Windows Vista Tech Support

[Thermopylae_480]

This thread is for aiding in the technical support of Windows Vista. Those who own Windows Vista may use this thread for the purpose of seeking aid in any problems which may arise.

As more an more users adopt the new OS undoubtedly problems will arise, and be more frequent for an extended period of time. This is a fact not speaking in regards to the quality of the product, but simply as fact, that any large scale adoption of any integral platform results in in anything from user error, to undiscovered programing errors, and other issues. The purpose of this thread is to provide a centralized place for technical exploration, and troubleshooting of any Vista related problems that may arise during the course of Vista transition.

-If you only wish to discredit Windows Vista, do so in another thread, this thread is for those seeking help, and who have most likely already purchased Windows Vista.

Hopefully this won't get much use. Good luck all!

 

[Alec§taar]

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...tartDate=3/6/2006&period=30&sortCriteria=date



* I'd like to post that link, because DAILY, it posts updates for ALL of Microsoft's stuff, including the LOAD of updates for VISTA that appeared on 01/29/2007 onwards (& even a few before that, but you have to look)...

APK

P.S.=> It orders downloads for MS stuff by OS/app type involved, & CHRONOLOGICALLY, so you load them, in the right order & what-not... convenient! apk

 

[Deleted member 24505]

Vista launch press coverage inaccuracies, corrected

i hope this aint the wrong place to put this,but this seems an appropriate place.

read this-
http://www.tweakvista.com/article39075.aspx

main site for vista,very informative-

http://www.tweakvista.com/

sorry just found this about dx10 and vista/xp

Q/I reinstalled DirectX 9.0c and now I am wondering if, when a DX10 compatible
game comes out, will I be able to install DX10 again even though I have 9.0c
installed.
A/Yes, you will. You still have DX10 installed, but you also have the components from 9.0c that the games need.

More correctly: Windows Vista includes a DirectX runtime that supports
Direct3D 9.0c, Direct3D9Ex, and Direct3D 10, as well as emulating older
versions of Direct3D. The game's copy of D3DX9 is needed, but everything
else is already there.

Read "Graphics APIs in Windows Vista"
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb173477.aspx and check out the
latest DirectX FAQ http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb219721.aspx

Q: Will DirectX 10 be available for Windows XP?

A: No. Windows Vista, which has DirectX 10, includes an updated DirectX
runtime based on the runtime in Windows XP SP2 (DirectX 9.0c) with changes
to work with the new Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM) and the new audio
driver stack, and with other updates in the operating system. In addition to
Direct3D 9, Windows Vista supports two new interfaces when the correct video
hardware and drivers are present: Direct3D9Ex and Direct3D10.
Since these new interfaces rely on the WDDM technology, they will never be
available on earlier versions of Windows. All the other changes made to
DirectX technologies for Windows Vista are also specific to the new version
of Windows. The name DirectX 10 is misleading in that many technologies
shipping in the DirectX SDK (XACT, XINPUT, D3DX) are not encompassed by this
version number. So, referring to the version number of the DirectX runtime
as a whole has lost much of its meaning, even for 9.0c. The DirectX
Diagnostic Tool (DXdiag.exe) on Windows Vista does report DirectX 10, but
this really only refers to Direct3D 10.

Q: What changes were made to the DirectX runtime for Windows Vista?

A: The primary changes were to support the new Windows Display Driver Model.
For details on the new driver model, impacts on Direct3D 9, and on the two
new graphics interfaces, Direct3D 9Ex and Direct3D 10, review Graphics APIs
in Windows Vista.

DirectSound was updated to expose the capabilities of the new Windows Vista
audio driver stack, which supports multi-channel software buffers. The
legacy Direct3D Retained Mode API was completely removed from Windows Vista.
DirectPlay Voice was also removed, as well as DirectPlay's NAT Helper.

--
Chuck Walbourn
SDE, Game Technology Group

 

[Deleted member 24505]

Microsoft Answers 'Vista OEM' Questions

i found this too.forgive me if i am posting this stuff in the wrong place.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/zd/20070126/tc_zd/199653

 

[Thermopylae_480]

lol, everyone is scared to post. I'll change it. It just seems to me almost every Vista related thread gets turned into a flame war. That's all I wanted to prevent.

 

[Riceman]

I'm having an annoying issue with sound in Vista Business. After 10-20 minutes of normal audio, it starts to sound like it's coming from underwater and the problem gets progressively worse.

I know they completely changed the way audio works in Vista from XP, but shouldn't sound....work? This is onboard sound, with the latest drivers. Any ideas?

 

[Solaris17]

Well not sure if this goes here but it is kinda a vista problem.......how do i fix my mbr? at least i think thats the problem you see i dual booted vista and xp but now my beta key isnt active so i wipped the partition vista was on however now when i reboot it still shows the options vista or xp i choose vista and it just says files are missing....well...obviously..but i dont know how to fix this so it just streight boots any ideas?

 

[Batou1986]

put a xp cd in and go to recovery and type fixmbr then fixboot that should git rid of the vista bootloader

< vista guru

 

[mikek75]

A quick google brought this up...
(Obviously this has only been tested in the vista beta.)

You will need a Windows XP Home or Windows XP Professional CD to be able to do this.

Check that the BIOS is set so you can boot off your CD\DVD-ROM drive and put in the Windows XP CD. Restart your computer so it will boot from it.

When it comes up with text: Boot from CD.... press ENTER or any other key to boot from your Windows XP CD. It should now start scanning your hardware.

When it comes up with the blue screen, press R for Recovery Console.

It will come up with a black screen with white writing. Give it a moment to load the default US keyboard. If you are using a different type press Enter and follow the instructions.

You may have to type your Administrator Password to be able to use the Recovery Console; if prompted please do or you will not be able to continue.

Now you should be at a prompt where you should be able to type. Type in the following commands:

1. type FIXMBR and press enter
2. Press Y if asked

(fixmbr means: fix masterboot record)

3. next type: FIXBOOT and press enter
4. Press Y if asked.
5. When you can continue, restart your computer
6. Remember to take the Windows XP CD out of your drive and it should be fixed.

 

[Solaris17]

kk thanks guys

 

[Deleted member 24505]

could somebody in the know have a look at this so maybe we can figure out what processes can be killed in vista? there is looooooooads more than on xp pro(33).

thanks

 

[DaMulta]

I remember in the beta it was wise to right click on anything and run as administrator for things to work right.

 

[Deleted member 24505]

i just thought i'd say that it is not true about only been able to activate vista oem once.i reinstalled it today onto my raid 0 drives.i could not activate it on the internet,but it activated fine over the phone.fair enuff its a pian doing it over the phone,but it proves it can be activated more than once.

 

[bhaskar15]

The game explorer in Vista is a nifty improvement, but it uses ESRB Rating. Can we make it so to use other rating systems ?

 

[Alec§taar]

could somebody in the know have a look at this so maybe we can figure out what processes can be killed in vista? there is looooooooads more than on xp pro(33).

Heck - TEST IT YOURSELF MAN, using services.msc, & rebooting after services changes IF NEED BE, setting them to MANUAL if need be (rather than outright disabled), or using msconfig (if it still exists in VISTA that is) to do it for you w/ a custom startup for testing using it in lieu of services.msc!



Not to be rude telling you "TEST IT YOURSELF", but, think about it:

* You COULD be the first person (here @ least) to add a sticky regarding tuning VISTA (vs. the sticky thread here for tuning Windows 2000/XP/Server 2003 in that manner)...

(After all - You probably have a DECENT handle on how & what to do in XP, & I'd wager a LOT of it applies to VISTA as well - you could use it as a 'starting point reference' & work on it from there, especially regarding new & diff. services VISTA may possess, that its predecessors/ancestors in 2000/XP/Server 2003 do NOT have!)

APK

P.S.=> THINK ABOUT IT! I'd do it myself, were I using VISTA... apk

 

[Alec§taar]

Another note I'd like to add, is the to manage the bootup in VISTA (especially multi-OS booting), you need to use a tool called bcdedit that VISTA provides, since VISTA no longer uses BOOT.INI

* Microsoft Reference URL for using bcdedit & questions regarding its usage + HOW IT WORKS:

http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsVista/en/library/85cd5efe-c349-427c-b035-c2719d4af7781033.mspx



APK

 

[Alec§taar]

Setting Up Vista Ultimate on a RAID Array

http://legitreviews.com/article/454/1/



* Good one there, for folks interested in RAID usage w/ VISTA...

APK

 

[Deleted member 24505]

i reinstalled vista today on my 2x80gb raid 0,without a glitch alex.i just told it too install on top of xp,and it works fine.

there is deffo no need for the floppy now,no f6'ing to install the raid driver like i had to with xp pro.

 

[Alec§taar]

i reinstalled vista today on my 2x80gb raid 0,without a glitch alex.i just told it too install on top of xp,and it works fine.

Cool - I just put up that URL above about using RAID w/ VISTA for others' referenece if needed is all... just in case, so they have a "template/guide" of SOMEKIND, @ least, if needed.

there is deffo no need for the floppy now,no f6'ing to install the raid driver like i had to with xp pro.

Yea, this I was aware of & pointed it out in another thread here recently in fact... good thing by ALL means imo!

APK

P.S.=> Tigger69 - DO consider doing a "VISTA SERVICES TUNING GUIDE" since you DO have access to VISTA's final model, hands-on... seriously! apk

 

[Alec§taar]

Something On The Hardware Compatiblity List (hcl) Side, For Vista Only

ReadyBoost Compatibility - USB and other flash memory devices

http://www.grantgibson.co.uk/misc/readyboost/



* That's a list of "Ready Boost" compatible USB FlashMemory compatible thumbdrives, that are certified to work w/ VISTA's "SuperFetch" diskdrive caching abilities...

APK

 

[Athlon2K15]

anyone know why vista's disk defragmenter doesnt show you how bad your drives are fragmented? and is there a way to have it show the drives fragmentation?


APK-

what do you think of readyboost? i have a lexar jd mercury 1gb,thought about using it for ready boost,but would that actually speed up vista?

 

[Athlon2K15]

i have a slight problem with vista...trying to play tiger woods online it crashes because of internet explorer 7...tried googling the problem nothing comes up..i get some sort of script error,i attached a photo of my error

 

[Deleted member 24505]

i have put another gb of 533 ddr2 in my machine(for testing) and set it at stock(coz the 533 wont oc) and the differance is amazing.2142 is MUCH better,and in my experience now,i would say a decnt spec machine with 2gb of ram will show no differance in gaming performance than a similar xp machine.

all my games run sweet.

 

[Alec§taar]

anyone know why vista's disk defragmenter doesnt show you how bad your drives are fragmented? and is there a way to have it show the drives fragmentation?

No, because from what I understand of it, & only anecdotally (I don't use VISTA yet), that's how it is now... lol, "dumbed-down" a bit TOO much, imo, in that the app got dumber if anything - progress reports are excellent for disk I/O operations imo, of any kind, & in an app of that type.

I wonder - do the ExecSoft &/or Raxco PerfectDisk (& other 3rd party disk defragmentors' programs) work on VISTA yet?

APK-
what do you think of readyboost? i have a lexar jd mercury 1gb,thought about using it for ready boost,but would that actually speed up vista?

Don't use VISTA myself, but... if you look in my signature, I use something a BIT (sort of in how I apply it) like how its supposed to work, using RAM as my diskdrives, via an SSD... apk

 

[mysticjon]

could somebody in the know have a look at this so maybe we can figure out what processes can be killed in vista? there is looooooooads more than on xp pro(33).

thanks

yeah u dont need that trustedinstall thingy, u cna kill like the sidebar if u dont use it or need it, but other than that, most of the things running, is necessary, u cna always do the run-msconfig.exe and select/deselctecd, which stuff u wnat or dont wnat to run