Troll Kingdom
This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!
Hey, now it's official!
- Thread starter The Question
- Start date
The Question
Eternal
And now I'm fairly giddy with joy -- as soon as Vista 5384 is released as Public Beta 2 (which should be a week or two) I'll get an email that'll just make me all super-bouncy-bouncy-happy, especially in light of reports that (for the first time since Build 5270) Creative's Vista drivers finally work with my sound card again.
FBI parte due
Folces Weard
Hmm... so as long as I've been signed up for the office beta stuff, I should be signed up for the Vista beta stuff too, right?
The Question
Eternal
Theoretically, yes. The public CTP program appears to include both.
The Question
Eternal
Windows Vista Beta 2 (Build 5384.4) r0x0rz off my b0x0rz off.
FBI parte due
Folces Weard
I haven't got an email yet, but I signed up for the weekly one.
Time will tell.
Time will tell.
The Question
Eternal
I did it the naughty way and am just planning to plug in the key MS sends me when I get it. Assuming, of course, that they send the fucking thing within the next 12 days. Otherwise, I'll just sit back and feel smug that I installed Vista via upgrade, which means I can just roll back to XP if the key doesn't show in time.
The Question
Eternal
Ah -- might as well do this: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly of Vista Beta 2:
The Good:
-WAY more stable than any previous build.
-Performance has been increased immensely.
-Core peripheral driver compatibility no longer causes BSODs, probably due in large part to a combination of increased backwards-compatibility and a wider catalogue of out-of-the-box drivers. We can probably thank WinHEC for that, since MS no doubt had to shore up the majority of Vista's driver issues before putting their baby on stage for an audience.
-The RSS gadget in the Sidebar imports RSS subscriptions directly from IE 7, which means you can finally get the news you want to see on your desktop instead of just MS blogs.
The Bad:
-Webcams apparently still aren't supported out of the box, and Logitech, at least, has yet to release Vista-compatible drivers.
-In Build 5365, although my webcam couldn't do video (the video feed was scrambled and unusable) Vista did at least recognize the built-in mic, which allowed for voice calls and use of the Speech Recognition system built into Vista. In Build 5384 (a.k.a. Beta 2) not even the mic is detected.
-The Media Center, while a bit snappier in overall performance, still has a nasty habit of hanging when attempting to render visual elements, be they video, WMP visualizations or even just video file thumbnail icons.
-User Account Control is still only an On/Off affair, rather than having selectable security levels, a la IE, which would be FAR more convenient. Additionally, turning it on or off requires a restart, when it could (at least theoretically) be done simply by logging out of and then back into the user account being modified.
The Ugly:
IE 7+ has an annoying habit, in this build, of leaving a ghost process running on occasion. When this happens, trying to start IE 7 results in a runtime error each time you try to launch, until you go into the Task Manager and terminate the iexplore.exe process tree. Not just the process, the process tree.
So there it is in a nutshell. Still not sanded and polished, but it's already sufficient for a primary OS -- on your home system, at any rate. It may be a few more builds before you'll see Vista through the windows of any cybercafes, but we're very nearly there.
The Good:
-WAY more stable than any previous build.
-Performance has been increased immensely.
-Core peripheral driver compatibility no longer causes BSODs, probably due in large part to a combination of increased backwards-compatibility and a wider catalogue of out-of-the-box drivers. We can probably thank WinHEC for that, since MS no doubt had to shore up the majority of Vista's driver issues before putting their baby on stage for an audience.
-The RSS gadget in the Sidebar imports RSS subscriptions directly from IE 7, which means you can finally get the news you want to see on your desktop instead of just MS blogs.
The Bad:
-Webcams apparently still aren't supported out of the box, and Logitech, at least, has yet to release Vista-compatible drivers.
-In Build 5365, although my webcam couldn't do video (the video feed was scrambled and unusable) Vista did at least recognize the built-in mic, which allowed for voice calls and use of the Speech Recognition system built into Vista. In Build 5384 (a.k.a. Beta 2) not even the mic is detected.
-The Media Center, while a bit snappier in overall performance, still has a nasty habit of hanging when attempting to render visual elements, be they video, WMP visualizations or even just video file thumbnail icons.
-User Account Control is still only an On/Off affair, rather than having selectable security levels, a la IE, which would be FAR more convenient. Additionally, turning it on or off requires a restart, when it could (at least theoretically) be done simply by logging out of and then back into the user account being modified.
The Ugly:
IE 7+ has an annoying habit, in this build, of leaving a ghost process running on occasion. When this happens, trying to start IE 7 results in a runtime error each time you try to launch, until you go into the Task Manager and terminate the iexplore.exe process tree. Not just the process, the process tree.
So there it is in a nutshell. Still not sanded and polished, but it's already sufficient for a primary OS -- on your home system, at any rate. It may be a few more builds before you'll see Vista through the windows of any cybercafes, but we're very nearly there.
The Question
Eternal
Ah, another pair for The Ugly -- and I should have seen this coming.
Apparently, either the Media Center shell or the Vista version of Windows Media Player 11 has a memory leak somewhere in it. Since the former is dependent on the latter for playback, it's hard to tell which is the source of the leak, but the effect as of today is this:
WMP 11 launches stillborn. If launched by opening a media file, the file plays, but whether launched that way or via application shortcut, the controls are unresponsive, including the min/max/close control cluster. I've checked all running processes during this problem through the Task Manager, and no third-party media processes are running.
The only outside variable which could potentially be responsible would be the fact that I installed Vista as an upgrade over XP, and I had the XP beta of WMP 11 beforehand -- but, if that were the problem, it would have BEEN a problem from Day 1 of the install, and it wasn't. This suggests to me a memory leak issue, except that if it were a memory leak, WMP 11 would work after a restart and the nonresponsiveness issue would be progressive, not immediate.
Apparently, either the Media Center shell or the Vista version of Windows Media Player 11 has a memory leak somewhere in it. Since the former is dependent on the latter for playback, it's hard to tell which is the source of the leak, but the effect as of today is this:
WMP 11 launches stillborn. If launched by opening a media file, the file plays, but whether launched that way or via application shortcut, the controls are unresponsive, including the min/max/close control cluster. I've checked all running processes during this problem through the Task Manager, and no third-party media processes are running.
The only outside variable which could potentially be responsible would be the fact that I installed Vista as an upgrade over XP, and I had the XP beta of WMP 11 beforehand -- but, if that were the problem, it would have BEEN a problem from Day 1 of the install, and it wasn't. This suggests to me a memory leak issue, except that if it were a memory leak, WMP 11 would work after a restart and the nonresponsiveness issue would be progressive, not immediate.