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Sovereign
 Post subject: Vista FAQ Discussion Thread
PostPosted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 9:41 pm 
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This thread is for questions and discussion about the content of the Vista FAQ (I want that thread clean!).

Ask/discuss away, and I or another forum member will respond as soon as is humanely possible (we don't just sit around and watch the forums for questions). Please keep in mind that we do because we want to, for no compensation whatsoever, so don't take our help for granted, be rude or disrespectful and make us not want to be helpful.

2011-04-26 - Added link to FAQ, Removed sticky status.
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Satchboy
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Thu Jan 24, 2008 8:48 pm 
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Originally from the Vista FAQ.

yagisencho wrote:
Nice work, Sovereign!

I'll take the Vista/XP dual boot topic, but I recommend a heading other than 'Removing Vista' for the dual-boot topics. Something like, say...'Dual-Booting with Vista'.

3. I want to dual-boot with XP
If you want to have the choice of booting into either Windows XP or Windows Vista, installation order is the key. XP (and/or Windows 2000, Windows Server 2003, Windows Media Center Edition 2005) must be installed prior to Vista. If you install XP after Vista, you'll be forced to replace and configure the Boot Configuration Data file that Vista's Windows Boot Manager relies on.

Here are the steps. This involves either starting fresh or having a spare partition on your XP machine:
1) Create at least two partitions on the active boot drive, one for each OS. If you go with minimum boot partition sizes, be sure you have plenty of space left over in an additional partition and/or drive for programs and data files. Personally, I use a 20GB partition for XP (few programs), a 100GB partition for Vista (most programs), and additional separate partitions for games and data.
2) Install Windows XP on the first partition (recommended min 20+ GB).
3) Install Vista on the second partition (recommend min 40+ GB).

At this point, Vista will have created two entries in its Boot Configuration Data, 'Previous Version of Microsoft Windows' and 'Microsoft Windows Vista', with a default time-out selection of Vista. You can change the default settings via the System Properties dialog inside Vista. Go to the Advanced tab and click the 'Settings...' button under Startup and Recovery.
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Sovereign
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 12:27 pm 
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Let it be known that I am completely empty on more things for the FAQ, so feel free to post (I'm adding yagisencho's stuff now).
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Satchboy
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Tue Feb 05, 2008 5:39 am 
Smithfield
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Since we want to keep the FAQ clean I'm going to lock it and make this accompanying thread into a sticky.

If there is a question or suggestion please post it here. New topics will be added to the main FAQ as they are made.
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Satchboy
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Tue Feb 05, 2008 5:40 am 
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Here were the questions that were originally in the FAQ thread. They have been removed from there to clean it up.

guoruiwu1994 wrote:
when i want to burn a dvd with vista's included dvd burner, it tells me to reformat, and when its done, its only 4Gb big, while an with an other program it would be 4.3GB. Then after i butn something, and i take it out, and put it back in again, it tells me to reformat again.



TheGrizz wrote:
Sovereign wrote:
If you have a Dell machine, click here. Note that if you downgrade your Dell, you void your warranty.


Thanks for the heads up. I may leave the system as is for a while until I see about the warranty. Thanks though for the work through.



8IronBob wrote:
I've got a question that's been burning me up all day, and I'm not too sure that it's been covered. This is in regards to upgrading from an OEM copy of Win XP Pro SP2C OEM to Vista Ultimate x64 upgrade.

Just recently, I upgraded some hardware, like extra RAM, a second hard drive, swapped my floppy drive with a media card reader, and added a Wireless N adapter to my rig. Miraculously, Win XP successfully reactivated itself on my desktop, which I never thought was gonna happen. Now, I haven't installed any hardware drivers and/or internet security on my PC yet, since I was going to do that AFTER upgrading to Vista. I'm wondering. Since my Win XP Pro copy is 32-bit, I'm wondering if, when I grab the Upgrade DVD from a store shelf, that Microsoft would allow me to upgrade from 32-bit Win XP to 64-bit Ultimate at all. Even tho my hardware configuration can definitely handle 64-bit, I'm wondering if Microsoft will allow it from an upgrade at all, or if Microsoft will only confine me to Vista x32 off the upgrade. I was about to Google about this, but could not find a 100% accurate answer to this issue.

Just stating that this could become a FAQ real quick, since everyone that wants to upgrade from x32 XP to x64 Vista would like to know if Microsoft would allow for that to happen with the $250 upgrade disc.




8IronBob wrote:
Well, that only covered XP Pro x64 to Vista x64. I was asking about upgrading from XP Pro x32 to Vista Ultimate x64.
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Satchboy
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Tue Feb 05, 2008 8:34 pm 
Smithfield
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Sovereign wrote:
I'm sorry I misunderstood your question, but please read the link!
Microsoft wrote:
Installing a 64-bit version of Windows Vista on a computer that is running a 32-bit version of Windows XP or of Windows 2000
Most Windows XP and Windows 2000 users have the 32-bit version of these operating systems. For example, Windows 2000, Windows XP Home, Windows Tablet Edition and Windows Media Center Edition only come in 32-bit versions. For these operating systems, there is no upgrade installation path available when you upgrade from a 32-bit operating system to a 64-bit operating system. However, you can perform a custom installation that uses an upgrade license.

After you purchase a Windows Vista DVD, follow these steps:
1. Back up all the data and the settings by using Windows XP Backup.

Note You can also use Windows Easy Transfer. This back up program is available on the Windows Vista DVD. However, you must use the version that is on the 32-bit Windows Vista DVD if you want to use Windows Easy Transfer to back up a 32-bit version of Windows.
2. Insert the 64-bit version of Windows Vista into the system DVD drive, and then restart the computer.
3. Start Windows Vista Setup from the DVD when you are prompted.

Note You must start Windows Vista Setup by starting the computer from the Windows Vista 64-bit DVD. The installation package will not run on a 32-bit operating system.
4. When you are prompted during Windows Vista Setup, remember to select Custom as the installation type.
5. After installation is complete, you can restore the data from its backup location.
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-Lawless
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Tue Feb 19, 2008 10:21 am 
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Watching ripped DVD's with Vista MCE.
This has helped me tremendously. I hate having to put in each DVD when I want to watch them so I rip the DVD and have MCE play it from my hard drive. Personally I use DVD Shrink to rip most DVD's and it leaves a slightly smaller file set for MCE to read from without loosing much quality.

Borrowed from this website.

There’s one feature which was annoyingly absent. In XP MCE 2005, if you set up a videos folder which contained ripped DVD files, it would happily play them back as if they were the original DVD.

I don’t mean DVDs ripped using an MPEG encoder, but rather if you copy the VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS folders off the DVD and put them in a root folder, when you selected that folder via the MCE interface, it would simply recognise it as a DVD.

By default, Vista MCE doesn’t do this. When you select the root folder it opens up the DVD subfolders, but doesn’t detect any files within them. There’s an easy way to fix this by modifying a section of the registry, which will alter how Vista handles DVDs.

Open Registry Editor (Start, Run, REGEDIT) and navigate to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Settings\DvdSettings

Double-click the key ShowGallery and change the value from “Playâ€
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NukeULater
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Thu Jun 05, 2008 10:30 pm 
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Hey Sovereign, thanks for the vista FAQ thread! I didn't know about Vista business/ultimate backup tool. I just reinstalled vista just to do that, it was a a big hassle but its worth it if something happens.
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JNorman
 Post subject: Visat repair specialist
PostPosted: Sun Jul 06, 2008 11:31 am 
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I don't know if anyone else here has had trouble with their cd/dvd drives-Drivers not working in vista but I found this webpage Via GOOOOOgle and it seemed fair enough.PAGE FOUND
I gave it a try and my drivers were installed and started to operate properlly after the restart.

I did a clean install using the MinimumBS way ([using upgrade version]don't enter your product key and then use the upgrade to upgrade the trial version) but I don't really know if that was the cause of my trouble with the drivers.
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Hunt3r.j2
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Thu Jul 31, 2008 4:20 pm 
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About the Vista licensing terms...

Is it still the same "You are only allowed to install this operating system on one device which will then be the authorized device..." type of deal where you can't switch out the mobo without running out to buy a new copy? Also, is the OEM version even more restrictive about this or is it exactly the same? If so, I'm definitely going to buy an OEM copy over the overpriced retail version.
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8IronBob
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sun Aug 10, 2008 6:14 pm 
Willamette
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Hunt3r.j2 wrote:
About the Vista licensing terms...

Is it still the same "You are only allowed to install this operating system on one device which will then be the authorized device..." type of deal where you can't switch out the mobo without running out to buy a new copy? Also, is the OEM version even more restrictive about this or is it exactly the same? If so, I'm definitely going to buy an OEM copy over the overpriced retail version.


Hmm, I thought someone said that just so long as you deactivate Vista off of the original hard drive, and install it new on a new PC, it would just take a phone call to MS to make it work on a new PC, at least that's what somebody once said about the retail copy of Ultimate. Might want to confirm that one, that's what I plan on doing here, since I'm moving from one build, and recycling some of the components into another build, including the hard drive that Vista is currently installed on, so just so long as I reformat that HDD when it's in the new build, it might work, I'll have to see...
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Sovereign
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Mon Aug 11, 2008 5:25 pm 
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Theoretically, an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) copy is locked to the hardware on which it was first installed, whereas with retail copies (they come in the nice plastic box as opposed to a cardboard disc sleeve) you can deactivate one machine and install on a new one. In practical terms, many people move their OEM copies from one machine to another as they upgrade their rigs, because if you read the OEM license literally it basically says you can't do much upgrading or else the OS considers you to be running on a "new" machine, hence demanding a new license. Heck, unless you're a system builder (i.e. PC shop) you're not supposed to buy OEM copies of Windows anyway, but that rule doesn't get enforced either.
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Salisa
 Post subject: what about updating drivers in Vista
PostPosted: Thu Apr 30, 2009 4:15 pm 
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The question is simple do you have to uninstall drivers prior to installing a newer version ie video drivers.. My daughter tells me her husband just updates them over the top with no problem, but I'm just now switching to Vista Ult 64 from xp and I've always uninstalled.. And how would I do this!?
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LondoJowo
 Post subject: Re: what about updating drivers in Vista
PostPosted: Sun Nov 15, 2009 5:40 am 
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Salisa wrote:
The question is simple do you have to uninstall drivers prior to installing a newer version ie video drivers.. My daughter tells me her husband just updates them over the top with no problem, but I'm just now switching to Vista Ult 64 from xp and I've always uninstalled.. And how would I do this!?


I've been installing new video drivers over the old ones since I started using Windows 95 (using Windows 7 Ultimate now) and never had an issue. Just run the installer and it will take care of the the rest.
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