Vista,,,,,Sucks (not Hal related)

[markofkane]

It's because of a strange problem: All my WMA's suddenly will not play on Vista, except those that come installed in Vista (The shared folders-music folder)

All of the WMA's I ripped from CD's suddenly will not play in Vista (this started yesterday morning)
I tried restoring my computer, I tried replaceing WMA's I backed up.

They are not protected, I never protect my music, because I don't think they would play when I restore my computer.

The notice is "You are attempting to play a file that does not match the file format ).wma) Are you sure you want to blah, blah.

I choose yes, I get an error about file being bad or no codec installed for that file.

So, I am in the process of re-ripping my CD's as mp3's.

All my mp3's and other formats play fine. It was just my WMA files I repped from my XP machine.

This is a warning. WMA is bad news!!
[!][!][!]

[markofkane]

BTW, the files play on my XP computers, so the files are good.

[Duskrider]

I'm glad you still got XP on some computer.
 
I think Art got a vista some months back and he bought a XP--CD and
installed it.

I'm thinking I'd like a new laptop come Christmas but not sure my Santa can afford it.  Also not sure I want vista but probably will do it.  
And my desktop still ok although about 6 years old.

[freddy888]

The more I hear about it, the more I become certain that I do not want to use Vista.

[markofkane]

Vista would be great if it weren't so screwy.

I got 2 XP machines (a lappy and a Desky) and another DT with vista.

I remember when I was new to computers and XP, I had many problems in the beginning, but that's because I was inexperienced with computers.

But Vista seems to have bugs that all haven't been fixed yet. It's great, when it works smoothly, I think Laura still can lipsync to British (I used Norton Ghost, the only Norton product I never regretted buying)

Speaking of Norton: Don't buy their other products, like Internet Security or 360, unless you plan to NEVER use system restore, or any other recovery program, including Ghost.

Symantec has a built-in thing that disables some of the features  if you use a recovery program , and you recover.

System restore does not work with Norton 360.

That was a huge mistake on my part for buying it. you are better with free programs that don't muck up your computer.

Norton is fine if you always do a clean install, or NEVER have to use a recovery program.

I'll sing the praises of Ghost, but that's the only Norton product I'll endorse.

As a person that likes to experiment, I must revert my computer to an earlier time if what I do causes problems, including installing rogue programs.

[GT40]

Another idea, without any guarantee, Mark:

- Reformat your drive.

- Install XP.

A Vista machine with XP as OS is a bomb! And imagine with W98SE. [8D]

[markofkane]

I would, GT 40, but I would have to buy XP. [][][]

I don't want to buy anymore OS's (unless it's an upgrade to Vista)

[Art]

Mark,

I feel your pain!

When I purchased my computer a year or so ago, it qualified for a free Vista Premium upgrade. I got it, installed it and aside from the eye candy / tricks and the fact that I thought the Anna TTS voice was a nice improvement, I removed it and did a system recover BACK to XP.
I did not have to buy an XP CD since it was held internally in a separate partition.

This was done even after checking for compatibility of existing hardware and software. Yes, I lost several programs in the process but luckily I had backups on an external HD. I couldn't even log onto my computer using my fingerprint scanner but was told that the company would be happy to sell me a new driver for it! Imagine that!

As for Norton, it is quite simply, a bloated, suite of so called "protection" that allowed a nasty virus to get through which hosed my system some years ago. After some frustrating efforts to finally remove all traces of it from my new computer, I then settled on an Anti-virus suite called Bit-Defender which has been ranked as one of the top three on the market. They had a special 2 computers for 2 years for 1 very reasonable price. I've never looked back. They may even have a better deal for those interested. Kaspersky is another fine AV program suite.

Vista was broken when it was released. XP still works well for most purposes. As I mentioned before, if one likes or wants some of the graphical bells and whistles without going the Vista route, try www.Desktop Sidebar.com, http://www.stardock.com/products/windowblinds/, http://www.winmatrix.com/, and many others.

I rebuilt my wife's old computer and installed Ubuntu and it absolutely SMOKES XP & VISTA in terms of speed, performance, graphics, functionality and cost! Ubuntu is absolutely FREE as is Open Office Suite and all the other apps regardless of type.

MS better watch out and they'd better hope Windows 7 is up to the challenge!

Here's wishing you better times, my friend!!

[One]

Mark,
all you need for an XP cd is the sticker with 5 sets of 4 characters from Microsoft.

A copy of XP will work but you need a different sticker for each machine. their should be one on each of your machines allready.

BTW, while I was "hiking" I did a performance test from a site that I thought I could trust and was pretty amazed... the only thing slow or lacking was my drive which I don't understand cause im using SATA drives , unless it tested my backup large drive which is ATA?

[markofkane]

I like to use Puppy Linux. However, it's a drag to give up programs that are windows or Mac only.

I got my printer to work with Puppy Linux the other day.

One, my XP copies are OEM for Dells, and I have a Compaq. The Dell OEM's probably won't work on a Compaq.

[freddy888]

I am thinking of trying one of the Ubuntu OS's either as a Live CD or maybe on a spare PC.  The more I hear about it the more interesting it seems.  My trouble so far with trying Linux is that some of my hardware doesn't get recognised.  I will keep experimenting though as I really don't like the sound of Vista.

[freddy888]

well now I have Mandriva Linux up and running and this version is working with all my hardware too.  I'm typing now from Firefox running on Linux.  Looks good so far, it's pretty intuitive and fast.  Could be faster too if I wasn't running it from CD. Hmm, I'll see how I get on.

[markofkane]

If I could run Hal on Linux, I would maybe got to Linux. I think maybe you can with a Windows emulator?

I like Puppy Linux. Seems like with Ubuntu, I couldn't get online.[?][?]

[Art]

I posted a long while back to see whether anyone had tried using WINE in an effort to get Hal running but never heard anything from anyone.

My second, rebuilt computer running Ubuntu is faster than my newer XP machine and Ubuntu's graphical desktop along with a few plug-ins completely blows windows away!

It's all good!

[One]

Hal might run on Fidora? (linux)[?]