Vista Battery Saver

So I am running Vista on my laptop, and it has a bunch of little gadgets and graphical candy built in. Let's face it, Vista is pretty. With all this, when you are using a laptop on battery, it really eats the juice.

I was doing a little search for more advanced power management, such as turning off Aero when on battery - and it is not built in. But I stumbled across an open source website sponsored by Microsoft that has all kinds of user enhacements and plug-ins: http://www.codeplex.com/

Vista Improved

Woo hoo! Microsoft has released a VERY effective update that significantly improves performance for Windows Vista. This update is not automatically available via Widows update so if you are interested, you must go here: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=941649eI am so much happier now with this performance update installed. From what I hear, this will be available in SP1, but why wait and torture yourself?!?

Microsoft Surface

People are flipping out about the capability of Microsoft Surface (Demonstrated on the Today show 05/30/2007). This was quite an amazing demonstration of what Microsoft could do with this amaziong touch table. It looks like the DiamondTouch that is designed by Mitsubishi. Microsoft's unveiling on their software, Microsoft Surface, is not the first however. After installing Warcraft III on my Windows Vista Laptop I stumbled across this video using the DiamondTouch to play the game Now I just got to figure out a way to get my paws on one of these tables!

Vista Amazing

So I have had PLENTY of complaints with Windows Vista and have replaced my upgraded desktop with a newly installed laptop and all my problems are gone. Yes, Vista with an upgrade is a guaranteed headache. You may try to power through all the problems, but you will still be plagued with performance problems in the end. I love my new PC and as soon as I get all the important data of the desktop I upgraded, I plan to format that PC as well.

Vista Woes Continue

ZIP files wouldn't open and finding the place to associate file expentsion was difficult (Control Panel -> Default Programs). However there are no valid options to fix the ZIP file extension. after about an hour of browsing Ifound a helpfil File associate fix at: http://www.dougknox.com/xp/file_assoc.htm - Thanks Doug! Just ran the little REG file fix. Open the Default Programs app and selected the correct thing to do with Compressed ZIP files and I am all set. My former TIF file problem was however easily fixed in the Default Programs tool in the Control Panel. Even though this is a fast machine, with 2GB of RAM, vista has its slow lag times. I cannot wait until SP1 and HEAVILY recommend anyone who is willing to try or test vista should do a full install, not an upgrade. I still have aweird error whenever I put in my Mobile Phone: OnConnect is shutdown - what is OnConnect anyway? and MFC71.dll was not found. GRR! A quick search of the hard drive for this file and a copy to c:\windows\system32 fixed that error. Other than that, I have no idea what is now working of if I really accomplished anything other than removing the error message. And Windows Media Player 11 natively supports PodCasts now right? No! That is how I ran into my ZIP file problem. I had to look for a podcast plugin that is offered as a ZIP file. GRR. On the positive side, Vista is pretty. Heh, I feel so much better.

Laptop Upgrade to Vista

Now that things have smoothed out on my Vista upgrade, I decided to try my own advice in regards to my laptop. Recall, I recommended to forgoe the upgrade and perform a fresh install. So about an hour an a half later, not only was Vista installed, but on a laptop that is officially not supported by HP for Vista. All the major components worked: video, sound, & wireless. I just had to adjust to the correct resolution and ask Vista to find a driver for my memory card slots (yes I just to told it to find one on the internet and it automatically downloaded what it needed). This install was quite easy and for a laptop with only 512MB of RAM I am impressed. I am still planning on a memory upgrade since I have not given it a real workout yet. Still I have so many questions to answer: How well does Vista play in a network environment? What security features are going to conflict with daly business tasks? How many components of the existing networks will need to be upgraded before Vista can take advantage of shared printers from XP, or network aware anti-virus? Boy did I open a can of worms!

Windows Vista Upgrade - Part 2

Still troubleshooting. I get a buzz every time sounds are played through the speakers. I also get an error about a failure to load some DLL file. Apparently it is a creative labs application, so I am uninstalling all the Creative labs apps. Bottom line: Don't upgrade to save time. You will spend less time with a fresh install of Vista, reinstalling your apps than you will if you upgrade and have to troubleshoot each new problem that comes up, and the peace of mind of a fresh install is totally worth it!

Windows Vista Upgrade

So I decided to upgrade my PC this morning to Windows Vista. I started the upgrade at 7AM, having a little bit of foresight, I decided to unintall Anti-Virus and the disk defragging software. As of 10AM Windows Vista is running, but my Mobile PC synchronization & PDF printing (cute PDF) are not. We have been playing around with Vista for around 6 months since RC1. I even used Vista RC2 for some manager seminars we hosted back in January. So the interface is familiar, but I have not tried some of the device applications. An upgrade/reinstall of Cute PDF 2.7 fixed PDF printing. But I am spinning my wheels on ActiveSync & Chapura PocketMirror. In addition I plan to install Office 2007 Enterprise. I will keep you all posted.