# VISTA Release Candidate 1



## HIPAR (May 15, 2005)

Microsoft has a Website offering free evaluation downloads of VISTA.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/preview.mspx

microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/preview.mspx

The VISTA evaluation download will work into next year. You need to create an account with Microsoft before you can access the download which arrives as a DVD ISO image. So you need a DVD 'burner' to create the install disk.

When I went to create my account, Microsoft would not accept my verizon.net Email address saying it's a reserved domain and asked me to enter another Email address. Well, I only have one Email address and one is all I usually need.

--- CHAS


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## CoriBright (May 30, 2002)

Be brave and daring. Create a hotmail account just for getting the CD Key mailed to you!


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## Paradox-sj (Dec 15, 2004)

I am running it...i like too....its stabel


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## AllieVi (Apr 10, 2002)

Paradox-sj said:


> I am running it...i like too....its stabel


A friend claims Vista can extend RAM onto "thumbdrives." Is that true?


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## HIPAR (May 15, 2005)

CoriBright said:


> Be brave and daring. Create a hotmail account just for getting the CD Key mailed to you!


Yes - I thought about the EMail debacle after my post. If they want a different Email address, I'll give them one. So I used an expired one from my old service provider. That worked allowing me to get to the next screen where I entered my proper Email address.

I ordered the DVD; $5.00 plus thirty cents tax delivered. When you think about it, this is smart marketing. Nobody will want to revert to an earlier OS when the trial period ends.

--- CHAS


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## CoriBright (May 30, 2002)

The 32 bit version is very stable.... the 64 bit version is lacking more than a few drivers and has some compatibility issues.... maybe sorted by RC-2. 

I emailed Asus a few months ago for drivers for hubby's motherboard.... and was flatly told it was a beta version and they'd get around to it AFTER Vista was released. Sigh. Oh sure I could install the 32 bit version for him, but why should I. It's a 64 bit motherboard running an AMD 64 bit CPU. Hasn't the point hit home to Asus that if they can't suppport a 64 bit product that they made, they shouldn't have actually offered it for sale?

MSI on the other hand..... had everything ready from day one of beta 1. THAT'S what I call service. So did ATI.


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## DonLandis (Dec 17, 2003)

Is the 64 bit version required to access the 4Gb Ram? I'm a bit confused on this issue. One of the techs told me not to bother with 4Gb on my new laptop until Vista is out since Win XP won't see it anyway. Can one of you give me the truth to this story? Just curious.


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## CoriBright (May 30, 2002)

DonLandis said:


> Is the 64 bit version required to access the 4Gb Ram? I'm a bit confused on this issue. One of the techs told me not to bother with 4Gb on my new laptop until Vista is out since Win XP won't see it anyway. Can one of you give me the truth to this story? Just curious.


XP can work with 4gb of RAM.... however notebook 2gb SODIMMS are well over $1,000 each so I told my Toshiba it can be happy with 2gb until they come down in price. You might think about telling yours that as well, because for another $2,000 you can have another notebook and consider breeding them.

And I think I'll keep my extra $2,000 for a rainy day rather than get a second notebook or an extra 2gb. You never know what may happen tomorrow.


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## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

I am finally fed up enough with lack of support and compatibility with XP64 piece of crap that I AM going to replace it one way or another. Are drivers readily available for Vista? Is hardware basically a plug and play situation? Will older generation programs (like Lotus 1,2,3, etc.) work in Vista? I have a new hard drive arriving tomorrow and plan to make it a new boot drive. I either go out and buy a new copy of Windows XP (pro or home) and load it on the new drive or I try Vista. My machine is based on an Intel Pentium D processor. I would say overall, less than half of what I need works with XP64. I have to have my laptop hooked up to my network just to print to one of my two printers (my color printer). My other printer, a multifunction, is just partially functioning, as a printer only. It would be nice to operate with only one computer on my desk again. I looked into doing a dual boot system, but everyone (locally) tells me I have to have the older OS loaded before the newer OS. Since XP64 is the newer OS I can't load XP (generic) after 64 is on the machine. Then again, if I get XP (or Vista) I don't need 64 (crap).


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## cdru (Dec 4, 2003)

Richard King said:


> I am finally fed up enough with lack of support and compatibility with XP64 piece of crap that I AM going to replace it one way or another. Are drivers readily available for Vista?


It's a catch 22 situation. Manufacturers don't have vista 64 bit drivers available as the OS isn't even officially released yet, and the os doesn't have drivers because the manufacurers haven't written them. I bet it will be 3-6 months after it is officially released before the majority of hardware has native drivers written for it.


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## Dave (Jan 29, 2003)

Some of the companies are going to wait until the final release of Vista, before they re-write the drivers for there hardware and software programs. Windows Vista RC-2 came out on Friday October 6, 2006. This is why the companies are waiting. Vista is still making changes to the program and have not completed all the changes for the final release to the public. Some of us are doing the Beta testing and allow Microsoft to look at our computers and send them results automatically so they can fix the problems. So I would just say that don't get upset if some of your hardware or programs do not run correctly yet if you want to give it a try.


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## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

I guess I'll pass on Vista and just go buy XP Professional. I hate spending more money to replace a defective product that hasn't worked right from day one. Is there anything that will keep me from being able to use XP (pro or home) on a computer that has previously had XP64 loaded on it? Will anything have to be changed other than the operating system? I know, starting with a fresh HD I will have to reload all my programs.


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## cdru (Dec 4, 2003)

Richard King said:


> Is there anything that will keep me from being able to use XP (pro or home) on a computer that has previously had XP64 loaded on it? Will anything have to be changed other than the operating system? I know, starting with a fresh HD I will have to reload all my programs.


Presuming that you will be wiping the hard drive, there should not be any issues. I would not attempt to do an upgrade using a hard drive that has already been partitioned/formatted with another version of a Microsoft OS without wiping it first.


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## cclement (Mar 22, 2004)

I just downloaded and burnt the Vista RC2 iso. I plan to install it this weekend on my laptop after I "Ghost" my drive, incase it sucks, I want any easy way back to XP. Has anyone tried on a laptop? How stable was it? Any suggestions?


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## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

cdru said:


> Presuming that you will be wiping the hard drive, there should not be any issues. I would not attempt to do an upgrade using a hard drive that has already been partitioned/formatted with another version of a Microsoft OS without wiping it first.


I'll be using a new hard drive, in fact it just arrived from Woot this afternoon.  I'll use the old HD as a slave drive.


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## cdru (Dec 4, 2003)

cclement said:


> I just downloaded and burnt the Vista RC2 iso. I plan to install it this weekend on my laptop after I "Ghost" my drive, incase it sucks, I want any easy way back to XP. Has anyone tried on a laptop? How stable was it? Any suggestions?


I tried it for about 18 hours. I just wanted to play around with it before I reloaded my laptop for a training class. It didn't crash as long as I was using it, but I also didn't do much with it either. This was teh 64-bit version running on a Core 2 Duo Dell e1505 laptop.


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## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

Well, I got the new operating system and "setup will be complete in 27 minutes" I hope this works. :lol:


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## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

It installed on the wrong hard drive. :lol: I had 3 HD's in the computer, removed the one with the old OS on it and didn't think I had to remove the other. It installed on the other one. I am now redoing. This is the way things typically go for me and computators. :lol:


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

DonLandis said:


> Is the 64 bit version required to access the 4Gb Ram?


The 64bit versions of XP and Vista are required to access >4GB of RAM. If you have 4GB or less, the 32 bit versions will do fine.

So everyone is nice and confused, there will be at least five "editions" of Vista. Not all of them will be available come General Availability (GA) next year.


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