Paul reviews latest Windows Vista build

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So, the Windows Vista December 2005 CTP (Build 5270) is here. This is a big one! Paul Thurrott said it was so big that it took four parts to properly cover it. I’ll have a Tablet PC running the latest Windows Vista and some other stuff on it at the geek dinner next week if you wanna take a look (unfortunately my Tablet PC doesn’t have a good enough video card to run the latest glass theme, but everything else is there).

Paul’s conclusion? “Honestly, it’s been a long time since I’ve felt this good about Windows Vista. I can see sweeping improvements across the board and, perhaps more important, a level of fit and finish that had never been present in pre-release versions of this product before.”

I agree. I’m using it more and more and it’s harder and harder to use my XP machines. 2006 is looking like it’s going to be a fun year to be a MSFTie.

Well, I’m outta here for the weekend. Have a happy holidays. Next week we’re in Santa Clara, CA. Looking forward to having a blogger/geek dinner in Palo Alto on December 30 at 6 p.m. in the Cheesecake Factory on University Ave.

Published by Robert Scoble

I help entrepreneurs build their technology business' story, help with getting ready for investors, with other launch plans, and many other strategic things that can help your new startup. Call to talk: +1-425-205-1921 (text first).

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78 thoughts on “Paul reviews latest Windows Vista build”

  3. Man, I can’t wait for Windows Vista to ship. I’m ready to buy a pile of MSFT puts, and I just need to have a firm ship date!

    Once Windows More-of-the-same hits the streets and Wall Street realizes just how badly you clowns have screwed the pooch on this one, I can double my money in a week.

    Like

  4. Man, I can’t wait for Windows Vista to ship. I’m ready to buy a pile of MSFT puts, and I just need to have a firm ship date!

    Once Windows More-of-the-same hits the streets and Wall Street realizes just how badly you clowns have screwed the pooch on this one, I can double my money in a week.

    Like

  5. A lot of the people at weblogs.asp.net are complaining that the latest CTP doesn’t work with their drivers. Even Sam Gentile had problems and said he’s waiting for beta 2. How did Paul get his to work?

    Like

  6. A lot of the people at weblogs.asp.net are complaining that the latest CTP doesn’t work with their drivers. Even Sam Gentile had problems and said he’s waiting for beta 2. How did Paul get his to work?

    Like

  9. Scott – the latest CTP includes drivers for just about everything. The only think I know of that has issues are some Creative Labs sound cards (I couldn’t get an Audigy 2 to work, but the on-board SBLive 24-bit on my home machine’s nForce 4 works fine).

    Basically every video driver imaginable is there – such as my 7800GTX. It’s amazing how well Vista is running on this machine actually.

    Like

  10. Scott – the latest CTP includes drivers for just about everything. The only think I know of that has issues are some Creative Labs sound cards (I couldn’t get an Audigy 2 to work, but the on-board SBLive 24-bit on my home machine’s nForce 4 works fine).

    Basically every video driver imaginable is there – such as my 7800GTX. It’s amazing how well Vista is running on this machine actually.

    Like

  13. You can always force Glass via the registry if you need to, just add the following key:

    HKCUSoftwareMicrosoftDWM

    DWord: UseMachineCheck = 0

    Then toggle it on/off using CTRL+SHIFT+F9 when you need to.

    Like

  14. You can always force Glass via the registry if you need to, just add the following key:

    HKCUSoftwareMicrosoftDWM

    DWord: UseMachineCheck = 0

    Then toggle it on/off using CTRL+SHIFT+F9 when you need to.

    Like

  15. Wow the Registry is still there in all of it’s Glory. I thought Vista was something special. Just another version piled on top of the old version. Makes me smile when I load Windows XP up from my original disks, and they talk about all the advanced features, then I really smile install 50 plus patches on top of that. I am willing to bet that a patch comes out for Vista within one week of it’s release.

    Like

  16. Wow the Registry is still there in all of it’s Glory. I thought Vista was something special. Just another version piled on top of the old version. Makes me smile when I load Windows XP up from my original disks, and they talk about all the advanced features, then I really smile install 50 plus patches on top of that. I am willing to bet that a patch comes out for Vista within one week of it’s release.

    Like

  19. Uh, Oh…

    More from Paul

    “One issue Microsoft is going to have to work hard to overcome is how closely parts of this product resemble Mac OS X. These similarities go beyond surface UI coincidences and extend into bundled applications like Windows Calendar, which very closely emulate similar Apple products in both look and feel and functionality.”

    You’d think with all that money and all those self professed smart people, and all the chest thumping about innovation, that you guys could do better.

    Like

  20. Uh, Oh…

    More from Paul

    “One issue Microsoft is going to have to work hard to overcome is how closely parts of this product resemble Mac OS X. These similarities go beyond surface UI coincidences and extend into bundled applications like Windows Calendar, which very closely emulate similar Apple products in both look and feel and functionality.”

    You’d think with all that money and all those self professed smart people, and all the chest thumping about innovation, that you guys could do better.

    Like

  21. Scott – so one person is having an issue with an Nvidia driver (probably trying to use an old one instead of the up-to-date one that’s included with the OS), and thus the CTP is a failure?

    I’ve been using it as my primary OS on my home machine for a few days now and I’ve been extremely impressed. It’s a huge improvement from 5231 and the other previous builds.

    Clearly there’s a lot left to do. But this isn’t even a BETA – it’s an interim build. It’s just an extremely good one.

    As for UAP and such, I love that it’s there and that it works great most of the time. It does pop up too often and the dialog clearly needs some work (it’s been changing almost weekly). I mean, with text like “More information will go here” you have to accept that it’s just not finished. Personally I also really want an “Always allow this program to do perform this function” button. At least I think I do… problem is, this system needs to be fool-proof. It will be the single largest security improvement that Windows users could ask for. But it does require just the slightest help from the user.

    Like

  22. Scott – so one person is having an issue with an Nvidia driver (probably trying to use an old one instead of the up-to-date one that’s included with the OS), and thus the CTP is a failure?

    I’ve been using it as my primary OS on my home machine for a few days now and I’ve been extremely impressed. It’s a huge improvement from 5231 and the other previous builds.

    Clearly there’s a lot left to do. But this isn’t even a BETA – it’s an interim build. It’s just an extremely good one.

    As for UAP and such, I love that it’s there and that it works great most of the time. It does pop up too often and the dialog clearly needs some work (it’s been changing almost weekly). I mean, with text like “More information will go here” you have to accept that it’s just not finished. Personally I also really want an “Always allow this program to do perform this function” button. At least I think I do… problem is, this system needs to be fool-proof. It will be the single largest security improvement that Windows users could ask for. But it does require just the slightest help from the user.

    Like

  23. Oh – and what is your problem with the Registry?

    You’re not supposed to look at it. You’re not supposed to even know it’s there.

    The registry is for the *registration* of COM Servers and mapping of GUIDs. If not for the registry, most every app since Windows 95 simply wouldn’t be able to function. Most of Windows itself wouldn’t. That information needs to be stored somewhere, and the Registry is extremely good at it.

    Should applications use it to store settings? That’s another matter entirely. Maybe you think they shouldn’t. But one reason developers do use the registry sometimes is that it’s extremely good at caching. If you’re reading or updating a stored value frequently the registry is far more efficient than accessing the filesystem.

    Like

  24. Oh – and what is your problem with the Registry?

    You’re not supposed to look at it. You’re not supposed to even know it’s there.

    The registry is for the *registration* of COM Servers and mapping of GUIDs. If not for the registry, most every app since Windows 95 simply wouldn’t be able to function. Most of Windows itself wouldn’t. That information needs to be stored somewhere, and the Registry is extremely good at it.

    Should applications use it to store settings? That’s another matter entirely. Maybe you think they shouldn’t. But one reason developers do use the registry sometimes is that it’s extremely good at caching. If you’re reading or updating a stored value frequently the registry is far more efficient than accessing the filesystem.

    Like

  25. “one reason developers do use the registry sometimes is that it’s extremely good at caching”

    Another reason, of course, is that MS has been telling developers to store their app settings in the registry since Windows 95 (or possibly Windows 3.1 – I forget).

    Like

  26. “one reason developers do use the registry sometimes is that it’s extremely good at caching”

    Another reason, of course, is that MS has been telling developers to store their app settings in the registry since Windows 95 (or possibly Windows 3.1 – I forget).

    Like

  27. “so one person is having an issue with an Nvidia driver (probably trying to use an old one instead of the up-to-date one that’s included with the OS), and thus the CTP is a failure?”

    I never said it was a failure, Sam is the one who said he was recommending waiting for beta 2. I’m recommending people wait until SP2. 😉 Did you even RTFA I pointed to? Don’t know who Sam Gentile is? Robert does. Try reading his blog and doing some research on him. He’s a smart guy, really, really smart. he pointed to another person having problems with the drivers, who’s weblog is on LONGHORN-FRICKIN’-BLOGS.com, in the CTP. Then he pointed to two other people who said the CTP was fine. But one of them, Robert Mclaws, reported lots of tablet driver issues. The driver issues don’t surprise me, especially the people reporting sound and video driver issues since those two areas have been re-worked a lot in Vista.

    The biggest complaint I’ve read so far has to do witht he UAP/UAC stuff. Apparently MS didn’t copy that correctly from OS X. The P2P-Bonjour stuff looks nice though.

    Like

  28. “so one person is having an issue with an Nvidia driver (probably trying to use an old one instead of the up-to-date one that’s included with the OS), and thus the CTP is a failure?”

    I never said it was a failure, Sam is the one who said he was recommending waiting for beta 2. I’m recommending people wait until SP2. 😉 Did you even RTFA I pointed to? Don’t know who Sam Gentile is? Robert does. Try reading his blog and doing some research on him. He’s a smart guy, really, really smart. he pointed to another person having problems with the drivers, who’s weblog is on LONGHORN-FRICKIN’-BLOGS.com, in the CTP. Then he pointed to two other people who said the CTP was fine. But one of them, Robert Mclaws, reported lots of tablet driver issues. The driver issues don’t surprise me, especially the people reporting sound and video driver issues since those two areas have been re-worked a lot in Vista.

    The biggest complaint I’ve read so far has to do witht he UAP/UAC stuff. Apparently MS didn’t copy that correctly from OS X. The P2P-Bonjour stuff looks nice though.

    Like

  31. It’s working fairly well on my Toshiba M200 Tablet PC (which is what I’m typing to you from here). Overall it’s a lot to get used to. But things feel better and I LOVE the new search engine integration. It needs a lot of fit and finish work.

    Oh, and handwriting recognition is much better, especially after you spend some time training it.

    Like

  32. It’s working fairly well on my Toshiba M200 Tablet PC (which is what I’m typing to you from here). Overall it’s a lot to get used to. But things feel better and I LOVE the new search engine integration. It needs a lot of fit and finish work.

    Oh, and handwriting recognition is much better, especially after you spend some time training it.

    Like

  33. Larry: I didn’t know that the Macintosh is available in a Media Center configuration or a Tablet PC configuration. Damn those boys at Microsoft for always copying Steve Jobs.

    But, if you say it looks like a Mac, I’ll take that as a compliment. I don’t see that many similarities (and I’m staying at the house of an Apple employee right now).

    Like

  34. Larry: I didn’t know that the Macintosh is available in a Media Center configuration or a Tablet PC configuration. Damn those boys at Microsoft for always copying Steve Jobs.

    But, if you say it looks like a Mac, I’ll take that as a compliment. I don’t see that many similarities (and I’m staying at the house of an Apple employee right now).

    Like

  35. Robert,

    I didn’t state that. Paul Thurrott did. I posted that, as it was in the summary of his article that you noted.

    Robert, I think perhaps Apple actually should take it as a compliment that your company is copying them (Steve Jobs’ snarky comment to you about IE aside). Re Tablet PC and Media Center (your snarky comment). Of course we’ll see those from Apple. (my be is for a furthring of Front Row to add DVR and downladable content in January).

    My point really is this though…. With all Microsoft’s money and self congratulation from the top, that it should be waaaaaaaay out in front in terms of UI design and innovation. In actual fact, the company won’t be until it goes back to being run in a more entreprenurial and being run with the vision of its old days.

    But…. to you and yours. Merry/ Happy and I wouldn’t be reading and unless I loved reading you (I do)

    Like

  36. Robert,

    I didn’t state that. Paul Thurrott did. I posted that, as it was in the summary of his article that you noted.

    Robert, I think perhaps Apple actually should take it as a compliment that your company is copying them (Steve Jobs’ snarky comment to you about IE aside). Re Tablet PC and Media Center (your snarky comment). Of course we’ll see those from Apple. (my be is for a furthring of Front Row to add DVR and downladable content in January).

    My point really is this though…. With all Microsoft’s money and self congratulation from the top, that it should be waaaaaaaay out in front in terms of UI design and innovation. In actual fact, the company won’t be until it goes back to being run in a more entreprenurial and being run with the vision of its old days.

    But…. to you and yours. Merry/ Happy and I wouldn’t be reading and unless I loved reading you (I do)

    Like

  37. larry: I was an Apple fanatic back in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Back then Apple was 50 miles out in front. Today? We’re ahead in places and they are ahead in places. We can go on all day long about where they are ahead and where we are.

    I have a Mac sitting right here and they don’t look anything alike (particularly once you get the glass working). Yeah, you can see a common element here and there (both IE7 and Safari have tabs and similar UIs, for instance) but that’s about the extent of it. Once you get deep into something like Windows Media Center you don’t see any similarities.

    Like

  38. larry: I was an Apple fanatic back in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Back then Apple was 50 miles out in front. Today? We’re ahead in places and they are ahead in places. We can go on all day long about where they are ahead and where we are.

    I have a Mac sitting right here and they don’t look anything alike (particularly once you get the glass working). Yeah, you can see a common element here and there (both IE7 and Safari have tabs and similar UIs, for instance) but that’s about the extent of it. Once you get deep into something like Windows Media Center you don’t see any similarities.

    Like

  39. Robert,

    re: We can go on all day long about where they are ahead and where we are.

    Let’s not.

    And to all…. a good night.

    Like

  40. Robert,

    re: We can go on all day long about where they are ahead and where we are.

    Let’s not.

    And to all…. a good night.

    Like

  41. It just looks like an aquified XP – same sucky interface but with transparency. I don’t get it – this is progress?

    I think I’ll stick with the innovation leader a bit longer.

    As for the registry – that was a bad idea before and its still a bad idea – here’s a tip store stuff in TEXT files. Unix did this and you could change anything with vi. Apple does this via PLists and directories and you can still change anything with vi. Having fancy secret binary file formats that only a few programs like regedit can edit which are single points of failure isn’t too bright.

    Like

  42. It just looks like an aquified XP – same sucky interface but with transparency. I don’t get it – this is progress?

    I think I’ll stick with the innovation leader a bit longer.

    As for the registry – that was a bad idea before and its still a bad idea – here’s a tip store stuff in TEXT files. Unix did this and you could change anything with vi. Apple does this via PLists and directories and you can still change anything with vi. Having fancy secret binary file formats that only a few programs like regedit can edit which are single points of failure isn’t too bright.

    Like

  43. I tried watching the Video on channel nine but it croaked at about 14 minutes. I don’t like the registry, one, becuase even when I “unInstall” something artifacts remain in the registry, I love seeing all the entries for AOL even though I have NEVER installed anything from AOL on my machine. Why doesn’t the registry unload these old paths to nowhere? Half of my speed issues come from bad registry paths, why doesn’t microsoft make a decent tool to fix the registry? Why should I fork out $25 bucks to a third party to keep Microsoft software working? I hope Vista addresses these issues. I really really hope they do because now that I have Ubuntu running on my VMware Player (took about 20 minutes to install everything) it’s a matter of time before the free or cheap desktop becomes reality for millions more people.

    Like

  44. I tried watching the Video on channel nine but it croaked at about 14 minutes. I don’t like the registry, one, becuase even when I “unInstall” something artifacts remain in the registry, I love seeing all the entries for AOL even though I have NEVER installed anything from AOL on my machine. Why doesn’t the registry unload these old paths to nowhere? Half of my speed issues come from bad registry paths, why doesn’t microsoft make a decent tool to fix the registry? Why should I fork out $25 bucks to a third party to keep Microsoft software working? I hope Vista addresses these issues. I really really hope they do because now that I have Ubuntu running on my VMware Player (took about 20 minutes to install everything) it’s a matter of time before the free or cheap desktop becomes reality for millions more people.

    Like

  45. 5270 is a step in the right direction but the heck is up with stupid tuner architecture? MCE STILL requires a analog tuner. I have a nifty Fusion5 HDTV USB tuner (that tunes analog just fine to btw) and yet I can’t set it up in MCE without a godam piece of crap wintv tuner or something in there. I still can’t just plug the fire wire off my cable box either… *sigh* when will the madness end, this is first generation design mistake that has managed to hold on for like 5 years now, going into 6….

    Like

  46. 5270 is a step in the right direction but the heck is up with stupid tuner architecture? MCE STILL requires a analog tuner. I have a nifty Fusion5 HDTV USB tuner (that tunes analog just fine to btw) and yet I can’t set it up in MCE without a godam piece of crap wintv tuner or something in there. I still can’t just plug the fire wire off my cable box either… *sigh* when will the madness end, this is first generation design mistake that has managed to hold on for like 5 years now, going into 6….

    Like

  47. Tim: At Win3.1, MS was recommending the .ini files, although by 9x, the registry was the way to go. When .Net came out, they recommended moving over to app.config and per-user config settings (although the write support up to par with the registry). VS2005 greatly expands.
    My main problem with the registry: the size limit (can be changed, but how many home users know that or even what all the stuff is and how high to set the limit). Secondary problems: gets polluted with stale GUIDs that are hard to even manually clean out, and incomplete uninstalls put junk in the *entire* OS registry rather than a particular app directory.

    Yeah, 2006 is going to be a good MS year. ASP.Net 2.0 is outstanding (compelling enough reason to rewrite legacy apps, IMO, due to personalization and webparts), as is Avalon/Indigo. The OS is clean with very high fidelity everything (and I suspect it’s going to shock people with performance due to the multicore support, 3D card taking over the graphics duties, and new networking stack). This is the year I buy my own MSDN subscription so I can build a mini-network just to play with a lot of this stuff.

    Like

  48. Tim: At Win3.1, MS was recommending the .ini files, although by 9x, the registry was the way to go. When .Net came out, they recommended moving over to app.config and per-user config settings (although the write support up to par with the registry). VS2005 greatly expands.
    My main problem with the registry: the size limit (can be changed, but how many home users know that or even what all the stuff is and how high to set the limit). Secondary problems: gets polluted with stale GUIDs that are hard to even manually clean out, and incomplete uninstalls put junk in the *entire* OS registry rather than a particular app directory.

    Yeah, 2006 is going to be a good MS year. ASP.Net 2.0 is outstanding (compelling enough reason to rewrite legacy apps, IMO, due to personalization and webparts), as is Avalon/Indigo. The OS is clean with very high fidelity everything (and I suspect it’s going to shock people with performance due to the multicore support, 3D card taking over the graphics duties, and new networking stack). This is the year I buy my own MSDN subscription so I can build a mini-network just to play with a lot of this stuff.

    Like

  49. One other thing, howabout posting those videos in QuickTime? QT actually works reliably, takes forever to get started playing and more often than not will hang half way though. Dragging the thumb to back up a bit doesn’t usually work (often hangs) where QuickTime is a rock by comparison.

    Like

  50. One other thing, howabout posting those videos in QuickTime? QT actually works reliably, takes forever to get started playing and more often than not will hang half way though. Dragging the thumb to back up a bit doesn’t usually work (often hangs) where QuickTime is a rock by comparison.

    Like

  51. Larry,

    When you say “with all this money, you’d think they could do better”, I think you fail to realize that a project can be just as thoroughly botched if it’s OVER-funded.

    MS has thousands of people working on Longwind, and they’re demoralized, poorly led, and have almost no pride left in their work (if indeed they ever had any in the first place).

    Contrast to Apple, where the largest product development group I’ve heard of has only 12 people, and a typical project has more like 3 to 5. (Xcode has more, but they’re segmented into groups like the the GUI people, the build engine people, the compiler people, etc.)

    MS’s problems are systemic, and they will not get fixed until and unless the company has a near-death experience. I’m talking the kind of financial collapse that gets the top four levels of their org chart handed their walking papers.

    If *that* happens, I’d take a serious look at buying some MSFT shares, but as long as that screaming maniac is in charge of the company, I’m 100% Bearish on MSFT.

    Like

  52. Larry,

    When you say “with all this money, you’d think they could do better”, I think you fail to realize that a project can be just as thoroughly botched if it’s OVER-funded.

    MS has thousands of people working on Longwind, and they’re demoralized, poorly led, and have almost no pride left in their work (if indeed they ever had any in the first place).

    Contrast to Apple, where the largest product development group I’ve heard of has only 12 people, and a typical project has more like 3 to 5. (Xcode has more, but they’re segmented into groups like the the GUI people, the build engine people, the compiler people, etc.)

    MS’s problems are systemic, and they will not get fixed until and unless the company has a near-death experience. I’m talking the kind of financial collapse that gets the top four levels of their org chart handed their walking papers.

    If *that* happens, I’d take a serious look at buying some MSFT shares, but as long as that screaming maniac is in charge of the company, I’m 100% Bearish on MSFT.

    Like

  53. Robert,

    Trotting out the Media Center and the Tablet might be an effective rejoinder, if either of them were actually any good. Better luck next time. (Hint: don’t point to MS “bob” either.)

    Like

  54. Robert,

    Trotting out the Media Center and the Tablet might be an effective rejoinder, if either of them were actually any good. Better luck next time. (Hint: don’t point to MS “bob” either.)

    Like

  55. Guzzard: did you watch the video on http://channel9.msdn.com with the Windows Vista kernel team? I asked them about the registry. Their answer might surprise you.

    No Robert, although i thought about it. But, since WiMP can’t scrub ahead or back worth a crap, i can’t bypass stuff I’m not interested in to get to the parts I AM interested in. So, I gave up on Channel 9 videos, because I don’t like using a video player that is like using Quicktime 3, and I don’t feel like paying for the WM plugin for Quicktime Player.

    Like

  56. Guzzard: did you watch the video on http://channel9.msdn.com with the Windows Vista kernel team? I asked them about the registry. Their answer might surprise you.

    No Robert, although i thought about it. But, since WiMP can’t scrub ahead or back worth a crap, i can’t bypass stuff I’m not interested in to get to the parts I AM interested in. So, I gave up on Channel 9 videos, because I don’t like using a video player that is like using Quicktime 3, and I don’t feel like paying for the WM plugin for Quicktime Player.

    Like

  57. Oh – and what is your problem with the Registry?

    You’re not supposed to look at it. You’re not supposed to even know it’s there.

    The registry is for the *registration* of COM Servers and mapping of GUIDs. If not for the registry, most every app since Windows 95 simply wouldn’t be able to function. Most of Windows itself wouldn’t. That information needs to be stored somewhere, and the Registry is extremely good at it.

    Should applications use it to store settings? That’s another matter entirely. Maybe you think they shouldn’t. But one reason developers do use the registry sometimes is that it’s extremely good at caching. If you’re reading or updating a stored value frequently the registry is far more efficient than accessing the filesystem.

    Let’s see,

    It’s fragile

    it’s easily abused even by Windows itself

    it’s a single point of failure for critical system settings

    It is to date, utterly and completely unrepairable, to the point that Microsoft’s answer to this has been to just make nigh-constant backup copies of the Registry, so when it does get corrupt, hopefully, you have a good copy of it.

    It kills flexibility, (just try moving your Office folder to another partition and using it.)

    It has no, zero, zip good maintenance tools whatsoever, so even IT pros can’t easily fix registry problems.

    Brandon, you say that you should never have to go in there, yet, Microsoft’s support site is CONSTANTLY telling you to tweak Registry values to make things work correctly.

    It is possibly the single worst, no STUPIDEST implementation of a generally good idea ever, and it should have been replaced by XML files or an XML database that CAN be maintained and repaired if need be, and the host of problems with it ensure that Vista will be just as much of a maintenance pain in the ass as XP or any other version. (Wanna know why reload windows/reformat reinstall are 90% of windows maintenance? The Registry) This of course is unheard of on any other enterprise platform.

    Once again, Microsoft is trapped by DECADES of bad decisions, and they refuse to change a bad implementation into something useable.

    Like

  58. Oh – and what is your problem with the Registry?

    You’re not supposed to look at it. You’re not supposed to even know it’s there.

    The registry is for the *registration* of COM Servers and mapping of GUIDs. If not for the registry, most every app since Windows 95 simply wouldn’t be able to function. Most of Windows itself wouldn’t. That information needs to be stored somewhere, and the Registry is extremely good at it.

    Should applications use it to store settings? That’s another matter entirely. Maybe you think they shouldn’t. But one reason developers do use the registry sometimes is that it’s extremely good at caching. If you’re reading or updating a stored value frequently the registry is far more efficient than accessing the filesystem.

    Let’s see,

    It’s fragile

    it’s easily abused even by Windows itself

    it’s a single point of failure for critical system settings

    It is to date, utterly and completely unrepairable, to the point that Microsoft’s answer to this has been to just make nigh-constant backup copies of the Registry, so when it does get corrupt, hopefully, you have a good copy of it.

    It kills flexibility, (just try moving your Office folder to another partition and using it.)

    It has no, zero, zip good maintenance tools whatsoever, so even IT pros can’t easily fix registry problems.

    Brandon, you say that you should never have to go in there, yet, Microsoft’s support site is CONSTANTLY telling you to tweak Registry values to make things work correctly.

    It is possibly the single worst, no STUPIDEST implementation of a generally good idea ever, and it should have been replaced by XML files or an XML database that CAN be maintained and repaired if need be, and the host of problems with it ensure that Vista will be just as much of a maintenance pain in the ass as XP or any other version. (Wanna know why reload windows/reformat reinstall are 90% of windows maintenance? The Registry) This of course is unheard of on any other enterprise platform.

    Once again, Microsoft is trapped by DECADES of bad decisions, and they refuse to change a bad implementation into something useable.

    Like

  59. “MCE STILL requires a analog tuner”

    Er, I have MCE set up, and I have two digital tuners (PCI cards) and no analog tuners. I’ve never had to put an analog tuner in to get MCE to recognise the digital tuners.

    Like

  60. “MCE STILL requires a analog tuner”

    Er, I have MCE set up, and I have two digital tuners (PCI cards) and no analog tuners. I’ve never had to put an analog tuner in to get MCE to recognise the digital tuners.

    Like

  61. Networking: Gigabyte battlefields
    Researchers are developing sophisticated networking technologies that enable military commanders to share tactical information — right from the battlefield, in real-time, experts tell United Press International.
    As if out of a scene of the TV counter-terrorist drama “24,” the networking software enables commanders to share — or fuse — information from an array of air and ground sensors. This will make the tracking of enemy ground troops, friendly troops and artillery and aircraft easier, experts said. By Gene Koprowski

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  62. Networking: Gigabyte battlefields
    Researchers are developing sophisticated networking technologies that enable military commanders to share tactical information — right from the battlefield, in real-time, experts tell United Press International.
    As if out of a scene of the TV counter-terrorist drama “24,” the networking software enables commanders to share — or fuse — information from an array of air and ground sensors. This will make the tracking of enemy ground troops, friendly troops and artillery and aircraft easier, experts said. By Gene Koprowski

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  63. I went from 5211 to 5270 , 5211 took me a few days to get drivers to work for it. The drivers that did work were a Nvidia 614 Beta driver from a third party site for ASUS A7n8x Nforce drivers, and I used 81.87 (and ran it in compatibility mode for Xp) for a 5200 geforce fx graphics card , 5270 was alot harder , The 81.87 still works for my the graphics card in compatiblilty mode for Xp, but the beta drivers I was using will not work for 5270. I tried used the reg Xp/2000 nforce 5.10 drivers and had better sucess, (also ran these in compatibility mode)or maybe it was a combination of the two , both kept erroring out because of the UAP I suspect and windows defender. The only thing I still can’t get to work is my MCP Networking for my 10/100 ethernet, but my gigabit 10/1000 Lan is fine. Which that is not good because I cant get on my network. But a least I can get online and wine about how much the latest beta sucks compared to the last one I had. 😛

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  64. I went from 5211 to 5270 , 5211 took me a few days to get drivers to work for it. The drivers that did work were a Nvidia 614 Beta driver from a third party site for ASUS A7n8x Nforce drivers, and I used 81.87 (and ran it in compatibility mode for Xp) for a 5200 geforce fx graphics card , 5270 was alot harder , The 81.87 still works for my the graphics card in compatiblilty mode for Xp, but the beta drivers I was using will not work for 5270. I tried used the reg Xp/2000 nforce 5.10 drivers and had better sucess, (also ran these in compatibility mode)or maybe it was a combination of the two , both kept erroring out because of the UAP I suspect and windows defender. The only thing I still can’t get to work is my MCP Networking for my 10/100 ethernet, but my gigabit 10/1000 Lan is fine. Which that is not good because I cant get on my network. But a least I can get online and wine about how much the latest beta sucks compared to the last one I had. 😛

    Like

  67. Rob,

    I have a urgent request for the Vista team. Please, please, please include a checkbox near the start of the setup process that will allow users to opt-out of being protected from themselves. Yes, I understand that user ignorance has been at the core of the black eye Microsoft has gotten over security. Yet, not all users are idiots. If you were only allowed to eat when my computers caught a virus or malware, you’d be dust by now! 🙂 It has only happened twice, and I’m 49.

    What I’m really saying, of course, is that Vista–and its setup–must allow for differing levels of user competency. I love XP, but I can’t begin to tell you how many times it has hobbled me as I tried to complete a legitimate task. For my own usage, I need less security interference, not more.

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  68. Rob,

    I have a urgent request for the Vista team. Please, please, please include a checkbox near the start of the setup process that will allow users to opt-out of being protected from themselves. Yes, I understand that user ignorance has been at the core of the black eye Microsoft has gotten over security. Yet, not all users are idiots. If you were only allowed to eat when my computers caught a virus or malware, you’d be dust by now! 🙂 It has only happened twice, and I’m 49.

    What I’m really saying, of course, is that Vista–and its setup–must allow for differing levels of user competency. I love XP, but I can’t begin to tell you how many times it has hobbled me as I tried to complete a legitimate task. For my own usage, I need less security interference, not more.

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  69. Brandon,

    Get a clue. Do you even know who I am? I have been beta testing Microsoft stuff for 22 years which is probably older than you are judging from your picture and post. I have worked for MSFT and NuMega. I understand the kernel. The 5270 LDDM drivers (THE NEW ONES IN THIS BUILD) are BROKEN and BLUE SCREEN the machine. Do you know what that is? They flat out DON’T WORK for me and everyone else on the private beta forum and THEY DID WORK LAST BUILD. You see, thats called a REGRESSION in the world of software.

    And the registry hack hangs the machine with a blue screen. This build is horrible for drivers compared with the last few. And yes, I installed it on a ThinkPad but Mobility Radeon 7500’s don’t do Direct/X 9 and so don’t do Glass.

    There are a lot of problems here.

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  70. Brandon,

    Get a clue. Do you even know who I am? I have been beta testing Microsoft stuff for 22 years which is probably older than you are judging from your picture and post. I have worked for MSFT and NuMega. I understand the kernel. The 5270 LDDM drivers (THE NEW ONES IN THIS BUILD) are BROKEN and BLUE SCREEN the machine. Do you know what that is? They flat out DON’T WORK for me and everyone else on the private beta forum and THEY DID WORK LAST BUILD. You see, thats called a REGRESSION in the world of software.

    And the registry hack hangs the machine with a blue screen. This build is horrible for drivers compared with the last few. And yes, I installed it on a ThinkPad but Mobility Radeon 7500’s don’t do Direct/X 9 and so don’t do Glass.

    There are a lot of problems here.

    Like

  71. And Brandon, just because ” latest CTP includes drivers for just about everything” doesn’t mean they work. The 5270 LDDM driver does NOT work for hardly anyone. Have you been in the private beta hardware video group. Almost everyone with an NVidia card is reporting that the LDDM drivers that USED TO WORK in the last builds don’t in this. I just tried the Registry hack again and it just hangs the machine. I am sick and tired of having devoted tens of hours the last 2 weeks to try to make something work that just doesn’t.

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  72. And Brandon, just because ” latest CTP includes drivers for just about everything” doesn’t mean they work. The 5270 LDDM driver does NOT work for hardly anyone. Have you been in the private beta hardware video group. Almost everyone with an NVidia card is reporting that the LDDM drivers that USED TO WORK in the last builds don’t in this. I just tried the Registry hack again and it just hangs the machine. I am sick and tired of having devoted tens of hours the last 2 weeks to try to make something work that just doesn’t.

    Like

  73. Whoops, that should be the GeForce Fx Go5200 LDDM drivers that are included in 5270 do not work for Glass and blue screen the machine whereas they worked in previous builds

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  74. Whoops, that should be the GeForce Fx Go5200 LDDM drivers that are included in 5270 do not work for Glass and blue screen the machine whereas they worked in previous builds

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  77. I’ve just installed 5270 on my Toshiba M200 but can only get ‘standard’ VGA drivers working (16bit at the M200’s full screen resolution)

    Has anyone managed to get decent drivers working and if so can they please share the info (Robert?)

    Thanks very much

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  78. I’ve just installed 5270 on my Toshiba M200 but can only get ‘standard’ VGA drivers working (16bit at the M200’s full screen resolution)

    Has anyone managed to get decent drivers working and if so can they please share the info (Robert?)

    Thanks very much

    Like

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