Vista SP2 to land today!

Well, since I don't use a flash memory card of any kind, or a supplementary usb drive that is constantly connected to my usb port, I fail to see the significance of Readyboost.
It would have mattered if I had 512Mb or 1GB of RAM, but I have 3GB RAM.

I use Vista 32bit Home Premium (so there may be an inherent difference because mine is a 32bit OS).
I disabled a lot of services given the fact they were useless to my daily work.
But I guess I can restore the original registry settings which would re-enable everything I shut down and see if that would help out in boot time.
If it doesn't, and the boot time extends even further (for which there is a high possibility of happening) ... I'll probably re-install the OS from scratch (going with XP SP3 in the process).

I personally don't use the sidebar (useless to me).

 

The 5.1 surround also isn't working on my vista desktop. Would SP2 fix this? The 5.1 surround works perfectly fine on XP. The sounds also sound a lot cleaner on XP.

 

When will SP2 be out to the public?

 

SP2 Beta is publicly available now. The final version of SP2 is scheduled to be released April 2009.

 

^good to know, I'll read up to see if there are currently any issues with the beta or if there are any significant improvements =)

 

I doubt it. That would mean altering this "perfect new audio layer" and making it XP ish. Microsoft has spent the last two years selling an incompatible product. Vienna is closer and closer and they will drop Vista very soon.

 

It's bored if the video is in HD but the sound is bad

 

I'm not sure why people constantly do this... Windows 7 is coming soon and it is like Vista. Microsoft has not thrown out Vista and never will... If you are that holed up to hope they will you'd have better chances jumping ship to Linux or Mac OS...

With that said, the problem isn't with the new audio layer in Vista as much as it is with the drivers he has...

 

When XP came out, all creative products worked properly from the start. It used a platform already existing. When Vista came out my 400 euro sound card did not work any more. Why? Because Vista was something new and incompatible with 99% of the PC world. Moreover, Microsoft refused to offer enough support to third parties such that a small inconvenience like, my 400 euro sound card, would be forgotten. Basically, Microsoft forced Creative to drop old products and work on new ones. When I asked a Creative Rep if my Platinum will ever have 100% support on Vista, he said, buy an X-FI. It will work in Vista. We don't allocate resources on old cards.


Bottom line, if Vienna is like Vista, Microsoft will end up with, yet, another lemon. You and I are not the deciding factor. Institutions and businesses all over the world will give the thumbs up to Vienna if it is viable. See the larger picture . The audio layer is just the tip of the iceberg .

I hope SP2 will bring it back to XP and will increase compatibility.

 

the computer world - its such a stable industry, never changing, then Microsoft went and changed it!

Oh wait! The computer industry changes faster than we know, and Microsoft has to do their best to keep up, and anything that goes wrong they get ripped a new one for it. If its not that hard to write such a good OS, where is yours?

Also, other companies seem to have gotten drivers out for products - I don't have a single old device that didn't get driver support from the company - be pissed at Creative. They are the ones that gave you the middle finger here.

 

Oh please, give me a freakin' break. Poor little Creative. Big bad Microsoft told them years before Vista came out that the audio platform was going to change, giving Creative more than enough time to get drivers written. But Microsoft neglected to send over an army of programmers to write drivers for the existing line of Creative products. Poor little Creative just couldn't do this by themselves. Never mind the fact that the Creative folks had no problem writing drivers for their NEW hardware. What is really telling is that when Microsoft told Creative about the new platform, the hardware you have now was the CURRENT product line for them. Creative made a conscious (albeit unconscionable) decision to not put any real effort into their then current product. No, the marketing folks saw an opportunity to force you to buy new hardware.

Yes, this is ALL Microsoft's fault isn't it. This quote from Creative tells the entire story: "We don't allocate resources on old cards." Hell, they wouldn't even allocate resources to what was, at the time, the current product.

Now let's examine your hope about SP2 to "bring it back to SP2". Ooooo, I can see the Creative marketing goons wringing their hands with glee, knowing that doing this would break the drivers for the now current hardware, forcing yet another round of new hardware purchases. Or are you suggesting a patch that supports BOTH the old and new platforms? Oh that's a GREAT idea too, that way all of us can suffer code bloat because Creative won't get off their butts and do the right thing.

BTW if the new platform is so horrendous, tell me why it works so well with the NEW hardware Creative wants you to buy?

Gary

 

I installed SP2 yesterday....no issues so far.

 

As I said before, the "significance" of leaving the "ReadybooST" service enabled is the fact that "ReadybooT" relies upon it to cache a bootfile for faster startup time, regardless of whether or not you are using a flash drive or Readyboost itself. Leaving Readyboost enabled also has no significant impact on system resources when not being used that I can see.

PS: I'm not using a flash drive or Readyboost directly either, other than for the ReadybooT feature

 

Can't.
Don't have that ability in my bios for some reason.
I can alter the AHCI mode, and use network at bootup ... along with some other things that have no connection to having an ability to turn off devices you mentioned from inside BIOS.

 

Hi.

My paint.net program does not work since i installed SP2beta , I get the message the i need "net framework 3.5 sp1 or greater"

Regards

John.

 

Is it any good or anything noticeable if i installed this sp2 beta? i have used the sp1 rc etc before and had no problems, if there are not anything worth installing for then i will wait for sp2 next year.

Cheers for any replies.

tofu out

 

Have you filed a bug report with the Paint .NET devs?

 

Hi.

I would rather wait and see if any other SP2beta is having the same problem or it`s just my system.

Regards

John.

 

Have you tried running in compatibility mode? It may just have a check of the system and not recognize the new SP2 build. It is a simple fix by the Paint.Net devs.

 

Hi.

I enable ` run as administrator and xp sp2 comparability mode and i still get the same error, I cannot even un-install it as it give the error again.

Has anybody tried downloading paint.net and see what they get.

Regards

John.

 

Hi.

I just uninstalled SP2 and paint.net is working now, So it was SP2 that was causing the problem.

Regards

John.

 

I wouldn't be so sure - I'm in SP2 and Paint .NET works for me - I used it for 4 hours last night.

 

I think you should install .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 on Vista SP2.
GOOD LUCK

 

I am getting the same error.

Edited 10 minutes latter: I downloded .Net 3.5 and installed it then downloaded .Net 3.5 SP1 and installed it. Now Paint.net works fine! This is odd, though as Paint.Net did not complain about the need for .Net 3.5 SP1 until after Vist SP2 was installed.


Gary

 

Has anyone noticed any difference in the Wireless connection interface in SP2. I thought it was supposed to be one of the things changed. So far it looks exactly the same. If anyone has noticed a difference, could you post a screenshot?

Gary

 

Same question, I asked about that earlier but no dice...

 

Yeah Creative really dropped the ball in my opinion from writing drivers for Vista. Squarely on their shoulders. I like their mp3 players but they messed up here

 

Just installed Service pack 2 on my toshiba satellite A200. Everything runs perfect,even the cpu temperature decrease when browsing with IE 7.

 

Does ANYONE see any sort of "new interface" for Wireless connections after installing SP2? Please report back. There seems to be some indication that a new interface was supposed to be part of it, but so far everyone who has responded says they see NO difference.

Also, when I startup Windows Picture Gallery, it shows no images. Only a transparent window where the image should be. The desktop shows through that window.

So I rolled back to my pre SP2 image and will await the next round of releases.

Gary

 

On my versions I had no new interface. It was the same but connection time was improved.

 

Connections might be a touch better for me, but no new interface. If this is the true update, it sucks hardcore.

 

I found through some Googling that the Windows Connect Now system is designed to help people initially set up wireless networks and add wireless devices, it also lets people use flash drives that contain the Windows Connect Now data gathered from one machine or router to automatically connect other computers (wired or wirelessly) to the network:

http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/Help/9a174f19-a68b-4aca-afa7-97f08a8333571033.mspx

http://articles.directorym.co.uk/Windows_Connect_Now-a937376.html

In the Microsoft help file it describes a new option in the Network Connections window specifically for use with Windows Connect Now- "Add a device to the network" Clicking it brings up this:



Unfortunately, I don't have any WCN devices or routers to use to step further in the wizard.


I really wish that the poster earlier would have taken a screenshot of the interface he or she saw....


EDIT: This white paper ( http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/connect/wireless/FP_Wireless.mspx) (Note: Word 07 .docx format) talks about the changes that the Feature Pack for Wireless included in SP2 brings. WCN, as it turns out, was included in Vista from the start, but only was able to configure networks through UPnP.

The UI for both the Bluetooth Pairing Wizard and the Network Setup/Wireless connection screens have changed as well. However, you'll only notice the Network Setup/Wireless connection UI changes if your setting up or connecting for the first time to a router that uses WCN. Images and a description of the process the user follows to use both wizards is included in the white paper.

As for connection quality, no change for me, but wireless reception has always been a weak point for me....

 

Now that more people have SP2 beta...could someone please tell me how you update the service pack? I mean it's in beta, so it must keep updating. Do you really have to uninstall one version and install a new version every time it comes out? And how often are new versions available?

 

There are 3 out as far as I know. 105, 112, 113. All of them need to be uninstalled in order to allow the newer on the platform.

 

Not sure if its sp2 but i noticed one tick in turbomemory unticked after sp2 installed so i ticked it back, rebooted and lots of hardware in devices stoped responding including my keyboard, and basically had to reinstall because uninstalling sp2 had no effect.

 

The same Reg edit that allowed me to install v.105 after I uninstalled it, installed v.113 for me. Guess every now and again someone is going to have to let us know when a new version is out.

 

I am a part of their beta testing programme so I am up to date with these things.

 

Thank you!

 

I got roughly 4-5 updates for the sp2 beta yesterday through windows update, just came through automatically.

 

Looks like MS needs volounteers to test some of the upcoming Windows 7 features
"Just put'em into SP2, they'll sort 'em out!"

(just kidding)

 

Review of SP2 beta

 

LOL, PC World's always hated Vista... This test is flawed, they didn't even use the same system, an HP laptop and a Dell desktop could perform a bit differently in testing, despite what "fairness" measures they took.

 

Haha yea, PCWorld has been quite biased lately towards Microsoft. And c'mon, the testing was hardly fair (drastically different hardware).

 

Just a quick FYI:

My experience with SP2 has been 100% positive so far (installed on the 4th), as has my whole experience with Vista in general.

 

i don't know if it was SP2, but i haven't had one program freeze up, or hangs or anything like that since installing it earlier in the week, it has been pretty reliable.

 

I learned the hard way what these reviews illustrate. I will wait for the final version and test it on my own hardware and set-ups. It does not really help me if Sp2 works like a bat out of hell on a set up different than mine.

 

Finally took the plunge, SP2 beta is now installing on my system. How do I know which version I'm getting? I didn't see anything on the Microsoft download page to differentiate between the different versions.

 

Microsoft Update will always give you the latest version.

 

I would assume that the most current one is the one available for download from Microsoft...

 

Yeah I got v113. I was just curious how other people were getting older versions I guess.

I really don't see any difference in terms of speed/performance. Maybe a tad faster but it's really negligible.