/

[Lorraine]

/

[weirdami]

next time let it out on the offending computer itself

[mongo]

Lorraine wrote:
everything I do asks for security confirmation.

Turn off UAC.

I checked the resources and average memory usage was about 1.5GB, but I suspect a lot of that is OEM stuff he hasn't removed.

Actual memory usage is probably nowhere near that. Vista uses unused memory for caching. It will be made available to applications as needed.

[Lorraine]

/

[mongo]

Lorraine wrote:

I still don't see why it's necessary though.

If the memory isn't needed by applications, why not put it to good use?

[Trev]

Windows NT has always done that. If you really want to know how much memory Windows is actually using, you'll need to forget what you've learned via Task Manager, read up on Windows memory management, and use Perfmon with a bit of statistical analysis. That's not meant to imply that Windows is hiding things from you--all the data is there. It's just sufficiently complex to warrant a bit of digging.

[stefcep2]

With Vista, the usual mouse and folders and icons way of launching programs has been made unusable because everything is all over the place.  Its virtually impossible to find anything because there is no logic to it. If you look at most tutorials, the search function is used to first locate what you want then launch it. Thats why Vista does an index of everything you have on the hard drive when you first install it. Its THE way to work with windows now, forget icons which no longer resemble the things they represent, forget even the start menu, and good luck finding what you want by opening folders. Everything is Start Orb->search.  Anything else is just too tedious.  So why bother with icons to launch programs at all? Why not just replace the start up orb with a search widget?

[Argo]

Odd, I don't use Vista that way. Opening folders and clicking on icons seems to work for me. Not to mention the start menu and quick launch.

[stefcep2]

Argo wrote:
Odd, I don't use Vista that way. Opening folders and clicking on icons seems to work for me. Not to mention the start menu and quick launch.

Yes I thought so too.  I tried to work the "Classic" Windows way like you but I quickly learned that PC magazine tutorials on Vista launch things with Orb-> search.  I recently got Vista and too was using Start-menu or my computer to double click through folders.  I looked at what other people-most of whom are just computer users, not geeks- around me were doing and they were all orb-> search to launch things. Try for example to find defrag, or disk partitioning tools by opening folders, and try with orb-> search "disk".  See which is faster? For me this is the biggest shift in the way people use Windows.  Very few people I know double click through folders or pin things to the start menu or orb->programs->program executable. They just orb->search

[DonnyEMU]

I also find if you download tweak VI by totalidea.com you can set things up like memory caching, DVD and what you probably want to look into is what the computer doing for "prefetching and superfetching". This causes the computer to pre-load programs that it thinks you are most likely to start up.

Tweak VI lets you reset what software the computer is caching (causing resources to get redistributed). I'd also look at services that maybe running and set to autostart. These also can be a pain if it's something you don't need like most people don't need PEN input services..

Even the freeware version of Tweak VI is worth running..





Tweak IV Page at totalidea.com

[amigakid]

use a program called autoruns to see what is running.  This shows a lot more than the msconfig most people are used to and the interface is easy to use on it.  Oh and its free.  

[zyphoid]

can't stand the thing it did an automatic update, shutdown my system and rebooted without warning, now coming out of sleep mode changes my screen resolution to a blurry 1024 x 768 display. (sure there's a way to prevent that)I'll be glad when I get morph on a lap to....or even aros :lol:

[Calde]

OK look,
for a bunch of geeks you all are overlooking the obvious.
Windows Vista comes on a DVD, and the whole OS takes up about
10 GB to install on your hard drive, way way to much room for
me. Then to run with any speed at all, no lags or stutters, you'll need
at least 2 GB of ram, preferably pc6400 dual channel. I'm either running win xppro
or amikit or af. Oh and don't forget the dual core or even better
upgrade to a quad core. I have to deal with windows for my customers
but have started to migrate a select few to a linux based os.
They love it and since I build the servers and file systems
theres very little surprises. only problem will be going from
linux to xls docs or word docs, that comes next year. I'm thinking
about doing everything in adobe format. hmmm
down with windows!
LOL
Calde

[Trev]

Misleading marketing aside, i.e. the Vista Ready logo, I don't see anything wrong with Vista's requirements. Disabling all the visual bells and whistles (honestly, they add no value--who wants or needs pseudo-transparent window borders?) makes it quite usable on a reasonably spec'd system. That said, I still use Windows XP. For the moment, there's no compelling reason for me to upgrade.

[Tension]

Vista`s a {bleep}ing {bleep}