Windows Vista RC1

[Jun aka Pekto]

Google Earth works fine as does all the DVD's I've played via Media Player.

I also want to add that with just Vista RC1 Ultimate and it's related services running plus Task Manager and every effect on, the ram used up is 559mb. 1gb is a definite must to be in the comfort zone. I can imagine 512mb of ram will force Vista RC1 to page out to the hard drive along with its characteristic slowdown.

[Jun aka Pekto]

Now trying out some games. First one up is Combat Flight Simulator 2 from 2000 which runs great on both full-screen and windowed mode:

[chris_d]

I was able to install my copy also, I actually left it when it was copying files, went to 7-11 and by the time I got home it was installed.

System specs:
Athlon XP 2500+
768mb DDR 400
40gb 5400rpm primary (xp)
200gb 7200rpm secondary (vista)
6600gt 128mb video card

So far it seems quite good. I havent had any crashes so far, if only I can find a decent program to be able to use my tv tuner i'd switch to vista.

[Jun aka Pekto]

So far it seems quite good. I havent had any crashes so far, if only I can find a decent program to be able to use my tv tuner i'd switch to vista.

Same here. I don't have drivers yet for the ViVo part of my X800XL.

[Jun aka Pekto]

Oh yes.... Where and how do we get a product key for this thing (Vista RC1)?

[mikmik316]

If you were an early participant of the CPP you will have a product key. If you are a MSDN subscriber or Technet subscriber meron ka rin product key...

Other than that go and register with Microsoft so that you get a Passport account then they will e-mail the product key.

Gud luck at sana di ka abutan ng activation date!

[Jun aka Pekto]

If you were an early participant of the CPP you will have a product key. If you are a MSDN subscriber or Technet subscriber meron ka rin product key...

Other than that go and register with Microsoft so that you get a Passport account then they will e-mail the product key.

Gud luck at sana di ka abutan ng activation date!

I registered. So hopefully, I'll get a product key soon. Siince this is on a spare hard drive, I can always disconnect it and reconnect my 2 main hard drives (with XP Home SP2).

[Jun aka Pekto]

Before I take this hard drive off and reconnect my 2 regular hard drives and XP Home SP2, some more observations.....

1. SB Audigy 2 Value driver is still incomplete.

2. There's no way to turn off the Line In (which is hooked up to my Direct TV).

3. The majority of software I installed have no issues.

4. Playing DVD's via Media Center Edition is still buggy. But WMP 11 works great.

For those who wants a full-size pic of my desktop, here (dialup beware: 236kb, 2048 x 768 jpeg)
http://members.cox.net/junakapekto/V...202048x768.jpg

This is my first evaluation of a MS OS. I missed out on the issues from previous evaluation versions. Overall, I'm pleased. Most issues seem minor and should be resolved with the retail release. If you have the goods to play, I recommend trying it out.

What kept me from making it my primary OS right now:

1. Lack of drivers for the ViVo of my ASUS X800XL - I can't record tv shows from DirectTV without them
2. SB Audigy 2 Value drivers lacking a bit - my mighty Z-2300's sounds oddly very teeny.
3. Vista DVD Maker still needs work, as does Media Center Edition player. But, once those are fixed, it's going to be sweet.

For most other people, This Vista RC1 should be good enough to be the primary OS.

Me, I know I'll be buying Vista Ultimate when it's released.

[Jun aka Pekto]

I decided to hook up the 40gb Maxtor hard drive with Vista RC1 to the secondary ide port with my dvd writer as master and the Maxtor as slave. I thought the Maxtor might have problems booting if it's not set as a master drive. But, apparently not......

I have to set the boot drive priority in the bios everytime I want to boot up to either XP Home SP2 or Vista RC1. But, at least I can dual boot either one without opening up the pc or risk my primary OS which is still XP Home SP2.

[Jun aka Pekto]

Windows Media Center seems to have fixed itself......

[Jun aka Pekto]

Another neat stuff: mousing over a Taskbar icon:


The Task Manager still looks the same with additional functions. .99GB? Hmmmm. Oink oink?


MSConfig is now the System Configuration applet:

[Jun aka Pekto]

Other observations:

Vista now treats DVD+/-RW discs like giant floppies. I can copy to and delete files from the disc at will. Also, copying to cd-r/rw and dvdr/rw is also now in realtime. No more copying files to a temp directory first and then burning to disc. When I want to copy, it copies right there.

[mikmik316]

*Jun
mukhang solb na solb ka na ser sa Vista ah... kung nagamit mo yung Beta 2 dati... you will curse the software to death!

[Jun aka Pekto]

*Jun
mukhang solb na solb ka na ser sa Vista ah... kung nagamit mo yung Beta 2 dati... you will curse the software to death!

Well, that's me. I post anything worth noting.....

So far, it seems Windows Media Center is the weakest or rather, prone to lockup. So, there's work that needs to be done with Vista. I missed those other buggy betas. So, Day 1 with Vista started with RC1 for me and it's been great so far..... Now, if only MS would issue more Product Keys.....

Also, Vista Movie Maker seems more robust than the XP versions. The XP versions have had a penchant for being sluggish and prone to locking up. Vista MM seems to be a big improvement. Of course, it's just on my pc. Others may not be so lucky....

[Jun aka Pekto]

For those who are trying out Vista RC1 and need a Product Activation Key, MS has started giving them out. I just got done activating mine. So now, it's good until June of next year.....

[Jun aka Pekto]

The bundled Chess Titans game is something else. When playing a game at full-screened 3-D windowed, the game takes up 321mb of ram! Moving back and forth between full windowed and small windowed made the game eat up more and more ram until it reached 920mb of ram at which point I quit the app. Chess Titans obviously doesn't release any ram when resized. It's something to note down although the game is pretty good.

[Jun aka Pekto]

The game Blitzkrieg also installed and worked great. Another older game, Dungeon Keeper 2, also installed fine. But it's limited to 800x600 without patch v1.7. When I applied the patch, the game refused to run. I had to uninstall and reinstall the game and play at 800x800.

[mikmik316]

i think bloatware na naman ang Vista... malaki na ang hard disk space requirement because of so many files installed... marami ding di optimized na programs kaya matakaw sa memory... tsk tsk

[bbt]

and this:

may i ask, what exactly is happening here?

[Jun aka Pekto]

i think bloatware na naman ang Vista... malaki na ang hard disk space requirement because of so many files installed... marami ding di optimized na programs kaya matakaw sa memory... tsk tsk

Well, that's the whole idea of RC1. It's still a memory hog and needs optimization. But, it runs fine at full speed and it's more than usable so long as the ram can last. It's more than usable for me and is my primary OS although I still have to go back to XP Home if I want to record tv shows and game.

Still, Vista RC1 is in much better shape than I expected. It certainly is in much better shape than when I first bought OSX (retail) back in spring of 2001. Anyone who bought OSX back in 2001 would agree with me that it was as sloooow as molasses in winter.