VISTA, UAC, new software and more

Well, after weeks, actually 2 months, of messing around with VISTA, scouring the internet for information, e-mailing MS several times, with no responses, I am almost totally back up and running. Not without some major issues still though. I have had to purchase tons of new software that is compatible with VISTA, but did learn a few lessons along the way.

First, try your software before calling it quits. Sometimes there is a bug, but it's something you can live with. Second, VISTA's UAC, or User Account Control, causes problems for much of the software I use. You can turn this off, but then several key things in VISTA don't work anymore, or are difficult to deal with. For instance, some of my software won't run or cannot be installed while UAC is active. If you activate it for your existing software, then the new software won't run, let you login or otherwise not function correctly. Now, if UAC is off, things like the VISTA networking don't operate properly. In fact, I have manually go in and select (6 clicks or steps) for the network to use WINDOWS LOCATER for the RPC. What does this mean, well if there is nothing in this box, it won't find anything on the network when you connect. The internet connection still works, but you won't be able to share files, printers, drives, etc nor access them, until you manually select this. Each time you reboot, or startup, it will lose this setting and you have to manually do this again. I haven't found a workaround for this yet. If you know one, please let me know.

To be clear, some things did work, but most didn't. Now, this is not indicative of everyone I suppose, as I am somewhat of a power user and use lots of what Microsoft now calls LEGACY software or equipment. Some of that includes Quickbooks Premier 2004, USB to Rs232/DB9 adapters from Keyspan (some work, some don't), Choicemail (a very good anti-spam software), much of which I paid for and don't want to buy again. In addition to that, most of my programming software, design software, estimating and proposing software, which we pay thousands for literally, were NOT compatible. Now some of these had free updates or new software to download and install that would work with VISTA. This seems OK, until 70-90% of your software is in this category, then you are talking about a LOT of time reinstalling software, researching what to do, etc. I really didn't have this time, nor want to spend it. I have pretty much given up beyond what I have running now. I program using Crestron SIMPLE software, we use D-Tools for our system design and estimating and some other stuff that I have had to make extensive upgrades and changes to get it to work in VISTA.

Regardless, getting VISTA working for me, and the way I work, was no easy task. In fact, I was so incensed with the process I upgraded to VISTA ULTIMATE for the sole purpose of using MS VIRTUAL PC. VIRTUAL PC is supposed to allow you to run any MS OS (Windows 95, 98, ME, 2000, NT, XP), inside of VISTA. This is not a dual boot, but runs while you are in VISTA. This is the answer I thought. I'll just run VIRTUAL PC with XP on it and I can run all my "LEGACY" stuff on that. However, after using Microsoft's Virtual PC tester, it told me I needed VISTA ULTIMATE. S0, another $150 to get the upgrade and from the upgrade from VISTA HOME PREMIUM, which came with my laptop, to ULTIMATE, VISTA can no longer see my DVD/CD-ROM. ARE YOU KIDDING ME!

This presents a problem since I cannot load XP on the VIRTUAL PC, which is the whole reason I got VISTA ULTIMATE. After looking around, I basically see, try downloading new drivers from the DVD ROM manufacturer (just finding out who makes it is not easy), or try removing a ton of stuff from your registry (not something for the lighthearted), or just re-loading your drivers. None of which have worked for me.

So, I no longer have a DVD/CD-ROM. Blew off the whole VIRTUAL PC thing and just worked on getting things to work. Some things I worked so long and hard on, that I don't even know what I did to fix them.
What a PAIN!!!


Am I totally DOWN on VISTA, no, there are some improvements (mostly visual appeal), but not many which were worth the hassles I have gone through. It seems either VISTA wasn't ready, or the world isn't ready to support VISTA at this time. If I am FORCED to BUY new software from a variety of vendors, new hardware in some cases (Keyspan adapter), and spend tons of time (more than just the normal time to install and upgraded OS) getting things working, it's just not worth the effort, unless it (the "improvements" to the OS) is something I want and ask for.

Otherwise, VISTA has still removed, renamed or made harder to find many things I use on a daily basis. For example it is about 3 more steps to get to see what your network connection properties are, some of the functions that were in the right-click menu are not there anymore, windows explorer is a little harder to figure out, the folders setup is just plain strange (there are many pre-named "public" and non-public folders now, to which VISTA places various info. I am sure there is a reason for these changes, but they are such a huge departure from what has been the norm for most OS's for the past decade or more, since GUI was the deal, it just seems to complicate things unneccessarily. It also takes a great deal more in the way of computer power and resources, just to run, so that's a downside, for little or no noticeable improvements.

What's happened since upgrading to VISTA ULTIMATE from HOME PREMIUM? I've lost my DVD-ROM Drive capabilities, I no longer can connect to my Bluetooth Blackberry Phone, my network adapter has become disabled and unusable until I reboot 2 times thus far (I didn't do it), while I was actively working on projects and using a network.

My suggestion, re-tool VISTA (FAST) with more drivers, especially for video, networking, DVD-ROM's (ehem) and mission critical devices. Then make it so VIRTUAL PC can run on any version of VISTA and install it on every VISTA machine, and PROMOTE it. So people can simply install XP on their VISTA machine, and run thier LEGACY software/equipment from within the VIRTUAL PC. Had this worked, this would have saved me 80 hours of work and tons of money trying to get everything to work. Had it worked?!?!?!