Nick

Hi

I have Vista beta2 that I want to install. Has anyone else done this? Can I just install over the top of Win XP Pro & retain my programs, or do I need to do a clean installation?

TopBanana

Clean install

spectrum48k

...or an emulator like VMWare Workstation

ScoobyJawa

Stick in another HD and bung it on there and dual boot

Nick

I ran partition magic on the hard drive & running a dual boot.

That UAC is a right PITA!

Is there any AV software that works with Vista?

ScoobyJawa

The MS recommended one is Trend Micro's PC-cillin Internet Security which they give you a free trial subscription until Oct 31st........

You can turn UAC off - but MS ask that you don't and just report the annoying parts so they can fix them and keep the useful bits.......

Nick

Thanks for your reply

I don't trust Trend AV, so I've stopped using Vista as I can't secure it to my satisfaction. Everything to do with UAC is a pain, for an admin user, UAC is extremely annoying & completely unnecessary.

ScoobyJawa

Agreed! I find it insanely irritating!!!!!

Open Registry Editor.

In Registry Editor, navigate to the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Policies\System

Locate the following value (DWORD):

EnableLUA

and give it a value of 0.

No more UAC

Nick

A good tip, thanks.

However because of the shortage of AV software, I've now stopped using Vista & will wait for more availability of security products before I test it again.

ScoobyJawa

As far as AV goes yes it is a bit poor but it will and is getting better, companies are starting to get more involved as the release gets nearer:

http://www.symantec.com/vista/sav-vista.html

http://www.avgfree.co.uk/doc/31753/lng/uk/tpl/tpl01

Nick

As they say... it's better to have a virus than to install Norton!

I've now decided to wipe Vista, it's one royal PITA bit of software to put up with for just a glassy interface!

This brings up a whole new issue of how to get rid of the wonderful new Vista dual boot loader. A Google will bring multiple pages on the issue with every page suggesting of different method! Does anyone have a definitive guide how to correctly remove Vista & the evil boot loader?

I installed Vista by using Partition Magic to resize a Win XP NTFS partition on a single drive. Currently, I have a dual boot with XP Pro & Vista.

TopBanana

Well it is just a beta - you weren't expecting to use it as your main OS were you?

The Vista bootloader sits in its own folder called boot in the root of the drive. Go into that folder at the command prompt then type fixntfs -xp.

If you've already uninstalled Vista, you'll need the fixntfs tool from here:
http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.ph...post&id=135473

Nick

Thanks for the link, I have sucessfully removed the boot loader & Vista with the following processes:

Use XP CD & boot to recovery console
Run FIXBOOT
Run FIXMBR
Exit console & Reboot

Delete all the hidden boot stuff created by Vista (\boot, boot.bak, bootmgr, bootsect.bak) & edit out the Vista stuff from boot.ini (all this can be left if you're not sure what you're doing).

Use Partition Magic to delete the partition & then reallocate the space as required.

No of course I was not using it has my main OS. It was a dual boot on my 2nd computer. However that computer is connected to a domain server & I did not want a security hole while running Vista.

DJ Dunk

iTrader: (5)

I'd like to try Vista out as a virtual machine on VMWare at work. Anyone got a valid activation key I can use? I just missed out on the beta testing.

ChristianR

iTrader: (1)

what is UAC ?

Iain Young

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