Archive for the 'Beta Software' Category

The new Windows Update interface for Windows Vista is quite nice. Depending on your settings (as it was with Windows XP) the Windows Update program will either: 1) alert you as to new Updates (Allowing you to download and install them at your leisure), 2) automatically download the updates or 3) automatically download and install the updates. I’ve chosen the second option for my setup.

Windows update presents everything you need to know (current settings, pending installs, options to view install histories) in a single window, which is nice. The install history is a good feature, just in case you didn’t review what each patch and hotfix does before you installed it (and you *do* review them all, don’t you? ) Installing is a breeze, just push a button, and the patches (or the selected patches) install.
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So I have hit a snag with Windows Vista. Not a huge one, but a snag nonetheless.

Windows Vista does not properly support OpenGL. I had been using the -opengl switch with World Of Warcraft to get better frame rates out of Windows XP, and assumed the same would happen under Windows Vista. This is not the case.

A little back story about Microsoft and OpenGL.

All previous versions of Windows that “support” OpenGL have basically an old, crippled version by default running independently of DirectX. OpenGL 1.4 without extensions is what MS packages with Windows. The good part is that ATI and Nvidia add an OpenGL driver with their installs, so games and programs can use the current OpenGL 2.0 with extensions.

With Windows Vista, MS is having OpenGL run on top of DirectX 10. This is reducing the performance of OpenGL by as much as 50% (by some estimates.) Microsoft hasn’t shared any information to ATI and Nvidia on how to override this default OpenGL so they can have a separate OpenGL 2.0 driver for programs to use.

By removing the -opengl option from World Of Warcraft, I increased the frame rate by quite a bit.

It’s a bit of an underhanded move, forcing any 3D program under Vista to use DirectX for the best performance. Hopefully MS will allow a 3rd party OpenGL 2.0 driver to be installed.

Edit!

I found the following in the abstract for the current Nvidia ForceWare Drivers for Windows Vista x86:

Release Highlights:

* These drivers are tested for use only with Microsoft Windows Vista Beta2 only. Click here to download Windows Vista Beta 2.
* Includes OpenGL driver for compatibility testing.

So hopefully they get the OpenGL drivers in better shape for better performance!

Here are some more screenshots of interesting Windows Vista features.

First, the new Alt+Tab dialog box:

As with the 3D task switcher, this one shows live previews of each window (so the progress bar is animated in the thumbnail preview of my file transfer.)
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Here are the screenshots of Windows Vista I promised yesterday.

First off, the per-application volume control:

You can see that I have the volume for World Of Warcraft and Teamspeak higher than the Windows Default sounds. A handy little feature.
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A feature that I discovered last night that is pretty nice is per-application volume control. If an app is open (let’s say, Teamspeak) you can set it’s volume independently from the Windows Default Beep volume. I was worried when I opened the volume control and only saw two sliders, but after opening Teamspeak a third one appeared. I’m going to try and take some screenshots tonight to post tomorrow highlighting some of the neat features of Vista.

So when I wasn’t running around being social this weekend (that post is for another blog), I was playing with my new install of Windows Vista Beta 2. Here are some of my findings: Read the rest of this entry »

My venerable old Windows XP workstation has received a temporary upgrade in the OS department… Windows Vista has been installed!

The only snafu’s have been the normal ones… For some reason no version of windows wants to recognize my Promise Ultra133 IDE card during install. The post-install configure tool found 90% of the hardware installed on the system, which was a surprise. A very smooth install overall.

The first thing you notice about the OS is the Glitz [TM], but once you get used to it you start to notice the little things. A searchable Start menu, for instance. The iconified Alt+Tab menu. Even the security alerts aren’t bothering me (yet)… it’s nice to know what’s happening on the system.

I’ll likely post more impressions after I’ve used the OS for a bit longer, but so far Vista is scoring good points in my books.