Archive for the ‘Windows’ Category

Symantec Apps on Vista; Not so Much

Posted on February 20th, 2007 in Windows | 2 Comments »

As I push forward with my hands on Vista usage series of posts, I write today with frustrations over application incompatibilities.

 

PCA12 on Vista - Not so much!

I’m doing a routine build of productivity tools on my notebook and was floored to find that PCAnywhere 12 is not compatible with Vista. And not only PCA, but just about every Symantec application as well! Check this link for a full list of unsupported apps from Symantec.

CyberMedia News is reporting that PCAnywhere for Vista will not ship till May or June of 2007, a good six months after Vista’s corporate unveiling.

Couple that with Symantec’s own list of unsupported apps, and obviously someone is asleep at the switch up there in Cupertino. Symantec, let’s focus a little less on mergers and /begin sarcasmbold new ventures like “Security 2.0”/end sarcasm, and just work on basic app compatibility!

 

Vista Activation – Easy as 1-2-3

Posted on February 19th, 2007 in Windows | No Comments »

So I reached the end of my 30 days to activate Vista, and I have to admit the activation process went off without a hitch. Below is a walk through of the screens encountered.

 

 Vista Activation 1

 

 

When I was greeted by the “you must activate today deal with me box” I selected: Activate Windows Online Now:

 Vista Activation 2

In my case it did not take but 30 seconds to perform it’s communication with Microsoft.

Vista Activation 3

Success!

Vista Activation 4

As you can now see from the new “system” properties screen the Genuine Advantage logo is present on a system that has been authenticated.

 

 

It will be interesting to see if consumers start to hit the same kind of false positive pirated messages that have plagued The XP Genuine Advantage tool. I’d be interested to hear from any of you who encounter problems.

 

Vista UAC – this is “trustworthy computing?”

Posted on February 11th, 2007 in Windows | No Comments »

“No really I want to do that you stupid Vista UAC!” That’s what I find myself screaming at every new Vista install I encounter. At least until this infernal feature is turned off!

 

UAC - I Hate You!

 

If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you are one of the lucky ones that has yet to sample this latest effort by Microsoft to safe guard Vista users from their own stupidity – the UAC or  “User Account Control.”

 

In fact UAC has so captured the furry users, it’s been incorporated into the latest Apple “Hi, I’m a PC – I’m a Mac” TV spots in the US. It’s priceless and one of the best in the serious, if you’ve missed it you can see it here.

 

We all know and hate malware, viruses, Trojans, the list goes on and on.  UAC, attempts to prevent these threats from compromising a system in the first place. It attempts to do this by requiring the user to acknowledge actions that could expose a PC to potentiality harmful actions. Now that doesn’t sound like such a bad thing, the problem is in its implementation.

 

Just like the Apple commercial illustrates, practically every action you do will pop up this “Deal with me box” – that’s a rant for another time. The box gives you the option to allow or deny the action in question. The angst here is that you have to actually understand what you are acknowledging or refusing. This idea goes completely against all logic, as a power user is going to not launch the suspect app in the first place, and the novice will simply say, “Sure, I need that crappy browser plug-in to make my MySpace page crash!” Yeah, good God help us!

 

As I already stated one of the first things I do when configuring a new Vista install is to turn UAC off all together. Yes, yes, I know this could be opening myself up to untold dangers (all the ones I’ve always been vulnerable to on XP.) So if you want to be a super 1337 user and play it fast and lose, like your’s truly, below you will find a step by step crib sheet to turn this D&mn thing off.

 

As you might have found from poking around the UAC settings are buried in the control panel. It’s down in the “User Accounts” applet. See the screen shots, select the “Turn User Account Control on or off”.  

UAC Screen Shot 1

Once in there you can check/uncheck the UAC – changing this flag will necessitate a reboot.

  

UAC Screen Shot 2

 

All that is left, enjoy Vista more without constant UAC popups!

iTunes Vista problems are a Microsoft “Win-Win”

Posted on February 6th, 2007 in Apple, Windows | 1 Comment »

With the recent news that iTunes is doing all kinds of misbehaving on Vista, a colleague asked, “why would Microsoft allow this to happen on their flagship OS?”  And while at first glance his assumption looks like a valid indictment of Microsoft Vista, I have to ponder is there more a more sinister plan afoot at Redmond?

 

“C’mon Eric!”, you’re thinking, after all iTunes is a significant part of people’s computing experience – surely this is just another MS marketing blunder.  The reasoning goes something like this, “Not having full compatibility out of the box with a mainstream media application like iTunes, Microsoft is going slow adoption and/or frustrate users of Vista.” And while I do not dispute the truth of that argument let me just roll with this for a bit.

 

Here is the scenario – Microsoft has drug it’s feet and not put any pressure on Apple to get iTunes ready for Vista on launch day. The immediate responses:

1. Shame on Microsoft, there should be better testing and integration with large ISVs like Apple.

 

 

2. Apple is in no hurry, why does Apple want to support Vista anyway, with OSX and Macintels gaining market share why should they hurry up to support Vista users?

 

 

3. Microsoft has found yet another way to botch the Vista roll out forcing iTunes/iPod users to faultier or loose out on functionality.

 

Wow sounds like a win for Apple and at the very least a PR nightmare for Microsoft! But is it? Does Apple actually stand to benefit from having its iTunes service unavailable on every new computer that ships with Vista or those upgrading?  Certainly not, over 50% of all iTunes sales are on non-Apple platforms, why would Apple want limit their market to the Macintosh install base (still under 10%?)

 

On the other hand, why would MS want to slow expansion and continued use of iTunes anyway? Microsoft makes money for every song that is sold on iTunes, remember MS still owns a stake of Apple, and the iTunes store is highly profitable.

 

Still think it’s a vast Microsoft debacle, try this thought on. If the iTunes incompatibility were severe enough to force people into deciding between their beloved iPod or a new version of Windows, and they just had to have Vista – Microsoft is more than happy to sell you their music solution visa vie the “Zune”.  

 

See anyway you slice it Microsoft stands to Win – the rest of us, well, I’m not so sure!

Vista Media Center – Are we there yet?

Posted on February 2nd, 2007 in Gadgets, Windows | 1 Comment »

In a word; No, not really, maybe, kind of, Yes. Got that? Clear as mud, isn’t it?

Eric with Media Remote

You might recall last month I started on a quest to investigate the viability of replacing my preferred DVR solution (DirecTV + Tivo) with Vista MCE and off-air HD. You can read about it in: Vista + HDTV = Tivo Killer?

After working with the Artec HD USB 2.0 dongle on my Vista Ultimate test rig (Intel Core 2 Duo based system) for the last few weeks, I can answer you with any of the above, just depends on the time you happen to ask the question.

Basically, the core functionality of off-air DVR recording in HD is there. The most challenging aspect of this feat was the positioning of the provided indoor antenna and dealing with Vista driver issues. Once these issues were settled both Vista and the Artec T14A performed well.

I will comment that playback and live TV viewing was choppy at times, I believe this was due to I/O and CPU strain. Vista records its files to a .dvr-ms file type. And it’s big, no make that VERY BIG. One hour of programming is about 9 Gig. I’m guessing that is due to a lack of compression, while this is a plus for quality, it is a bit unnecessary (with all the great codecs out there today), fills even a big HD quickly, and impacts playback performance.

My test box was low end Core 2 Duo based system (E6300 running @ 1.86) with two gigs of RAM, an NVIDIA 6600GT, and dual SATA drives. With I/O issues in mind I set the recorder location to the D: (not the system) drive, but even this did not completely alleviate the jitters and jumpiness of playback.

But believe it or not it’s not even these technical/performance challenges that bring me to the “kind of, maybe” answer.

Since navigating Vista MCE is pure eye candy you might ask what is my reservation in deploying it as my primary HDTV media hub? While it is true Microsoft has done a wonderful job ripping off all the best interface cues from Tivo, OSX and others, it has not solved the seamless integration problem that is required to live in my media room.

Listen, simply put I want it all. I enjoy DirecTV programming and happen to believe they offer the best service for the price in SD at least. As beautiful as off-air HD is I don’t want to limit myself to the 15 or so local stations I can get with an off-air solution. I want the off-air HD to be my primary for network programming, but I need a DirecTV USB or PCI tuner solution. Come on guys, you promised this type of integration at CES 2006, lets get on with it.

Finally the “No” or is that “No, not yet.”

One of the most compelling aspects of the Vista MCE strategy is its extendibility via the Xbox 360. As I stated previously, the demo at this year’s CES with one Vista Media Center feeding five remote Xboxs was jaw dropping. For $299 not only do I get a full fledged gaming console, it offers me complete access to my digital content (music, photos, DVDs, downloaded content, live and recorded TV) stored elsewhere on my home computer running Vista Home Premium or Ultimate. Sounds great right?

Try to get your local Best Buy or Fry’s employee confirm this functionality or, heaven forbid, demo it. No, unfortunately this solution is still in the Uber Geek, early adopter phase of life. I am hopefully 2007 might mark the turning point for this, but it’s at least 6 months out, if it’s going to happen at all this year.

So thus concludes my search for a perfectly unified HD + digital media player solution for my media room, at least for a month or so, till then I have some CSI episodes to go watch on my Tivo.

Mac Users Can’t resist Vista

Posted on January 31st, 2007 in Apple, Windows | No Comments »

Are they sucked in by the Widgets or is the Expose like Aero interface, I’m not sure but Users like Steve Siddle just can’t get enough.

 

Steve With Vista

 

I ran into Steve at Fry’s today, as you can tell from that grin on his face; there is no way I’m prying that Vista Ultimate out of his hands. Well actually that was till I told him the Retail price of $399, then the grip was a little less barbaric – ok, so he quickly dropped it and ran away in horror.

For those of you who don’t know Steve is a Mac/Final Cut Guru by day, but slips into his alter ego of WWII Sniper by night in DOD.

 

All joking aside, his only question about whether to upgrade to Vista or not was just, “Can I PWN N00bZ better with Vista?”

Happy Vista Day!

Posted on January 29th, 2007 in Business & Industry, Windows | No Comments »

Unless you have been living under large topiary for the past couple of years, you know that January 30th, 2007 marks the wide scale consumer release of Microsoft Windows Version 6.0.6, or the product you might know better as Vista. 

So in case you’re not one of the many Corporate IT departments already wrestling with the thought of Vista deployment, or a member of the press with an advance copy, or a developer (or even a wanna be developer) with MSDN, or you attended any MS event in the last few months, or you “purchased” one of the CTP (Community Technology Previews), or you Bittorrented a cracked copy – wow come to think about it, who doesn’t have a copy of Vista yet?

Well, for the eight of you who spent the night in a CompUSA parking lot so you can get your hands on the golden code (I use that term loosely) this Blog’s for you.

Actually, I shouldn’t “dis” those of you who are not as jaded, as I do recall the excitement of ripping open the shrink wrap of a new Microsoft OS to frantically jam its 5 1/4“ floppies into my system. For me the day was a cool Tuesday Morning, May 22nd, 1990. If that’s a little misty in your memory it was the launch day for Window 3.0.

Much has changed as far as launch days go. There where no Rock Stars, world wide simultaneous telecasts, and no “Start” buttons. There was no line wrapping around the door at the Egghead Software, ah Egghead – good times in that place. No the real excitement was not in the glitz of the launch itself, but rather in the technology, the software, the anticipation of totally new and improved product.

The expectation that this version of Widows would redefine the way users interact with their data. The promise that this Windows experience would so far exceed those of previous versions that I would instantly ask myself how I ever functioned before. Yes, there was a lot of anticipation as an early adopter back then.   Funny, the more I think about all that has changed, the more clear what has remained the same becomes. We’ve all been filled with hope of a better Windows for a long time.

A “hope” that this version of Windows will actually deliver on the dreams we’ve had for Windows 3.11, NT, 95, 2000, and even XP, the hope of a stable, secure and productive OS.

So Happy Vista Day – I hope the wait truly ends.

Calm before the Vista Storm

Posted on January 25th, 2007 in Windows | No Comments »

So from the “interesting” category… I go into a California Micro Center today to pick up a notebook for a co-worker, nothing too odd about that right – the odd part was what happened next.

As I made my way to the systems department, I could not help but notice that the whole area of display PCs looked picked over and rather void, kind of trashy actually. This was the case in both the desktop and laptop displays.

A sales person in the systems area acknowledged me and said he’d be back in a minute after helping another patron. Since they were standing within earshot I could not help but listen to the conversation, in which the sales guy said he really did not have any computers to sell him as they were waiting for Vista to come out before restocking.

The customer was a bit disappointed, he was not looking for a Vista computer, he just needed a system for home. The salesman told him there was nothing he could and he should just wait a week to buy a system.

After that he came over to help me and cautioned at the beginning of the conversation that today (really the next week, till January 30) was a bad day to buy a computer. When I told him this was for business and I wanted to run XP Pro anyhow, he looked at me and said “Really?”

We were able to find one of the last two notebooks in stock that met my needs, picked it up and headed to check out.  At checkout the store manager came over to do the customary, “Thank you for buying a computer from us” speech (a nice touch at Micro Center), during this he was also surprised I was buying today and not waiting till Vista. He went on to devolve that they had over 100 notebooks alone in the back that they could not sell till the Vista launch.

As I finished the check out and walked to the car, I couldn’t help but think what an odd experience? A sales organization comfortable sending customers away empty handed when they wanted make a purchase. Wonder what kind of new system sales we are going to see on launch day?

All hail VISTA!

Posted on January 23rd, 2007 in Windows | 1 Comment »

Okay,
maybe thats a little dramatic but I have seen Vista in the home…and its not too bad. In fact, I confess, I was captivated. Like the other Microsoft minions I was all  ready to cast a sceptical but somwhat approving eye on Vista. What I saw bought me back to earth and garnered a genuine appreciation for what Microsofts new OS has to offer. I only saw a relativley brief demo and we focused on the media features but I did see enough of the general screens and functionality to formulate an opinion.

 

Vista Desktop

You know those commercials with the two guys, one the MAC and one the PC? You see how the MAC guy is all hip and so “now”, the PC guy is sort of stodgy and frumpy. Well they just sent the PC guy to get a total makeover. He is still a PC but wow, they have really improved him. He is wearing new, hip, clothes and he buffed up and got a new haircut. Cooler to hang out with even though he is STILL a pc. I think that, on the surface, is where Vista takes us. For average users that is fine, more importantly for power users I think the changes in VISTA below the skin will make the computing experience more complete by allowing us to tailor the experience to our own needs.
Next I will take the plunge and install Vista on my laptop, I look forward to sharing that experience. 

Vista – The Fresh Install

Posted on January 13th, 2007 in Windows | No Comments »

So after the abysmal failure of the Upgrade, I’m now attempting a fresh load in a dedicated partition.

Upon booting the Vista DVD, I select a custom install (the only option available.) Vista is offering a new GUI fdisk utility. I figured I need to go into this utility and clean out the old (now non-accessible) Fedora partitions. This proved trying.

Since the old drive was a dynamic disk the installer wanted nothing to do with it. After about 30 minutes and several reboots I found it impossible to manage the partitions effectively with this new tool.  With the help of a trusty old Windows 98 DOS boot disk and fdisk I was able to clear the partitions enough to progress farther through the Vista installer.

After the initial copy of files to the hard drive the system rebooted and resumed the install – this is better progress than last nights upgrade attempt.  Another few minutes of finalizing the install and yet another reboot.  Interestingly aside from the original product key and EULA sign off, the only prompts I encountered during the install were for the disk location, none of the usual Network, time zone, options questions we have all grown accustom to from the many windows past.

Finally, after this second reboot I am asked to select a username and picture.  This is a local user account and can not be administrator, I have to assume that user is already generated as I am not allowed to take that name.

After username you are asked to enter the PC name and it’s background. Then Windows update preferences, followed by time zone.

That about sums up the install, now I’m looking at a very pretty screen and need to figure out where everything is – more on that in future posts. Â