Vista No More!

[Guest]

I think I've been patient enough with Windows Vista to finally say I've had
enough!

First: There are still many companies that don't have drivers for Vista.
I'm especially talking about high end multi-media gear. Ok, I can wait.

Second: When I open Exlporer (Not Internet Explorer) it sits there, turns
white and then in 60 seconds or so, I get the drive contents. If I open
Internet Explorer Sometimes it watis, sometimes it shows almost instantly.
However, there are times when I open Yahoo! or Google, and the browser errors
with "Internet Explorer can not display the page at this time". However, if
I open up the same page in Windows XP with IE 7.0, it opens fine. Most pages
on EBAY are delivered with an error and none of the DHTML objects work.
Shockwave and Flash do not work on some sites, I get the "Install Now" box,
and install AGAIN, and still can't get some flash or shockwave sites to
appear. Ok, no big deal

Third: This is the straw that broke the camel's back. I've been running
Vista on this machine since January 12, 2007. I'm running the retail version
of Vista Ultimate. When I started my computer, it stated that I needed to
activate my copy of Windows. Now I know this was activated when I installed
it, but I went through the motions and selected "ACTIVATE NOW". Then the
screen pops up: "This copy of Windows has already been activated". Ok, that
I knew, the OS shuts down and the system reboots. Vista starts, and I get
the same screen, that I needed to activate my copy of Windows. I activated
it, and same thing again "This copy of Windows has already been activated".

I fixed all my problems by doing someting very simple: I installed my XP
hard drive and formatted my Vista HD.

Now before people start telling me I have a computer problem, let me state:
I have a Dell Inspiron laptop. Intel Coure 2 Duo processor at 2.16 Ghz, 2
Gig of memory @ 667 Mhz, ATI 1300 Mobile Video. I purchased a seperate hard
drive (100 GB 7500 RPM SATA) to install Windows Vista. Everything works
running Windows XP SP2 IE 7 on this machine. Windows Vista ... pffft.
NEVERMORE SAID THE RAVEN!

 

[Guest]

First let me say that I'm sorry for all your problems but I have been running
VISTA since the early Beta's and have had none of the problems you have
mentioned. Thats not to say that everything is perfect but XP had it's early
days as well and some of it's issues were not necessarily the operating
system fault.

 

[churin]

Third one happened to me more than once. One of them happened when I
upgraded the hard drive. I think reactivation should not be required
only because HDD is upgraded. Other times, it happened without no
obvious reason to me. In one of those incidence reactivation came right
back to form a looping process with no end so that I had to resort to
reinstalling Vista.

 

[Ghostrider]

Third one happened to me more than once. One of them happened when I
upgraded the hard drive. I think reactivation should not be required
only because HDD is upgraded. Other times, it happened without no
obvious reason to me. In one of those incidence reactivation came right
back to form a looping process with no end so that I had to resort to
reinstalling Vista.

Why not with a hard drive upgrade? It is Microsoft's contention, and
one well-founded, that one of the fastest and easiest ways Windows can
be copied and used is through hard drive swaps. And as for the looping,
check the Microsoft KB for a solution...there is one that works.

 

[DanS]

Why not with a hard drive upgrade?

Why ? With activation being based on hardware serial numbers, with
different type of cards having different 'scores' of what would trigger
re-activation, with a MIC and BIOS being the highest scores.

According to MS.....

(http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/buyorupgrade/acti
vationfaq.mspx)
-------------------------------------------------------
How is Windows Vista activation different from activation in Windows XP?

Most users will find that Windows Vista activation is similar to
activation in Windows XP, but easier. You can learn more about the
Microsoft Software Protection Platform in this whitepaper, but some
highlights of the improvements made for Windows Vista activation include:

* Windows Vista activation is more flexible in accommodating hardware
changes without requiring re-activation.
* Windows Vista activation has improved accuracy, resulting in better
protection of the product.
* Windows Vista activation has improved anti-tampering technology.
--------------------------------------------------------

Bulleted item 1 is too funny. Seems as though updating an SATA driver
(only the driver) will trigger re-activations prompts.

Below is an excerpt from a whitepaper about XP activation, this being
totally inaccurate, and with Vista activation is 'more accomodating and
flexible' ?

-----------------------------------------------------------------
(Here is the white paper: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-
us/library/509c95b4-3071-7e49-888b-b0fc6ce05fd8.aspx#EDAA)

The below is cut & pasted directly from that white paper. MS offers
different scenarios as to hardware changes and what WPA should do with
that.

Scenario A:

PC One has the full assortment of hardware components listed in Table 1
above. User swaps the motherboard and CPU chip for an upgraded one, swaps
the video adapter, adds a second hard drive for additional storage,
doubles the amount of RAM, and swaps the CD ROM drive for a faster one.

Result: Reactivation is NOT required.

Scenario B:

PC Two has the full assortment of hardware components listed in Table 1
except that it has no network adapter. User doubles the amount of RAM,
swaps the video card and the SCSI controller.

Result: Reactivation is NOT required.



Dockable PCs are treated slightly more leniently. In a dockable PC, if a
network adapter exists and is not changed, 9 or more of the other above
values would have to change before reactivation was required. If no
network adapter exists or the existing one is changed, 7 or more changes
(including the network adapter) will result in a requirement to
reactivate.

Scenario C:

Dockable PC Three has the full assortment of hardware components listed
in Table 1 except that it has no network adapter. User doubles the amount
of RAM, swaps to a bigger hard disk drive, and adds a network adapter.

Result: Reactivation is NOT required.

 

[churin]

Why not with a hard drive upgrade? It is Microsoft's contention, and
one well-founded, that one of the fastest and easiest ways Windows can
be copied and used is through hard drive swaps. And as for the looping,
check the Microsoft KB for a solution...there is one that works.

Thanks for your response.
I searched MS KB by various key words but could not find it for solving
the looping problem. Could you post the KB number if you have it?

 

[Guest]

FYI: I've upgraded my hard drives many times (well, three) without triggering
activation. The first was from a single drive to a RAID 0 pair, then I
installed a larger pair of RAID 0 drives.

 

[DP]

NEVERMORE SAID THE RAVEN!

See ya!

 

[Guest]

It is most surely either a user problem, a third-party software problem, a
driver conflict, a hardware problem, a problem with your electrical outlets,
a problem with your I/O devices, a problem with the side of the bed you woke
up on this morning, a problem with the kind of milk you drink, or a problem
with your perception of the problem. Though, it is definitely NOT a
microsoft issue. MS consistently produces top quality, bug-free software.

<reality>
I got so tired of Vista's constant problems, one after the other after the
other... I put XP on both my vista machines and they work beautifully now.
Not to mention much faster.
</reality>

 

[Guest]

Why not with a hard drive upgrade? It is Microsoft's contention, and
one well-founded, that one of the fastest and easiest ways Windows can
be copied and used is through hard drive swaps.

Are you crazy?!
An HD swap would only work on a PC with the same hardware if it's not you
would have to do a repair from the boot cd to get it working. And swapping
an HD wouldn't make windows invalid for an HD upgrade it would make it
invalid becasue ALL the other HW changed except the HD.