3 Things I've learned / found out over the last two weeks....

[JustADude]

(Followed by, Anyone have any idea how to uninstall a 64bit version of Symantec Antivirus [Norton's corporate edition] from a 32 bit Vista box??)

Manually delete the files and then run a reg-cleaner to pick out the now-invalid entries?

[technical.angel]

The network admin finally got to it yesterday. It actually IS a 64 bit version.

Somehow wsock32 got screwed and that took down everything.

I get to tell her to call Gateway and exchange it for a 32bit version.

[LostMyMind]

run DOS or install a boot manager so that he can run MS-DOS on the same machine.

Bah, that's what floppies are for. Boot manager my ass. Boot from a floppy to get dos.....

[PepperElf]

"Vista totally sucks!"

Um... what's wrong with that statement?

[Broomjockey]

Um... what's wrong with that statement?

And again, I point out that it's opinion that it sucks, and OS-bashing isn't actually part of the Unsupportable forum. I will not see this forum go the way of /g/.

(Unless some luser's rampant twattery is because of the OS, like running it on 512MB RAM, of course)

[Hyndis]

(Unless some luser's rampant twattery is because of the OS, like running it on 512MB RAM, of course)

I got burnt buying a laptop with Vista and 512 RAM.

Most horrible piece of garbage ever. I figured since XP ran just fine on 512 RAM for non-gaming purposes, it would also be plenty for Vista to run such programs as Firefox, right?

Sitting at the desktop doing nothing, my XP system uses about 120ish RAM. Vista uses up about 100% of the RAM sitting at the desktop, idle, with no programs running in the background, so everything is done via the page file.

That experience has very much soured me on Vista. I was shocked and apalled at how bloated the software was, not to mention I seem to have had the HAL 9000 version installed on my laptop. It won't let me relax the ultra-paranoid security settings, it only allows me to run pre-approved programs, and when it does work, it moves at a glacial pace.

[PepperElf]

aw.... no worries tho.

vista has changed a lot of how the good old things on xp ran... which sucked cos that meant i had a lot of troubleshooting software that wouldn't work.

However... I'm guessing here - i'm not by mom's vista to check - but... i'd suggest for generic slowness... never hurts to check the task manager to see what processes are running. Then go to Task list programs to verify what each program is. They're pretty awesome and usually note what is and isn't safe to turn off.

back when mom was on her dell it was super slow... i helped speed it up with closing out a few things she didn't need, including two programs that when run together would slow a computer down. I don't remember what they were, except that neither was really *needed* to run the laptop. she wants me to "work" on the vista now, which won't be as easy as her dead dell/xp ... got a feeling most of the cool software i could give her won't be compatible.

I personally however will probably never order a computer online again. I've ordered two - one a used dell and the other a custom-built hp/compaq lappy. the dell eventually died from powersupply issues (much like mom's did eventually too) and the hp went into the constant bsod hell... and when i tried getting the hp fixed, i found out they had kinda "cheated" on the build... according to the web page the hdd that went with the computer wasn't the one they gave me and... well one tech (not hp, just a really brilliant contractor computer guy who was working in my shop at the moment) said it looked like the HDD was bad from the start.

i could have sent it in to hp for work, but... i hate not having a computer to use. Then it met some coffee (freak accident at the airport) and died and got sent to computer hell.

Oddly enough I still have the HDD though. I turned it into a cute external for my Macbook.

without going into the "OSX vs Vista" war, I will say that one of the things I love about switching... having an official company store to walk into is very convenient. My bf has taken his powerbook in for minor repairs and they've never taken more than a week so far. It's nice being able to actually talk to a tech face to face. And being able to play with the computers before purchasing helps too. And, well for the laptops at least, I can set it up in-store before going home (not sure bout the desktops)... which is the cinch right there, knowing if it's going to work before leaving the store instead of playing long distance tag

[sld72382]

We had too deal with calls from people who bought Vista PC's with 512mb of memory. When I told them that Vista really needs 512mb JUST TO RUN, all of them would complain that the store sold them a piece of junk.

I read on a forum on while ago the reason why companies were asinine enough to install only 512mb of memory on a Vista box was because Micro$oft told them that Vista Home Basic's kernel uses less memory than the versions above it, so it should be fine with 512mb.

Then when that was met with disaster by consumers, M$ said "Oops we made a mistake it actually uses the same amount."

[otakuneko]

That experience has very much soured me on Vista. I was shocked and apalled at how bloated the software was, not to mention I seem to have had the HAL 9000 version installed on my laptop. It won't let me relax the ultra-paranoid security settings, it only allows me to run pre-approved programs, and when it does work, it moves at a glacial pace.

So have you upgraded to XP or 2000 yet?

Slap a dsl disc in there, boot with the "toram" parameter, and watch your computer really fly.

[Hyndis]

So have you upgraded to XP or 2000 yet?

Slap a dsl disc in there, boot with the "toram" parameter, and watch your computer really fly.

I still use XP for my other machines. Laptops are all proprietary though so its a real pain in the arse to modify or even maintain them on my own. Desktops I can fix.

[technical.angel]

I haven't run across any students with 512mb with Vista. The 1gigers with all kinds of pre-installed crap is bad enough.

I would now go on a vent about Trend Micro's PC-cillin, but Vista wants me to install SP1.

So, no WoW for Jenni. Sniffle.

Naptime!

[otakuneko]

I just got a new laptop today with Windows Virus (We're Serious About it This Time) edition installed.

Dear god I've not waited on a computer so long since... since... actually I can't think of a computer or OS that's made me wait so much. Even my old ibook, which as a G3 @ 600MHz was underpowered for OSX 10.4, did not make me wait as long as Vista has, ever. CPU in this one is a dual core 1.9Ghz athlon, 2GB RAM. With just K-Meleon and Putty going, right now I'm at 410MB memory usage. Boot up time cleared up a bit once Norton Insecurity was removed though. I'd remove more of the junk, but I'm waiting to get home, image the thing, then boot off dsl and see if it works all the hardware on this laptop. If it does, this thing will friggin fly.

After that it's decision time: 2000, XP, or a DSL hard drive install. Given that I'll probably end up using Visual Studio in at least one class this semester, probably Windows.

[LostMyMind]

Dual boot the thing, it's got space.

[technical.angel]

Norton Internet Security... sigh.

I can't believe how many people ignored my many many notes that we provide an antivirus and to NOT BUY THEIR OWN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And, of course, they buy a subscription of the dang thing. UGH!

[sld72382]

What's interesting is that Symantec (makers of Norton) recently bought out PC Tools, the makers of Spyware doctor. Symantec claims that they'll leave it alone.

Please, Symantec bought out PC Tools so they can have the code to Spyware doctor, who are they kidding? It'll just be another running process added to Norton Internet Security and it'll eat up even more memory. In other words, run it into the ground.

It isn't the first time Symantec bought software only to make it crappy. Remember Goback? It used to be a useful utility... now it's just crapware that's not needed (system restore does the same thing).