Hi Folks, Late last week, I received my copy of Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit and I installed it this weekend. I purchased the OEM version (for installation on a new machine) instead of trying to upgrade my existing Windows XP installation. I was curious how my existing programs would work with it. Note that while Windows XP came on a CD (~ 650 MB), Vista comes on a DVD (~ 4.7 GB). But I digress...
I have a homebrew computer with an Intel Core 2 Quad processor (Q6600), 4GB of RAM, an NVIDIA 8600 GTS video card and a Creative Audigy 4 sound card. Another reason for wanting to try Vista was that 32-bit operating systems can't see all of that 4GB of memory. Even though they support a 32-bit (4GB) address space, some of that address space is taken up by hardware. The motherboard/BIOS has the capability to remap that 4th GB of memory above the 32-bit address space, but older operating systems still can't see/use it. Anyway, the installation of Vista went fine, and I was fortunate that my wireless networking device, video and sound cards all had downloadable 64-bit Vista drivers. I was especially worried about the wireless networking, since everything else kind of depended on my having a network! I still have a few driver issues but no show-stoppers. As far as software, my main applications like Eudora Mail and Quicken are OK. I can no longer install my Microsoft Visual .NET software, it's too old (2002). I downloaded a free "express" version of Visual C++ from Microsoft, but I am having some trouble converting my existing projects (file permission problems mostly). Also, my Unix-like Cygwin environment is a little unstable, this is the environment I use to maintain the country files, etc. Having said all this, I was able to get DX4WIN 7.03 installed and running. I installed the program as a user (myself). Every time I started the program, I got a warning about the "vichw11" driver. So I ran DX4WIN as an Administrator instead (right-click on the program icon and choose "Run as Administrator") and it was able to copy that driver into the Vista driver directory. Now the program starts without errors (even as a user). I can manipulate my log and connect to packet (Telnet). I can't test radios or other interfaces because I am currently off-the-air. Also, I don't have any real COM ports, just a microHAM (USB) interface, which does not have Vista driver support (yet). Vista does not seem any slower or faster than Windows XP, even though I'm running the fancy "Aero" graphics desktop. Some things are in a different place, "Add/Remove Programs" is now just "Programs <something>". User Account Control (which warns you when installing/running/uninstalling programs) is a little annoying, but no so much that I need to turn it off. I'd say the biggest problems are driver and application support. Some program icons just disappear out of the system notification area on the taskbar. It's not always obvious whether the program is still running or not. I hope most of these issues are resolved in the coming year. Intel is slowly killing off their 32-bit processors, so software developers will have to move into the 21st century sooner or later. I hope this report helps someone. I'm happy to try to answer (non-hardware-specific) Vista questions off-reflector. 73 - Jim AD1C -- Jim Reisert AD1C, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, http://www.ad1c.us From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Mon Aug 6 19:37:11 2007 From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Mack Johnson N4SS) Date: Mon Aug 6 19:47:07 2007 Subject: [Dx4win] DX4WIN 7.03 is running on Windows Vista References: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Very good Jim and thanks for this information on Vista. It just happens that I have a new AMD 64 X2 5000 computer coming this week with Vista Home Premium. I will run my ham software through the mills also and post updates on the reflector. Your info on DX4WIN is greatly appreciated. Best 73 Mack N4SS ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jim Reisert AD1C" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, August 06, 2007 6:35 PM Subject: [Dx4win] DX4WIN 7.03 is running on Windows Vista > Hi Folks, > > Late last week, I received my copy of Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit and I > installed it this weekend. I purchased the OEM version (for installation > on a > new machine) instead of trying to upgrade my existing Windows XP > installation. > I was curious how my existing programs would work with it. Note that > while > Windows XP came on a CD (~ 650 MB), Vista comes on a DVD (~ 4.7 GB). But > I > digress... > > I have a homebrew computer with an Intel Core 2 Quad processor (Q6600), > 4GB of > RAM, an NVIDIA 8600 GTS video card and a Creative Audigy 4 sound card. > Another > reason for wanting to try Vista was that 32-bit operating systems can't > see all > of that 4GB of memory. Even though they support a 32-bit (4GB) address > space, > some of that address space is taken up by hardware. The motherboard/BIOS > has > the capability to remap that 4th GB of memory above the 32-bit address > space, > but older operating systems still can't see/use it. > > Anyway, the installation of Vista went fine, and I was fortunate that my > wireless networking device, video and sound cards all had downloadable > 64-bit > Vista drivers. I was especially worried about the wireless networking, > since > everything else kind of depended on my having a network! I still have a > few > driver issues but no show-stoppers. > > As far as software, my main applications like Eudora Mail and Quicken are > OK. > I can no longer install my Microsoft Visual .NET software, it's too old > (2002). > I downloaded a free "express" version of Visual C++ from Microsoft, but I > am > having some trouble converting my existing projects (file permission > problems > mostly). Also, my Unix-like Cygwin environment is a little unstable, this > is > the environment I use to maintain the country files, etc. > > Having said all this, I was able to get DX4WIN 7.03 installed and running. > I > installed the program as a user (myself). Every time I started the > program, I > got a warning about the "vichw11" driver. So I ran DX4WIN as an > Administrator > instead (right-click on the program icon and choose "Run as > Administrator") and > it was able to copy that driver into the Vista driver directory. Now the > program starts without errors (even as a user). > > I can manipulate my log and connect to packet (Telnet). I can't test > radios or > other interfaces because I am currently off-the-air. Also, I don't have > any > real COM ports, just a microHAM (USB) interface, which does not have Vista > driver support (yet). > > Vista does not seem any slower or faster than Windows XP, even though I'm > running the fancy "Aero" graphics desktop. Some things are in a different > place, "Add/Remove Programs" is now just "Programs <something>". User > Account > Control (which warns you when installing/running/uninstalling programs) is > a > little annoying, but no so much that I need to turn it off. I'd say the > biggest problems are driver and application support. Some program icons > just > disappear out of the system notification area on the taskbar. It's not > always > obvious whether the program is still running or not. I hope most of these > issues are resolved in the coming year. Intel is slowly killing off their > 32-bit processors, so software developers will have to move into the 21st > century sooner or later. > > I hope this report helps someone. I'm happy to try to answer > (non-hardware-specific) Vista questions off-reflector. > > 73 - Jim AD1C > > > -- > Jim Reisert AD1C, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, http://www.ad1c.us > _______________________________________________ > Dx4win mailing list > [email protected] > http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/dx4win
