Windows Vista RC1 - First Contact
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Sometimes everything happens at once, and this week was certainly one of those weeks. About 6 weeks ago we ordered a new system from Mesh - a Matrix 2 Prestige system running XP Pro with Athlon X2 5000+ processor, 2GB of memory and 300GB of disk space. Unfortunately the order was delayed due to processor shortages, and (to cut a long story short) we finally took delivery of it on Thursday. So far, it seems like a well put together and responsive system - albeit a vanilla WinXP system. To make this machine more useful to us we've fitted the system drive within a lockable caddy - with the aim of being able to quickly swap to a new configuration (Vista and Windows Server 2003, naturally). With the caddy fitted, rebuilding the system with a new OS is quick and safe. The second thing was the arrival of our MSDN subscriptions (through the Microsoft Empower Programme on Friday. Given that we only applied for membership last weekend, that's one fast turnaround! It's sad to see that they are no longer issuing MSDN disks for VS2003, Windows 2000 etc. though (you can't even download Win2k from the subscriber downloads area now, either). Sometimes progress has a price. The third thing was the release of Windows Vista RC1 to MSDN subscribers in the last few days. Putting all three together, and as you can imagine we've been rather busy over the weekend... Back to the subject in hand. We finally finished downloading the x86 version of Vista RC1 on Saturday afternoon, whereupon we installed it on a clean disk and fired it up. Although we briefly looked at Vista Beta 1 in a VM some time ago, this is the first time we've seen the full Aero Glass interface on one of our systems, and I have to say it's very impressive. Enough has changed in the UI that it's going to take quite a while to get used to it...but already, XP feels dated. :doh: Sadly, that installation lasted just an hour. It came up minus several drivers- notably audio (although the XP driver that came with the Mesh worked fine once we installed it) and the Linksys Wireless-G card we'd fitted on Thursday. After a quick hunt around the web it quickly became apparent that this (very common) card currently has no working Vista drivers. However, we did find a workaround - see How to install Linksys WMP54
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Sometimes everything happens at once, and this week was certainly one of those weeks. About 6 weeks ago we ordered a new system from Mesh - a Matrix 2 Prestige system running XP Pro with Athlon X2 5000+ processor, 2GB of memory and 300GB of disk space. Unfortunately the order was delayed due to processor shortages, and (to cut a long story short) we finally took delivery of it on Thursday. So far, it seems like a well put together and responsive system - albeit a vanilla WinXP system. To make this machine more useful to us we've fitted the system drive within a lockable caddy - with the aim of being able to quickly swap to a new configuration (Vista and Windows Server 2003, naturally). With the caddy fitted, rebuilding the system with a new OS is quick and safe. The second thing was the arrival of our MSDN subscriptions (through the Microsoft Empower Programme on Friday. Given that we only applied for membership last weekend, that's one fast turnaround! It's sad to see that they are no longer issuing MSDN disks for VS2003, Windows 2000 etc. though (you can't even download Win2k from the subscriber downloads area now, either). Sometimes progress has a price. The third thing was the release of Windows Vista RC1 to MSDN subscribers in the last few days. Putting all three together, and as you can imagine we've been rather busy over the weekend... Back to the subject in hand. We finally finished downloading the x86 version of Vista RC1 on Saturday afternoon, whereupon we installed it on a clean disk and fired it up. Although we briefly looked at Vista Beta 1 in a VM some time ago, this is the first time we've seen the full Aero Glass interface on one of our systems, and I have to say it's very impressive. Enough has changed in the UI that it's going to take quite a while to get used to it...but already, XP feels dated. :doh: Sadly, that installation lasted just an hour. It came up minus several drivers- notably audio (although the XP driver that came with the Mesh worked fine once we installed it) and the Linksys Wireless-G card we'd fitted on Thursday. After a quick hunt around the web it quickly became apparent that this (very common) card currently has no working Vista drivers. However, we did find a workaround - see How to install Linksys WMP54
Great writeup! Thanks!
Anna-Jayne Metcalfe wrote:
Sometimes progress has a price.
Progress always has a price. :) Marc
People are just notoriously impossible. --DavidCrow
There's NO excuse for not commenting your code. -- John Simmons / outlaw programmer
People who say that they will refactor their code later to make it "good" don't understand refactoring, nor the art and craft of programming. -- Josh Smith -
Sometimes everything happens at once, and this week was certainly one of those weeks. About 6 weeks ago we ordered a new system from Mesh - a Matrix 2 Prestige system running XP Pro with Athlon X2 5000+ processor, 2GB of memory and 300GB of disk space. Unfortunately the order was delayed due to processor shortages, and (to cut a long story short) we finally took delivery of it on Thursday. So far, it seems like a well put together and responsive system - albeit a vanilla WinXP system. To make this machine more useful to us we've fitted the system drive within a lockable caddy - with the aim of being able to quickly swap to a new configuration (Vista and Windows Server 2003, naturally). With the caddy fitted, rebuilding the system with a new OS is quick and safe. The second thing was the arrival of our MSDN subscriptions (through the Microsoft Empower Programme on Friday. Given that we only applied for membership last weekend, that's one fast turnaround! It's sad to see that they are no longer issuing MSDN disks for VS2003, Windows 2000 etc. though (you can't even download Win2k from the subscriber downloads area now, either). Sometimes progress has a price. The third thing was the release of Windows Vista RC1 to MSDN subscribers in the last few days. Putting all three together, and as you can imagine we've been rather busy over the weekend... Back to the subject in hand. We finally finished downloading the x86 version of Vista RC1 on Saturday afternoon, whereupon we installed it on a clean disk and fired it up. Although we briefly looked at Vista Beta 1 in a VM some time ago, this is the first time we've seen the full Aero Glass interface on one of our systems, and I have to say it's very impressive. Enough has changed in the UI that it's going to take quite a while to get used to it...but already, XP feels dated. :doh: Sadly, that installation lasted just an hour. It came up minus several drivers- notably audio (although the XP driver that came with the Mesh worked fine once we installed it) and the Linksys Wireless-G card we'd fitted on Thursday. After a quick hunt around the web it quickly became apparent that this (very common) card currently has no working Vista drivers. However, we did find a workaround - see How to install Linksys WMP54
Wait until you try to install SQL 2005 on it. First hope you don't need reporting services, SQL 2005 doesn't recognize IIS 7. Database can't be attached, this was particularly irritating because the message saying insufficient disk space on a 250 GB HD. And the kicker was all the known issue dialogs running SQL tools such as the surface area configuration tool. You’d think they’d at least make sure that their software would run reasonably well on a new OS. Brad
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Wait until you try to install SQL 2005 on it. First hope you don't need reporting services, SQL 2005 doesn't recognize IIS 7. Database can't be attached, this was particularly irritating because the message saying insufficient disk space on a 250 GB HD. And the kicker was all the known issue dialogs running SQL tools such as the surface area configuration tool. You’d think they’d at least make sure that their software would run reasonably well on a new OS. Brad
doesnt SP1 for SQL2005 fix this?
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doesnt SP1 for SQL2005 fix this?
No, I installed SP1 and the current raft of hotfixes to no avail. There is currently no sliptreamed SQL 2005 intall w/ SP1. But I honestly do not think it would help. Brad
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Great writeup! Thanks!
Anna-Jayne Metcalfe wrote:
Sometimes progress has a price.
Progress always has a price. :) Marc
People are just notoriously impossible. --DavidCrow
There's NO excuse for not commenting your code. -- John Simmons / outlaw programmer
People who say that they will refactor their code later to make it "good" don't understand refactoring, nor the art and craft of programming. -- Josh SmithAnytime. Thanks Marc! We'll have another look at it in a couple of days - unfortunately there are more pressing things on the pile right now. :doh:
Anna :rose: Currently working mostly on: Visual Lint :cool: Anna's Place | Tears and Laughter "Be yourself - not what others think you should be" - Marcia Graesch "Anna's just a sexy-looking lesbian tart" - A friend, trying to wind me up. It didn't work.
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Wait until you try to install SQL 2005 on it. First hope you don't need reporting services, SQL 2005 doesn't recognize IIS 7. Database can't be attached, this was particularly irritating because the message saying insufficient disk space on a 250 GB HD. And the kicker was all the known issue dialogs running SQL tools such as the surface area configuration tool. You’d think they’d at least make sure that their software would run reasonably well on a new OS. Brad
Thanks for the heads up. At the moment we're not likely to need SQL 2005 too urgently as none of our products needs it (native stuff, you know - although we are interested in using SQL Embedded once it's out). At the moment I'm more interested in using it as a test platform to identify whether we need to change anything in our codebase.
Anna :rose: Currently working mostly on: Visual Lint :cool: Anna's Place | Tears and Laughter "Be yourself - not what others think you should be" - Marcia Graesch "Anna's just a sexy-looking lesbian tart" - A friend, trying to wind me up. It didn't work.