Balmori Software Inc.

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(For what it's worth, we'd like to share with you an internal memo from one of our technical people who couldn't wait to try the new Microsoft Vista operating system.)

Las Friday, I got my Vista Home Basic OS via Fedex. I spent the weekend installing Vista in my home computer.

Good news: All Balmori Software solutions run under Vista. Plus, all the programming tools, libraries and objects we use for our software work under Bill Gates' new OS.

The other news..

1. Vista is a hard disk hog

Though Vista occupies just a few gigabytes of hard disk space, while I was installing the OS a message popped up saying that at least 40GB of hard disk space should be allotted for Vista (for its restore points, swap files and temporary files, perhaps?). My 160 GB hard disk was partitioned as a 40 GB Drive C for my original XP OS and all other programs; the balance was allocated as Drive D for data and all other stuff. Note: With XP and a whole lot of programs installed in C, I still had 14 GB of free space in my C Drive; my data and other files in Drive D took up 92 GB.)

I did not want to repartition my hard disk so I could have more space for Drive C since (1) I did not want to risk losing my data; (2) I did not have time to back up my data and (3), even if I had the time there was not too much free space I could reallocate from my Drive D, (4) but most of all, I did not want to go through the exercise of backing up, reallocating space, installing Vista then reinstalling my data, and then possibly encounter Vista-related concerns that would prevent my getting back online and being productive at the earliest possible time.

I therefore decided to buy a new 250 GB hard disk which I allocated as follows: 85 GB for Drive C, the balance as Drive D.

2. Installing Vista

The installation of Vista was nothing out of the ordinary, taking around as long as it would take to install XP. Take note though: Vista comes standard in a DVD (Vista in CDs can be ordered). So if you don't have a DVD ROM drive, you'll either have to buy the drive, or order Vista in the older CD-ROM format.

3. Running Vista

My desktop has an AMD 64-bit Athlon 3200+ processor with 512 MB RAM - zippy enough for me under XP, but slow for Vista. End result: I had to buy and install another 512 MB RAM (Microsoft did say that Vista will run on 512 MB RAM, but recommends 1 GB and up). With 1 GB RAM, Vista ran a bit faster than XP under 512 MB RAM.

4. Drivers for peripherals

Discussion forums have long dwelt and lamented on the lack of Vista drivers for peripherals.

Motherboard drivers are among the first drivers you should install after the OS. My MSI motherboard (purchased Sept 2006) did not have an updated Vista driver on the MSI website. Good thing my son the techie knows that motherboards have chipsets, and knows how to identify via appropriate software my specific mobo chipset (happened to be Nvidia so he went to the Nvidia website and downloaded the drivers). I don't know much about chipsets, I would have simply gone to the website of my motherboard manufacturer for driver updates, and, finding none, would have just met a blank wall.

Innovision's web site had Vista drivers for my Inno3d GeForce 7300 video card (also purchased Sept 2006) so it was a simple matter to download the appropriate diver for my video card model, then install it. Result: Vista still complained that the driver was not certified; I continued to install just the same the driver that Innovision claims is for Vista. Result: occasionally my monitor would blank out for a second or two; when the video goes back, a balloon message informs me that the Nvidia driver temporary stopped working, but was able to recover.

An older video capture card (also by Innovision) which I use for capturing TV feeds and for downloading videos from a videocam, was not recognized by Vista, nor did Vista have any built-in compatible drivers for the card. A search at the video capture card manufacturer's site showed their drivers were only for Windows OSes up to Win XP, nada for Vista. Until such driver is available, the card is useless.

I had difficulty setting up my D-Link external modem; there were no Vista drivers available, and the drivers that worked under XP would not even load under Vista. I had to force-install the drivers so my modem would be recognized; the audio capabilities of the modem however would not work.

My other peripherals were properly identified, and the drivers that came with the Vista DVD installed seamlessly: Epson CX3500 3-in-one printer/scanner/copier, a really old Canon 1000SP Bubble Jet printer, memory card readers. Also, the digital cameras I tried to connect (Canon EOS, Fuji Finepix, Canon A40, and a couple of Sony point-and-shoot digicams) were also properly identified and interfaced well with Vista.

Vista kept complaining that the drivers for my Realtek built-on-the-motherboard sound card were not fully compatible with Vista. I found, downloaded and installed such Vista-compatible drivers from Realtek's website, but Vista still complained these were not fully compatible. To avoid this annoying message, I simply instructed Vista to go into compatibility mode when accessing my sound card.

5. Software

Winfax (from Symantec), an application I regularly use and rely on (for the past 12 years), will simply not run under Vista. A check with the Symantec forums revealed that Symantec has no plans to come up with a Vista-compatible Winfax.

MusicMatch, my favorite audio media player, has incompatibility problems (Vista says so). I found out later that while MusicMatch will run under Vista, it would occasionally hang and I would have to re-launch MusicMatch.

Being able to output any software's print jobs to a PDF file is a great convenience - it allows me to send such output to others who can in turn view or print the output of these software, without these recipients having to have a copy of these software. For this purpose, I use the open source (free!!) PDFCreator. Under Vista, redirecting print jobs to PDFCreator produces nothing. Googling "PDFCreator" and "Vista" brought me to a forum that discussed how to install PDFCreator under compatibility mode, and that PDFCreator has to be running when creating a PDF file (in XP it did not have to).

My CA Internet Security Suite (antivirus, antispyware, antispam and firewall) will not run under Vista. I temporarily installed the free AVG, and it worked. It's a good thing I have a two-year license for this CA suite (one more year to go), and, as a licensed user, I found out today I could upgrade for free to the Vista-compatible version. I will download this compatible version later.

Motorola Phone Tools software, which synchronizes contacts and various files with my mobile phone, and allows sending/ receiving of texts through my computer, will not run on Vista. I had to buy on eBay a Vista-compatible version.

6. Needs a fast DSL setup

Microsoft assumes Vista users have a DSL connection. Once there are incompatibilities detected by Vista, it points you to possible solutions on the web. You do need a good, fast DSL connection when looking for and downloading program patches and drivers, if any, that will work with Vista.

CONCLUSION. As they say, "Pioneers are the ones with the arrows in their backs." Good thing in this case, these "arrows" can still be pulled out -- by going back to XP, which I shall (by simply reinstalling my original hard disk -- thank God I was cautious and kept it unmodified); and thereby regain the use of my capture card and faxing software, enjoy uninterrupted music through MusicMatch, and avoid other potential Vista "surprises" that may take their toll on my time and productivity. And with my desktop now sporting 1 GB RAM, my XP should run significantly faster.

My pioneering spirit will perhaps rise again in six or so months, when a service pack for Vista will hopefully be available, and the providers of my computer peripherals should have come up with drivers that will peacefully and efficiently coexist with Vista. - RCD

For more on the experience of switching over from Windows XP to Windows Vista, visit http://chris.pirillo.com/2007/02/27/windows-vista-im-breaking-up-with-you/

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Questions? Reactions? Write to balmori@balmorisoftware.com.

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