So my computer has been sick. Not virus sick, but more along the lines of “I’ve banged my head against the wall so many times I feel stupid” sick. Random application crashes, .NET framework acting up, programs doing weird things, etc. Since I haven’t done a OS refresh since I built the computer (Aug 2006), I figured that yah, now is as good of a time as any (especially considering I have little else to do). So I backed up all of the files that did not reside on the server and got to work.
Phase 1: Update the BIOS on the Motherboard
Last year during a BIOS update, the BIOS on my ASUS P5B Deluxe WiFi-AP crashed. Since the BIOS chip in this board is soldered in, I had to RMA it. That was quite a pain, so I’ve avoided screwing with the BIOS since. However, apparently this board is very picky about what kind of RAM it likes, so it only sees 2.93GB of my 4 gigs that are in the machine. Even 32bit vista can see all 4 gigs of RAM in a machine, so I figure now is a pretty good time to have some fun with this.
So I run the latest BIOS update. Of course the Asus Update tool is far too stupid to fetch the needed update, so I have to go hunt for it myself, then tell the update tool where it is. The update goes fantastical, and I’m excited to restart my computer to see what happens.
The good news: The update worked and I didn’t fry my board!
The bad news: The board now recognizes 2.495 gigs of RAM instead of 4 gigs. Down from the 2.93 it recognized before.
Now, I’m pissed. I go through all of the BIOS / CMOS settings. No dice. It won’t work. At this point, I’m ready to send the board back to ASUS with a bomb strapped to it. But I decide against the idea, and move on with what I want to do, and that’s all there is to it. Apparently.
Phase 2: The install
Keep in mind I haven’t touched a working Vista install since the day at launched at Best Buy (when the Microsoft Rep was asking me questions about the OS so he could tell curious customers, because he didn’t know shit). My only experiences have been:
- Longhorn Beta attempted install on my old computer. It installed to the wrong hard drive, then proceeded to give me a red screen of death. At that point I decided I wasn’t going to screw with any more longhorn beta installs. Period.
- A computer at my former work came with Vista pre-installed. I did my best never to touch it.
- An attempt earlier in the year to perform an upgrade on my WindowsXP installation. Before it would install it made me uninstall a bunch of programs that it didn’t like, then got 90% done and decided there was some critical system conflict and it couldn’t continue to install. So, it rolled back to XP (which it did a fantastic job of by the way).
So I had decided that I was going to have to do a full install to get anywhere with this. So I did. After I backed everything up I went ahead and put in my Vista Business DVD (Legit, thanks to my college’s MSDNA partnership :)) everything booted up good, the nice new installation GUI was a nice change. The install too was nice, took about as long as XP did (maybe even a little less), and everything went off without a hitch. The simplified install was nice, but more options (advanced install?!?) would have been cool.
So now we’re all installed and ready to rock…right?
Phase 3: The environment
First things first: change resolution. Ok now, no more desktop properties, but there’s a bunch more options that make it easy to do what I need to do. The Aero interface is pretty sick, much more so than I would have thought. It also recognizes all of my nVidia graphics cards (a 7300 and a 7100. I know, nothing impressive). With all 3 screens configured, I move on to the network setup, which should have been a breeze, right? I plug in the static IP address and set up my network.
Now I go to mount my network drives. Should be no problem, right? I’m running a FreeBSD 6.1 server that has SMB, apache, all sorts of fun stuff. I try to mount it up, \\taurus\data\ and it prompts me for a name and password? Exqueese me? Ok, sure. I put in my name and password, and nothing. No dice. It won’t let me in. This is more traumatic than the BIOS update screwing up! Everything is on this server, all my docs, music, etc. Being able to mount a simple share shouldn’t be a problem and is completely mandatory.
So browsing around on the internet yields an answer. Apparently there’s a registry tweak for this, living under HKLM\system\currentcontrolset\control\LSA\ and if you change LMcompatability from 3 to 1, it all works. So w00t. I also discovered that you have to set your network for Home and not public or business, otherwise it won’t let you connect to ANY network shares regardless or something weird to that affect. I dunno, but now it works the way it should. Crisis averted.
The gadget sidebar I found pretty spiffy. It is to replace the Yahoo! Widget engine I had been using and has all the stuff I could want. Is it as cool as dashboard? No. But I’m still diggin’ it.
Phase 4: The Hardware:
This is the part where I was very pleased for the most part: All of my hardware worked with 1 exception: the sound card. Which I should have expected, it’s a SoundBlasterLive! 5.1 card, which I had because it has digital out, which is needed for my speakers. In a bind, I had 2 choices: buy a new vista compatible sound card. Or buy a new set of speakers. Considering most modern cards use coaxial output for digital sound and my board has pretty good sound anyways, I decided that the cost justified a new set of speakers + sub woofer, instead of a sound card for these speakers that are way too big (with my desk size 4 speakers is just too much anyways). So I had my brother bring home his computer and I popped in my sound card and gave him my speakers. I’m sure now Kimber will become very uhm…pleased with the new amounts of noise coming from his quarters.
But other than that, everything seems to work. Haven’t tried to set up my printer(s) yet, but I doubt there will be a problem with that.
Phase 5: The software:
No software glitches thus far. Went through all my Adobe and Microsoft stuff (except for Visual Studio), all good. Upgraded to Nero 8 Ultra, works great. Joost,iTunes, etc, all works. Haven’t tried any of my games yet, so we’ll see how that goes. But thus far I’m glad I waited and am very happy with the way everything works so far. Had to get a new Diskeeper, but I guess it was time for that anyhow.
Phase 6: Conclusions
Overall….I’m pleasantly surprised. The feel of the interface is a testament to how the underpinnings of the OS have been redone and built from the ground up. It feels great, very similar to using MacOS and does not feel the same way that windows 3.1 - XP felt. It’s much more natural. Almost all of my software works flawlessly.
Performance wise, I haven’t run any benchmarks. But it feels much more responsive than XP ever did. It works, everything opens up quick, from my RAM meter in my gadget bar I can see that RAM and CPU usage is being handled much better. I’m very happy in that regard.
I can see where people have problems with this…but I’ve worked with everything from AppleDOS to Windows 1.0 and, this is nothing. But for users who are used to everything working out of the box, don’t know how to download new drivers, etc, then Vista is still a problem and is going to be a problem.
Me however, as long as everything continues to work, I don’t think I’ll be going back. Vista Business, here to stay. For now.
