December 22nd, 2006 — James
I tried to install the PC Mark 05 updated version that supposedly support Windows Vista. I don’t know if if it works with Windows Vista 32 bit but on 64 bit it failed to run. Installation went without any problem. When I run the application Many tests will run without a problem but the HDD tests will not run. I see the HDD Test Target drop down list empty in the advanced settings.
If I click on the details button it spits out garbled stuff in to the internet explorer as part of my graphics card description as well.
I have installed the same PC Mark 05 on the same machine on the Windows XP partition and it works fine. So, it is definitely not a system configuration issue. It must another Windows Vista 64 bit edition compatibility issue. The world (at least that of the software vendors including Microsoft themselves) is not ready for the 64 bit.
December 17th, 2006 — James
Since I have installed the 64 bit version of Windows Vista I have faced tons of problems. Some of them were my mistakes. Some other issues were partly because it did not fit in to my understanding of Windows OS.
Here are the latest problems. Not all of them may be specific to 64 bit version.
I have been taking complete PC backup using Vista backup almost every day after installing the 64 bit version. I was doing this because of my past experience with 64 bit editions of Windows. So, to avoid building my OS setup from scratch and going through Windows Activation and other software installation I though I will take the complete PC backup. After installing and experimenting with a bunch of software that claims to work with Windows Vista as well as the 64 bit edition, my system stopped functioning properly. Network connections will not work, IE started complaining about some dll etc. I decided that it is time to do a complete PC restore.
Based on the documentation, I need to restart the computer and hit F8 repeatedly to get the complete PC backup restore. I restarted the computer and I missed it. So, I press the reset button in the middle of the boot because I had no need to get to the OS without complete restore. This time I correctly pressed F8 and get in to the boot and could not find the advanced options. So, I decided to use the install disc to get to the repair options. I get there and select repair. There are no options to complete restore. The repair kept saying that the Windows was not started successfully and and will attempt automatic repair using system restore. This is not what I wanted. I wanted the option to restore the complete PC backup.
All these takes a lot of time and I was getting frustrated. I thought if I allowed Vista to boot successfully and then restart and start the restore, it might help. And it worked. So, old style unintuitive way to do. Please don’t make all decisions for me. I know what I need to do. Give me that damn option regardless of whether the Vista was started last time successful or not. Keep the automatic repair as an option.
December 2nd, 2006 — James
I have a system built on ASUS P5B-E motherboard and Core 2 Duo E 6700 Processor. SO I decided to install the 64 bit version of Windows Vista on this computer this time. My earlier attempts to install and use 64 bit Windows Vista hit issues because of non existent drivers for most components. This time around I could find drivers for most components.
The only driver that failed to install is an Attansic Gigabit Ethernet controller driver. I had to install the driver in legacy mode after 2 failed installations.
Vista is very responsive on this system. I don’t know if it performs better than XP on a dual core system. Some reviewers said Vista will perform better on quad core systems. I don’t have one but my motherboard is quad core (Kentsfield) compatible.