The good folks on the Windows Home Server Team are now blogging -- why not check out their team blog?  The goal of their blogging effort is to educate households with a broadband connection and two or more active PCs that are share an internet connection on the virtues of Windows Home Server Puneet Mittal- Testing Comments...Puneet Mittal- Testing Comments...

hello nick,

can you help me to get a chance that I can get the latest Beta.Maybe you can given an Invitation Code to give to me to get me in on that beta . thank you very much!

I have purchased the full version of Vista (Ultimate) and Office 2007 Vista, I have 3 hard drives on this computer and two of them have all the data from Windows XP Pro, I DO NOT WANT TO LOOSE ANYTHING. the two discks are there but you are not able to get the stored information from them. So my question to you is how do I get to see the information on the disks without formatting them?

Scott Tuxworth

I need some help! I install Vista last night. The installemnt want fine. But, all of my program from Windows XP is not on Vista. Can you help me locating this program or want I need to do?

Nick, thanks for keeping us all up to date through this blog. All the best.

i have brought a new computor as was told we could get a free upgrade to windows vista, i have now been trying to get through the pages which have to filled in at moduslink.com and it keeps crashing .have been trying for 5 days now any suggestions most of the time saying unable to validate coa, then got through onto last page and said unrecoverable error please try again later

Well Nick, perhaps you would be kind enough to tell me, (a 20 year customer of Microsoft) why I can't upgrade my XP Pro SP2 version of Windows to the Vista Home Premium I just purchased when the Vista Upgrade advisor reports nothing wrong and claims my system is Vista ready. And it really is having just build a new Vista ready system where everything is Vista approved, MB, CPU, graphic card, etc..

It hangs right after entering the product key and saying go for updates. Then comes back with suggesting I upgrade instead to business, enterprise or ultimate version. I don't need the features those offer and for the life of me don't understand why upgrading to any of of those would suddendly make things peachy.

VERY unhappy and disgused customer. Really PO'ed!

congratulation

If I should buy a new computer,I would try your new windows os

Nice, I'll be keeping tabs on that blog. For God's sake, focus on the 40M worldwide and not just the 15M this time!

Is winhlp32 for Vista availible?

ATI will not answer the question "when will All In Wonder capture be availible?" They don't even say soon. The email I recieved back was the company stand is on their web site. Which is "capture is not availible at is time".

I am wait for answers to this two questions before I purchase Vista. I need these. To do what I do.

oldguy28

I've only had a few days to look over Vista, but I get the impression that it is a souped up XP, with all the tweaking features we are used to removed so that it is virtually tamper proof. Maybe that's  OK for numbskulls and the untutored. But as it is, I think it will drive most people who have some computer savvy quite nuts.

Most of my application software was refused. Even some of my hardware, I own two computers and only one will accept Vista. All components of both computers were purchased within the last 9 months. Both tested as 'Vista ready' by  their upgrade advisor. The first system refused to install the ATI video card, the second system refused both the Sound card and the TV card. Then it blocked the install of both an Anti-virus program, and a Defragmenter program.

This is totally unacceptable to me!

I.E Explorer 7.0 refuses to display any sites. I am totally dissatisfied with the entire system, and would advise potential buyers to stick with XP Pro. if they want to stay sane. I have been building, servicing, and repairing PCs for approximately 15 years, and know my stuff. This one stinks, its garbage, sorry I wasted my money!

Thanks for the info! I really like windows vista the way it is - works perfectly on my machines - even got it to work on a 256mb ram machine with some tricks ;) Please continue your great work! I don't recommend using XP anymore since vista is out!

I am not sure, but I think this article summarizes the current state of Vista

http://www.osxautomation.com/2006/12/10/the-microsoft-bubble-in-2006/

In response to Posted by marie cropp, yeah modlink is pretty awful if you want a quicker response you could try there escalations email address posted on the asus website (http://event.asus.com/vistaupgrade/index_usa.htm)

MSTUPVISTANACC@moduslink.com

they may respond a little faster with that email address they have also posted other addresses if you are in Europe or Asia.

Congrats to everyone at Microsoft for launching Vista and Office 2007 to the public, its great to see the new machines in stores.

I would have congratulated you all earlier except I've been on holiday and now that Im back I'm in between RoadRunner and ATT so no internet at home at the moment!  Hence Im posting from work!

Home Server sounds great, I really need to network at home now my wife has a laptop, I'll check that out when my ATT DSL comes online...please be soon :-)

I just installed Windows Vista Ultimate on my laptop. I have a Toshiba Satellite Intel Centrino with dual processor and 1G of ram. So nothing Vista should have too many problems with. What is my computer still level? I have owned about 7 computers in my life. I can do pretty much everything but programming. I'm not a computer nerd, but I'm smarter than any of my friends when it comes to computers. I'm not trying to be technical here, only speaking in layman's language.

The upgrade took about 2 hours. I installed it on top of Windows XP so I could keep all my files and settings. Everything seemed to go smooth. I did the Advisor before hand and deleted the programs that Vista said were not compatible. The advisor had no big issues. I logged on and found out my antivirus from Computer Associates no longer works. I am trying to figure it out. I've tried to do a complete uninstall of my antivirus but it would not accept it. So I did a reinstall but still no luck with the latest program from Computer Associates website. The website says there are issues to still be resolved. I can tell something is really messed up. So I will figure it out later.

Also have a few drivers not working. Nothing seems to affect the computer now though. I guess I will find out later when I actually use the drivers in question. I did restart once and it immediately told me I had a driver problem. I clicked cancel and it popped up again. I click cancel and it popped up again... it did it 4 times! So that was kinda irritating. The drive was from Sonic. I'll find out if I need it later. It doesn't affect my computer use now.

Also Windows Defender is a part of Vista so it found a way to block all my network connections with my family computers. Spent a hour trying to fix it but just decided to turn it off so I can make network connections.

And I did the Windows update. It said I needed 8 critical updates and 12 optional updates. This is a mess. I downloaded the updates and half of them failed. Did it again, and still can't install half of them. And doing some of the language updates took forever! I left my computer on at night and they still were not done in the morning, so big problem here. So I'll ignore these updates for now.

As for the computer... everything works the same. I don't see any increase in speed as everyone talked about. I don't see any quicker start up. Same.. have to wait. To be honest... I see no improvement. Why did I spend $340? I will probably end up doing a clean install because so far.. only the upgrade sucks!

Well, the computer does move smoother... thats the only improvement I see. I tried to do the photo gallery because Microsoft bragged about it so much, but when I went there and told it to browse my photo folders... it said it will slow down my computer a bunch while it brings them to the Photo Gallery? I'm not sure what it was doing, but I didn't have time to wait for it to display all my photos, which are in the thousands. It felt like it was moving them! The old windows exployer is much faster and easier to work with. Maybe I'll learn the tricks on how to use the photo gallery later since I paid big bucks for it!

End result. Not worth the money. I have other computers in my home I wanted to upgrade too. Microsoft has a family plan that allows any Ultimate owner to buy 2 additional keys for $49 each. That is the main reason I got the expensive Vista Ultimate. But for the improvement I see now that I've had Windows Vista for about 15 hours.... it is not worth it.

My only other option is to do a clean install and start from scratch. Then I can see if that is the best way to use Vista. ...... not happy! I guess I'll do that later today because I'm getting tired of trying to patch this thing up.

I installed vista in different versions on about 6 laptops and 4 pcs and did not experience any problems with drivers etc. Only 1 nic driver was missing for a fujitsu laptop - but the one for xp worked. Oh and Im also a mac owner and have to say that I do not like to work under mac os x for many reasons...happily i was able to install and run vista on my macbook! ;)

I Heard Windows Vista by the file is actually a trojan-carrier which will install Trojan-PSW.Win32.LdPinch.aze onto your PC. is this true i heard also i came with malware pre-installed.

I recently purchased a new PC with XP Pro installed. I am entitled to the "Vista Express Upgrade", but I want the "Ultimate" version with all the bells and whistles! I just spent a whole lot of $'s for my Vista ready machine and am willing to spend a couple of extra bucks for the Ultimate version, but I haven't been able to locate an upgrade path to this version, only to Vista Business. ( I don't feel I should have to spend any more $'s than necessary to accomplish this task ). I use this PC for home and business and it needs an operating system that will function as such. Please help!!!!  Surely I'm not the first person to ask this question ???

Yes, Mr. White, I would love to have a job similar to yours - do you have any openings? Seriously, I am looking.

Please respond. I would like to make a Vista product purchase decision ASAP - before all these stories about upgrade prolems scare me away... Thanks !

Help I hope this is the correct place to post.I have called MS support and have received absolutely no help whatsoever.I tried to do an upgrade to vista home basic from my windows xp and it would not do so.Instead it did a clean install and now my product key will not activate windows.It states that this key is for an upgrade not a clean install.I have called MS and have received nothing but a run around.Any help will be appreciated.

My email if you would like to email me is fcs25@hotmail.com

An Additional Note:

My new PC is a Dell and more specifically, my question is: Can one use their "Vista Express Upgrade" to get a copy of the Vista "Ultimate" version for a nominal price? It seems only fair, since I just forked out a bunch of dough for a new PC installed with the highest end operating system available, "Windows XP Professional". What is the cost and where can I go to get it?

I know I saw a schedule recently with all the Vista upgrade paths detailed out and their associated costs - I want to say it cost $59 per the article, but now I can't find the web site or the article - Please Help! Anyone ???

Thanks!

In reply to TSB the link for Dells Vista Express Upgrade is here

http://www.dell.com/content/topics/global.aspx/solutions/en/winvista?c=us&cs=&l=en&s=dhs

click on the using windows vista tab,

or more specifically go directly here

http://www.dellvistaupgrade.com

The upgrade paths will vary depending on your hardware vendor and what system you bought.  The upgrade path from XP Professional is to Vista Bussiness I believe, if you got at least that then you could do a Windows anytime upgrade to Ultimate if you need the features of Ultimate.

Hey Simon:  not sure where you're getting your information, but it's entirely and categorically false.  Not to mention that such a move would run counter to everything MS has managed to construct in the past 30 years.

Hey fcs25:  there are work-arounds to this situation posted on the Web.  Some are even mentiuned in the comments on this blog.

Hey billyboy:  I'd suggest performing a clean installation on your system and not entering the product key until after you've completed the installation -- perhaps this work-around will do the trick.  Good luck.

Hey oldguy28:  information on WinHlp32.exe is located at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/917607, wherein it's mentioned that "the download for Windows Help is still in development.  It will be available in time for the consumer release of Windows Vista".  It would appear that the download is not yet ready but when it is, it should be available via Windows Update.

Just bought new desktop with Vista Home Premium installed. Now unable to connect to broadband - error message 815. My service provider tell me my modem software (Speedtouch 330)is not yet compatible with Vista and that purchasing a router might enable me to connect.

My service provider have been unhelpful - they have a monopoly in my locality so I cannot switch

Am reluctant to invest unless I am sure it will solve the problem. My provider cannot guarantee this is the solution. Will I need any other kit?

Has anyone else come across this and what type of router will get me back on line?  

Sorry to here about your troubles SteveG, it sounds like the problem is that your modem is connected via a USB port not an ethernet port?  And hence it needs a USB driver and so wont work with Vista right?

You could first try downloading the XP driver for your modem from here,

http://www.speedtouch.co.uk/codepages/content3.asp?c=7&ProductID=471

create a system restore point first to be safe, then install the driver and see if that works..

If that fails you could buy a ethernet modem, assuming your PC has an ethernet port you can use that.  Ethernet modems are more reliable than USB modems, infact maybe your provider could swap your USB modem for an Ethernet modem for free?  

Or you could buy a router.

In any event check the return policy of the store you buy the kit from, they may allow a return/refund if it does not work!  Of course if your in the UK, and not the USA that may not be the case as the UK has real bad customer service... I know as Im British.  Argos may work for returns.

Also for those who are interested in Windows Home Server, Beta 2 has now been Released & you can signup here

http://connect.microsoft.com/WindowsHomeServer

according to http://www.neowin.net/

Hmm.  SteveG's comment sounds similar to my situation, although Newscientist2000's comments don't help.  I have a new laptop with Vista Home Premium on it.  I, too, cannot get broadband.  I, however have a modem from my ISP, using the ethernet port.  I have to exchange the router I bought, as it is imcompatible with Vista, but the ISOP told me to call Toshiba and work with them to get over the Error 815.  I might just get Best Buy's G-squad over and have them work with the ISP/Toshiba directly.  

Any ideas that I should try out?  Thanks..

New computer replaced my main home desktop but MANY roadblocks.  Netgear WGR614v6 wi-fi router won't connect me to the internet correctly.  I loaded Avast anti-virus, but the McAfee bundled with my Dell 520 can't be "disabled"/uninstalled.  Meantime, trying to use the "Vista demos" fails (because I'm not internet connected?) It's running me in circles.

Hey BwanaBob:  you're better off seeking support via the public newsgroups, as we're not equipped to provide it here on the blog.  Best of luck.