[PCWorld]

Post your comments for Windows Vista SP1 Available Now--Do You Need It? here

[mwin]

The Updater automatically installed the Service Pack 1 and since then I am unable to access or view my CD/DVD drive. It only appear in device manager with the "!" (of course). Now I have to go try to hack my registry. Woop.

[MasterGuru]

It's not an aoutomatic update that just downloads to your computer, so that entry, IMHO, is obviously nothing but some dope trying to show the world how much of an idiot they are.

Add that word that the FCC is discussing the use of before "superb" and you have my thoughts rolled up well on Vista SP1.

Vista SP1 upgrade from WU took 45 minutes including the download. All my programs work great(er). I even have onboard Realtek AC97 (one of the forbidden drivers), but I have it disabled in the BIOS as I installed an X-Fi card a while back.

I just installed Far Cry and the 1.4 patch and it installed and runs better than it ever did on XP or Vista Home Premium on this machine.

Off for more games!

Any suggestions anyone?

BTW...Thanks Bill!

And if you say it should have been like that from day one, please do not apply to our R&D center - all designs progress. But that is why you guys write stories and we design...take it from an engineer, you all look pathetic to designers when you write such things...pathetic...so there I said it. Can one of you please go design a perfect car that will last forever (simple, right?)- I need one. Done ranting...

[rgreen4]

Did you manually download and install the RTM SP1, or did you install the Beta SP1? Most likely it is the Beta SP1 since the RTM version is not on the Microsoft Download site yet. The Beta had noted conflicts, but then that is the reason that the Beta process is used. You also are never supposed to install a Beta on a machine that you have not securely backed up first so you can roll it back.

[bibliobear]

And then there are some of us who tried the release candidate, and can't uninstall it. The only help I can find says to re-install Vista. Luckily I have tons of backups, but this doesn't mean it won't take me a whole lot of hours re-installing software, etc. I really feel duped, since the installation process and documentation from Microsoft said that the RC would be easy to uninstall, as it must be because it has an expiration date. Sign me "Not a Happy Camper."

[Evildave]

The article its self has a link to the 32 and 64 bit versions in the third paragraph, and there's nothing on the site that says 'Beta' on it when you follow them.

I'm downloading and installing it on what's left of the original Vista partition that came with my notebook out of morbid curiosity. Maybe I'll apply it to the virtual machine I sometimes use as well if that doesn't HCF. If it does drop dead, I'll just delete the Vista partition and wash my hands of it. It's been a few weeks since I booted into 'Windows', anyway.

I wonder if the downed DVD drive is a victim of 'Driver Revocation'? Of course, I'll always wonder that for any Vista patch that disables something in the device chain to play audio/video.

[Evildave]

Ouch. When you get it all fixed, be sure and use Clonezilla (Free) or Norton Ghost ($$$) to make a back up of your boot partition. You should've known better than to trust M$ about 'easy' anything. While you're at it, make a second partition to put your documents, music, etc. Move 'My *' over there. I generally make it 60/40 or 66/33 for data versus boot, according to how much crap you install. Just make the Windows partition as small as practical, allowing for some additional 'growth'.

Anyways, next time Windows craps the bed, you'll be able to recover to your last drive image backup in about 15 minutes. Backup time takes about 20~30 minutes.

[rgreen4]

Now you know why I advocate cloning hard drives. I have had some ill behaved applicaitons before, but not from MS, but they are not immune.
I take EvilDave's admonition one to two steps forward. I have my data off the system, and I clone the HD. When I know that there is a risk, (and the RC is still a Beta, and with Beta's anything can happen) I actually leave the original drive in the system, I disconnect it, install the risky software on the clone. Then, if something goes wrong, I simply swap cables, takes about 5 minutes to get back in operation.

[bibliobear]

Guess I neglected to mention that I installed the release candidate version in December, so of course there are no restore points available that far back.

I seem to have a genetic defect that makes me susceptible to software bugs. If there's a bug in it, I'll run into it. That's why I used to be paid by an online database vendor quite a few years back to crash-test their system. Guess I should hold the tin cup in Microsoft's direction.

[ramfisher65]

I downloaded it this evening(vista sp1) and so far i have had no problems. Most of my programs seem to be faster andwhat a diffrence in playing half life 2. I am using a inspron 1521 with 2 gb of ram , amd tourinx2 processor, on a windows vista basic platform,with an ati 1270 graphics cards. Sure dont know what the fuss is about, but if starts having problems, you are gonna hear me hollar far and wide.

[Evildave]

No, no, no. A drive image is completely separate from 'Restore Point'.

It wouldn't matter if you made the drive image ten years ago: You would be able to restore that image to your machine. Sure, it'd be Win98, but you'd be able to restore it.

Different animals.

What we're talking about is making an exact COPY of your boot partition. Windows, the applications, any other bit of data on the drive is copied to a file (or a different hard disk partition) where it can be used to overwrite problems that later occur.

For instance, I installed a force-feedback 'mouse driver' once upon a time that had lots of extra crap, and it made Windows go 'kablooey'. I had a backup, so I was back in business in 15 minutes. I let most of my Windows troubleshooting 'mad skillz' atrophy as a result. No need to figure it out if it can be fixed faster than you can isolate the problem. Lots of 'bad installs' have become non-issues.

You can't really even trust your 'Restore Point' wayback machine even one day. If something 'bad enough' happens to your drive, the restore points aren't going to do anything for you. It's toast.

[Evildave]

MasterGuru: I don't expect a 'perfect car', but I do expect a car that is as close to 'perfect' as possible.
If a person purchased a brand new car that gets half the fuel economy, and half the power it was advertised to have, and stalls out every block, and the radio sounds like crap, and the brakes don't work, I think that person just might complain... Or they're an IDIOT.
And I'm sure to a car company that delivered vehicles like that, the victims of their crime would seem downright pathetic, like a pitiful crybaby. Scam artists need that sort of mentality to do what they do.
Just as I'm sure users disappointed in their 'Genuine Vista Experience' sound like pathetic whiners to Microsoft shills. How dare anybody expect what we promised? Didn't they learn ANYTHING from WinME, Win2000 or WinXP??? Stupid people deserve what they get, after all.

[mphenterprises]

bibliobear said:

Guess I neglected to mention that I installed the release candidate version in December, so of course there are no restore points available that far back.

>

Quote

I seem to have a genetic defect that makes me susceptible to software bugs. If there's a bug in it, I'll run into it. That's why I used to be paid by an
online database vendor quite a few years back to crash-test their system. Guess I should hold the tin cup in Microsoft's direction.

Hi BiblioBear and welcome to the PCWorld Communities. :D




If I may put in my two cents, speaking generally, what is appealing about beta applications? So many people install beta applications, Service Packs, and even whole Operating Systems and then complain when something goes wrong. I have never seen the appeal of being someone else's guinea pig. I have seen so many computers become nothing more than paperweight because of beta applications.

Speaking specifically, since you crash tested applications in the past, you know (or at least I assume you know) the consequences of beta applications. No matter what a vendor decides to call it (Beta, Release Candidate, Final Prep, etc.), installing anything less than a final release is tantamount to technological suicide.

From the information provided by this site, Vista SP1 will be released to users in mid April. It is available now through Windows Update, if applicable. May I ask what was your reasoning for installing the Release Candidate in December?

[Carlos18X]

Well, In mid-Feb I purchased a HP Media Center PC with a 3.0 GHz AMD X2 Live processor, 3 Gb of RAM memory, and a 640 GB HDD. I have OneLive Care installed as my anti-virus/anti-spyware solution. And Have Downloaded every possible updates from Microsoft (even the optional updates). Now that I have installed Service Pack 1, My computer seems to work alot faster. I mean Even my games seem to respond faster upon loading screens also executions of certains actions are faster and so forth. I personally Have not ran into any of the "problems" that most users have. But Then again I didn't upgrade my PC. I just Bought like that. I use my computer everyday for a good 4 to 5 hours doing various things on it and can't run into a problem. Hope The Service Pack doesn't end up so problematic.....

[rgreen4]

Yeh, my in place clone came in handy one morning when I inadvertently installed an XP video driver onto my Vista installation. Black text on a black screen is very hard to read.
I simply forced the machine off, removed the leads from drive 1 and plugged them into drive 2 (SATA) and rebooted. Back in business. Of course it helped that I had just cloned that drive a few days before and all my data is on the network.

[aham]

while you are at it, why not try Vista's own complete PC backup. I have tried it, works better than any other out there.

[paulimse]

I downloaded the stand-alone SP 1 package, and the installation was painless. It took 45 minutes and 3 reboots. I have not notice a glitch either last night or this morning, and all the drivers seem OK. I also burned the SP 1 package to CD so I don't have to endure that 435 MB download again.

[brucesouthbay]

I have Vista Ultimate on a Core Duo system, and since everything right now is working OK, I think I'll pass on SP1. I have Trend Micro security, which no Windows update has ever liked, NVIDA video drivers (GEFORCE7900) that no update has liked, and I have to latest from the manufacturer, plus, things like Office 2007, FSX, and GTA San Andreas that will probably be f'd up, so, I'll pass, no thanks

[chkm8]

Well im sure im not the only one that attempted downgrading to XP from a Vista based OS after purchasing a new notebook or PC that came installed with Vista. But after failing as if I had no clue of what I was doing, yes I gave up, decided to give Vista a shot. I was unable to play older games, even with the built in compatability mode. I found a way around the admin promts that ask you 2-3 if your sure the action your taking is actually the action you want to take. I have adjusted and now move along smoothly. I do question the new update though. Was wondering if anyone could enlighten on if this update will reset any registry changes I have made back to default? I understand that there is always something that has to be learned when dealing with new technology, especially when the user does not like to be limited on what he or she can do, but do I really need this?

[Evildave]

I would disagree that 'Windows Restore' works 'better' than any other hard drive imaging software. It could only possibly work "As Well As", since most of them work more or less perfectly. Since it only supports Microsoft formatted partitions, it definitely works 'worse than' most of them. I suspect it works just as well as the built-in Vista 'Resize Partition' tool, and that is... NOT WORTH CRAP.

I can download and burn a 'Clonezilla/GParted' ISO at will that works for ANY kind of partition, and you need the Windows Vista disk to use the restore half of your backup. How many of you out there received a Windows Vista disk with your computer? Many new computer buyers don't even get a Vista CD! They're completely dependent on a 'recovery' partition on their hard disk being available and not corrupted (if they even received that much). Never once have I been to somebody's home to fix their computer that they had been able to locate their Windows CD. OK, once, but I had made that particular person put all their install media into a sealed plastic box, and I had repartitioned and imaged her drive at that time KNOWING she'd mess it up with randomly downloaded junkware, so there wasn't any need for the Windows disk, driver disks and various setup disks when Windows had its inevitable meltdown.