.
I finally decided to try to install the final release of Vista. In an earlier post I talked about how I got the RC1 installed with little issue.
I followed the same procedures to fix the wireless, but it did not work. I had to download the Atheros drivers from Softpedia. Actually it is a IBM Thinkpad install that you need to pull the drivers from the WINXP_2K folder.
Also, the right-click and scroll issues are back and I have yet to figure out how to fix. When I try to manually install the Apple drivers, Vista keeps telling me the Best Drivers are already installed. It won't allow me to change/update them - thanks for nothing. If I ever figure it out, I will post here.
I think I know what went wrong with my Vista upgrade install using Paul's workaround.
Microsoft can really screw things up.
Invalid Installation Keys given by Microsoft.
This is why we love Paul Thurrott (and Windows Weekly podcast)!
Check out this workaround to install a Vista Upgrade as a clean install.
Update: I have tried this with no success. If anyone has been able to do this, let me know.
