Smooth installation of x64

[Colin Barnhorst]

I finally bit the bullet and installed Vista Ultimate x64 Gold on my primary
computer. The TechBeta freebie, of course, and not an MSDN copy (for all
you purists who wouldn't want me writing this on that licesne). I kept
thinking about all the issues during the past year and a half with Vista
installations and dreading the outcome. No problems. Then I remembered, we
reported all those problems and they got fixed. Doh!

I did a custom installion, but not a reformat, over a dead XP Pro SP2
partition. It took far longer to download these stupid newsgroups.

I got a 5.2 perf rating out of the deal so I'm happy. I had all kinds of
things going on simultaneously that would have brought my old P4 Prescott to
its knees, but this Core 2 Duo system remained very responsive throughout.

Bring on Vienna!

Colin Barnhorst - MVP Virtual Machine

 

[MSFT Trades Swag to MVPs for Support, Defense, and]

LOL--

In what pure fantasy world Colin do you believe this:

"Then I remembered, we
reported all those problems and they got fixed. Doh!"


The driven snow may be pure but bug reporting to the tin ears at Vista
Redmond was anything but.

I'm glad the 64 bit is going well on that hot duo core I think you set up.

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

Yes, its the Core 2 Duo I was talking about a couple of months ago. Some
of those beta installations on boards with these nVidia chipsets got pretty
discouraging. And when things had to be backed out sometimes the BCD edit
thing got horrible. Glad to see how much better that has all become.

"MSFT Trades Swag to MVPs for Support, Defense, and Blind Allegiance"

 

[MSFT Trades Swag to MVPs for Support, Defense, and]

If I'm not mistaken, you have had or may still have a 32 bit Vista RTM or
close running on that nice core duo. What has been your experience in
running both of them on it, or if not can you talk a little about your
experiences and impressions of running Vista Office and popular 3rd party
programs on a duo core 64 bit machine and what has pleased you the most.

 

[Bill Frisbee]

One has to ask if you are actually going to do anything useful around here
or continue to be a child with an attitude problem?

For someone that seemingly hates Microsoft so much, you still have no issues
with using Windows XP though. One would think that makes you a bit of a
hypocrite.

Bill F.

"MSFT Trades Swag to MVPs for Support, Defense, and Blind Allegiance"

 

[Bill Frisbee]

Colin,

Yeah I was a bit shocked by the ease of my x64 copy on my Dell D620 laptop.
The overal install took about 20 minutes, which was great.

All my hardware was detected, although I did go get the latest ATI drivers
for the video.

Other than that all works fine.

Cisco VPN client is still giving issues though.

The whole thing just shows Microsoft really does listen to us.

Bill F.

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

No, I have never run Vista on the Core 2 Duo box. The only other Vista rtm
I am running is x64 on the test box (AMD64 x2). That has been the Vista
test box for both x86 and x64 for 18 months. Now that beta is over I am
afraid I don't have any interest in x86.

The thing that impresses me the most is the responsiveness under load (lots
of programs running in the foreground and background) and the fast load
times. I haven't installed enough third party programs yet to comment
except that a couple of my favorite games (Civ III Complete and Anno 1701)
don't run. Civ III gives a font missing error and 1701 has an unsigned
64bit driver. Office 2007 apps start a little faster, but the AMD64 x2
machine keeps up surprisingly well. One group of programs that do much
better on the C2D than on the AMD is the MS games. I have been spending the
day catching up on setup (WM newsgroups, MSN9.5, etc). It is fun so far.
Tomorrow a few apps. Nothing goes on the C2D that I haven't first tried on
the rtm on the test box. Nada.


"MSFT Trades Swag to MVPs for Support, Defense, and Blind Allegiance"

 

[Rich Milburn [MVP]]

I have a Dell D620 laptop I've been borrowing from work, but it's a 32 bit core duo. It works really well, even though it says Vista Capable, and I'm running Ultimate. I have had almost no issues at all with it. There have been a few issues, but those are probably already fixed in hotfixes that are being tested before January... explorer has crashed a couple of times, and there are a couple of other things... (I guess that's -5 demerits for me, to be subtracted from my swag cache)

Rich
MVP Directory Services
Swag-less, Unknowing Sycophant
Colin,

Yeah I was a bit shocked by the ease of my x64 copy on my Dell D620 laptop.
The overal install took about 20 minutes, which was great.

All my hardware was detected, although I did go get the latest ATI drivers
for the video.

Other than that all works fine.

Cisco VPN client is still giving issues though.

The whole thing just shows Microsoft really does listen to us.

Bill F.

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

Looking back there were times when some of the bug reporting on the
installation failures was boring and lengthy work. There were times I just
wanted to skip some of it and assume that somebody else was going to report
it anyway. Since the mobos in the two machines are close, I'm glad now I
plugged away at digging out all those log files the devs at MS kept asking
for.

Another thing that surprised me with the rtm on the test box was a Solutions
Center pop up giving me a fix for a problem I didn't even know I had with a
third party app. It all but ran the solution for me.

 

[MSFT Trades Swag to MVPs for Support, Defense, and]

Bill--

For the 1500th time it ought to be literally obvious that ***I don't hate
MSFT.*** Far from it. It's like the Jack Bauer line--"if I had wanted to
kill you you'd be dead now." If I hated MSFT I would have stopped using a
PC for Windows long ago, and taken up the MAC and gotten deep into Linux and
Open Source and nothing wrong with doing all of that if you have the time
and organizational skills.

Why would I ask Colin how his test box and C2D were working out, if I didn't
have a lot of Windows interest and want to hear from a terrifically talented
user how he finds some of the newest hardware and software working?

Some of the better Windows users and enthusiasts I know have brought Linux
into the running of banks, and major workplace and company systems as you
know because they believe it is cheaper and more efficient for their company
and the IT domain they administrate. That will be one of the big challenges
of Longhorn Server which doesn't get a lot of attention here, but I know may
be even a bigger deal than Vista or a concommitant big movement.

Unless I were completely stupid, if I hated MSFT and I feel this way about
anyone who does, I suppose spend your time with Linux and many other
operating systems and become a heavy MAC user although many of them still
depend on MSFT for Office or other apps but don't have to.

I am constructively critical of MSFT and I adopted the MVP shill name to
make a point. You can't expect me to support though

1) Ignoring bugs--they did in droves in Vista
2) They kept a lot of useful info from the public that they disseminated to
the Beta. I know I saw all of it.
3) They have underperformed at getting info on major vista features onto
MSDN and Technet. Vista has been RTM'd and all the parties have happened in
Seattle, Redmond, Queen Anne, the campus. It's time to get that material
out.
4) MSKBs are meagre.
5) Ralph Reed is one of the most hypocritical and destructive monsters along
with Jack Abramoff to hit the US and Microsoft made him their employee. You
bet I'm going to criticize it. It was the direct responsibilty of Brad
Smith their multimillionaire VP and General Counsel and Nancy Anderson
Deputy General Counsel. They have teams of investigators, some who
formerly work for DOJ who could have vetted Ralph Reed prior to hiring him
and paying him millions to work for MSFT at $27,000 per month while Anderson
piously appears with the Washington State Attorney General Rob McKenna
prancing about touting how they hate piracy.

How about people hate Microsoft's hiring of individuals like Reed who were
directly involved in stopping Congressional oversight on the Mariannas
islands of slave labor camps and forced prostitution and cruelty towards
women. It puts Anderson in a damn hypocritical light when she hires someone
for a lavish amount of money who was involved in imprisoning and kidnapping
women on the Mariannnas islands and she and Brad Smith fein ignorance.
Sorry--some of us are not that frigging stupid Bill.

And some of us are readers Bill. Maybe some fomrer MVPs don't want to read
the news because it's so frigging awful most of the time. But it's awful
because of the mass of apathetic Americans who basically want to shop, eat,
buy toys, and drive their SUVs.

I have used Vista and XP on a dual boot since Vista became available and I
had the alpha PDC Vista builds which I collected mostly because I like to
collect MSFT memorabelia the way I collected about 500 Sports Illustrated
covers that I got signed myself growing up. I also have all the balls
signed by the starters on a team that won the World Series once.

Bill are you on SI? If you are I'd lke to get the cover and get you to
sign. Frissbee championships? Dog frissbee championships?

I'm not a hypocrite. It ought to be somewhat obvious (I hope) that I use
Windows and have tried to in depth. I continue to try to explore Vista. If
you look on the setup group you'll see a lot of posts trying to get it up
and running for people over the past months and helping with features and
builds along with many others trying to do the same thing.

Unlike many here, I couldn't offer the same help on a Mac or a Linux group
but I wish I could.

 

[Robert Simpson]

You are not constructively critical, you are destructively critical. Here's
how:

1. You use multiple names and e-mail addresses in the forums to annoy,
badger and infuriate users who wish to killfile you.

2. You occasionally answer basic questions people have, and then follow
your 1-2 line help post with 3 pages of cut & paste rhetoric -- and then try
and sell us on the idea that you "help people". Your sole purpose here is
to further your own political agenda and you are using "helping people" as
an excuse to do so.

3. You blame MS for the deaths of Chinese dissidents, organized crime, make
other outrageous claims, and yet continue to fund Microsoft's efforts by
supporting them financially and "helping people" on this newsgroup -- and
then try and tell us you aren't a hypocrite. You are the very *definition*
of a hypocrite.

4. When you cannot attack a position, you attack the person instead -- a
politician's trick and it fools no one.

5. The definition of "constructive criticism" from dictionary.com:
"criticism or advice that is useful and intended to help or improve
something, often with an offer of possible solutions"

6. Your public lambasting of Microsoft does not fit into the category of
constructive criticism. Your criticisms are neither logical, nor
reasonable. They do not offer anything constructive, or suggest reasonable,
implementable alternatives.

Robert

 

[gclark]

MSFT Trades Swag to MVPs for Support, Defense, and Blind Allegiance wrote:


Is that you Hairass?

 

[Chad Harris]

I've also watched the solutions center give me fixes that were flat wrong.
One of them was to install a driver that clearly wansn't correct and was an
ME driver.

The Upgrade advisor is wrong to the extent that its infomration is
meaningless.

CH

 

[Chad Harris]

1)I have not used multiple names for years. I did it for a brief time
yesterday to foil censorship and blocking. It worked.

2) I have answered hundreds and hundreds of questions, and I don't know
what basic means, so mommy needs to teach you a new definition for
"occasionally" or "basic" here on Vista Setup, and dozens of other groups
for years.

3) I wish I had a nickel for every question I've answered to recover a no
boot Vista and XP or fix a setup problem on this group over the last year or
more, setup, and the TBT groups.


4) Fortunately I have seen little of your name and I see you answering
nothing occasionally or any time at all.

5) I see you whining and nothing more.

6) I blamed MSFT for reporting msn search information to the Chinese
government resulting in death, imprisonment, torture and opression of
Chinese and their family. And so do countless other sources that have
documented it. MSFT continues to ponder how to undo the damage as a PR
move only. They could give a damn otherwise. Their Chinese employees have
to be conflicted to say the least.

7) Thousands of other sources blamed Microsoft for this and a significant
portion of their stock holders have pressured them to stop supporting
Chinese persecution and violence. It has remained a PR nightmare for Wagner
Edstrom and McCann Ericson worldwide and they have not been able to handle
it. Others notice as well. It's one reason the European Union has been so
hostile to Microsoft that their arrogance in combination has cost them
nearly a billion in fines and growing today.

8) I didn't reference organized crime in the sense of the Sopranos. If
you're too stupid to know how Ralph Reed was associated with Abramoff (I'm
sure you're media unsavvy enough not to have heard of him) then lol
ignorance is bliss.

Ralph Reed Abramoff
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=ralph+reed+jack+abramoff

Ralph Reed Mariana Islands
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=+ralph+reed+mariana+islands&btnG=Search

Ralph Reed Microsoft
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=ralph+reed+microsoft&btnG=Search

http://americablog.blogspot.com/2005/04/microsoft-paying-religious-right.html

Ralph Reed Pimped Child Sex Slavery
http://www.democrats.com/node/9066

Microsoft Fires Ralph Reed
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=microsoft+fires+ralph+reed

9) You are mixing apples and oranges. I don't fund Microsoft believe me.
I'm given their software to test and critique.

10) I've been clear. I and many others help their customers because their
support is horrendous. Subenterprise it is Convergys of Ohio contracted to
outsource to minimum waged abysmally trained butts in seats in Indian cities
who can't speak English. Microsoft PSS Quality control in Redmond and
Dallas do nothing to change this situation and haven't for years because
Microsoft is happy to straddle their customers and piss on them when it
comes to support venues.

11) There is nothing "hypocritical" about this position. I have always been
consistent with it. Your facts are distorted and delusional in this respect.

12) Right this moment there is next to nothing of substance on the Microsoft
site on Vista and you don't see anyone linking anything to dispute it.
Unless you're blind, I can navigate Microsoft's site as well as anyone that
posts on these groups.

13) I haven't been attacking any persons--I deal in positions, but I will
defend myself against attacks.

14) Those "Robert Simpson help posts" just have to be somewhere on these
newgroups. I wonder why they don't turn up?

15) The day I'd need someone as banal and limited as you are to start using
a dictionary for me, is the day I'd begin to eat dictionaries non stop.

16) My criticisms are feature focused, specific, and butressed meticulously
by facts. They are not for the sake of bashing MSFT as an entity.

17) This will be your first time seeing these links referenced so enjoy:

When I say they should ship an XP CD or Vista DVD with the OS on it I have
been specific as to why--so that a repair install can be done in XP; Startup
Repair can be done in Vista (they can't on the joke recovery discs and
partitions and OEMs will tell you MSFT tries to force them not to send one.
Dell bucked this with Vista. I've documented that.


18) I've yet to see anyone address the egregious situation of MSFT
professing
help and support when there OEM VP Scott Di Valerio visibly threatens OEMs
not to ship the OS on CD so that people can do an effective repair install
in XP or utilize Win RE in Vista and I've addressed this in well documented
detail.

That fact is the antithesis of providing help and support. That fact is
about pure greed on the part of MSFT and for the first time Dell has said
enough and refused to capitulate with Vista I might add.

Refs:

Win RE:

http://blogs.msdn.com/winre/default.aspx


http://blogs.msdn.com/winre/archive/2006/09/20/763901.aspx


Chapter 28 Mechanisms of Recovery in Win XP which also can be applied to
Vista via F8 Win Advanced Options

Resources for troubleshooting startup problems in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=308041

A Stop error occurs, or the computer stops responding when you try to start
Windows Vista
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/925810/en-us


Dell Promises Against Scott Di Valerio OEM VP Of MSFT's Bullying to Ship OS
DVDs of Vista with OEM Preinstalls Just Saying No to a Bully and his
CompanytMSFT
http://www.direct2dell.com/one2one/archive/2006/10/17/3132.aspx

19) My criticisms are specific and well referenced and go to fixing the OS
and making it run well. This is something I've shown people how to do on
these groups for years.

20) When will we see post #1 where a "Robert Simpson" (common name so maybe
another Simpson will do it for you) does this?

CH

 

[Chad Harris]

Get a mirror. The hairass is that thing hanging from your neck. I don't see
you posting anything that has to do with Vista or software. That's because
you can't.

CH

 

[Robert Simpson]

Again with the smoke and mirrors.

1)I have not used multiple names for years. I did it for a brief time
yesterday to foil censorship and blocking. It worked.

Great -- I'll go back to killfiling you, thanks.

2) I have answered hundreds and hundreds of questions, and I don't know
what basic means, so mommy needs to teach you a new definition for
"occasionally" or "basic" here on Vista Setup, and dozens of other
groups for years.

What you've been doing is writing up a paragraph of "help" followed by a cut
& paste of 3 pages of your political agenda and calling it "help" -- you're
just using the idea of helping people as a platform to spread your own
agenda. If you truly wanted to be taken seriously, you'd write helpful
posts without the rhetoric and leave it out of this newsgroup entirely.
This is not the place for it.

3) I wish I had a nickel for every question I've answered to recover a no
boot Vista and XP or fix a setup problem on this group over the last year
or more, setup, and the TBT groups.

4) Fortunately I have seen little of your name and I see you answering
nothing occasionally or any time at all.

5) I see you whining and nothing more.

How long I've been helping, who I've helped, and where I've helped, is
irrelevent to the topic at hand. Every time someone gets fed up with
reading 1 line of "help" from you and 3 pages of crap, you wave the "I
haven't seen you helping" flag and claim that its an actual valid argument.
It's not.
The fact is, I've been helping folks on the Microsoft newsgroups for longer
than you have -- you just have chosen to narrow your search criteria to this
particular newsgroup. It doesn't matter how long you've been "helping"
people -- if you're going to spew your nonsense, spew it in an appropriate
newsgroup. Don't attach your agenda to your posts and call it "helpful and
contextual" when you're just using it as cover.

[snip Chad being judge jury and executioner of Microsoft]

9) You are mixing apples and oranges. I don't fund Microsoft believe me.
I'm given their software to test and critique.

According to the headers in your post, you're running an RTM of Vista. Did
you pay for it or not?

10) I've been clear. I and many others help their customers because their
support is horrendous. Subenterprise it is Convergys of Ohio contracted to
outsource to minimum waged abysmally trained butts in seats in Indian
cities who can't speak English. Microsoft PSS Quality control in Redmond
and Dallas do nothing to change this situation and haven't for years
because Microsoft is happy to straddle their customers and piss on them
when it comes to support venues.

That's your opinion. Have you been to the Microsoft campus and met with any
of the developers? You really need to get out more.

11) There is nothing "hypocritical" about this position. I have always
been consistent with it. Your facts are distorted and delusional in this
respect.

How so? If you buy MS software and are helpful in this newsgroup, you are
funding MS and furthering its products. How is this distorted?

12) Right this moment there is next to nothing of substance on the
Microsoft site on Vista and you don't see anyone linking anything to
dispute it. Unless you're blind, I can navigate Microsoft's site as well
as anyone that posts on these groups.

Hrm ...
Here's a quick link to the 1.1gb SDK for Vista:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...22-8A64-4DFB-AA0C-DB53035F40A0&displaylang=en

I think you'll find quite a bit of documentation in it. Pretty substantial,
even.

13) I haven't been attacking any persons--I deal in positions, but I will
defend myself against attacks.

You honestly believe this? I could cut and paste dozens of your posts where
you verbally abuse anyone who would challenge your supreme authority.

14) Those "Robert Simpson help posts" just have to be somewhere on these
newgroups. I wonder why they don't turn up?

Because if you cover your eyes when you hit the Search button, you're of
course not going to see anything.

15) The day I'd need someone as banal and limited as you are to start
using a dictionary for me, is the day I'd begin to eat dictionaries non
stop.

You called your criticism "constructive" but I have proven by definition
that your criticisms are nothing of the sort. Would you like to prove me
wrong, or would you rather keep at it with the personal attacks? Oh wait, I
must be mistaken ... calling me banal and limited couldn't possibly be a
personal attack, could it?

16) My criticisms are feature focused, specific, and butressed
meticulously by facts. They are not for the sake of bashing MSFT as an
entity.

They are exaggerated and filled with your own agenda-laced conclusions, and
hardly constructive.

17) This will be your first time seeing these links referenced so enjoy:

When I say they should ship an XP CD or Vista DVD with the OS on it I have
been specific as to why--so that a repair install can be done in XP;
Startup Repair can be done in Vista (they can't on the joke recovery discs
and partitions and OEMs will tell you MSFT tries to force them not to send
one. Dell bucked this with Vista. I've documented that.

Great! If all you said was your point, and left out the sarcasm and your
own exaggerations, this would've been a perfectly lucid complaint that
anyone would take seriously. But of course, you need to throw in your barbs
and turn it into a rant which nobody even pays attention to anymore.

18) I've yet to see anyone address the egregious situation of MSFT
professing
help and support when there OEM VP Scott Di Valerio visibly threatens OEMs
not to ship the OS on CD so that people can do an effective repair install
in XP or utilize Win RE in Vista and I've addressed this in well
documented
detail.

That fact is the antithesis of providing help and support. That fact is
about pure greed on the part of MSFT and for the first time Dell has said
enough and refused to capitulate with Vista I might add.

Refs:

Win RE:

http://blogs.msdn.com/winre/default.aspx


http://blogs.msdn.com/winre/archive/2006/09/20/763901.aspx

I read those blogs -- I can't find the place where they mention greed or
Dell's capitulation.

Chapter 28 Mechanisms of Recovery in Win XP which also can be applied to
Vista via F8 Win Advanced Options

Resources for troubleshooting startup problems in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=308041

A Stop error occurs, or the computer stops responding when you try to
start
Windows Vista
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/925810/en-us

Ok I read those and am still unclear what you're whining about ...

Dell Promises Against Scott Di Valerio OEM VP Of MSFT's Bullying to Ship
OS
DVDs of Vista with OEM Preinstalls Just Saying No to a Bully and his
CompanytMSFT
http://www.direct2dell.com/one2one/archive/2006/10/17/3132.aspx

Where's the bullying reference? I didn't see that in there either.

19) My criticisms are specific and well referenced and go to fixing the OS
and making it run well. This is something I've shown people how to do on
these groups for years.

What you've been doing, is starting your post out with something resembling
help, then ending it with pages and pages of diatribe and rhetoric -- and
then claiming you're "helping" when all you're really doing is waving your
political agenda in people's faces whether they want to listen to it or not.

20) When will we see post #1 where a "Robert Simpson" (common name so
maybe another Simpson will do it for you) does this?

I believe my first recorded post on the MS newsgroups is January, 1997 --
and guess what -- it was to help someone out... gee, really hard to find me
on these newsgroups!

Robert