Very disappointed and at a loss

I will start with the beginning, in hope that my problem is fully understood. My fioncee purchased in December a Sony Vaio VGN-NS11M as a Christmas gift for me. Wow, I thought, Sony is great! Oh, no! It runs on Vista! I had used Vista before and although some may disagree i find it of no use. I've been a happy user of XP for years, tried Vista once before and was disappointed. Alright, I said, its preinstalled Vista, maybe it works well, after all, Sony does a good job with laptops, they wouldn't sell something thats not working properly.
As the days pass the first disappointment comes: A LOT of software I have, mainly language learning software, is NOT compatible.
Im thinking to get XP for it. I finally find drivers for XP, I try to install XP and surprise surprise IT DOES NOT WORK. When I boot from CD at a certain point Im taken to the hideous blue screen. Then I find out on forums that many others had the same problem and the only solution would be to install XP and choose the operating system when I start the laptop. NO, I say, I want to use XP, I dont want to have Vista lurking on my precious C drive.
The frustration began and kept piling up, now i just realized that I cannot download certain software BECAUSE I DO NOT HAVE PERMISSION FROM THE SYSTEM ADMINISTRATOR!!!!!!!!
I beg your pardon??? System administrator? Don't even know what I'm supposed to do in this situation, the only user profile is my own.

So, to put it in a nutshell: I cannot download what i want in my own laptop, I cannot get rid of a useless operating system, I cannot use the software I need in my work and since December every time I need to use the laptop is a constant source of frustration.

I am very disappointed, really. I had never expected something like this. Has anyone else encountered the same problems with this Sony laptop model? (VGN-NS11M) If anyone can help in any way, it will be greatly appreciated, at this moment I am planning to get a PC or another laptop, in which case this laptop will mean money down the drain.

Thank you for taking the time to read all this, this forum is the last resort, I hope I can find any kind of help. I am very very frustrated and disappointed.

 

Sounds like the rant of a computer inept user behind the wheel of a Vista PC. This has nothing to do with that particular laptop or with SONY. You would have had the same problem with any PC. There is no need for me to get technical with those exact problems you're having, because i doubt it would help much.

You have two choices:
- Buy a book / find an online guide and learn to use Vista (yeah, it is actually usable)
- Pay a neighborhood kid / computer service to downgrade the laptop to XP for you, and set up all the drivers etc.

 

I'm sorry that the learning curve for Vista is too steep for you.

Most people discover that by right-clicking on a file they get a choice to "Run as Administrator". And some people even read the welcome screen that appears when you first boot, which tells you about the usefulness of F1.

 

arth1,

I may as well have a lot to learn about Vista but the actual problem is the incompatibility of software that I need to work with and Vista. And the fact that I cannot simply install XP so I can use that software and I need to have both Vista and XP really does not seem to be normal. Someone suggested I should get a neighbourhood kid to do it for me, but I can install my operating system by myself, I've done that many times in past. And as i said, I am not the only one with this problem. So why does being in need for XP seem so abnormal? What other solution would there be for the incompatible software I have if not installing XP? If there is another solution, please tell me, I would happily solve this any way possible.

 

What software is incompatible? The only things that haven't worked for me are 16-bit programs, but that's because I'm running a 64-bit OS.
Also, what is so bad about Vista? If you're worried about compatibility, haven't you just proven that it is more supported than XP?

 

The reason that you are getting a blue screen error during installation is because you may be using something like a Dell OEM disc, or something with embedded drivers not designed for your machine. Either that, or the disc may be damaged.

Also, I HIGHLY doubt that those programs do not work in Vista, unless it's something extremely old. There are many ways to make even incompatible applications work.

As far as the Administrator permission problem, all you do is accept it. I don't see the big deal. You can also turn off User Account Control in Control Panel -> User Accounts. It takes a total of 10 seconds.

Windows XP is an outdated, end-of-life product.

 

BSOD when installing Vista - its possible you have to slipstream SATA drivers...

XP software in Vista - instal in compatebility mode.


As far as I am aware there is no program you can't get to work in Vista if it works in XP (that is assuming XP & Vista are 32Bit)

 

To the newcomer, Vista's quirks can be overcoming. I'll be the first to admit that. I'm curious which language learning software you are using. I'm using Rosetta Stone 2.0.8.1 with Vista and it works fine.

 

Check if the application software vendor might have an update on their website that you can download.

 

Kallista,

Look, people in this thread may seem very aggressive, but i think many of us vista users are just tired of the propaghanda that vista is ineffective and thus many people such as yourself saying that vista is horrible.

My rant aside, vista(because its wonderful) has something called compatibility mode which will allow it to run virtually ALL software...except ms-dos software..which would be from 1993.

 

Some games from 1991 are compatible on my Vista rig and incompatible on my XP even. To play it on XP, some users made an emulator to load old software. We don't even know what software you're trying to use so besides some generic seemingly-misinformed rant, we can't really help you bro unless you provide more information. You're probably just a troll though.

 

Well, I do understand that happy Vista users see my complains as dumb or the rant of someone who can't use a computer, but as long as I cannot use the software I need I can't be content, no matter how many great features Vista has. The software I use is "Tell me More" by Auralog - on the CD cover it does say "For use with Windows 2000 and XP" and yes, it is an older software (and old doesn't always mean obsolete). I think people will start wondering why I do not use something that is newer and I will answer it: for the simple reason that it worked wonders.

So, in this case, the best solution would be to find a different software? If so, how could I find out which one would be the closest to what I've used so far? (In the shops I've found this kind of software I was not allowed to test the product so purchasing something blindly is not exactly smart).

 

Have you tried running your software in compatebility mode???

 

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070720050541AAUpBEd

OMG who would have thought the answer could be found by googling

 

Indeed, what a wonder.

The only software issue I've had with Vista x64 was with a game called Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic... which supposedly only worked on XP. Well, I got it to work with Vista x64 SP1 on my desktop by simply going into the installer's .exe and checking the box to put it in XP SP2 compatibility mode and then installing. I also run the game in SP2 compat mode and have no issues with it.

I can see the issues that Vista (particularly 64-bit) would pose to casual computer users since it is different that what you've been using for the past 8 years. But, if you've got the hardware for it (namely any C2D and a lot of RAM), Vista is actually quite a bit faster and IMO, much easier to use once you get used to it. And with the Vaio Z, you're losing some great features of the notebook (like on-the-fly Speed/Stamina switching) by going back to XP.

No doubt that Windows 7 will be a much better OS -- but mostly because it's so similar to Vista that this time around device manufacturers won't need to create new drivers from scratch -- they'll have had 3 years of Vista experience to make for a much smoother start.

 

The only two pieces of software I cannot get to run are:

Shockwave Productions "Battle of Britain II". The whole game is made with the brain dead assumption that the user uses the exact same font names and font sizes as "small fonts" in Windows XP. Anything larger, and the text exceeds the allocated space and eventually causes crashes when it overwrites memory.
No big loss.

Microsoft Office 2000, XP or 2003. Neither of these will work on a system where 8+3 filename creation has been disabled (either by manual disabling -- see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/Q121007, or by installing on a network share where short file names are not supported). Apparently, in an effort to maintain Windows 95/98 compatibility, Microsoft has prevented compatibility with newer systems.
Again, no big loss.

 

Yep, I always Google when I have a problem, that's how I found out about the XP incompatibility emulators. That's why I asked for which specific software it was, sometimes I wonder why this never occurs to some people.