Windows Installing Windows Vista...

Oh my god you made a distinction between hydro and electricity. Out here whenever someone talkes about hydro they mean electricity. Even if its coming from a coal plant... drives me up the wall.

 

Well Quebec is powered by wind and hydro electricity. A bit junk of it is also sold to other provinces and in the United States. I don't think Quebec has a coal plant, or if we do, it's probably just one and not being used for Quebec rather for selling it.

 

Well, good for you Goodbytes. What about the rest of the world? Here in the UK over 70% of our electricity is produced by burning fossil fuels, much of the rest of the world is the same (excluding France of course). The point I'm trying to make here is that the few watts that the computer uses when in sleep mode is bad for the planet and MS (and other firms promoting this 'feature') should be sanctioned for encouraging energy wastage.

Here at work we are told to turn our computers off completely by turning the switch off at the wall. This stops the system from consuming 1W/hr when 'turned off'. Daft I know, but multiplied by 12,000 systems in the company, that's a lot of power that is being saved.

Andy

 

wuyanxu, You are welcome for the tips. I will look into the side bar issue for you, it might be something in your desktop settings, and whether or not you have enabled the “Aero” theme, but I will see what I can find. In addition I would like to offer a link to a white paper on Windows Vista’s new power management Features that might help many of you out. http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system/pnppwr/powermgmt/VistaEnergyConserv.mspx#top I hope this is valuable to you as well.

Rick

 

Well, I got Vista and all my components today, except for my case so I haven't installed it yet. I have another question for you after reading the package:

It says "OEM System Builder Pack Intended for system builders ONLY". I guess thats me, right?

It goes on to say:

If you open this package:

"1. Each individual software license inside this package may ONLY be distributed with a fully assembled system"

So I am building a PC and installing Vista on it. Still no worries, right?

"2. If the individual software license is for a desktop operating system or application software, it also must be preinstalled on the hard drive of the fully assembled computer system, using OEM Preinstallation Kit (OPK)"

Now this is where I get confused. What is this OEM Preinstallation Kit and how do I use it? Should I ignore this and just follow the instructions you gave me on installing Vista?


Thanks in advance.

 

1. You're fine, you are taking the role of the system builder so its all good.

2. Ignore it it's fine, its just a software thing mainly designed for system builders to help them preinstall windows

 

Well I see some discussion in the room about enviromental impact of Windows. I invite everyone to take a look at this doc. Over on Windows Vista Energy Conservation, over at the Microsoft Enviroment site. There is a lot of information on the advantages of Vista over previous versions of Windows in the way of energy conservation. http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system/pnppwr/powermgmt/VistaEnergyConserv.mspx
Enjoy
Rick

 

Well I have everything up and running now, amazingly. I partitioned the hard drive after a bit of confusion (I only formated the 50GB section, forgot to do the rest, which took ages).

One problem I encountered was when trying to run AVG Free 8.0. It mentioned something about not being able to run due to some "side-by-side configuration". I read somewhere to uninstall Microsofts Visual C++ (I don't see why I'd need it anyways) and it runs fine now.

Thanks for all the help!

By the way, what was the note you had to tell me GoodBytes?

 

Thanks from me, I'll find this useful too

 

Note for IbramGaunt:

As you know, Vista 64-bit features Windows Media Center and Media Player 64-bit edition (as well as DVD maker, Movie Maker, and more.. but the focus of this note is on these 2 software's). These two programs allows you to use 64-bit video/audio codecs. However, if you install 64-bit codecs you will see that both players will act as if there are no codecs installed (other then the windows codecs the OS comes with). The reason is that the default player is the 32-bit version instead.

Here is a great Vista 64-bit codec pack, which features a tool that converts for you the default player from the 32-bit to the 64-bit, and allows you to enjoy 64-bit codecs.
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Multim...-Video-Codecs/VistaCodecs-x64Components.shtml


Simply download and install. Once installed, look in the Start Menu for the codec pack folder, inside it's own sub folders you will see a tool that say that it changes the registry items from 32-bit to 64-bit (that is the file association of both software), and another tool that changed the shortcuts everywhere from the 32-bit to the 64-bit version. Both applications gets executed silently for some reason, meaning you won't be prompted of anything and you won't see anything whats-so-ever unless there is an error. In other words, if it looks like nothing happen, it's good.(I would have likes a message box that tells you that it did the job successfully... but you can't have everything).

 

what's the advantage of using 64bit players? there's tons of CPU power even if we are decoding using 16bit, so why use 64bit codecs?

 

Well, it's abut the same as "If I could have a 8800GT and a GTX280 for the same price, I'd take the the 8800GT simply because I don't need the power of the GTX280". Sounds stupid.

There were people in the 80's and 90's that didn't use the Turbo feature on their computers because "the computer was too fast for them".

What I mean, is that even the smallest performance increase is worth it, if there are no disadvantages.

 

mm vr is correct.
64-bit codec, uses less computer (CPU especially) resources and it gives you an increase performance for the same job. Meaning now when you do more intense things with your computer, you can still watch a movie perfectly smoothly. Also you need 64-bit codecs to allow Vista to show the thumbnail picture of the videos.

 

I will do that now, thanks for the tip.


While having a look around Vista, getting used to it, I saw two folders, one labelled "Program Files" and the other "Program Files (x86)". A lot of the folders and files within them are the same, and when I go to install anything, the default location is "Program Files (x86)". Can anyone explain?

Thanks.

 

ah! that's what i've been looking for, for a long time. no wonder i can't get thumbnails to show! thanks

 

You can install your application in the new partition as it's bigger, and will allow you to see what application you installed next time you re-install Windows, so that your computer gets setup once and for all and not fall on to one day when you are really busy and go "A crap I forgot to install this big application that I need now."

Here is the description of main folders for Vista.
- Program Files: Location of Windows own 64-bit applications.
- Program Files (x86): Location of Windows own 32-bit version of the application. It doesn't mater, in reality, if you install a 64-bit or 32-bit application on those folder, they are just for organization purposes, nothing more. Vista 64-bit include some of it's own applications in 32-bit in case you have compatibility issues.
- Program Data: (hidden folder in C:\). This folder contain software settings that are available and ready to be accessed for all users in your computer.
- Users: This folder contain the profile folder of each users.
- AppData: (hidden folder in C:\Users). This folder contains application data and settings that is for your account only.
- System32: Windows Vista important system files, 32-bit version (for compatibility).
- SysWOW64: Windows Vista important system files, 64-bit version.

Program Data, AppData, and a secondary file association library/list in the registry on the user section is designed to fix the HUGE problem that earlier Windows had with accounts, where users basically fight for their settings and file association. Now everyone is independent.

 

I think what I'll do from now on is avoid that whole Vista partition. Once everything I install is installed into my main partition I'll know what to touch and what not to touch! You're probably sick of me asking questions, but I seem to keep finding more!

Is there any way to change the default location where to install programs etc? I know I can change it each time I install something, but sometimes I might forget, or just forget to change C drive to E.

Also, is it possible to wake my computer from sleep to perform tasks, primarily scan for viruses using AVG Free 8.0? I know it can be done with disk defragment in task scheduler, but I can't figure out how to do it for AVG?

And another note regarding sleep: say if I am downloading something, can you set it so that Vista goes into sleep mode when it is finished downloading? Currently if I am downloading something Vista just goes into sleep according to my power settings (in my case, 1 hour) and then when I power back up my download has been paused...

And finally(for now), you know the different locations for downloads, documents, music etc. listed under user ? How do I set it up so that all my music files and downloads are on my main (larger) partition, because if I leave it as it is, that partition will fill up pretty fast! Is it just a matter of copying and pasting the "User" folder, or would that cause trouble?

Thanks. It really means a lot!

 

Nope. Sorry. In case someone else ask similar question I can just lead them to this thread.

As for your partition letters, yes you can change them.
WARNING: If you installed application on the E drive you will need to uninstall them and re-install them on the new drive letter!
I know Partition Magic (Not Vista compatible... very old and doesn't exists anymore) had a tool to change partition letter and scan into teh regsitry and change everything so that their are no problems.
An easy way, is to unplug your optical data cable (IDE or SATA, which ever it uses) while your computer is off.
Start the computer up and let it go into Windows, and log-in. Your drive letter should be changed from E to D.
If it does not, right-click on Computer, and select Manage. On the panel that will open, click on the left side column, Disk Management item.
Then right click on the partition that you want to rename, and select "Change Drive Letter and Paths".

I know a way with the registry, but frankly I have never tried it, in the fear that an application actually does need to put a file in Program Files (as it's probably not well programed at all), and then everything screws up because it's not the real Program Files.

That I don't know. I never saw my computer wake up from sleep to do a defrag and go back to sleep mode. I'll let someone else answer that question or Google.

Not with Internet Explorer nor Firefox. Perhaps there is a Firefox extension... but I'll be surprised. Maybe look at a download manager.

I don't know.

Easy. Open your Profile folder that has your account name. Right-slick on the folder you want to change path, and select Properties. Then go on the Location tab, and just change the path to your big partition and the folder.

 

Great. Now I can start adding some music to my hard drive!

I'm still confused about the whole AVG virus scan. I'd prefer to scan for viruses while I am not using my PC, yet I don't want to leave it on while I'm away! How do you do Disk Defrag and Virus Scans GoodBytes? Do you just run them while you are working away at something else?

 

Windows defragmentation tool is already set to run automatically. I think the default is Wednesday at 3:00AM (so have your computer running at that time). You can change the time from the program itself that can be accessed somewhere on the start menu (just search for it with instant search).

As for AVG.. once it is installed, look within AVG options somewhere (see help documentation), there is an option for to set teh time you want it to perform an anti-virus scan.