Microsoft has just made public Windows Vista Release Candidate 2. It would probably be the build that Release Candidate 1 should’ve been (as we all know that RC1 was really a beta 3). According to Jim Allchin, and some screenshots, this build features some more polish, performance improvements, compatibility updates and more.
Download the 32 and 64 bit versions from the Microsoft download site.
Clearly afraid that it won’t be needed anymore, Symantec had complained to the EU that wants security features from Vista removed. Basically, make Vista so idiotically dumbed down so then Symantec can continue to line its pockets.
One of the complaints is the Security Center in Vista they want to be able to replace with there. This is despite the ability to fill it with all their own icons and logos throughout the control panel. Next thing they want is kernel protection removed. Malicious software can patch the Windows kernel to do their bidding, and Symantecs products can fix this by patching it again. So, now that it is impossible to patch the kernel, and hence not have any malicious software lurking there, they want Kernel PatchGuard removed.
So, Symantec is a business, and now they are seeing a threat from Vista because it features built in security. These are the right moves that Microsoft are taking - you shouldn’t need to pay someone else to have a secure computer. Quite frankly, Symantec are just being idiots.
In other news, Adobe is also trying to bundle its crap in the OS as well. As a new XML format called XPS (XML Paper Specification) is built into Vista, and will compete with PDFs. I don’t see a problem with this, as there are lots of programs that make PDFs for free anyway. Adobe have already stopped Microsoft from having a publish to PDF function in future versions of Office. Now they are just being silly.
If you are like me, a poor student who can’t afford really expensive graphics packages such as Photoshop and CorelDRAW, you’ll probably use The GIMP to do your drawing.
If you are also like me, and use Windows Vista, you may have noticed a little problem. It hangs when it is querying Fonts. When you force it to close, Windows Error Reporting gives you a report back saying that a Microsoft analyst looked at the problem and it was an “Unknown Error.”
Well, don’t fret. In fact, just hold up a tick. For some reason, GIMP takes a long time in querying fonts in Vista. It’ll eventually continue on in its normal fashion. Next time you load it up, the fonts will be cached, so it won’t take as long next time.
Microsoft was the first that came to the scene with “integrated” search. Involving a massive search index to make finding stuff a lot faster. It was touted as being a WinFS feature, and of course we all know how WinFS is these days. Soon after the announcement (a couple of years back now), Google released Google Desktop Search, and Apple did a similar thing in the next version of OS X. Suddenly, everyone was on the indexed search bandwagon.
Funny thing is, Windows XP always had search indexing, it just wasn’t very good. If you go to Start > Search, and look through the options, you’ll find the option of searching through the index. For some reason, it was terrible though and hardly worked. Microsoft tidied it up for Vista though, and put it everywhere. In fact, why have a search box on your taskbar, since it is embedded in almost every app that comes with Vista?
You’ll find a search box in the Start menu, Windows Explorer, Mail, Internet Explorer, Calendar, Windows Media Player, Photo Gallery and countless other places. But would you use it?
Well, maybe, yes. Of all the features in Vista, when I boot into XP I miss this one. And GDS and Live Desktop Search all suck. You are kind of forced into it with the Start menu, as they have modified the way the All Programs menu works - it is no longer a menu. It is a series of point and click operations, which can be tedious, that it is easier to type a couple of characters. The benefit of the Start menu search is that not only does it search the Start menu (that is its priority), but it also doubles as a command line, so you can launch anything from anywhere, including your e-mail.
Windows Explorer search is much improved too. At any time, you can start typing a few letters in the search box and it will instantly filter the file list. It even looks through program and file metadata so that if you come across a whole barrage of setup programs, typing in the program that you want will most likely yield your result.
Case in point. I use the Firefox extension Scrapbook to keep together some of the more amusing internet pages at my disposal. I even keep some important ones in there, like my timetable. One day I had to find my timetable, but I didn’t know where it was because I hadn’t installed Firefox at the time. I looked through the Scrapbook folder. Each scrap is kept in a dated folder.
In XP, it would have been a pretty daunting task to find my timetable, looking through each folder. In Vista however, a couple of key presses and I’ve narrowed my search.
They aren’t even named “timetable.”
Despite the demise of WinFS, I think Microsoft were quick in providing almost all the features that it was going to provide. As said before, it is one of those features that I miss, and it is really helpful. No more trawling through folders, spending minutes at a time looking for the program to open some conspicuous file needs.
As Windows Vista RC1 is out, development software and important drivers will be released out into the wild. I’ll try and list them here, and keep it up to date. (If I missed something, feel free to comment.)
Well I decided a couple of days ago after checking out the pre-RC1 build that I might talk about the little things in Vista that are both good and bad. You always hear about the collective reviews that just lump it in the good or bad category. I’m not sure how often I’ll post to this, but I’ll see when I can.
Microsoft has released Windows Vista Release Candidate 1 to the public.
If you signed up for beta 2, and activated it, then you should already have an e-mail. If you did not activate it, you can still download it here, and you can still use your beta 2 key.
I’ve had it for the last couple of days, and I’m disappointed. My first try with Vista was with the pre-RC1 build, and that worked nicely. However, in both attempts to install RC1, I’ve had general problems with Vista. Here are some examples,
I’ll try (once more) installing this release. It expires on June 1 next year.
Here’s a conundrum. Firefox is designed to automatically pick up the Windows Media Player Netscape plugin files when you start it up, so then there is no configuration necessary on your part. This has worked fine for Windows XP, but for Vista, something isn’t right. You won’t see WMP at all, instead you get told to install the “missing plugin,” which the service can’t find.
What’s going on here? All previous versions of Windows included the Netscape plugin, but it seems Vista has cut that part out. It is easy to solve.
Microsoft has released a plugin specifically for Firefox to restore Windows Media playback. For more information see this post.
If you are dual-booting with another version of Windows, the easiest way is to copy a couple of files: npdrmv2.dll; npdsplay.dll; and npwmsdrm.dll. You’ll find these in the Program Files\Windows Media Player directory in your older Windows partition. Copy these to the plugins folder where Firefox is installed (usually Program Files\Mozilla Firefox).
If not, you’ll need to download these files. You can get them each: npdsplay.dll; npwmsdrm.dll; and npdrmv2.dll. As above, place them in your plugins folder where you installed Firefox.
Once you are done, the browser will instantly recognise the new plugin(s) and you’ll be able to start using them.
There are alternatives to this solution, which can be found here.
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