RC1 Review (almost 2 weeks later)

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Guest

Using a Compaq Presario V4240US...

1. Somewhat funny but trying to make a copy of the RC1 DVD I had burned
almost two weeks ago was a hassle! DVD Copy just wasn't having it! I
downloaded the ISO and only made one copy, the ISO got lost when I did a
clean install and since the liscense is for 10 computers I am subjecting a
friends computer to the Beta also... so he gets his own DVD in case theres a
problem and one of us isn't home, we'll have our own copies for
repair/verification of problems.

2. Lightscribe, a HP technology isn't working properly. From what I can
tell, it's got one of those OS checks to make sure you are running a version
it's programmed for, and it wont run because RC1 isn't on the list. I went
back to XP to see how quick I could get it working in THAT system...very
easy. Again - from what I can tell is the CD/DVD labeling programs get
patched by the Lightscribe updates downloaded from HP, it inserts another
option into the labeling software called "Lightscribe" so instead of printing
the disc label to paper, it sends the label to the burner to be completed.

HP tech support replied "We only support the pre-installed OS", bummer but
probably to streamline tech/customer support. But she did point me towards
the updates that might solve my problem, but only work in XP and not RC1 so
far. The customer support rep replied that they would escalate it to the
proper department, what about when this isn't a BETA anymore, hopefully the
software issues are resolved by then! It worked fine in BETA 2, as an upgrade
from XP, so I'll try upgrading to RC1 from XP with the software working and
see if it works then.

3. Dual boot works, unless you install XP after RC1. I read a post on here
that mentions a program on the RC1 DVD called bcdedit that can fix that but
by the time I got the DVD from my friend I had already deleted the XP
partition. I booted from the DVD and did the repair boot options and got
Vista back up and running, except the CD/DVD burner...I guess RC1 doesn't
like Lightscribe drives, or the drives don't like RC1...so far. READING from
the drive after a clean install works fine.

4. I installed CDBurnerXP, a freeware CD/DVD burning application, it did not
recognize my Lightscribe drive in RC1.

5. Basically, programs that do OS version checks and do not install INSTEAD
of just giving a warning about the OS version - are not working. You could
just dual boot and copy over the program from XP to RC1, but thats kinda
technical, and if installation puts reg keys, services, and/or scheduled
tasks...you wont get those by copying a folder.
 
Those are issues, there are a few new bits of the system I've discovered that
are interesting. The built in Resource Monitor is helpful, more robust and
easy to understand as well. This is located within the Performance tab of the
Task Manager, so press ctrl+alt+del and click Start Task Manager,
Performance, then Resource Monitor. There is also a Services tab within the
Task Manager that can show you what services are installed/running/stopped
etc. Pretty helpful and I'm impressed that they are building on something
Windows users are familiar with instead of replacing it, which wouldn't be
bad either, but I somewhat like the way this works.
Note: All Third-Party software is still valuable like Anti-Virus,
Anti-Spyware, E-mail apps, Browsers, and anything else that MS decides to
include with their system. Third-Party sometimes even has tons of features
that MS programs don't, but I don't think MS should be prevented from coming
up with their own programs or even including them in their OS packages. How
would we download a Third-Party program if IE wasn't included?
Anti-Competetive? We aren't prevented from using Third-Party programs, but
there are programs included.
 
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