Windows Vista

edge · Post by **edge** » Tue Aug 22, 2006 6:52 pm

I went to a conference this morning for a Vista demo and Exchange 2003 seminar and 2007 preview. They went much more in depth into Vista than anything else. Some of the features do look cool, such as data encryption, Process management during boot up, etc.

Unfortunately, the encryption is restrained so tightly, that they don't recommend it for businesses, and in some cases, even for home users, and it makes data retrieval after a system crash impossible (unless of course you have good backups).

The new bootup process, once the desktop loads, learns over time what the user does as the computer loads. So if every time I log in, I launch Outlook right away, the system will actually lower the priority on items set to start up on login, and give priority to Outlook so that it loads at a much faster rate.

There is also support for extending drive caching onto newer USB flash drives, to help improve disk preformance.

They did of course cover more than these things, but these were the items that really caught my attention.

I also noticed a couple of small additional visual effects in Aero that were new since the last build.

adciv · Post by **adciv** » Tue Aug 22, 2006 8:48 pm

[quote="Aerdan";p="665162"]I wonder if that means Microsoft will be playing the "Let's extend OpenGL!" game everyone else is playing...[/quote]

Given some of the stuff that has been talked about in DXX, that might not be a bad idea. It would be interesting if DX and OpenGL had the same/similar commands.

Aerdan · Post by **Aerdan** » Tue Aug 22, 2006 9:07 pm

It'd be nice if someone enfolded all the existing *smart* OpenGL extensions into a new version of the standard and added other stuff, in my opinion.

Post by **Mae Dean** » Tue Aug 22, 2006 10:46 pm

It'd be nice if I had access to the newer build of Vista. *huff*

I like this build... but it's kinda slow. I would dig fast.

Post by **Martin Blank** » Wed Aug 23, 2006 3:59 am

RC1 is on the way. Any builds activated will be eligible for RC1 download.

edge · Post by **edge** » Wed Aug 23, 2006 2:10 pm

I don't know if it's still the case, but you used to be able to download the beta builds from their website. You needed an account though, but it's free to get one. I don't know if those were available to everybody though.

At the seminar I went to yesterday, Microsoft provided all of the attendees with a DVD package containing both 32 and 64 bit builds of the latest Beta 2.

I installed it last night, and am, for the most part, enjoying it more than XP.

Things I don't like so far:

Can't get rid of the stupid security notification icon in the system tray, even with security center disabled.
Can't share a folder. I have no idea why, and neither does Windows, it would seem. Typical windows error, it reads "Folder could not be shared".

The administrative UAC notification. It pops up way too often, and really doesn't actually prevent anything if you click continue...it's just annoying, and will probably get disabled today.

Things I liked:

The Aero interface, while not really that original, is a nice change from the ugly stock XP looks, and feels much nicer to use.

Believe it or not, the Microsoft provided nVidia drivers actually work right! While I'll still be installing the nVidia package, I was impressed that it was able to handle all of my games at framerates near the same as what XP produced with the nVidia package installed.

Deacon · Post by **Deacon** » Wed Aug 23, 2006 2:41 pm

Last time I tried to install Windows Vista (original b2 release) it bluescreened on me during setup before I'd seen a single dialog or had a chance to even click or type anything. I tried several times with the same result. :/

Infin8Cyn · Post by **Infin8Cyn** » Wed Aug 23, 2006 2:42 pm

[quote="Deacon";p="664915"]IIRC, my 7800GT is DX9 capable, of course, but may turn out to support DX10. Does anyone have a definitive answer on this (preferably with authoritative source)?[/quote]
No authoritative source, but from all statements released thus far, DirectX10 hardware-based features will not run on older cards. So even if you have 4x7900 graphics cards in Quad SLI they can't make up for the lack of certain hardware features in DX10. Will it be compatible? Possibly, is it DX10 Certified? Definately not.

AFAIK Vista includes 2 versions of DirectX. DX9 is retained for backwards compatibility and is equivalent to what is on Windows XP currently. Any games running in Vista currently are DX9 games which is why many people see no difference.

DX10 is completely new and breaks compatibility with DX9. This is part of the reason why performance has improved, since DX10 has been redesigned from the ground up and is introducing Shader Model 4.0. DX10 needs new hardware (current cards will continue to use DX9) and new drivers (specifically for Vista).

edge · Post by **edge** » Wed Aug 23, 2006 9:00 pm

[quote="Deacon";p="665485"]Last time I tried to install Windows Vista (original b2 release) it bluescreened on me during setup before I'd seen a single dialog or had a chance to even click or type anything. I tried several times with the same result. :/[/quote]

The install is kind of wonky as it is. How did you try to install it? From within your XP install? or booting directly from the CD?

This latest install, I did from within XP, and chose to upgrade. Things seemed to proceed a bit more smoothly than when I'd installed while booting directly to the CD.

Deacon · Post by **Deacon** » Wed Aug 23, 2006 10:07 pm

With a brand new hard drive, booting from the installation DVD (burned from the ISO I downloaded from MS).

edge · Post by **edge** » Thu Aug 24, 2006 1:39 pm

Ouch :-/ The only other problems I can think of that I've had with the beta installs so far, have been "unknown" errors, and there was one instance where it did not detect my hard disk, but those were older builds a few months back.

Infin8Cyn · Post by **Infin8Cyn** » Thu Aug 24, 2006 3:03 pm

Much like Deacon's odd issue, my Vista wouldn't go into GUI mode. Ran fine and installed up to that point, then black screened and didn't do anything at all.

New 40Gb HD, fresh format, AMD X64 2Ghz, 1Gb Ram, Radeon 9800 Pro.

Nothing special.

Deacon · Post by **Deacon** » Thu Aug 24, 2006 4:16 pm

Yeah, well, after the second time of it bluescreening in the same place, I just gave up and threw my XP Pro install CD in there and away I went.

Infin8Cyn · Post by **Infin8Cyn** » Thu Aug 24, 2006 4:22 pm

I unplugged my one harddrive, plugged the other in and went back to Linux.

adciv · Post by **adciv** » Thu Aug 24, 2006 6:27 pm

I found out some interesting stuff earlier that is making me really consider not using Vista.

1) Vista will not run unsigned drivers (at least the 64 bit version won't)

2) Only the 64 bit verison will playback HDCP

3) All the $#%&* DRM crap they keep putting into Vista

I was all excited when I was reading about Vista until I started to come across all these things. Now, I'm not so sure I want to upgrade to it, even if it does mean no DXX. Time to start looking at a mac for my gaming platform.

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