To give business users a chance to check out Windows Vista without installing it, Microsoft is experimenting with the Windows Vista Business Test Drive. You get the chance to play with the Windows Vista user interface within your browser window. It’s not working in Firefox for me, so try it in Internet Explorer

Thanks to Roberdan!

Microsoft funded a study by Principled Technologies to compare the performance of the Windows XP user interface to the Windows Vista Aero interface. Here’s my summary:

• Comparisons were done with a variety of different computers, some more powerful than others. Naturally, the Aero tests required computers capable of running Aero. So, these results don’t necessarily apply to your old XP computer.
• With or without Aero, Vista performs about the same on business tasks (like opening Office documents). Some things are faster, some are slower, but it’s a wash overall.
• Vista with Aero performs about the same as Vista without Aero. So, don’t feel like you need to disable Aero for performance.
• Though all my computers are capable, I can’t run Aero because screenshots look awful. I’m fine with either interface. I’m just saying, even if Aero did cause a performance impact and you wanted to turn it off, the other Vista improvements more than make up for it.

Update: A real tool is available to do this, and it works in 64-bit Vista, so use that instead.

Microsoft is working on a tool to simplify restoring files from backups you made with Windows XP, but it’s not ready yet. In the meantime, plan on scrapping your old backups–as soon as you get Vista running, do a Complete PC backup, and then schedule nightly backups.

If you really need to restore files from a .BKF file, this thread provides guidance. I’ll copy the steps here for reference: (more…)

Just found a new BIOS update for Vista for my Dell Latitude D820 laptop (A05–the second BIOS update for Vista). Usually, when they release a BIOS update for one of their computers, they release them for all their computers. So, if you’ve got a Dell, go see if there’s a BIOS update for you. Maybe it’ll slow down all those hardware problems I’ve been having.

Hint: you can’t just run the updates–you have to right-click them and then click Run As Administrator. If you install other Dell updates (such as Dell’s new audio update for Vista), you’ll need to extract it, then find the Setup file and run it as administrator. Dell’s releasing updates for Vista, so why can’t they make them run properly with UAC enabled?
If you have a different type of computer, check your manufacturer’s website for any updates for Vista. We’ll see pretty frequent driver and BIOS updates for the next six months or so.

Greg writes, “I have followed all your tips, but when I upgraded from XP Pro to Vista all of my documents in My Documents folder are gone. Can I recover them or chalk one up to trusting Microsoft?”

(more…)

I install Vista all the time to test different things, and I never have the product key handy. During Vista setup, just leave it blank:

(more after the jump)

(more…)

My Pictures, My Music, My Videos are still there. Microsoft realized that prefacing everything with “My” was annoying, so they removed the prefix.

They also moved the folders to a different place. Instead of being with My Documents (er, just Documents now), they’ve been promoted up one level, to the same level as Documents. Well, all you need to know is that they’re directly on your Start menu.  Just click Start, and then click the folder in the upper-right corner of your Start menu. Except for Videos. For Videos, you’ll need to click Start, click your username, and then double-click Videos in the Explorer window that opens.
If you want to know the physical folder locations, follow the jump… (more…)