NYCPHP Meetup

[Peter Sawczynec]

I thought this could be helpful for busy people who could use this
little mojo that includes 

some info for those of you that may need to do Vista at some point
probably for business purposes. 

This may save you some time and reduce your googling and reading around.

 

This covers an Windows Ultimate Upgrade from Win XP SP2. 

Older Win will not upgrade to Ultimate. 

 

Why Vista Ultimate? 

Because this is the only Vista version that has Remote Connections,
Networking, Hard Drive encryption, 

and the Media Center with CD/DVD rip and burn capability and new Aero
look built in and 

you will likely need all these features. 

 

1) Download and Use the Win Vista Upgrade Advisor

It does a valid job of isolating your hardware and software
incompatibilities.

 

2) Issues to Address in Advance While you are still in Win XP

a) Update your BIOS, some drivers, and maybe patch some software. 

(Other software you will update after Vista upgrade.) 

b) Norton and Windows Firewall Incompatibility Issue is solved. Norton
now has 2007 Vista-ready versions 

for download on their web site. Upgrade Norton before Windows. 

 

3) Backup Data as Needed

 

4) Run the Vista Upgrade. Takes several hours.

 

Total time, steps 1 - 4 above. Approx. 12 hours spread over two weekend
days.

 

 

Potential Vista Pitfalls to Note

 

1) Outlook Legacy Passwords Issue

Outlook versions older than the most recent Outlook 2007, lose all email
account passwords every time 

you close Outlook. New Vista security schema pre empts the old Outlook
saving method and breaks it.

You will likely need, at least, to upgrade to Outlook 2007.

 

2) Outlook 2007 Install Issue

On original install, Outlook 2007 from store bought DVD failed with dll
not found error. Rerun Outlook install 

in Repair mode to get to success. All your Contacts, Calendar, Emails,
Accounts and even Rules are preserved. 

New interface, one box search and Email/Calendar/Task unification are
snazzy enough and actually helpful.

 

3) Radeon Display Drivers

Radeon has new Catalyst 7.2 driver set and Control Panel only on their
web site for download. 

All other older version will likely muck up strangely.

Even the new Catalyst 7,2 for Vista forgets position of dual monitor
configuration with every reboot.

This will be corrected in Catalyst 7.3

 

4) Some Notable Remarks 

The entire interface is very DHTML and AJAX-like. So many tool tips,
popups, rollovers, pulldowns, right-clicks, sort options, 

layers swapping, shadows and semi-transparency effects  that are meant
to assist in navigation and menu selection. It could bother you.

 

There are a lot of new naming conventions, new locations of familiar
tools and so many new ideas that you will 

need at least 3 hours (and probably at least one ref book) to get it all
in and be situated. 

 

A new visual menu interface called the Ribbons toolbars system replaces
all regular File Save/Print menu systems that 

you used to know and this may also jolt you at first. 

 

The new Windows Explorer file management, navigation/sorting and the
one-box universal Search features are tasty. All 

a little weird at first, but genuinely more flexible. If you move around
a lot, all day, working on a lot of separate items, in the 

long run Vista will help you. 

 

You can apply your own Meta data to anything (files, images, folders,
emails) and then do single Search to find all in 

one result set. And sort results in Windows Explorer by meta, author,
date, recent usage and save these views/searches. 

 

New Picture Gallery tool, grabs your incoming digital media, allows you
to do custom renaming and apply custom meta 

(singularly, in bulk or you can standardize your transfer style). Images
and all media can be infinitely sorted, categorized 

and viewed especially by meta. 

 

All my major apps came over with no issues: Photoshop, Dreamweaver, and
older Office apps except Outlook. 

 

Pretty much every registry change performed by any app must be approved
by you. This is actually cool. 

 

A lot of stuff that you used to not be able to adjust, turn off, change,
move or regulate, you now can.

 

Warmest regards, 

 

Peter Sawczynec 

Technology Dir.

Sun-code.com 

Web related services 

646.316.3678 

 <mailto:ps at sun-code.com> ps at sun-code.com

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