First Impressions

Windows Vista has arrived – it looks good, let’s hope it is more secure than XP.

Having set up a new laptop with XP at the end of one week and an then an identical laptop with Vista in the following week, here are my initial comments:

The Vista laptop, with 512MB of RAM, seemed very slow compared to the identical XP machine. If I hadn’t known I would have thought that it had half that amount of RAM. So Vista needs more RAM – probably 1GB to run well.

When you try to install or uninstall anything Vista is paranoid – you have to confirm that you want to do it at every stage. This is good and is designed to stop people installing malware without realising it. But most people don’t bother really reading warnings – they just click to get rid of them. Rogue programs will just give themselves believable names and people will assume that they are OK and allow them to install.

Windows Defender (anti-spyware) comes pre-installed – but there’s no anti-virus (unless the PC is new and comes with a limited version of Norton or McAfee).

Vista looks modern and stylish – not like a child’s toy!

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Windows Easy Transfer

Vista comes with Windows Easy Transfer to enable you to transfer your files and settings from an old PC to your new Vista PC.

This is an upgraded version of Windows XP’s Files and Settings Transfer Wizard. That tip warns you that the XP version only works on a user by user basis (but doesn’t tell you so). The new improved version gives you the choice of just transferring only one users files and settings or all users files and settings.

You also get more options for transferring the data – you can now use a USB drive or a network connection (wired or wireless).

Using the network connection is the quickest and simplest way. Just setup both PCs on your network (i.e. your router) and then start Windows Easy Transfer on the new PC. The wizard is easy to follow, just make the appropriate decisions and follow the instructions.

It even copes with USB drives which are not big enough to take all your info in one go by letting you do the transfer in several parts.

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Should I Upgrade To Vista?

Well if you are thinking of buying a new PC you haven’t really got any choice – they are all coming with Vista now that the last of the XP PCs have been sold off at “bargain” prices.

But if you are thinking of upgrading your 2 or 3 year old XP PC then you need to consider the following points:

1. Vista needs more speed and more RAM than XP, so you will either have to accept a slowdown in performance or at least increase your RAM. I recommend at least 1GB. A faster processor is probably a step too far – put the money towards a future new PC.

2. Are you sure that all your existing hardware and software will work with Vista? Are you prepared to replace any items that won’t? Hardware manufacturers don’t make any profit from producing new drivers for equipment that they don’t make any more. And if they do write the drivers in order to create customer goodwill, they are merely stopping that customer buying a new product in the near future. And most manufacturers want income sooner rather than later!

3. Don’t assume that XP drivers will work properly with Vista – some will, some won’t. And don’t assume that the new drivers written for Vista will be perfect – no software is bug free on it’s first release.

4. Don’t assume that Vista is perfect either. It may have been tested more thoroughly than XP was before launch, but it still has bugs. Remember how soon Service Pack 1 was released for XP?

You will have gathered from my tone that I won’t be moving my family PC to Vista yet. I think I will wait for Service Pack 1!

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Driver is blocked due to compatibility issues

Many owners of new Dell PCs running Windows Vista are getting the following message every time they start their PC:

Program Compatibility Assistant
This Driver is blocked due to compatibility issues
Driver: Sonic Solutions DLA
Publisher: Sonic Solutions

A driver is installed that causes stability problems with your system. This driver will be disabled. Please contact the driver manufacture for an update that is compatible with this version of Windows.

The problem is caused by one of Microsoft’s automatic updates that is not compatible with one of the pre-installed Roxio programs on these Dell PCs.

Roxio are currently working on the problem but in the interim they are recommending that you uninstall the offending Microsoft update as follows:

Go to Start, Control Panel, Programs
Left click Uninstall a program.
On the left of the Programs and Features window, left click View installed updates.
After the Installed Updates window loads, scroll down to the Microsoft Windows pane.
Right click Update for Microsoft Windows (KB929427) and select Uninstall.
Rather than restart your system, shut it down completely and then reboot. The error should be eliminated.

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Vista won’t run Quicken

Intuit, the manufacturer of Quicken, stopped releasing UK versions of Quicken after Quicken 2004.

But versions of Quicken up to and including 2004 will not run on Windows Vista. (You can install them, but they won’t run).

So in the UK, we can’t run Quicken on Vista, and can’t buy a later version.

So, either don’t change to Vista, or convert to QuickBooks 2007 or Microsoft Money, both of which will apparently convert Quicken files.

But only the latest version of QuickBooks (2007) will run on Vista – all previous versions have the same poor programming that stops Quicken working. And at the time of writing (Feb 2007), QuickBooks 2007 is not available in the UK.

So at the moment, in the UK, either stick with Windows XP or convert to Microsoft Money.

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Have a free trial of Vista

You need two things – a spare empty hard drive and access to a Vista DVD (ask a friend?).

Remove your current hard drive from your PC, keep it carefully, and install the spare drive (set as a master) in its place.

Borrow your friend’s Vista DVD and boot your PC from it. (The DVD is entitled “Windows Anytime Upgrade” – it is actually a complete bootable copy of all the versions of Vista)

Follow the installation instructions but don’t put in a key (because you haven’t got one). You will have to choose a version of Vista to install and you will have to click to confirm that it is the version that you have bought. (A little white lie there!)

Eventually the installation will complete and you will have a 30 day trial of Vista to play with.

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Extend Vista’s Activation Time

When you install Windows Vista on a PC, you can use it for 30 days before you have to activate it. (See above) This is the so-called grace period. However, Microsoft will let you reset the grace period three times, in effect allowing you to run Vista for 120 days before making you decide whether or not it's right for your machine.

To see how long you have left before you have to activate Vista, open Control Panel and select System from the System and Maintenance section. At the bottom it will you how many days you have left before the trial period ends.

To reset the grace period, open a command prompt with administrator privileges and enter 'slmgr -rearm'. After you've rebooted your machine you will have a further 30 days until you're required to activate Windows.

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Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor

Although Windows Vista Home Basic edition will run on most current XP machines, what people really want is the Home Premium edition with the Aero interface and Flip 3D.

But that requires quite a well specced machine – particularly in the graphics card area.

So to see whether your current PC can run Vista, Microsoft have produced the Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor.

You can download it from Microsoft.com and it does not require you to validate your current copy of XP in order to download and use it. But you can only install and run it from an administrator account.

You may find that before you can run the advisor you need to download and install the MSXML 6.0 Parser and the Dot Net Framework (if you haven’t already got them). That takes quite a bit of time and effort.

After the Advisor has run you need to select the version of Vista that you want and then you will see what the Advisor reports about your system.

For instance, my workshop PC hasn’t got sufficient free space (15GB) on the hard drive and needs a new graphics card.

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Switch off User Account Control

User Account Control (UAC) stops changes being made to your Windows Vista setup without your specific authorisation. When a change is initiated it locks the computer, darkens the screen and brings up a “Windows needs your permission to continue” box.

All you need to do is left click the Continue button and the change will continue. But if you hadn’t initiated the change you would left click the Cancel button wouldn’t you?

Sometimes UAC causes problems with installing some programs so it may be necessary to switch it off whilst the program is installed. BUT REMEMBER TO SWITCH IT ON AGAIN AFTERWARDS. Otherwise you will have lost one of the most important security features of Vista.

Left click through the following:

Start, Control Panel, User Accounts and Family Safety, User Accounts, Turn User Account Control on or off, Continue.

Deselect “Use User Account Control (UAC) to help protect your computer” and left click OK, then choose Restart Now or Restart Later.

If you choose Restart Later then close the remaining “Make changes to your user account” box.

The change will be applied after you have restarted your computer.

Do whatever it was that caused you to need to switch off UAC and then go through the above procedure again to switch UAC back on.

PC Tips will not be held responsible for anything that happens to your computer because we told you how to switch off UAC!

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Vista Sidebar

The Vista Sidebar displays “Gadgets” that you can choose and change to brighten up your working day. Mac users will scoff and tell you about their Widgets.

When I installed Vista on my workshop PC the Sidebar wasn’t switched on automatically. But the PCs that I have supplied with Vista pre-installed have all had it showing “out-of-the-box”.

If the Sidebar isn’t showing and you want it, first check the right hand side of the taskbar (the notification area). Look for an icon like a screen with a side bar beside it that will display Windows Sidebar when you mouse over it. If it’s there, left click it to bring up the Sidebar.

If the Sidebar icon isn’t showing either, then left click Start, type Sidebar in the Search box and then left click the Windows Sidebar entry that comes up.

By default the Sidebar is on the right of the screen and will display the Clock, Slide Show and Feed Headlines Gadgets.

You can add Gadgets by clicking on the plus sign at the top of the Sidebar.

You can delete a Gadget by left clicking on the tiny cross at its top right corner (that appears when you hover your mouse over it) and then clicking the Close Gadget button.

To minimise the Sidebar to the taskbar notification area, right click on the Sidebar and left click Close Sidebar.

To maximise it, left click its icon in the taskbar.

To completely close the Sidebar, minimise it as above, then right click its taskbar icon and left click Exit.

To make other changes to the way that the Sidebar is displayed, right click on it (or its taskbar icon) and left click Properties.

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