Getting the most out of vista

In the Spirit of sharing I have listed some of the most fascinating programs and applications that you can run on vista, to improve your vista Experience, and also share some programs that can make your vista experience a living hell. So which one should I start with..hmmmm..Ok I think I start with the bad program

Programs to avoid on vista: Sometimes we easily forget that vista is a brand new operating system and not and upgrade to window XP, even though it is compatible with most of the applications that run on it previous predecessor .The fact still remain that because of the new improvement in security and visual effect on vista has made some traditional xp programs to fail and crash in their new vista environments.(while others have fitted in quite well indeed).Things like limited administrative privileges available to some programs, User Account Control, Aero Glass effect..Are some of the new innovations which these programs either are incompatible with or fail to take advantage of..These incompatibilities can give you so many headaches that it’s just better to avoid these programs all together. Or wait for their upgraded versions that have been developed to address these issues. Below are some of the programs that based on my experience with them should be avoided.

*Some of these applications have new upgrades that have addressed their vista issues.

1-Nod32 Back in the days when I was still rocking XP there are some applications that I just couldn’t do without due to their vital importance to my everyday computer experience. There were just either so cool, or bear some much importance in term of utility that my windows Experience would have been incomplete without then. Number one on the list of these programs is Nod23.Talk about an antivirus that saved my system from the dreaded Brontok worm and some other notorious worms and Trojan that make your PC experience a living Hell. Nod was just so good that some people are still thanking me today for recommending it to them. Unfortunately something that made my life so much easy on XP did the exact opposite on vista. To start with the version 2.1.0 that I used with my Xp did not install on vista so I did some googling and found out that a new version 2.7 was “compatible”.i downloaded, installed it, and expected to live happily ever after..

Issues: But that was not to be. On its primary functions on protection it did a wonderful job like it as always done. But anytime I try to connect my PC via wlan, I get these some error message and before you know it windows explorer as crashed. Vista problem and solution center then would inform me that the problem was caused by Nod32. Very attempt to try tweak the beloved antivirus to get it accustomed to my new OS (i.e. running it in compatibility mode xp and as an administrator) failed.

Solution In the end I had to remove Nod and replace it with Kaspersky internet security version 6.0.2.621 which have so far done a better job both in security and stability of my system.

*Remember to update your software anytime a new release is available. Check regularly the manufacturer’s site if you’re having problems with Windows Vista, because a new and Vista optimized release might be available

1-Nero 7 Nero is a very cool utility tool for burning videos, audio, and other files into DVDs or CDs .it’s a very cool program and comes very needed in vista since Burning of file to CD/DVD in vista can be a trying experience that I won’t advice anybody to try out without a good 3^rd party application.

Issues The first issue the previous Nero 7.5.5.6 and lower versions won’t even install, but would crash your installers in a vain attempt at “helping you to upgrade your version of Direct x which is 10 on vista to 9” so I got the higher version which is Version 7.8.00 this version installed quite easily. but I was cut short when I started experiencing COM SURROGATE ERROR every time I opened a folder containing .AVI or DIVX files. The culprit … Nero .the problem was Nero was not just an application for burning files.it could also be used to play a number of video and audio files and comes with it own player called Nero Show time which would install some of its codec on your vista PC. These codec are incompatible with vista and would trigger the COM SURROGATE error which can make Windows Media player and Windows explorer to be very unstable.

Solution The solution would be downloading the latest Nero time which In my case was version 7.9.6.0 is the latest version as at Blog time. The New version even comes with a very cool Sidebar which can be configured to be a one touch button for all your Nero burning and CD burning process. Alternatively you could also download a program called Nero lite. It is a watered down version of Nero which is made up of just the core application of Nero and leaves out the blot. The program like its name suggest is just for burning files and does not include some of the extra s that comes with a traditional Nero application. *Remember to update your software anytime a new release is available. Check regularly the manufacturer’s site if you’re having problems with Windows Vista, because a new and Vista optimized release might be available.

Divx One of the disappointing features of vista is the inability of vista Media Players ( i.e. Media Center & Media Player) to natively player .VOB files for those who don’t know -.VOB is a videos file that is the root of all DVD videos. If you are like me and prefer to first rip your DVD into your Computer before playing them .then you would have a problem using vista this is because for reason- that smells anti piracy measures-decided to disable the ability of Media Center and Widows Media to play VOB files something that was possible with XP. One way I choose to get round the problem was to Install Divx player which among other things would allow you to also play Avi and Divx files.

Issues Divx also causes Com surrogate error. But for me the worst part of using Divx is if you decide to uninstall it from your system it would for some reason I fail to understand take your DVD driver with it. After uninstalling Divx from my Vista machine I discovered that when I go to my computer I don’t see the CD Rom drive anymore. The same thing happened to my friend’s system that uninstalled it on his vista ultimate. In the end I had to reinstall vista since system restore did not solve my problem.

Solutions some have said that installing the latest Divx would solve the Com surrogate error and hence remove the need to uninstall Divx from your system. I preferred to stay clear of Divx altogether. Since most of my codec problems have been solved by Nero.

Google Desktop A very cool software that very body should have its actually comes in a bundle that includes a sidebar with detachable gadgets, a search bar, the primary function of Google desktop is to index all the files on your system for easy search-and my God does it do that well in fact it’s too good at the job-you would not have expected less from a program with Google attached to its name.

Issue : The issue that Google desktop has with vista is a minor one but one that could give you headache if not well managed. The problem is that if you leave Google desktop has one of your startup programs it would sometimes cause windows to disable its own sidebar even if you are not running Google’s sidebar.

Solution: So if you love your vista sidebar then the solution would be to remove Google desktop from your startup menu. It would naturally give you this option whenever you exit the program.

In general i can not give you a list of all the programs that will not work with vista-i intentionally left out those programs that wont even install in the first place since the fact that they didn’t install should means no harm done-.the secret to getting the most from vista is always checking for the latest version of any applications that you have on your system to so that whenever a new version for vista is out you will always be on the know.you an start by checking with the developers site.

Application compatibility Troubleshoot

Application compatibility Troubleshoot

Every windows operating system has the ability to use a program designed specifically for its predecessors. This can be done if the program is set in the compatibility mode.vista is no different and in other to ensure that a program designed for a previous os works well on vista. Here are some tweaks that can make this possible.

1-Right clicks on the program’s .exe file before installation and select properties.

Then select the compatibility tab,check the run this “program in compatibility mode for Windows XP” or any other Window version that the program runs well on.the essence of this is that vista would then simulate the OS environment of that particular version of windows hence deceiving the application into thinking that it is actually running on that OS.

Also check “Run as administrator” this would allow vista to elevate the security privilege of the program.

Although the above tweak does not work every time. But you can surely use it to help make an application that worked very well on older windows run smoothly on vista.

Also remember not to always use all your tool bars options some tool bars like itunes and Google desktop and Microsoft Encarta are known to disable the transparency of your task bar.although Windows Media player is safe.

* It would be impossible to list all the programs that are incompatible with vista however the surest way to avoid compatibility issues on vista is to ensure that you always get the latest updates from the developer of the program you intend on using.And ensure to check google for any compatibilty issue an intending program might have  with vista and how it can be corrected

All about Vista….

I remembered the first time I heard of longhorn, it was at a friend’s place. I remembered him telling me some of the great innovation of the then forth coming MS OS that would be replacing XP, most of the information I got that day were about the visual effect, about the 3D, thumbnail preview of minimized objects; the aero glass .etc I was really crazy about the new OS no “more Window blinds” I thought .well as it turnout the new OS was not called Longhorn..it is Vista and the most hyped feature about it was not the visuals but the security.

There have been tremendous controversies about this new OS. I remembered reading somewhere that it was the OS of the future as no computer hardware company has any hardware that can cope with vista hardware hungry nature. Someone even said you 4GB of Ram would be needed to run vista. While other gave horrific testimonies about how vista almost crippled their system to breaking point. As it turn out many of these speculation ended up to be false.

To start with many hardware makers have systems that can support almost the entire present feature of vista .vista can easily fit into the hardware of the present day laptop or computer. Yes it kind of increased the standard but overall the minimum requirement to run the basic functions of vista on a machine would be 512 RAM, 20GB HARDDRIVE, and A PENTIUM 4 PROCESSOR, with a 64MB of GRAPHIC MEMO. Am sure the requirement is even lower then this but let’s just be on a save side.

They are two types of vista there is the 32Bit and the 64Bit. I would talk more about the 32Bit since that is the one that I have much knowledge about and also the one that is mostly available in the market due to its easy compatibility with exacting computer hardware. Among these two broad types of vista are 4 major Editions of vista which are; Home Basic, Home premium, Business, and, ultimate.

Vista Home Basic: Basic is a the low –end of the vista editions it will provide a way for virtually any PC user to upgrade to Vista, even those people with low-end or integrated video cards. Unlike other editions, Vista Home Basic does not include the Aero Glass user interface, which provides real time translucencies, effects, and animations, windows meeting space, media center; on the plus side however Basic has the lowest hardware requirement. A system with 20 GB hardrive, 512 ram, Celeron or P3.64MB of graphic card should be able to run vista basic.. and it also the cheapest.

Home Premium : Moving up to Home Premium, you gain additional features, such as Aero Glass, Meeting Space, WMP 11 recording and sharing features, HD support in Moviemaker, network-based projector support, PC-to-PC file synchronization, Tablet PC functionality, and Media Center functionality.

Business: On the business side of the Vista product edition lineup, there is a similar upgrade policy in place. Vista Business provides Aero Glass, Meeting Space collaboration; file encryption, PC-to-PC file synchronization, Tablet PC and Sideshow functionality, network-based projector support, remote. desktop, IIS, document scanning and faxing, and domain and Group Policy support. But you can upgrade to Ultimate Edition if you need that version’s unique features.

Ultimate: Vista Ultimate Edition adds remote desktop, the IIS Web server, document scanning and faxing capabilities, domain and Group Policy support, offline folders, TPM-based full hard drive encryption, multiple language support, and a package of additional applications and services called Windows Vista Ultimate Extras which includes up to date software available exclusively available vista ultimate users. one of such software is the dream scene and program that allows you to use any video in WMV format as your desktop background, Window bit locker Drive Encryption which provides full volume encryption and boot integrity checking to ensure that the data on your computer stays confidential, even if your PC is lost, stolen, or decommissioned, run UNIX based programs on window with the subsystem for UNIX based application .etc…

Below is a chat that displays the various features of the different versions of window vista.

System Requirement

The Minimum hardware requirement needed to run an edition of vista other than Home Basic is

Hard drive -40GB (SATA)

Ram-1GB (DDR2)

*Graphic Memory-128MB

P4-2.2Ghz (although Celeron M would just as well do the Job I personally don’t recommend the processor for anybody not even for XP).

CD Drive-DVD/ CD (combo) Writer.

*I currently use Mobile Intel(R) 945GM Express Chipset Family as my Graphic Card other graphic cards like Nvidia and ATI have been known to work with Vista.

I hope my brief Introduction to vista would give you an idea of the Operating System just in case you intend on upgrading you can know have an idea of what Edition of vista would be Appropriate for you .In my Next post I intend on Doing a review of my Vista Home premium, Which is the one I currently use.