Windows Vista Beta 2

[kern]

For those of you interested in installing Vista Beta 2, heres a brief overview of the install process:

Note:
IMHO you need at least a 40g harddrive with 20g free space, 1gb ram, and a 256mb vid card, since Vista consumes a ton of resourses.
Final install uses approx 10g, and install takes about 60 minutes.

After booting from the Vista DVD, product key is required.
Install begins:
(Selecting "Advanced" option allows you to select/create/delete and format partition, as well as load driver if necessary.)
copies and expands system files, installs features (~40 mins).

reboots 2 times, completes installation (screen may flicker several times), reboots to "Setup Windows" screen.
Select Country;
Create User Name, Password, and User "Picture" for Admin account;
Select Computer Name and Desktop Background;
Select Security Settings-
"Reccommended" option installs features;
"Updates only" option installs only security features;
"Install Later" no security features installed (can install from Control Panel/System Maint applet);
Select Time Zone;
Click Start, youre at "Ready to Start" Screen, prepares Desktop;
Select type of Network- "Private" or "Public";
User Account Control(security feature) asks for "permission to continue" with changes;
Welcome Center Window appears- can make changes to Vista as necessary/preferred in Control Panel/Syatem Maintenance window.
DONE!

[mylanta]

Rob,
Is there an update option, or is this strictly a clean install?

[kern]

Rob,
Is there an update option, or is this strictly a clean install?

I did a clean install, but there is an update option.
If youre going the update route, keep in mind you'll have to do a clean install XP after the Vista Beta expires in '07.

[mylanta]

I did a clean install, but there is an update option.
If youre going the update route, keep in mind you'll have to do a clean install XP after the Vista Beta expires in '07.

Actually that wasn't what i was thinking, I will go back to XP with True Image when I'm done playing and I wasn't planning to set anything permanent up. I would bet that you can upgrade from beat to Final version though anyway.

[kelly]

I just got the beta version today so this thread has come in helpful. I'm thinking of buying a new machine to install it on, one with 64-bit capability. Do you when it expires?
-td

[kern]

I just got the beta version today so this thread has come in helpful. I'm thinking of buying a new machine to install it on, one with 64-bit capability. Do you when it expires?
-td

June 1, 2007

[Dudeking]

256MB card...How will a 6600GT 128 take it?

[mylanta]

256MB card...How will a 6600GT 128 take it?

I cannot see why that would be a problem....

[Pi rules]

June 1, 2007
I didn't know it was that late.

How will a 6600GT 128 take it?
It will work OK, but might not handle the highest settings.

[Dudeking]

Thanks guys, I'll stick with the 128 for the beta (when it finally arrives).
I'll get a 7800 for the official release.

[kern]

256MB card...How will a 6600GT 128 take it?

128mb video card will work, but may not be able to run some of the visual features, or may not run them smoothly (similar to video games that require a top of the line vid card).

[Dudeking]

My card will take the mid-high graphics in games, oblivion etc.
But it is overclocked a wee bit.

Well I want to get 100% out of vista are we talking £150-£200 cards or £300-£400?

Its the difference between 1100MHz and 1600MHz is this inportant will it make a difference in the OS?

[Pi rules]

I got my card for around $50 USD once (if) the rebate comes. It handles Vista well, but only has 4 pipelines, limiting its usefulness for games. :( It's a Sapphire Radeon X1300 PRO.

[Dudeking]

God things are cheap in the states.
Over here you will get nothing better than a 64Meg Geforce 4 For that lol

[Pi rules]

Sorry, I think it was $86 USD - $20 rebate (which I'm beginning to suspect won't come; it's been almost 2 months).

[mylanta]

Well I am up after 2 failures doing update I added a drive and did a clean install. I am not really sure what happened. It told me Partition magic wouldn't work and my 1394 card and Creative SB would be a problem (but what isn't it a problem with)...but that I was acceptable and should have no problems.
This is great looking and I am glad to see classic menu is still available....I love the new mail Program (Windows Mail new version OE)and for the first time ever I am on Internet Explorer and will have no problem using this.
I note Vista is faster than XP running as I can feel the speed and I have only a 128 Pci-Express video card in here as well. Biut the boot time and shut down time is awful.
Well off to adding some programs....

[Pi rules]

Just be careful with Firefox. For me at least, it doesn't work well and Vista keeps telling me that it slows down at startup.

[Dudeking]

Does any one know a contact address for Microsoft?

I paid £10 to have it delivered and the 28day delivery is up tomorrow and it still hasn’t come.
It won't let me download it because I have requested a CD, this is really annoying me!!

[mylanta]

Does any one know a contact address for Microsoft?

I paid £10 to have it delivered and the 28day delivery is up tomorrow and it still hasn’t come.
It won't let me download it because I have requested a CD, this is really annoying me!!

Start here:
http://support.microsoft.com/contactussupport/?ws=support

[kern]

Just be careful with Firefox. For me at least, it doesn't work well and Vista keeps telling me that it slows down at startup.


Same here.
Some of the visual effects are disabled because Firefox isnt fully compatible with Vista

[casey]

Now that you guys are talking about Vista it's stirring me up to install it and give it a look. My Idea is to put it on the Opteron 146 machine which right now is running XP Home. I'd rather not mess with the setup on that machine so I thought I'd install another hard drive and disconnect the one with XP and install Vista. Then when I'm done with Vista just hook up the XP hard drive again. Anybody see what problems I'll run into?

[Pi rules]

If you do that, you'll have to modify the boot.ini file on XP Home to be able to boot to Vista. Shouldn't cause any problems, but you should be safe just installing it to the second drive with your first drive connected. Vista will setup the boot.ini file and detect XP Home for you.

[casey]

If you do that, you'll have to modify the boot.ini file on XP Home to be able to boot to Vista. Shouldn't cause any problems, but you should be safe just installing it to the second drive with your first drive connected. Vista will setup the boot.ini file and detect XP Home for you.

Don't quite understand why I would have to modify the boot.ini on XP Home if I disconnect the drive. It would be like the drive isn't even there. Not very fond of dual boot as I have done that in the past and don't want to go back to it..

[Pi rules]

Oh, sorry. I thought you meant you would dual boot.
Then when I'm done with Vista just hook up the XP hard drive again. I can't read. Sorry, I can count the hours of sleep I got last night on 1 hand.:sleep:

[casey]

Installed Vista and I must admit the little I have seen is impressive. I installed my printer and thought I would take a break. I notice that Java isn't installed and was wondering if anyone has installed it in Vista yet?

[mylanta]

I am not having a single problem with Firefox...runs great.
Is anyone able to print from Windows Mail program...it will not show my printer and I cannot make it find it. had to copy and paste into Word to print anything.
BTW I notice Aim does not work in any version but Aim Express does if you need it. Platalk seems to work fine as well.

[mylanta]

OK scratch stupid question on printer I must have been in Inbox, where usually print will not even come up in other OS and as soon as I moved it to a folder I found the canon printer to print it.

[kern]

Installed Vista and I must admit the little I have seen is impressive. I installed my printer and thought I would take a break. I notice that Java isn't installed and was wondering if anyone has installed it in Vista yet?

yep. no problems with Java so far....

[casey]

I guess I found my first problem with Vista. I have a Konica laser printer I use on that computer and it seemed to install without a problem. When I went to try and print it gave me the box of name a file which I thought was s trange until I found that the Print to file was checked in the ports section. Since this is grayed out I cannot change to print to LPT1. So I thought I'd just delete the printer and re-install while making sure it said print to LPT1. Vista won't let me delete the Konica printer. So I decided to just let that go and add another printer and this time make sure it says Print to LPT!. After adding another printer I checked ports and it says Print to file. It seems that no matter what I set it just checks print to file and then grays out so I cannot change it.

Also the network works fine as for looking at all the other computers on the Vista but cannot get the other computers to see the Vista. The computers recognize the Vista but I am getting a user password box and using administrator only gives me an unauthorized account.

Kern can you post the url to get the java you are using..

[mylanta]

OK that's my next project I can see other pc's on network but I have not tried to see Vista box yet....

[kern]

I guess I found my first problem with Vista. I have a Konica laser printer I use on that computer and it seemed to install without a problem. When I went to try and print it gave me the box of name a file which I thought was s trange until I found that the Print to file was checked in the ports section. Since this is grayed out I cannot change to print to LPT1. So I thought I'd just delete the printer and re-install while making sure it said print to LPT1. Vista won't let me delete the Konica printer. So I decided to just let that go and add another printer and this time make sure it says Print to LPT!. After adding another printer I checked ports and it says Print to file. It seems that no matter what I set it just checks print to file and then grays out so I cannot change it.

Also the network works fine as for looking at all the other computers on the Vista but cannot get the other computers to see the Vista. The computers recognize the Vista but I am getting a user password box and using administrator only gives me an unauthorized account.

Kern can you post the url to get the java you are using..

first item in list "for Windows"

http://java.com/en/download/manual.jsp#note

[casey]

Thanks..
I just wanted to make sure I had the right one..

[casey]

Java installed okay and I have the printer installed again with Print to LPT1 but am having difficulty getting it tp print anything. It seems you can omly delete the printers it will allow you to delete. I wanted to delete all the printers and start over but certain copies will not delete. When I installed another copy and finally got it to print to LPT1 the test pages will not print. When I go to cancel and delete the pages nothing happens. The pages are still waiting even though it says deleting. It seems the printing section of vista isn't compatible with my printer. Will try another printer.

Finally have all printers deleted and can start over.

[Dan18960]

Java installed okay and I have the printer installed again with Print to LPT1 but am having difficulty getting it tp print anything. It seems you can omly delete the printers it will allow you to delete. I wanted to delete all the printers and start over but certain copies will not delete. When I installed another copy and finally got it to print to LPT1 the test pages will not print. When I go to cancel and delete the pages nothing happens. The pages are still waiting even though it says deleting. It seems the printing section of vista isn't compatible with my printer. Will try another printer.

Finally have all printers deleted and can start over.

Isn't it great to have such a USER-FRIENDLY operating system? ? ? ?:mad:

[casey]

Now Dan, This does say Beta, Doesn't it?

[casey]

After changing a whole bunch of settings and creating new accounts in Vista I have been able to get an Icon on the other computer that says Z: drive on Vista but when I try and open it I get Access is denied.. I think I'll go back and work on getting the printer to work..

I found out I can connect to individual folders. I hope you don't have to do each folder individually.
Am I going to have to go to each folder and set the share and who can see and work on it. I thought I'd read that when the network was setup that all computers on this network would be connected.
Come on guys how about some input...

[Dan18960]

You can't share the WHOLE c drive without "breaking" the security lock in. When you go to share the C:\ drive you have to use the C$ and give the drive a different "name" so that the sharing properties are available. Then you have to assign the sharing "rights" to a group - you should see an Everyone group (oh by the way that is FROM NOVELL!).

Select Everyone and Advanced and in the inherited rights configuration make sure that all the users are in the Everyone group - by default they are not placed there.

OR you can create a folder on the root and then under THAT folder do your sharing. Vista, Windows 2003 Server, and even XP Pro are not very friendly to sharing a folder from the Root.:D

I still think something as simple as a Printer should not be such a PITA to configure even in a BETA operating system. It isn't like printing is a NEW concept LOL.

[casey]

Thanks Dan, I printed your post but I have already created another drive name Cdrive and assigned everyone to that group. I changed my user name to the same as on the other computer and have both computers in MSHOME. The machine I am on right now is running XP Pro and I didn't have a problem setting it up. But I am going to go over everything you posted to see just where I went wrong...I know I missed something..

The printer is a mystery as I just tried a different driver from Konico with no success.

[casey]

Well I got the printer working and most of the network. But still can't just connect to the cdrive. I'll work on that tomorrow...

[casey]

Rich,

I just read Lina's record of last night on Paltalk and saw that a lot of your programs would not install in Vista.

I was wondering what version do you have installed. 32 bit or 64 bit as I installed the 32 bit so I wouldn't have as much trouble finding drivers. Avast was the AV I found would work with the 64 bit XP 2003 trial version I ran for a year.

When I have time I'll try and install some of the same programs to see how they work in the 32 bit version...

[mylanta]

Larry,
I am on 32 bit version and my main problem is none of the backup programs will install. Acronis and Ghost will not install. nti backup will install but will not work. I will try Windows backup program as I have no choice, but if it's anything like XP, it's hateful and will do bupkis if the hard drive dies.
I cannot get Win Patrol or Mike Lyn Startup Control Panel so I have no control over startup features. Everything else I used works though I cannot get Creative Game Port to install (which I could care less about) and I have one more pci device that will not install, orf course I haven't a clue what it is as every device I have is in and working.I have seen enough to know I need to move away from Creative again before full swing to Vista as they are in software Hell again.
Every other program works I.E. Ms Office 2003, Word Perfect Suite X3, Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Acrobat ....I won't dare put Paperport in that
without restore capability. Puzzling that my Compupic graphics viewer
works from my XP partition which I will never figure out. It would not even install as I got error message it was already installed, not. So i dragged Icon over from C Drive XP and it works great.

[casey]

Tonight I tried to install a few programs, The Free AVG anti virus would not install but I did install Avast and that seems to run. I shut down that annoying popup OCS that keeps popping up whenever you try and change anything. I was disappointed that Win DVD installed but wouldn't work as Sonic installed but also wouldn't work. I tried Window Media Player for the DVD's and that will be okay but was a little confused with the burner software that Vista has installed. I couldn't find where to burn a Data CD. I'll look again tomorrow. The biggest surprise was removing Sonic and
WinDVD and then getting an error message on bootup that said a needed file was missing. It seems to have some options for repairing but I just used the last good boot and everything turned out okay. Tomorrow I'm suppose to get my PC6400 OCZ memory back from the company and see how it works in the AM2 board.

[mylanta]

Yeah I already went that route as Nod, kaspersky, Bit Defender and Avg all failed to install...Avast and Pc Cillan are all I know will work with this.
I didn't know about Sonic because I have it but never use it I use the XP burning software anyway...one of the reasons I do is that if you burn with it, you can always add but if you use a branded third party software you have to use the same program again to be able to add to cd.

[Dudeking]

Well its been 30 days and my copy still hasnt arrived.

I'm phoning M$!!!