Windows Vista RC2 (Build 5744.16384.061003-1945) available for DL

[Himself]

Unless you are planning on running Vista on like a 20gb hard drive or something, who cares about how big it is? The final install is over 10Gb, but when common hard drives are 200Gb+, does it really matter? Why not just install the full Ultimate and see whats there.

I would like an accounting of what that 10GB consists of, it's generally not a good sign in software when it gets 5 times bigger and has nothing to show for it. Are they making it easier for viruses to hide?

I have little interest in ultimate sx gx sfx supra premium anything, I was just curious if they had done anything to fix some windows problems yet, to see if 64 bit support made anything faster, not yet another fancy gui which I can get for xp if I want today for $$$ less. Having to reboot a lot apparently wasn't an issue they addressed yet, changing workgroup name shouldn't require a reboot, it's just a bit of text. I wasn't even looking and found that one. I didn't test formatting a floppy or accessing a cdrom to see if that locks up vista yet, if they fixed that one that would be cool.

 

[Gnerma]

You know very well that changing the workgroup name is hardly the same as "changing a bit of text".

Regarding rebooting, there is the Restart Manager tech which no, won't end reboots forever but it does all it can to prevent you from having to reboot.

Recommended specs I'd say you want:

A CPU that doesn't totally suck (P3 1.4, P4 1.8, AXP 1.6. Or any A64, P-M, Core or Core 2)
A gig of RAM (my 32bit RC2 install is using 308mb right now)
A SM 2.0 video card that scores ~3-3.5+ in WinSAT for a smooth Aero Glass.

As far as what's been added/changed and such. I've been reading through "Microsoft Windows Vista Unveiled" by Paul McFedries. It's a smoothly written, mostly non technical overview of what's been tweaked and added in Vista. I'd recommend it.

 

[Inquisitive_Idiot]

Damn it! I tried to download ATI beta drivers (which I now realize are for RC1) for my X800 GTO2 and now all I get is a black screen with a mouse pointer when I try to boot up Vista. Has anybody made the same mistake and if so do they know how to fix it?

 

[Gnerma]

Try F8 on bootup -> Last known good or safe mode and uninstall the drivers. Looks like the new SRT (startup recovery tool) failed you on this one

 

[Inquisitive_Idiot]

Try F8 on bootup -> Last known good or safe mode and uninstall the drivers. Looks like the new SRT (startup recovery tool) failed you on this one

No, SRT worked just fine! It was my fault, I forgot to mention that I had attempted to boot up in safe mode with no luck. I guess Vista if fucked, oh well...

Now how do I remove Vista and return my computer back to starting up XP by default? Do I just erase my Vista partition and do I have to tell XP that it is no longer a dual boot setup or will XP assume this on it's own?

 

[Tim Murray]

Now how do I remove Vista and return my computer back to starting up XP by default? Do I just erase my Vista partition and do I have to tell XP that it is no longer a dual boot setup or will XP assume this on it's own?

Boot to the XP Recovery Console (using the XP install CD), and run fixboot and fixmbr.

 

[Inquisitive_Idiot]

Boot to the XP Recovery Console (using the XP install CD), and run fixboot and fixmbr.

So this will just tell XP to start? I do not want to reformat my drive or anything, just stop that stupid dual boot screen from appearing during the startup process. Also, after I tell XP to change those files will it be safe to repartition the space I have set aside for Vista?

Just some info on my partition setup in case it matters.

XP: Primary Partition
Vista: Logical Partition

 

[Gnerma]

Delete your Vista partition -> boot into XP (if not already there) -> open msconfig -> boot.ini tab -> check all boot paths button

 

[Kaotik]

Delete your Vista partition -> boot into XP (if not already there) -> open msconfig -> boot.ini tab -> check all boot paths button

If Vista has "overtaken" the boot menu (aka - replaced it with it's own boot menu), that's not going to work, as it's not using boot.ini anymore

 

[Himself]

I don't like seeing things like bootsect.bak, myself.

 

[Colourless]

Vistas boot loader doesn't entirely replace the old NTLDR boot loader, at least BETA2 didn't (haven't installed RC1/RC2 yet). It's chains the boot loaders. The Previous Windows option in the vista boot loader loads the NTLDR boot loader so if you use the XP recovery console and run fixboot the command it will remove the Vista boot loader and will go back to using NTLDR.

 

[Tim Murray]

So this will just tell XP to start?

Yes. It won't wipe anything on the drive, just reinstall the bootloader in the appropriate places.

 

[Himself]

Upgraded to supra ultimate whizbang, (said upgrade may take several hours, must have been a joke) basically it adds translucent window borders and preview on the taskbar and that alt tab with the 3d scrolling. Uhm, $500 cdn ($300 cdn upgrade)? Window Blinds $49.99.

10.3GB, 51976 files, 10.254 folders...

 

[Gnerma]

Those "translucent window borders and preview on the taskbar and that alt tab with the 3d scrolling" are feature of Aero Glass which you get with any version of the OS above Home Basic.

I think we all understand by now that you think Vista is a bloated mess, waste of money, antichrist and such so all thats left is for you to swear it off as such and declare you're going back to XP forever. No doubt you we're saying all the same things around the release of Windows 95, Windows 98, and XP. The fact of the matter is of course a new OS will use more resources, what did you expect? Anyway, go on with your display, we're all waiting

 

[ANova]

Microsoft revamps Vista anti-piracy technology
Tougher penalities for unlicensed software


XP users who don't pass the WGA test are blocked from downloading software add-ons such as the Windows Defender security tools. In contrast, users who decline or fail to validate their copies of Windows Vista via SPP will be blocked from using some of the operating system's features, Hartje said. That includes Aero, Vista's graphical user interface, and ReadyBoost, an application that uses flash memory to increase system performance.

After 30 days, the operating system will go into what Kay described as an "ugly mode" that provides reduced functionality, similar to Windows Safe Mode. Users then will be given one final hour of web access as a last chance to validate the software or buy a legitimate licence.

Source and full story

No thanks Microsoft, Vista doesn't even impress me enough to buy it yet alone deal with this bs.

 

[DudeMiester]

After some weird problem, I've got it working. I must say, having only 512MB of RAM, it's MUCH faster then all the previous versions. It's nearly as fast as XP, and the difference is small enough that I don't care. Unfortunitly, it doesn't want to turn to glass, but I know of a certain registry setting to force it anyways. I may try that later. Ironically, it does turn on when I do a remote connection to my more powerful desktop that also has Vista installed. Strange.

Also, I've set up folder redirection and offline sync to my desktop. There was one problem here though, in that my documents folder on the desktop is 95GB, my laptop only has an 80GB HD, and when one redirects any folder to a network drive, Windows automatically makes it available offline. Obviously, this is a problem, but there is a group policy/registry setting to disable this behaviour. However, it simply doesn't work. In fact, as far as I can tell, none of the registry based policies, and thus the administrative templates in the group policy, actually work. Although, the security settings do work, since I could tinker with UAC. Anyways, I really screwed up the install trying to fix it the first time. In the end, I just reformatted and moved all my files out of the folders I wanted to redirect to, disable the offline file availability on them, and then move everything back. Very annoying, but now it works, quite well actually.

 

[Inquisitive_Idiot]

Dammit!

My HP did not come with a Windows restore disk, but rather a portion of the hard drive set aside for quick system restore. Now that Vista has been installed, I can no longer access the XP recovery function because it automatically redirects me to the Vista recovery console every time I press F-10 on startup. This sucks!

Does Vista offer the quick recovery function so at least I can get it working again and is their any risk that when attempting to reinstall Vista that it may just forget about XP and set it self as the only operating system on the computer?

 

[ChronoReverse]

Source and full story

No thanks Microsoft, Vista doesn't even impress me enough to buy it yet alone deal with this bs.

So paying for Vista is BS now?

After some weird problem, I've got it working. I must say, having only 512MB of RAM, it's MUCH faster then all the previous versions. It's nearly as fast as XP, and the difference is small enough that I don't care. Unfortunitly, it doesn't want to turn to glass, but I know of a certain registry setting to force it anyways. I may try that later. Ironically, it does turn on when I do a remote connection to my more powerful desktop that also has Vista installed. Strange.

You need to have 1GB of RAM for Aero Glass to turn on now. Figures eh?

Obviously, this is a problem, but there is a group policy/registry setting to disable this behaviour. However, it simply doesn't work.

Yeah, this is a problem a number of people have run into. RC2 still isn't quite RTM ready yet atm even if you ignore the driver issue (which MS has little control over).


@Inquisitive_Idiot
I'm not sure, but you could try booting from a WinXP CD if you can find one and use fdisk /MBR

 

[Himself]

Those "translucent window borders and preview on the taskbar and that alt tab with the 3d scrolling" are feature of Aero Glass which you get with any version of the OS above Home Basic.

I think we all understand by now that you think Vista is a bloated mess, waste of money, antichrist and such so all thats left is for you to swear it off as such and declare you're going back to XP forever. No doubt you we're saying all the same things around the release of Windows 95, Windows 98, and XP. The fact of the matter is of course a new OS will use more resources, what did you expect? Anyway, go on with your display, we're all waiting

All I want to know is exactly what is improved with vista. What can it do for me other than a change in the gui, the presentations I've watched say this and that are fixed, but I found examples where it wasn't fixed in 5 mins of install. They spent years working on it, I just want to see some difference from xp is all.

It's not a matter of wanting to upgrade, we are all going to be forced to in order to continue using a pc, I'm just looking for some signs of hope that there is some point to the madness.

 

[SugarCoat]

It honestly amazes me that people cant look past the cosmetic cover or spend 5 minutes to search or learn. That apparently "I'm paying x amount of money for aero? Vista sucks!" is the trash that comes out of people.

Read it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Features_new_to_Windows_Vista

It is not XP with a wrapper or a different UI. If people cant see that, thats their friggan problem. Whether or not its worth the money to you is not the issue. People still use win98 and 2k because XP isnt worth the money to them, bringing up cost is completely meaningless. Proclaim you're going to stay with XP for the next 6 years cause from your experiance with a beta it sucks. Thats right, be a rebel, go against the grain, perhaps make an online petition or start a club, just know that most of us really dont care.