Digit-Life Review: i3DSpeed, June 2008

Excerpt:
“The i3DSpeed project is dedicated to informing you about performance of a large number of graphics cards under Vista. Traditionally, we offer you performance charts of popular graphics cards and inform about best price/performance deals in the market.”

Article: http://www.digit-life.com/articles3/i3dspeed/0608/i0608-video-p1.html

Since I ran the comparisons on the service pack updates for Windows Vista and Windows XP I thought it might be interesting to combine those results into one brief article comparing the two and see how they stand up against each other. I had a few comments and emails about comparing them so I thought why not, and besides I was curious myself…

I’m using Vista presently as my main OS because it just seems quicker and snappier than XP does, but there are a few things that I’m still not happy with about Vista.

However, there are two main things I hate about Vista, the first is the new picture viewer, gone is Windows Picture and Fax Viewer which I really liked. I’ve read that I can get it back if I install Office 2003, but I’ve got 2007 installed and really don’t want to downgrade, honestly I don’t even use it I use Open Office for everything office related but it’s nice to have the functionality of Microsoft Office if I need it. The main problem I have with Windows Photo Gallery is the fact that each time I click on a picture it opens a new instance or window of it, doing reviews I take and look at hundreds of pictures and go through and delete those not needed or wanted. With Picture and Fax Viewer it opened in the same window for each picture I clicked and I truly liked that about it, but now I end up with numerous windows open and after a while the system actually slows down because of it. If anyone knows a fix for this please let me know it would be greatly appreciated.

The second complaint is renaming files, in XP I can sort through my pictures, re-arrange them in the order I want, select them all and hit rename, XP renames them sequentially for me the way I want them. When I do the same thing in Vista for whatever reason it decides to rearrange them as well, and it’s in no logical order from what I can see, it will move the last picture to the number one space and move a few others around as well. I can’t figure out what it’s doing or why it’s doing it, again here if anyone knows a fix for this please let me know…

Other than that I’m happy with Vista, so let’s just continue on to the comparison of the two in terms of performance in benchmarks and tests…

Read the Full Article HERE

TechwareLabs has published XP vs. Vista: An Objective Comparison. Here’s a clip from the article:

Quote: Are you in a toss up making a decision to stick with Windows XP, or go with Vista which is newer? We have a helpful objective comparison between these two operating systems from the Redmond giant. Take a glance at out 30,000 foot view of these two which may help make things clearer.

LINK: http://www.techwarelabs.com/articles/editorials/XP-vs-Vista/

Title: XP vs. Vista: An Objective Comparison @ TechwareLabs

Title: Vista vs Vista SP1 Comparison @ DragonSteelMods

Review Link:
http://www.dragonsteelmods.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=8389&Itemid=39

Review Snipit:
” So I was curious as to what enhancements or improvements to Vista came
with the Service Pack 1, and to satiate my curiosity I ran a bunch of
benchmarks just like I would with any ‘official’ review that I do to see
what if any differences there are between Vista and Vista with SP1
installed. I figure why let all of that work go to waste, why not make a
nice little article about it for my site to share with everyone.”

NEW CONTENT (News) - Windows Vista on Eee PC 1000H - will it work? (video)

QUOTE: “Alright folks, we’re back again! Windows XP is so yesterday… we couldn’t get really super downright excited about the new Eee PC 1000H until we installed Windows Vista Ultimate. So that’s just what we tried to do…

With Lite-On’s Blu-ray USB 2.0 drive in hand from a previous review, we set about trying to see if Vista will install on the new Atom 1.6GHz Eee. Play the video, will you? The actual real-world experience of Vista on the 1000H is surprisingly good – I expected it would be sluggish and slow but it’s actually quite smooth and that’s with ReadyBoost enabled we noted a slight improvement again. Keep in mind this is the Eee 80GB HDD version, the Eee PC 1000 with 40GB SSD should run even smoother.”

For more information, please visit: http://www.tweaktown.com/news/9678/win_vista_on_eee_pc_1000h_will_it_work_video/index.html

Best Regards,

The TweakTown Team
http://www.tweaktown.com

The “Windows” key (or Start key) was implemented on standard PC keyboards shortly after the release of Windows 95. I suppose Microsoft wanted to increase the Windows brand by implementing two new keys that would open up new features of their operating system. At the time, there were only five new features that the new key opened up, and these weren’t very useful.

For the most part, macros that use the Windows key are unconfigurable, and you must use the macros embedded within the OS. Windows Vista has added new features, allowing you quick shortcuts to some of Vista’s new features (and finally addressing macros that users have been requesting for years).

Review URL ::
http://www.ocmodshop.com/ocmodshop.aspx?a=1166

Windows Vista has had an interesting reception by the technology community, to say the least. People either like it or they hate it, or they think it is O.K. The road to Vista was several years in the making, and there are lots of interesting stories and tidbits about the OS that most people don’t know. We have a collection of very interesting tidbits about Vista (some of which we discovered ourselves).

You can have all the ladies crowd around you at the next geek party by sharing your infinite knowledge of Windows Vista Trivia. Trust me. If it doesn’t work, then dinner is on me…

On to the trivia!

Review URL ::
http://www.ocmodshop.com/ocmodshop.aspx?a=1169

TweakPC has posted a new article.

Titel:
Windows Vista Tuning & Tipps

Teaser:
We have updated our article about Windows Vista Tuning & Tipps.

Link:
http://www.tweakpc.de/tweaking/windows_vista_tuning/s01.php

Please note the little flag on the site for an automatic translation.

NEW CONTENT (Software) - ATI Catalyst 8.5 Analysis - XP & Vista

QUOTE: “We’re not far away from going ‘out with the old and in with the new’ as the launch of the 4k series of AMD graphics card close in upon us. This month, looking through the release notes for the latest incarnation of Catalyst drivers we see that a few performance increases have been promised.

Maybe AMD are hard at work on the 4k series of cards and have figured out how to extract some more power out of the aging 3k ones in the process. We’ll see if these performance increases translate to any of the games we use.”

For more information, please visit - http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/1437/ati_catalyst_8_5_analysis_xp_vista/index.html

Best Regards,

The TweakTown Team
http://www.tweaktown.com

Title: Futuremark 3DMark Vantage Article on Technic3D

Link: http://www.technic3d.com/article-663,1-futuremark-3dmark-vantage.htm

Google Translate

Quote: “Every year anew this does not exclusively refer to Christmas, but also to new benchmarks from Espoo, Finland, where the Futuremark guys come from. After releasing the last 3DMark in 2006 and starting a new category of benching with that combination of high performance graphics scenes, they today launched the new top of the class-benchmark with the 3DMark Vantage.”

Download-Link: http://www.technic3d.com/download-cat15.htm

NEW CONTENT (Software) - ATI Catalyst 8.4 Analysis - XP & Vista

QUOTE: “Another month, another set of Catalyst drivers. Last month we saw some issues with the HD 3870 X2, but hopefully this month we see those problems disappear. There isn’t much in the read me file and the majority of adjustments seem to be related to bug fixes.

With the same test system that we’ve been using for the last few months, we’ll just get straight into it and see what the latest Catalyst release brings us.”

For more information, please visit - http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/1395/ati_catalyst_8_4_analysis_xp_vista/index.html

Best Regards,

The TweakTown Team
http://www.tweaktown.com

There are a few shell and desktop enhancements for Windows Vista. These third-party shells run in place of Explorer, which sometimes require registry edits or other tweaks to get working. Did you know what you can kill Explorer and test a new shell without rebooting Vista?

Many people just to go Task Manager and kill explorer.exe, but if you do this then Explorer may start up automatically again. There is also a quick and dirty way of exiting Explorer, allowing you to test a few shells before deciding which one to install.

This tip can also be handy if your system is just acting “wonky”. If a file copy is hung, or your network is slow, then a reset of Explorer may be just what the doctor ordered.

Review URL ::
http://www.ocmodshop.com/ocmodshop.aspx?a=1092

As storage has gotten more expansive, Microsoft has gotten very good at unnecessarially using up this extra space. One of the biggest storage hogs is System Restore, which was rather easy to modify in Windows XP. In Windows Vista, there is no easy way to change the amount of space that System Restore uses, so Vista is likely keeping the restore point from the time you wiped your butt with a new roll of TP.

In Windows Vista, the storage problem has gotten even worse, because Vista now has found a way to bloat even System Restore. The new feature is called Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS), which enhances System Restore by making backup copies of deleted or changed files. Most of these “shadow copies” cannot be deleted: they just take up space for no reason whatsoever.

Fortunately, there is a command line utility that will allow you change the amount of space Windows Vista uses for Restore Points and Shadow Copies, and is called the vssadmin.exe (Volume Shadow Copy Service Admin).

Review URL ::
http://www.ocmodshop.com/ocmodshop.aspx?a=1105

Task Manager is usually disabled using a Group Policy, so if you’re a home user and cannot run Task Manager by any means, then you may be the victim of a trojan virus. Companies may implement a domain policy that prevents execution of the Task Manager (else you could discover all of the Big Brother software they’re using on you), so check with your IT department if you experience this on a work computer. One way to test this is to login to your local machine account rather than the domain and see how much access is restricted.

If Task Manager is disabled, then you will not be able to access it by any means. It will be “greyed out” on your taskbar, the option to run Task Manager will disappear when you press “Ctrl+Alt+Del”, and will refuse to run by typing “taskman” in a Run dialog box.

Review URL ::
http://www.ocmodshop.com/ocmodshop.aspx?a=1098

Newsflash: Windows Vista SP1 is here!

The much anticipated release of Vista SP1 is slated for release today, and
while many are waiting for that to pop up as an optional download on Windows
Update, the full standalone installer is now available for 32-bit and 64-bit
editions of the OS.

http://www.techspot.com/news/29408-windows-vista-sp1-is-here.html

Just wanted to drop a word about the latest additions to our downloads section.

Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (x32/x64)

Microsoft claims that Windows Vista is the most stable version of their OS yet… so stable that you may not ever see the dreaded BSOD (or Blue Screen of Death). Some of the development staff may have been so nostalgic over their lost Blue Friend that they included a hidden way to raise it from the depths.

Before you begin thinking that this is an awesome trick to play on your co-workers (and it is), there actually is a legitimate use for this “feature”. Developers can use this trick to artificially creat a memory dump for testing purposes. But it’s much more fun for Linux and Mac evangelists to “demonstrate” how fragile Windows can be.

Once you enable this feature, you’ll be able to create a BSOD at any time by pressing a certain key combination on your keyboard.

Review URL ::
http://www.ocmodshop.com/ocmodshop.aspx?a=1100

CUPERTINO, Calif., March 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Trend Micro Incorporated , a global leader in Internet content security, announced today the release of a version update to its 2008 consumer products: Trend Micro(TM) Internet Security Pro, Trend Micro(TM) Internet Security 2008 and Trend Micro(TM) AntiVirus plus AntiSpyware 2008. The latest versions take full advantage of Windows Vista(TM) Service Pack 1 (SP1).
“Trend Micro has worked closely with Microsoft to ensure our security products are optimized for Windows Vista SP1,” said Carol Carpenter, vice president of consumer marketing and product management for Trend Micro. “Our goal is to protect consumers who use Windows against identity theft, malware and the latest Web threats.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Even if you have a “semi-closed” system like a laptop, there are many drivers that get installed for even the simplest of “add-on” devices. Have you noticed that plugging in a USB drive prompts Windows to find the proper drivers? For general hardware like USB and hard drives, the OS uses Microsoft’s default drivers that ship with the OS, so this usually isn’t a problem. But you may have noticed that if you plug the same USB drive into a different USB port that Windows may “reinstall” the driver?

Fortunately you can compile a list of all the drivers installed on your system (including drivers not in use and “signed” drivers). This list will even give you the driver’s files, name, description, version, and tons of other useful information. You can even export the data in nearly any raw format, such as a comma-delimited file (CSV), table, or a simple list. You can even extract this information from other computers on your network (provided you have access rights). This tool can be invaluable not only to the IT professional, but home users as well.

Review URL ::
http://www.ocmodshop.com/ocmodshop.aspx?a=1102

If you’re a power-user, then you like to execute tasks in the quickest way possible. One of Vista’s tools that is greatly under-used is the Address bar, and it can do alot more than just search Indexed locations. It can be used as a Run dialog, Search, as well as a browser.

If you have a high-resolution display (and who doesn’t nowadays), then you can make full use of this multi-purpose tool, and it can take up as much or as little desktop space as you want. Having it always available saves you from having to click on the Start button, and you can browse through your history of previous web pages, searches, and commands.

Review URL ::
http://www.ocmodshop.com/ocmodshop.aspx?a=1103

NEW CONTENT (News) - Vista update KB940510 detects “bad” OS

QUOTE: “We were just sent some details by a reader who said that he just installed Windows Vista update KB940510, which seems to have appeared just this last week or so.

This update is a “sniffer” which detects activation exploits that bypass product activation such as Paradox OEM BIOS Emulator and TimerStop grace period stopper.”

For more information, please visit - http://www.tweaktown.com/news/9133/vista_update_kb940510_detects_bad_os/index.html

Best Regards,

The TweakTown Team
http://www.tweaktown.com

TechwareLabs has published an Unbiased Look at Windows Vista.  Here’s a clip from the editorial:

Quote: We recently took an unbiased look at Windows Vista to bring you what we felt were the advantages and disadvantages of this still relatively new operating system. Is Vista for you? Or should you stick to windows XP? read our review to help make the decision.

LINK:
http://www.techwarelabs.com/articles/software/windows_vista

Title:
An Unbiased Look at Windows Vista @ TechwareLabs

NEW CONTENT (Software) - ATI Catalyst 8.3 Analysis - XP & Vista

QUOTE: “The first thing we did when we obtained the latest driver release from AMD was to test out the Crossfire X capabilities with a pair of HD 3870 X2 cards. With that out the way it’s time to test the latest driver in the typical fashion.

This is a pretty good driver as far as performance increases go for Vista users. Crysis sees a very nice bump in performance and so does UT3. CINEBENCH also sees gains but the OpenGL increase isn’t carried over to our OpenGL based game Enemy Territory: Quake Wars.”

For more information, please visit - http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/1327/ati_catalyst_8_3_analysis_xp_vista/index.html

Best Regards,

The TweakTown Team
http://www.tweaktown.com

There’s lots of little files accumulating on your computer… like bacteria. Every time you browse the interenet, little bits of data are saved onto your hard drive.

Every browser has an interface to clean up all of these files, but you have to go to several differnent places to clean them all up… which is very tedious if you like to clear this out frequently. Fortunately, all of these functions are available via the command line, which means you can automate all of these tasks. You can integrate this batch file with your existing logon or logoff scripts, or just have the file on your desktop for one-click cleanup!

Review URL ::
http://www.ocmodshop.com/ocmodshop.aspx?a=907