TO-Tech Blog

I’ve been managing my family photos on a Windows XP PC because it deals with files copying, etc.) much faster than Windows Vista on a much faster (hardware-wise) PC. However, XP decided it could start to burn a data DVD but couldn’t figure out how to finish it (I let the process go on for 20 minutes before killing the process from Task Manager). So, I copied the photos from the XP PC to the Vista PC using an external drive. I guess don’t burn data DVDs often using Vista because I noticed that it default to burning a Live File System. This may have been marginally ok when using DVD+RW discs was more common than using an external hard drive for read-write external storage, but it makes no sense now. The Life File System is horrendously slow. It would take hours to write even a gig or two. Fortunately, I clicked on the formatting options and saw and chose the Mastered option instead.

The second thing I noticed is that the slowest recording speed setting available is 6x. I generally only burn a couple of backup data DVDs a month (usually just photos). So, I have a bunch of 4x DVD+R discs I was using on my XP PC. Fortunately, I have 16x DVD+R discs too and used those instead. But, I wish a 4x option was available too.

Just a note to myself. I don’t use any of the apps on the list. But, you can never tell…

Information about programs that are known to experience a loss of functionality when they run on a Windows Vista Service Pack 1-based computer

I bought an HP PhotoSmart C6250 multifunction (print, scan, copy) printer just before the holiday season to print the annual family newsletter (multiple pages, lots of photos). The printer did the job but has been an endless source of frustration.

The first problem is that it locks up my Windows Vista PC if the printer is turned on before the PC has completed booting. This is NOT a Vista problem. It locks up right at the initial BIOS screen. This PC has worked fine with two other USB printers. So, the printer ports should be fine.

The next problem is that Windows Vista insists that I have a new printer every time I boot and reinstalls the drivers each time. This is maddening.

Vista seems to lose track of the printer every now and then and the print jobs stalls in the queue without letting me know there is a problem.

HP’s scanning software sometimes saves scanned photos to My Scans. Other times in stores it to a folder under it created under that folder (e.g., 2008-02 (Feb)). Sometimes it brings up the HP browsing software after a scan. Other times it brings up Windows Explorer.

Next, printing over the network (the C6250 is LAN enabled) from a Windows XP PC worked for a few days and then could not find the printer after that even after I manually entered the printer’s IP address.

Finally, HP updated C6250’s driver but never renamed it. Both the old driver and the one released in January 2008 are named PS_AIO_02_Network_ENU.exe. However, the two files have completed different file sizes. And, of course, the earlier one was released prior to January 2008.

The first HP printer I ever bought for myself was the HP ThinkJet released in 1984. I think I bought mine sometime in 1985. So, I’ve bought a series of HP printer for over 20 years now and have been pretty happy with them up until Vista was released, their inability to provide printers for old, and now, apparently even new printers.

So, so long HP! My next printer will probably be a Canon.

I noticed this while beta-testing Windows Vista but never did anything about it: Windows Vista doesn’t let you enable the Administrator account from a simple GUI the way Windows XP does.

Enable Vista’s hidden administrator, and password-protect its XP equivalent

The trick is to run the CMD command line window as Administrator (right click on the item in the Start menu), then use the net command as the CNET article describes. Every Windows user should have a separate standby account to use in case your main account is messed up somehow.

- Right-click on Command Prompt (or Run) in Start Menu and choose option to Run as Administrator
- Type the following in the Command Prompt text window: net user administrator /active:yes

I haven’t picked up O’Reilly’s Windows Vista Annoyances book yet. But, since I spend a good chunk of my workday on a notebook running Windows Vista Business Edition, I probably should. In the meantime, here’s a link to a Slashdot review of the book:

Review: Windows Vista Annoyances

I run Vista on three different physical boxes (two notebooks and one desktop). They each have different graphic chip/card configurations. And, yet, I often see all kinds of weird display glitches (screen blanks out, switches from aero to basic, etc.) on each of them.

One of the improved features of Vista compared to earlier versions of Windows is the way it recovers from video driver panics. On older Windows boxes, this would result in a non-functional display that would require, at the least, a reboot.  Vista detects this and restarts the video subsystem without requiring a reboot. However, the real question is why Vista video drivers crash so much more than XP video drivers. I see the message in the figure above several times a week (if not even more often). This doesn’t leave me with a warm and fuzzy feeling. Especially since I NEVER see this kind of problem when I use a computer running Linux (assuming X11 is running at all) or a Mac.

I read earlier this week that the so-called Windows 7 that will replace Vista may emerge as early as 2009. Honestly, this isn’t early enough for me. I generally like Vista and miss the program search feature when I use the Start Menu in XP. But, Vista’s glitchiness is annoying.