I hate Windows Mail and WMP 11

[MorseLady]

I am evaluating Vista Business Edition on a home computer dual booting with XP Pro and although I am impressed with many of the features especially from an administrative point of view there are things I dislike or even hate.

Can I install Outlook Express in Vista as I do like to manage my various accounts individually. Can I use Windows Media Player 9 and where are the card games? I tried to import a copy of Solitaire from XP complete with Cards DLL but it won't run. I can just about live with the new Internet Explorer.

Most of the screensavers are rubbish but the old version of Mystify, and 3D Pipes etc will not run.

I probably won't buy it. It seems to be cluttered and too flashy.

[NooNoo]

No you can't put OE on Vista because Windows mail is OE! What you can do is have outlook type identity management (http://www.oehelp.com/WMIDs/Default.aspx) installed to do the same job.

You can turn off all the flashy stuff...
here is a video to show you how to change it (http://www.cnettv.com/9742-1_53-25854.html) to looking like XP.

You have Vista Business - companies don't like employees playing games, so it is normally turned off. so turn them back on again! (http://www.lockergnome.com/nexus/blade/2007/02/18/microsoft-windows-vista-business-edition-where-are-the-games/)

Mystify screensaver is on Vista (allbeit an updated version) ... When you say will not run, exactly what happens and is this a 64bit or 32bit version?

[MorseLady]

Thanks Noo. I have found the games and will do the other stuff.

The Vista Mystify screensaver is horrible and thick lines not a bit like the original one and there are no options. I tried to import the XP version but it defaulted to the Vista version. My favourite, 3D Pipes, will not run in Vista.

I will play with Vista until it times out but I will not be buying it and already it is getting on my nerves and if I am going to have to make it look like XP I might as well carry on using XP which from what I have seen of Vista is better.

Thank goodness I was able to try it first or else I would have been very angry wasting my pension on something I can do without.

[NooNoo]

Fair enough.

[Matridom]

if your using the system for home use, you may want to look at evaluating home premium or ultimate as they are more designed for the home user in mind. Both these editions for example have Media Center where as business does not.

Personally i use Ultimate at home.

[MorseLady]

I would have chosen Home Premium but I was offered Business to try and although it has Aero I wonder if it is not as good as in Ultimate and Home Premium? My computing is very graphics intensive as I do a lot of web design and digital photography including photo editing which may include RAW files from my bridge camera.

I am trying Vista out on a computer with 128MB ATI graphics, would it look better on my main one which has 256MB Nvidia graphics?

But what really spoils Vista for me is the mail program and Windows Media Player 11 which cannot be replaced by earlier versions.

[NooNoo]

It's not better or worse, it's just that different things are bundled with different editions read here for a comparison (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/editions/choose.mspx)

You can always load a different media player and a different email client.

What don't you like about WMP 11?

[MorseLady]

I am familiar with the differences between the versions what I meant was is Aero better in some versions? I can't seem to find these 3D flip things, despite 128MB video card they all look rather flat and rather big on my screen and clutter it.

I do not like Windows Media Player 10 or 11 for the same reasons all those covers when all I want is a list of my songs. I just think things have become ridiculous with all this fancy stuff.

Yet there is something about Vista that is intriguing me and I wish I could try Home Premium oin my main computer.

Maybe when I am depressed is not a good time to try something out - my course is not running because they cannot get a teacher. I am annoyed

[NooNoo]

a WMP11 review come tutorial (http://www.winsupersite.com/reviews/wmp11.asp) It might help you find the bits you want more easily.

The 3d flip thingy is accessed using alt+tab

The video card you have got is the absolute minimum for supporting the clever graphics, so no, it's never going to look as good as it does on a nice pci-e 256mb graphics card.

Sorry to hear your course was cancelled... hopefully they will find a teacher for next term.

[MorseLady]

I have been checking my main computer with the Vista Advisor and it would seem that at least three of my main and not very cheap apps are not supported ie MS Works 8, Norton AV 2006 and Partition Magic 8 and it would cost me more than I could afford to upgrade these and buy Vista. There are other things which are on the list that won't run too.

So that decided it, no Vista for me.

[NooNoo]

Umm how about swapping out the video cards?

[MorseLady]

Swapping out what video cards for what purpose? The 256MB card is in my main computer and it stays there because this computer has a better spec all round but I don't want to mess it up with dual booting just to try something I have already decided I don't want. I have already taken Vista off the other computer and so far as I am concerned Vista no longer exists because it stressed me so much. I think in my current state of mind of severe depression (I am seeing my Doctor about it this week) I cannot take change.

[NooNoo]

So that the vista machine gets the 256mb video card....

[MorseLady]

Sorry I must have been editing my message and crossed with yours.

Just one final question purely out of curiousity. Would doubling the video card from 128MB to 256MB ie using my better machine and using Home Premium instead of Business really have made a difference?

I have since been reading the review of WMP 11 you gave me the link to Noo and I feel that I ought to comment that I am still using WMP 9 and could not get on with WMP 10 and it drove my husband mad when he accidentally downloaded and installed it and I had to restore things for him to quieten him down. I have hated anything over WMP 9 since then for upsetting him as I got the stick as usual.

[NooNoo]

It is the video card that is important. Business and Premium have different abilities, but where the abilities are the same, you will get the same result on the same machine.

The video card you have in the vista machine is the absolute minimum... recommended is a 256mb card. Any gamer will tell you that a game will look horrible where only the minimum video card is used, but upgrading to the better card will make the entire thing behave as it should.

[MorseLady]

Thanks Noo. So if had decided to buy Vista it would be best on my main machine which is the one I would have used anyway. I was only using the other machine because I did not want to mess about creating a new operating system partition on my main machine for only a few days. I do not use the other one much partly because it belonged to my Husband and partly because the 128MB ATI graphics are horrible. Even my old compouter with 64MB Nvidia looks better and I have never liked ATI graphics much.

I wish I could get hold of a copy of Home Premium to try on here meaning the machine with 256MB video card as I would have liked to try out the media centre and I was very disappointed when a friend sent me Business to try but of course too polite to tell him so as it was nice of him to send it.

[Ferrit]

I highly doubt any 64 meg card would look better then a 128 meg card.
Ati and Nvidia have been battleling it out for years and neither is better or worse at any one given time. Usually its drivers which define them, and ATI has had that edge since Vista came out. If that ATI card is in the Radeon 7000 era it wont be very good thats for sure.
As for the windows mail its a simple matter to say load Thunderbird mail which in my opinion still beats anything Microsoft has. Coupled with Mozbackup which is a simple backup and restore for every byte of information in Thunderbird.
OE had no spam detector at all and using block sender was useless. The new windows live mail has a spam detector i would assume but i don't use it as i said.
As for windows media player its, I guess a matter of personnel choice which one you like

[MorseLady]

Ferrit yes it is the Radeon 7000 series and it really is very poor and comparing the two computers on the same monitor there is no comnparison with the ATI card really wishy washy despite my efforts to change the settings. This computer looks really good with the Nvidia 256MB card.

Having been dumped from my MCDST course which was oversubscribed - see my new topic in Certification - I am waiting to hear if I can do the Vista course next year, if so I will try and be friends with Vista and its various things I dislike.

[Ferrit]

Of course already it is a 256 meg versus 128 and its likely a higher end card.
And like all iikely not an original ati at all. Many manufacturers make these using ati chipsets and some are far worse then others

[MorseLady]

Both the Nvidia 256MB card and the Radeon 128MB card are genuine as supplied by one of the UK's foremost computer manufactuers, Evesham.

[Matridom]

Morselady, the business edition you where given to "trial" do you have the CD?

The reason i ask is that Microsoft uses the same DVD for basic, home, home premium, ultimate and business. The only thing that separates them is the product key used during the installation. Vista is a rather unique OS, Did you know you can install it without a product key? if you do, you get 30 days of "trial" before it shuts you down.

[Ferrit]

In fact it can be extended to 120 days giving you a much better experience by using this.
Apparently it violates none of the Microsoft agreements or licenses
http://www.downloadsquad.com/2007/02/26/run-windows-vista-for-120-days-without-activation-key/

[MorseLady]

The DVD is Vista Business only and yes I did know about the 30 days. It is OEM and sent to me by friend who was told to dump them after upgrading a college suite.

I really need to try Home Premium or Ultimate before I can decide whther to buy but my friend says they were all the same.

I will look into the 120 day thing but really Vista Business does not wow me at all.

[MorseLady]

Matridom I forgot to say that I do not have a product key for the DVD.