The Windows Vista Pre-RC1 (and above) thread

[ScottJC]

The Windows Vista RC1 (and above) thread

I've noticed i've posted a lot about Vista pre-rc1 in threads that have nothing to do with vista (i.e. is my computer comprimised thread). Rather than continue that trend i've decided to start a thread dedicated just to Vista and our experiences of Vista pre-rc1 and above.

My experience with it, i'll break it down into categories.

Installation: In Vista Beta 2 installation speed was almost unbarable, it'd litterally take hours but no longer! Vista Pre-RC1 build 5536 and 5552 install like road runner, less than an hour! (About the same as XP). Installer is very impressive, its simple and effective - it needs you to do nothing meaning I have more time to go make myself my breakfast.

moving on now-

Booting up: Like windows xp, windows vista pre-rc1 boots up incredibly quickly- beta 2 was super slow in this area, another massive improvement. Even the boot up process has had a major face lift and speed boost to add icing to the cake.

Driver installation: I had less bother with drivers this time around, my audigy 2 actually works on this build. Installed drivers and that was it - sounds fine to me. Dunno if it counts under this section but I can now unplug my usb dvd-rw and plug it back in immediately and on vista it continues to work, on XP it won't until I reboot.

Application & Game Compatibility: see my compatibility list below.

GUI (Graphical User Interface): This is refreshing,its not too different from beta 2 but the performance of it has increased! it is now more stable to boot. the glass transparency effects are very impressive, love the theme.

Features: Some of the features of vista I love include, the search feature in windows explorer allows me to search the current folder quickly (its like the search bar in firefox) so I can find files quickly, handy if i'm looking for something specific in a rom folder.

The built in games rule even solitaire has had a face lift. That counts as a feature right? Oh well. Mspaint and the picture viewer work superbly better than their XP equivilents. Picture viewer in XP would often pause for up to a minute at times on XP, on vista its immediate. love that.

I like the ability to silence individual applications instead of my entire systems sound, very handy if an installer decides to play mozarts entire symphony for no apparent reason.

Overall, very satisfying Operating System - i'm using it as my primary one right now - it just rocks. Beta 2 was severely disappointing, this however is not. Recommend you give it a try also.

Please reply with your experiences of this os if you have the time.

Game Compatiblity list (so far as tested by me):
Act of War - Perfect, runs straight out of the box.
Battlefield 2 - Perfect on version 1.3, haven't tested anything else.
Black & White 2 - Perfect!
Command & Conquer: Generals - Perfect!
Doom 3: Perfect for Clements, Unplayable for me due to graphical issues.
F.E.A.R - Perfect!
Final Fantasy VIII (PC) - Unplayable, says midi support is missing and enters a black screen.
Hitman: Blood Money - Perfect, says some dll is missing at first, just find the dll and put it in the games dir.
Need for Speed: Most wanted - Perfect.
Prey - Unplayable, complains about opengl missing effects.
Prince of Persia: Sands of time - Perfect.
Psychonauts - Perfect.
Rayman 3 - Perfect.
Simcity 4 - Perfect if you update to version 1.0.242.0 or above, a straight installation=unplayable.
Sonic Adventure - Perfect.
Sonic Heroes - Perfect.
Quake 4: Perfect (Reported by Clements)

Application Compatiblity list (so far as tested by me):

Avast Antivirus - Doesn't work
Azureus - Perfect if you use Java 6 beta, otherwise windows loses aero effects.
Borland Delphi 2006 Studio - Perfection itself, all compiled apps work fine.
Daemon Tools v4 - Doesn't work, workaround is using v3.33 available on the daemon tools website.
Epsxe v1.6.0 - Perfect
Macromedia Flash 8 - Perfect
Project64 - Perfect
Visualboyadvance - Perfect, vista loses aero if you don't use DirectX as its renderer.
Zonealarm - Doesn't work

Here's a screenshot of my desktop:

 

[squall_leonhart]

who cares

RC1 (5600) is already on connect servers and will be available in a week for anyone who wants it.

 

[ScottJC]

who cares

RC1 is already on connect servers and will be available in a week for anyone who wants it.

Thats why I put (and above) in the title of my thread, you dunce. For the record, I care, would you rather I kept spamming other threads about this eh? And since you replied so quickly you never bothered to read a single word of my thread so keep your opinions to yourself. Go troll elsewhere.

 

[Doomulation]

Booting up: Like windows xp, windows vista pre-rc1 boots up incredibly quickly- beta 2 was super slow in this area, another massive improvement. Even the boot up process has had a major face lift and speed boost to add icing to the cake.

Like Windows XP, it still takes time to boot up Windows. And it boots slower than XP. All the applications at start up just started in some seconds on XP, but on Vista, it takes longer. The whole thing about applications loading in the background seems like a joke to me. They still affect the system when loading.

Driver installation: I had less bother with drivers this time around, my audigy 2 actually works on this build. Installed drivers and that was it - sounds fine to me. Dunno if it counts under this section but I can now unplug my usb dvd-rw and plug it back in immediately and on vista it continues to work, on XP it won't until I reboot.

A poor area in Vista. Driver support is still low but Microsoft has indeed bettered the nVidia display driver. However, the Vista drivers also has its flaws. On my laptop that I'm writing on now, it is impossible to use either Sleep or Hibernate. As soon as I return from them, I get a BSOD and a restart.

Application compatibility: Like the others this has been beefed up as well, its not perfect mind you but its better. Ac3filter audio plugin for those avi files with ac3 tracks now works (which is a plus any day for me).

Application compatibility is anything but great: many applications are now broken due to drivers / kernel patching or Microsoft's User Account Protect OR Admin Approval Mode. The later two can be disabled to boost compatibility. Microsoft has also given developers a hard time to utilize User Account Protection, as well.

The following games I have tested and they work: Prince of persia sands of time, psychonauts, act of war, hitman blood money and sonic heroes - need to do more testing. Unfortunatly i've found a few that won't work yet, namely Prey & Final Fantasy 8 (I own a real pc copy of that, love that game too )

Haven't tested many games. Save for Pj. OpenGL support is still poor which means Glide64 + Wrapper = no no. A shame. DirectX works but I did encounter problems with Banjo Tooie. I haven't tested again.
Microsoft also seemed to remove a file named d3ddm.dll or something, which one old game relied on. However, simply downloading the file solved the problem fine.

GUI (Graphical User Interface): This is refreshing,its not too different from beta 2 but the performance of it has increased! it is now more stable to boot. the glass transparency effects are very impressive, love the theme.

Indeed. So do I.

Features: Some of the features of vista I love include, the search feature in windows explorer allows me to search the current folder quickly (its like the search bar in firefox) so I can find files quickly, handy if i'm looking for something specific in a rom folder.

Yep. Very handy. The start-menu has a search, too, like Beta 2 which finds items quickly on the start-menu. Handy.

There are things I love about Vista, also. Take the new Error system. An error occurs in an application and closes. Vista then identifies the information and sends it to Microsoft. You can then see a solution if available. Unlike XP, all reports are stored in a center Problem Reports and Solutions, where you can see problems & solution and check for new solutions. Handy.
Vista also identifies BSODs and offers you help if available. It did so when I got BSODs when resuming from Sleep/Hibernation.

The Network center is better. It now shows where an error in your connection is present. After or before your router, for example? It also offers to diagnose the problem and give you suggestions, but it isn't that helpful. Vista also tries to find suggestions to other problems, but they are not very helpful most of the time.

Overall, very satisfying Operating System - i'm using it as my primary one right now - it just rocks. Beta 2 was severely disappointing, this however is not. Recommend you give it a try also.

Please reply with your experiences of this os if you have the time.

Here's a screenshot of my desktop:

I agree. It is worth using as a primary OS.

 

[t0rek]

There's always people that doesn't read things properly. It's a shame that my main system fried before I could even test BETA2, I haven't replaced it yet, I will probably wait until december.

 

[Zoomer]

Can you install the new Vista on IDE hard drives or do they have to be SATA ?
Heard that Vista is only compatible with SATA hard drives...

Dont want to waste time downloading the Beta if it doesn't work on my IDE hard drives.

 

[Doomulation]

That would be stupid. Come on, many drives are still IDE. Although all my drives are SATA so I can't confirm, it would be stupid.

 

[t0rek]

IDE Drives are supported. Why? Most CD, CDRW, DVD-ROM or DVDRW drives are IDE

 

[legend of zelda]

Can you install the new Vista on IDE hard drives or do they have to be SATA ?
Heard that Vista is only compatible with SATA hard drives...

Dont want to waste time downloading the Beta if it doesn't work on my IDE hard drives.

Yes, i can confirm that it works with IDE hard drives, i have one so i think i would know. Actually, mines EIDE, but i don't think that would matter.

 

[ScottJC]

Right back to the subject of Vista, Need for speed most wanted works perfectly out of the box, yay!

Oh yeah and here's a screenie of me playing Zelda the minish cap with visualboy advance on vista (I love this os):

 

[legend of zelda]

Battlefield 2 worked perfect for me on vista beta 2.

 

[ScottJC]

I will be testing Battlefield 2 later today, preparing to test f.e.a.r another favourite of mine. Going to add a works/doesn't work bit to my first post here later on. I like compatibility lists. edit: f.e.a.r works great, better than great in fact.

edit2: Battlefield 2 confirmed working here.

 

[ScottJC]

I quite like this feature of Vista, the Games app, for a number of them they've added themselves to the list but I can manually add them too, check it out (btw I am well aware I just double posted, so don't bring it up in a reply k?):

 

[Miretank]

Wonderful

 

[Hexidecimal]

I have it here, but i can't bring myself to run a beta os as my main system. I'll stick with XP Pro Corp until Windows Vista Ultimate Corporate hits BitTorrent.

 

[ScottJC]

As of RC1 it will no longer be beta, pre-rc1 is extremely close to rc1 so I am not bothered, this OS supports 98% of the things I use anyway. Discovered that it runs Black & White 2 perfectly last night - yay.

You do not have to use it as your main os, you can use it to test on, I've just decided to use it as my main os because it satisfys my needs. edit: this system is looking pretty good for a gaming os, it runs Rayman 3 as well (yeah I love platformer games)

btw: Build 5600 (Thats RC1) is out, I will have to get my hands on it somehow.

 

[Doomulation]

Up to date with build 5552. Now it scans and tries to find hardware that isn't installed. Unfortunately, none of the hardware have drivers for Vista (or Windows couldn't find them). There are still a few broken links and last I checked the help for Windows Firewall was broken (couldn't find the inforutout from your computer - hard disk speeds, network, memory utilization and CPU use.
New versions come up every minute now I'll hunt down RC1.
EDIT: Where do you get these news? I don't even see 5600 on the official blog! Nevertheless, I'm aquiring the latest version and see what happens.

 

[ScottJC]

On this website: http://www.winbeta.org/ - its down the page a bit, says build 5600 is available on microsoft connect but I saw it elsewhere so meh.

 

[Miretank]

I have questions:

1- How's the memory management/usage and CPU usage on Vista? Is it lower (memory usage) and more effective than in XP?
2- How are emulators working on Vista? Have you noticed ANY perfomance drop?
3- Does Window Blinds work on Vista?

 

[Doomulation]

I have questions:

1- How's the memory management/usage and CPU usage on Vista? Is it lower (memory usage) and more effective than in XP?
2- How are emulators working on Vista? Have you noticed ANY perfomance drop?
3- Does Window Blinds work on Vista?

1: It likes to suck up memory. It uses at LEAST 500 mb on my 1 gb ram laptop machine. It typically hovers around 700+ MB. Right now, on my home computer, it uses 1.12 GB (out of 2 GB) with a lot of stuff open.
2: I can only say Glide64 & Hacktarux's Wrapper didn't work.
3: No idea.