Fox and Windows Vista

[Fusion]

Okay, here I go with my probably ever-growing list of problems with Windows Vista.

So, I'm a bit happy at the fact that this is Windows Vista Basic Premium, which is said to have less problems than just Vista Basic.  I really wanted an XP PC, but that proved impossible as all of the new models had moved to Vista.  Oh well, I guess I'll just have to hook up my old computer's hard drive to this one some time, if it's "compatible..."

The rig?  1024 MB of RAM, 256 MB Nvidia GeForce 6150SE, AMD Athlon 3800+, with a DVD-RW\CD-RW combo drive equipped with LightScribe.  Came with a wide-screen monitor, and when I say wide screen I mean -wide- screen.  Yeah, wide screen is wiiide and stuff.

Right off the bat, I'm somewhat feeling happy but at the same time feeling a bit sad: I don't have all my old files like I intended.  I don't have any way to transfer all of them, and if I could I sure would.  Some of Vista's features aren't that impressive.  I'd just hope the hardware I have in my PC would work with XP, because I'd set it to boot from my old hard drive.


Okay, now the gripes.  First thing that bothered me is that when I tried to add mods to my game, Vista shut off access to the game's entire folder, thus not even letting itself run.  I would have to copy & paste files from a folder I'd made into the game's folder to install the mods.  Too much of a hassle.  Eventually I found how to turn that "anti-idiot protection" off, and now I don't have any trouble directly extracting to my game's folder.  Vista stopped interfering there.

The interface has, pretty much as Microsoft said, been recorded almost entirely.  To the point I don't like it all that much.  Sound Recorder has been re-made from scratch, and is strictly for recording sounds.  There's no way I can directly record from my sound card any more, as the old Master Volume Control has been ripped apart and rebuilt to the point it's entirely troublesome to even change recording devices.  "Stereo Mix" isn't a recording option.  It'd be nice to record from the sound card itself... Guess I'll need to find a 3rd-party tool to get back on track with that.  Solved.

Next, the interface.  I don't know if it's unwieldy, but I have a hard time figuring out what's where in the Control Panel because just every option name has been changed.  'Display' changed to 'Personalization'.  How was I supposed to know that?  There should be a "guide to XP users upgrading to Vista".  Why?  So we can know what the f**k to do!  Seriously!  I get lost looking in tiny windows trying to find a program I like!

Whatever happened to keeping stuff in RAM for later reference, even if it's just 10 seconds later?  I download a mod, and a little bit later I also download another mod and both times I have to wait for Vista to check and make sure the same CD is in the same drive in the same place.  It takes about 3 seconds to check the CD.  Way too long in my opinion.

More gripes as they come.

[UHMEEEEBA]

I figure you'll likely keep it until you get a new computer.

I don't have any opinons as I'll keep using this computer for quite some time.

[Fusion]

Justice, the filter raped your post.

[UHMEEEEBA]

OH NOES.

[Jesuszilla]

"Stereo Mix" isn't a recording option.  It'd be nice to record from the sound card itself... Guess I'll need to find a 3rd-party tool to get back on track with that.

Welcome to my world. When you find that, tell me. I want to record from my sound card but have never EVER been able to find stereo mix or what u hear or anything like that. And I run XP.

[Fusion]

It could be 'Digital Mix' or 'Stereo Mix'.  There was some option in XP's Volume Control where you could choose what devices were displayed.

Found the Vista equivalant of recording from sound card.  It's really quiet... Gonna have to tweak a few things before I get proper sound levels.

[Jesuszilla]

I HAVE NOTHING LIKE THAT I HAET YOU


I'M GONNA GO LISTEN TO LINKIN PARK

[Fusion]

New:

Resource hogging.  Vista is one hell of a resource hog because it slows down programs that don't use so much CPU, and if you set something to high priority Vista is liable to slap you back and put itself in a higher priority, causing more trouble.  I had to bring up the task manager and set my emulator to VERY HIGH priority, almost threatened real-time before I could get non-laggy speed out of it.  I have to have frame skip running on SNES emulators because if I don't, then on regular intervals I'll lose some in-game speed.  I have to run ZSNES on High Priority mode and even then I end up having to run it with all the frame-skip in the world.

The load times on certain things are terrible.  The system can't keep things for more than 20 seconds.  Not only that it takes a more Firefox-ish approach to letting you know what drives are there.  You have to wait for the CD drive to re-initialize itself and then check the CD before you can get anywhere past the "computer".  It's not "My Computer" any more it's just "Computer".  No easy way to reach C:.

Not to mention everything and their grandmother was crammed into the Startup routine... At least the Aero interface looks nice.  Especially with that new Alt+Tab secret.  Getting the system to recover from a crashed program which runs full-screen is a menace, though.  You cannot see the 'crashed program' dialogue!

However, a better feature is, that instead of 'this program is not responding' when you close the program, if the program itself has quit responding for a certain period of time, Windows Vista will ask you, when you choose that window, if you want to close the program, or send an error report to Microsoft, or to wait it out and see what happens.

The "End Process" function acts a bit slower than it did before.

Oh well, being able to play Half-Life 2 works for me.  Always wanted to.

[Fusion]

Oooooof.   Back to the recording troubles, plus some minor issues I really wish didn't exist.

So recently, just today, I've lost all ability whatsoever to record any form of audio via Stereo Mix.  Vista isn't responding to my microphone, either.  I am very unsure of what's going on, and are as well entirely freakin' confused.  I suspect it's something really minor, maybe Vista's trying to record from the line-in port for some reason.  Fixed that issue.  Just had to tweak a few things in Realtek HD Audio manager.

On another note, StarForce's general drivers aren't compatible with Windows Vista, so that means no TrackMania for me until I can buy United.  Also, certain game installers simply crash instead of, well, installing.  I'd like to have seen more compatibility and less emphasis on the "THIS IS THE FUTURE" crap.  But eh, TrackMania United already has unique cars made for it...  I now own Trackmania United.  Issue solved.

On a side note, not every Vista computer has this, but if you get a Compaq beware the Support & Something or another Center.  You'll have issues running programs in Vista unless you close it's process.  I know because the CPS3 Emu would lag in intervals.  When I closed the Support & SOA Center, I didn't get that random lag.  Now the last thing to do would be to find out how to turn off Aero but keep the Vista theme.

Add all that to a week that just has NOT started well at all, and yeah, you know me.

[outcast]

it is trust me i had it once and wont ever go back my rant:
i had to remove some drivers from my PC as..something (dunno don't care) before even upgrading. Has emu issues (stated above)on Mame it causes frame spikes off line like as if u had spy ware on your PC.  Causes fire fox to crash on video sites like stage 6 thats a no no in vista for me then before i could even watch a video i had no sound cause its not sound blaster ready so i had to download a home brewed program that made it compatible and then i thought i got over the conversion hump so i was upgrading my drivers for my Ati card and the install messes up some how and stopped in the middle of it.  So being pissed i forced install and that didn't work and so i rolled the drivers back which caused the system to crash. So i was like uhh no and got rid of vista. So reinstalled xp but put a vista theme on it cause thats the only thing i liked about it.

[UHMEEEEBA]

Hey at least you people can actually run MUGEN.

[Jesuszilla]

You might be able too soon, Neon.

[Fusion]

NEW STORY


Vista and weird filenames.

I was organizing my ZXA sound rips way back, but I encountered a problem: I try to create a folder named "VEN" for Vent's sound files.  Vista wouldn't let me.  Tried again.  Wouldn't let me.  I had to add a _ before it would.  Why?  I don't know.  Maybe a "system folder" uses VEN as it's name?  Or maybe that's some kind of piracy software's name?  Or something?  I wouldn't have a clue.

There's also a random saving error that happens in Microsoft Paint, where you save a file then it immediately tells you "Save was interrupted, and could not be completed."  It doesn't cause Paint to close or anything, it's just weird.  Other than that, Paint works just fine.


Oh, and quick statement: The recolors made with Windows Vista will be, thankfully, less eye-bleeding than the recolors of XP & Below.  Why?  Vista's paint has a new default palette.  Instead of the old 16 bit-based colors, Vista's palette is far more pleasing to the eye. I'd have to post a screenshot for you to get a look at it.

[Jesuszilla]

Vista is still failure.

[UHMEEEEBA]

LOL OS