i have the evaluation ultimate and also same problem with the thumbnails. i solved this by going to computer (same as my computer in xp) and right click it, and select properties then advanced tab. then under performance, select settings and under visual effects tab, make sure you check the box "view as thumbnails instead of icons"

So how do u like it so far? I find XP of course to be faster and Vista to be sluggish when multitasking. However, things pick up to XP speed when you turn off Aero glass. So far all my hardware work except my scanner which needs a new driver. My mobile phone also connects automatically to Vista (USB) but I haven't tested it yet as modem. I don't know if I want to spend the $ to upgrade once this evaluation expires, XP is working fine for me and as they say, why fix it if it ain't broke.

there was a windows update for my Geforce 7600GS but after I installed that, Aero glass stopped functioning and I could only get Vista Basic theme. Weird. I had to revert using System Restore.

EDIT: tested my sony mobile phone as modem to connect to diginet. works well. now the only thing that doesn't work is my scanner (need new driver). and need to get new Nero too.

This post has been edited by mzms: Jan 31 2007, 01:39 PM

my vista ultimate evaluation is playing funny. it's getting a little bit funky after a few windows updates. now AVG antivirus is totally gone! along with aero glass effect. i did an upgrade, i think i will have to reinstall with a fresh installation and reevaluate this.

i've done a complete reinstall starting from scratch. I have no sound as the Realtek AC97 XP drivers won't work or load properly. Ironically when I installed the driver it worked at first, then I restarted and the drivers won't load anymore. They worked fine in my upgrade install (over XP).

Anyway, a fresh install over a clean hard disk is surprisingly very fast.

After testing for only a few days, I have yet to try out everything but the Aero Glass and transparency feature seems like a real resource hog. It's pretty but if you turn it off, suddenly, everything seems so much more responsive without having to look at the "please wait" icon (equiv. to the hour glass cursor).

The file search does seem to find my files a lot faster than in XP and it even searches and presents jpeg files that are related to a search term.

Internet connectivity wise, I have no problems connecting with dial up modem or with my mobile phone (GPRS).

The thing that annoys me is how the security pop up box keeps popping up whenever you try to change or access system dialog boxes or others such as system properties, device manager etc. Damn annoying, I don't see the purpose of that at all except to be a pain in the a$$. Perhaps it can be turned off but it comes like that by default (evaluation copy).

I think I will give it a few more weeks but I don't think I will be upgrading to the paid version at all. I don't think it's worth it at this point as my XP works flawlessly right now. In the end, I think Vista is more pretty than functional right now (for me) as my scanner has no Vista driver and there's some weird things going on like suddenly missing programs (for eg. AVG antivirus disappears and reappears and sometimes doesn't load etc). And the system crashes when I try to refresh the performance rating. I think if I were to buy Vista, I would wait until next year when it has had time to mature and perhaps a service pack is out.

edit: scanner problem solved.

This post has been edited by mzms: Feb 1 2007, 02:02 AM

Haha, same thing happened with my AVG antivirus. Yahoo messenger so far works well. You mean you reinstall over blank hard disk and reinstall all your software twice and still same problems? BTW what build is your copy?

Anyway, I finally got the sound to work now by installing a new version of the sound driver (version 3.89).

I like the new Windows Media Player. Very nice and makes organizing all my music files much easier than before.

My next test will be to install and run Titan Quest and Age of Empires 3 as well as Command and Conquer Generals and Age of Mythology (older games), and also games from 1990s such as Total Annihilation. I'll then try installing some PS1 emulators and see if I can play FF9.

I finally got my scanner to work by reinstalling the driver (I let Vista do an automatic search and install). So now as far as hardware, everything I have works.

oh and I found out that I can have good responsiveness with Aero Glass on if I disable all the other effects except "smooth screen fonts" , "use visual styles on windows" and "enable transparency glass" so it's not as sluggish as if all the effects are on.

I still have a long while left on my evaluation period so hopefully can next as many things I normally do on my PC such as DVD authoring and movie editing etc. Will post here as I go along.

This post has been edited by mzms: Jan 31 2007, 10:05 PM

thanks for the info. yeah i figured that out after i posted that msg by doing a help search for UAC. It would be great if UAC could differentiate between a user initiated action such as clicking on a setup file or system control panel applet or whatever instead of constantly bugging us. But I can see its advantages if a computer's always connected and always on and on a network or internet or something.


This post has been edited by mzms: Feb 1 2007, 04:23 AM

readyboost doesn't work for me even though i have a card that's 2gb 45x speed. neither do my USB keys. says "the device is plugged into an unsupported interface" any ideas or anyone experience this?

This post has been edited by mzms: Feb 1 2007, 03:32 PM

haha card, not car. anyway it's a Sony.

it doesn't matter anymore as i'm done testing vista and i have reverted back to good old reliable XP. my verdict of vista is "not ready for primetime." at least for me. hehehe i was getting several freezes when i was browsing the net and even tho the search feature is SUPERB, I can't say I get anything more out of it than I already have with XP (for my daily pc work). So, maybe in a year's time and a service pack or two later, I'd jump in the boat! (Or if i get a free full version hahaha )

wah so expensive, with prices like that no wonder so many resort to ** one. but the Oem is reasonably priced I guess. After it's more stable and when I want to upgrade to dual core, I'll probably get the home premium. maybe year's end.

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Added on February 4, 2007, 7:51 amwhat happens if we upgrade the CPU or RAM on vista OEM? will that affect anything? do we have to reactivate?

This post has been edited by mzms: Feb 4 2007, 07:51 AM

I think all those who want to upgrade but not sure should really try the evaluation copy first. You can get an evaluation product key from MS using your MS Live account (Hotmail, MSN etc).

After I reinstalled this on my Maxtor hard drive I actually am beginning to like Vista. It's quite stable even for an RC2 and I have no problems with it anymore (compared to when installed on my old Seagate drive which apparently is dying). Aero Glass works great and no slow downs anymore, I only have 1 GB ram and for the things I do, I cannot notice any significant slow down in general use.

I hear some issues with antivirus, my AVG free antivirus works perfectly.

So I will continue to use the RC2 till SP1 is out.

This post has been edited by mzms: Feb 5 2007, 07:10 AM

it's called Windows Mail and appears to be like an updated (and much improved) outlook express but this time with automated Junk mail capabilities. It sorts or deletes junk mail in your inbox. You can also add email adds into your black list and it will handle such mail appropriately. However, my gmail pop no longer works with it.

5.5 or 4.9 not bad what. I'm using RC2 and my rating is 4.0 on the dot (lowest score - processor). If I overclock it from 2 to 2.27Ghz I get 4.2

how much ram do you have? this also happened to me and I think it happens when Windows detects your ram isn't optimum for running Aero.

You have to manually reenable the option in windows registry. I forget what are the exact keys to change but basically you need to change two keys, try and google for it. I don't remember as I am back to using XP, I seldom boot into Vista.

last nite i completely replaced my XP installation with Vista. I don't regret it. I made sure all my files were backuped first. I reformated the XP drive and Vista installed in less than 30 minutes, actually shorter time I think. I tried upgrade before and it took a couple hours!! I'm still using the evaluation RC2 i got and activated it already, so the time limit (30 days) is gone. I think I will use this until SP1 comes out then I'll go get an RTM version like Home Premium. As far as I can tell, RC2 works really well and the only thing is WMP doesn't play DVDs as it has a timebomb that disables its dvd abilities after a while. Anyone wanting to test drive Vista should download the evaluation copy and get your activation keys with your windows hotmail usernames. But donno if the evaluation copy still available for download, i got mine a long while ago. That way can see for yourself if it's what you really want.

guys, what updates have you downloaded via Windows Updates? Seems like if I download the Nvidia Geforce update it will disable Aero so I had to reenable it in windows registry.

This post has been edited by mzms: Feb 14 2007, 09:11 AM

it's not a driver. i downloaded cos my windows update is automated and the nvidia update was listed as "IMPORTANT" update. now i set my win update to only notify me.

no problems at all opening audio files, very quick in fact. video too.

as for antivirus, AVG Free Edition. works real well.

I downloaded it from free.grisoft.com my version is 7.5.441

Try it... works well and already caught a few trojan horses.

well, I am now thinking of reformating and reinstalling XP back into my disk again. After using Vista exclusively I find that a lot of things don't work well and not Vista compatible like my external drive, Ulead Movie 10, PowerDVD, Nero, my BM-BI/BI-BM dictionary Kamus Dewan, Encarta 2007, and sometimes OpenOffice Writer won't close and Yahoo Messenger (latest) won't start.

Furthermore, my Divx encoder pack doesn't work with Vista and that's a huge bummer.

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I upgraed to Nero 7.5 (trial)_ and it worked flawlessly unfortunately the update to my Ulead VideoStudio 10 didn't work that well and even though I can run it in Vista Basic mode, it gave a lot of problems like not able to open divx files (it could in XP) which I feel is related to Divx not having fully Vista compatible codecs. And I was already using latest version of Yahoo. I think Vista just gave me a bit too many problems as an everyday productivity computer as I switched to it exclusively. I think it's just too early to switch so I am now back to good old XP and it really feels like returning home after a foreign trip haha. Good to be home...