Tip: Disable autotuning to improve wireless connectivity
Good news: Windows DRM vulnerability doesn't affect Vista
Why Vista doesn't see your 4 GB of RAM
How to: Using the New Vista Features
How to temporarily display the menu bar in Vista's File Explorer
How to get rid of annoying "Windows has blocked some startup program" popup
Vista Question Corner
Can I make XP the default OS when dual booting with Vista?
Vista Configuration and Troubleshooting
Troubleshooting program incompatibility issues that stop Vista setup
Can't get an IP address from a DHCP server
Fav Links
This Week's Links We Like. Tips, Hints And Fun Stuff
Product of the Week
Acoustica CD Label Maker: Create CD/DVD labels and jewel cases/boxes with the ultimate in ease!
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Editor's Corner
Vista Service Pack 1: Worth Waiting For?
Many computer users have adopted a policy of waiting until the first service
pack before upgrading to a new operating system. For those who aren't
interested in being on the cutting edge, don't immediately need the new
features, and/or don't have time to deal with the quirks and bugs that
inevitably show up in a brand new release, it's not a bad policy.
Consequently, there's been a lot of interest in when Service Pack 1 for Vista
is going to become available. It's been in private beta testing for a while,
and due to a slip-up, it was posted for download on the MSDN (Microsoft
Software Developer Network) member site for a few hours last Friday.
For those who don't know, MSDN is a subscription service used by many IT
professionals and programmers. For a fee, you get licenses for most Microsoft
products to use in a development or testing environment. As an MVP, I get a
free MSDN subscription that allows me to download and test software such as the
enterprise edition of Windows Server and other products I could never afford to
buy. That way, I can work with and write about them. Beta software is often
available on MSDN before it's available to the general public.
So lots of folks got excited when they saw the announcement there that they
could download a preview of Vista SP1. But apparently no one was able to do so
and the announcement was soon removed from the site and labeled a mistake.
Way back in October, there was a hack going around the Internet that was
supposed to allow Vista computers to install SP1, and illegal copies of it were
posted on Torrent sites. Some of these were rumored to contain malware along
with the service pack. You can read more about that here:
http://www.vistanews.com/071108-Vista-Hack-SP1
Meanwhile, some information about SP1 is beginning to leak out from beta
testers, and some misinformation is also being propagated, in some cases
inadvertently. Adrian Kingsley-Hughes posted a "first look" article on his
ZDNet blog that caused some folks to conclude that the service pack removes the
search box from the Start menu. In actuality, it only removes the Search
selection from the right side list of options in the Start menu - the box is
still there where it's supposed to be, and having the Search selection on the
right side was a bit redundant. You can read Adrian's post here:
http://www.vistanews.com/071108-Vista-Search
There is one thing missing, though, that will annoy administrative types. SP1
uninstalls the Group Policy Management Console (GPMC). You will still be able
to download GPMC v.2 and install it on Vista, but the decision seems to have
been to ensure that "regular users" don't have access to this powerful tool.
Those same admin types are likely to be happy about an addition: SP1 adds the
Secure Sockets Tunneling Protocol (SSTP), which allows Vista computers to
connect to others using an SSL VPN. You can bet that security enhancements of
all sorts will be a big focus of the service pack.
It appears that some of the things users have asked for, such as the ability to
select volumes to defrag with the Disk Defragmenter tool, are going to be
included in the service pack. Third party compatibility issues are also said to
be improved. Other reviewers have noted that SP1 speeds up Vista performance.
That's something that's sorely needed, especially on laptops and other
underpowered systems. One of the top complaints from new Vista users is that
it's not as fast and responsive as XP. Although it runs nicely on my high
powered desktop system, I have to admit that it's definitely slower than XP on
my Sony subcompact laptop.
Another big annoyance for Vista users has been the inordinate amount of time it
takes the system to wake up from hibernation. That's been addressed too, with
some reviewers saying wake time has been cut in half.
If you have BitLocker full drive encryption (it only comes with the Enterprise
and Ultimate editions), SP1 will make it possible for you to use it on any
drive you want. Previously, you could only use BitLocker encryption on the
drive where the operating system is installed.
So ... is SP1 worth the wait? If it speeds up slow Vista systems, I think that
alone will go a long way toward calming some of the rants about how awful Vista
is. Compatibility improvements will help, too. Many of those who took the "wait
and see" approach when Vista was released are likely to take the plunge after
the service pack is out and has been thoroughly put to the test by the public.
And there are sure to be Vista users who resist it, just as so many put off
installing XP SP1 (and later SP2) for a long time out of fear that it
would "break" their systems.
Either way, we'll have to wait a little longer. The final release of SP1 isn't
expected until early 2008, but there will likely be public betas out soon.
We'll be keeping an eye on SP1 and will let you know when it's available for
public beta testing so that, if you're brave, you can find out for yourself
whether it's a keeper or a bust. Let us know how you feel about the service
pack. Will you try out the beta, install it immediately after final release, or
hold off to see if it causes problems for others? What's on your "wish list"
that you would like Microsoft to change or fix about Vista? Tell us at
.
Meanwhile, this week has been a busy one for me. Tom and I got a few new tech
toys, which I've been reviewing in our sister publication, WXPnews. If you
unsubscribed to that one when VistaNews came out, but want to read individual
issues, visit WXPNews here:
http://www.vistanews.com/071108-WXPNews
Last week's editorial took a quick look at the newest version of Mac OS X,
Leopard, which had just been released. We noted the many "new" features that
are surprisingly similar to features already found in Vista, or even XP.
Lots of you wrote to agree with me, that now it looks as if Apple is the one
copying Microsoft, but somehow people don't get nearly so worked up about that.
Others stood by their Macs, and wrote either to excoriate me for saying bad
things about them, or to politely disagree with what I said (guess which ones I
appreciated most?). And a few of you wrote to say you really don't care what
Apple is doing; you just care about Vista and XP.
A clarification: Joel G. wrote: "You mentioned that the ability for the
calendar program to recognize text like "next Tuesday" would be nifty. This has
been available since Outlook 97. Outlook will recognize text like "next
Tuesday", "week from Friday", and so on." In fact, several readers wrote to
tell me this. Yes, I know you can type the date like that into the date field
of a form and Outlook will recognize it, but as far as I know, it won't
recognize it in the body of a message and give you the option to turn it into
an appointment.
Microsoft fans can at least take comfort in the fact that Vista isn't the only
new OS getting bashed in the press. I've seen a lot of negative reviews of the
new OS X - enough to make me want to defend it just as I've been defending
Vista. Although some readers seemed to see my editorial last week as Apple
bashing, remember that I mentioned several things I liked about Leopard and
ending up by saying that if it reminds me of Vista (and it does), to me that's
a good thing. Hardly the height of criticism.
Thanks to all those who wrote, whether or not you agreed. That's
what "discussion" is all about.
Quotes of the Week
If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn't brood. I'd type
a little faster. -- Isaac Asimov
'Til next week,
Deb Shinder, Editor
News, Hints, Tips and Tricks
Tip: Disable autotuning to improve wireless connectivity
If you're having problems with wireless networking, it may be because the
router or WAP is an older one that is compatible with the tuning feature in
Vista. That happens a lot with public hotspots. If you disable the autotuning
feature, you may get better connectivity. Luckily, it's an easy fix:
Open the command prompt with administrative privileges by right
clicking its icon in the Accessories menu and selecting Run As Administrator,
or by typing cmd in the Search box and hitting Ctrl+Shift+Enter and responding
to the User Account Control dialog box.
Type: netsh int tcp set global autotuninglevel=disable
Press ENTER
You should get a message saying "OK"
You have to restart Windows to apply the change.
Good news: Windows DRM vulnerability doesn't affect Vista
This week, we got a warning that there's a security vulnerability in the Digital
Rights Management (DRM) technology that comes with Windows and attackers are
targeting it, but even though Vista comes with this technology (as do XP and
Windows Server 2003), it isn't affected by the attacks. Read more here:
http://www.vistanews.com/071108-DRM-Vulnerability
Why Vista doesn't see your 4 GB of RAM
Lots of readers are confused about the RAM limitations in the 32 bit versions
of Vista. You have 4 GB of physical memory, but the system only shows something
like 3410 or even 2813 MB. What's going on? The problem is that the 32 bit OS
can only address a total of 4 GB of physical address space. That includes not
just your RAM, but also memory-mapped devices (video cards, etc.). Those
devices get their address spaces first, and whatever's left over goes to your
RAM. For a much more detailed discussion of this problem, see
http://www.vistanews.com/071108-4GB-RAM
How to: Using the New Vista Features
How to temporarily display the menu bar in Vista's File Explorer
If you want the menu bar displayed permanently in the File Explorer in Vista,
you can do so from the Organize menu as we described in a previous issue of
WXPnews. However, if you only want to display it temporarily, you don't have to
enable and disable it that way. Instead, you can just hit the ALT key to show
the menu bar for a single use, and then it will hide itself again. This works
for Windows Media Player, too. Thanks to Mark M. for this tip.
How to get rid of annoying "Windows has blocked some startup program" popup
Several people have written to ask me if there's a way to get rid of that
annoying message that pops up when they boot Vista. You know, the one that
says "Windows has blocked some startup programs." Well, you'll be happy to know
there is a way:
Click the Blocked Startup Programs icon on the taskbar, next to the clock.
Click on Run Blocked Program.
Select System Configuration Utility.
Check the box labeled "Don't show this message or start System Configuration
when Windows starts.
Can I make XP the default OS when dual booting with Vista?
QUESTION:
I'm currently dual-booting XP and Vista. As IT Manager, I guess it's time to
start familiarizing myself with the features of Vista. I installed Vista on an
entirely separate hard drive. When I boot my computer, I am presented with two
options during the boot process - "Earlier version of Windows" and "Vista"
with Vista being the default. How can I change that to make XP the default? In
XP, there was a boot.ini file which was fairly easy to edit, or it could be
done through msconfig. Additionally, I could change the timeout, which I
believe is only 3 seconds by default after installing Vista. - Darrell C.
ANSWER:
Boot.ini is gone in Vista; it's been replaced by the Boot Configuration Data or
BCD file that's located in a folder called BOOT on the primary active
partition. You can edit it with the command line tool bcdedit.exe. Here's how:
Open the command prompt with administrative privileges by right clicking its
icon in the Accessories menu and selecting Run As Administrator, or by typing
cmd in the Search box and hitting Ctrl+Shift+Enter and responding to the User
Account Control dialog box.
Once you have a command prompt in admin mode, type:
bcdedit /default {legacy}
You should get a message saying "The operation completed successfully" and
when you reboot, XP should be set as the default OS.
You can change the timeout value in the same way. At the command prompt, to
change the time to 15 seconds, type:
bcdedit /timeout 15
Of course, you can set the time value to any number of seconds you want. For
more info on editing the BCD, see http://www.pro-
networks.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=79102
Another option is to install a third party solution such as VistaBootPro, which
gives you an interface for making changes to the BCD without using bcdedit.exe
directly. Find out more about it here:
http://www.vistanews.com/071108-VistaBootPro
Vista Configuration and Troubleshooting
Troubleshooting program incompatibility issues that stop Vista setup
If you've tried to install Vista as an upgrade to your existing operating
system and the Setup program indicates that a program on your computer isn't
compatible with Vista and prevents you from continuing with the installation,
you've got a "hard block." What to do about it? See KB article 931360 at
http://www.vistanews.com/071108-Vista-Hard-Block
Can't get an IP address from a DHCP server
If you aren't able to get an IP address when you connect to a network that uses
DHCP to assign addresses (that's most of them, these days), it may be a
byproduct of the extra security on Vista's routing table. There's a fix, but it
involves making changes on the DHCP server so you may need to contact your
network administrator. Refer him/her to KB article 942971 at
http://www.vistanews.com/071108-DHCP
curepc
