A
Adam Albright
As you would expect Vista has changed quite a bit starting with it's
install program. As you know, there are now several different versions
of Vista and it is obvious not all have the same list of features.
What may not be as as obvious is some features are turned off or on by
default (probably varies will what version of Vista you have) which as
far as I can remember you weren't informed about when you did the
initial install. At least not for me when I did a install in place, at
least I don't remember. ;-)
Case in point is games. Heck, I like games. I got the Business upgrade
and until now haven't had time to worry about what happended to games
that were part of every other version of Windows by default.
For starters once installed they aren't where they use to be, under
Accessories. They now have their own folder; games. But wait... by
default games aren't installed on the Buiness version. Maybe Microsoft
was thinking if you got the business version you should be working all
the time. Well maybe in corporate America if you got a slave driver
for a boss, but what about all the rest of us that bought the business
version and maybe want to play games too once in awhile?
Simple solution, if you knew you had to turn this feature "on" but did
you know? I didn't till now and a shame because now with Aero the
games are much richer and more fun to play and all seem to have under
gone a nice face lift.
Here's how to turn on games and surprise find all of other features
that are off you may wish to turn on or turn off those you don't want.
Go to Control Panel/Programs and Features then in the left panel click
on where it says Turn Windows Features on and off and walk down the
extensive list. For example pick Games, expand the folder, then check
the ones you want to play. Unlike in earlier versions of Windows where
you typically needed to have your install disk handy, that is no
longer the case. Vista already installed them to your hard drive, just
it may not have turned them on. You do it from here.
What's that, you don't care about games?
Ok, something more serious you may want to turn on called .Net. You'll
find this in the Windows Process Activation Service folder.
What is .Net and why would you want it turned on? Depends on what
software you have installed. Some applictions are written to take
advantage of features part of .Net, like my Vegas video editor. Some
things will work regardless if this item is on or off, but no
surprise, will often work better and faster if turned on.
Other goodies here too you may wish to switch on or off depending on
your particular needs. I can only speak for my uses and for the
business versions. Your mileage may vary.
install program. As you know, there are now several different versions
of Vista and it is obvious not all have the same list of features.
What may not be as as obvious is some features are turned off or on by
default (probably varies will what version of Vista you have) which as
far as I can remember you weren't informed about when you did the
initial install. At least not for me when I did a install in place, at
least I don't remember. ;-)
Case in point is games. Heck, I like games. I got the Business upgrade
and until now haven't had time to worry about what happended to games
that were part of every other version of Windows by default.
For starters once installed they aren't where they use to be, under
Accessories. They now have their own folder; games. But wait... by
default games aren't installed on the Buiness version. Maybe Microsoft
was thinking if you got the business version you should be working all
the time. Well maybe in corporate America if you got a slave driver
for a boss, but what about all the rest of us that bought the business
version and maybe want to play games too once in awhile?
Simple solution, if you knew you had to turn this feature "on" but did
you know? I didn't till now and a shame because now with Aero the
games are much richer and more fun to play and all seem to have under
gone a nice face lift.
Here's how to turn on games and surprise find all of other features
that are off you may wish to turn on or turn off those you don't want.
Go to Control Panel/Programs and Features then in the left panel click
on where it says Turn Windows Features on and off and walk down the
extensive list. For example pick Games, expand the folder, then check
the ones you want to play. Unlike in earlier versions of Windows where
you typically needed to have your install disk handy, that is no
longer the case. Vista already installed them to your hard drive, just
it may not have turned them on. You do it from here.
What's that, you don't care about games?
Ok, something more serious you may want to turn on called .Net. You'll
find this in the Windows Process Activation Service folder.
What is .Net and why would you want it turned on? Depends on what
software you have installed. Some applictions are written to take
advantage of features part of .Net, like my Vegas video editor. Some
things will work regardless if this item is on or off, but no
surprise, will often work better and faster if turned on.
Other goodies here too you may wish to switch on or off depending on
your particular needs. I can only speak for my uses and for the
business versions. Your mileage may vary.
