Lottery Post Journal

I'm upgrading one of my main PCs to Vista right now as I write this.

It appears that anyone upgrading should be prepared for a multi-hour endeavor, but naturally we will see how it goes.  Maybe I'll be surprised.

There's a compatibility checker that seems to go through all of your hardware and software as the first step in the upgrade.  The only thing it detected as "un-runnable" in Vista was Nero Burning ROM, so I had to bail out of the installation, uninstall Nero, and then start again.

The next time it got through that step, and then mentioned a few software apps that would not run well under Vista.  They are the typical types of software apps that need new device drivers, like WinDVD and some other multi-media software.

The only thing that was slightly bothersome was that Zone Alarm would not work under Vista, but I already knew that.  It is mystifying to me that Zone Labs did not hurry up and create a Vista version.  (At least they haven't since the last time I checked a couple of weeks ago.)

So once I'm finished with the upgrade I'll be installing Windows OneCare, which I have been test-driving on another PC for a couple of weeks.  I don't think it's quite as good (or mature) as Zone Alarm, but I was fairly impressed with it.  It seems that it's built for less-sophisticated users, which is perfect for most people, but probably means I'll need to spend some time learning how to tweak it.

However, Vista is a much more such operating system that Windows XP, so that is a big advantage even if Zone Alarm doesn't work (yet).

I'm looking forward to seeing and using the new Vista Aero user interface.  FINALLY I'll be able to make good use of my nVidia SLI dual-card mainboard and GeForce cards -- in the everyday operating system!

For those who don't know about Vista, there are two different user interfaces that come with Vista -- Aero (the super-duper interface) and the "regular" interface, which is still better than Windows XP, but doesn't have all the special effects.

Aero will only run on computers that are more modern and have good graphics boards with a decent amount of memory.  I don't know the exact specs.  I do know that my system is about as stacked (graphics-wise) as they come, so I'll be happily cruising around in Aero in a few hours (if all goes well!).

Aero includes some REALLY cool effects, which are actually pretty useful.  For example, you know the trick with Windows XP, where you press Ctrl+Tab to cycle through the active windows?  Well, Aero has something similar, except you see miniature versions of all the open windows on the screen, and you can cycle through them like pages being shuffled around.  Not only is it very cool, but very intuitive and useful.

Well, it's hurry up and wait while this thing installs.  I'll try to post a follow-up entry at some point in the future to give my thoughts and feelings after having used it for a while.