Vista OS is a challenge

mary651 · 26th October 2008

Have a desktop using XP and also just bought a HP Pavillion Notebook using Vista. Has been a challenge to figure out some of the new programs and how to use some of the options of the OS. I have been trying out the Speech Recognition capability, but it will only work with windows programs. Mainly use Thunderbird email, so had to setup Windows Mail so I could send emails with that program. Happy to join WindowsBBS as I will be needing some help with Vista now and then. Thank you for the opportunity to join the forum.

**MitchellCooley** · 26th October 2008

Reading through the Vista forum will provide lots of useful information. Vista is a bit of a learning curve but well worth the time and effort.

Mitch

mary651 · 28th October 2008

Mitch,
Thanks for your reply. I will view all of the entries on the Vista forum for ideas on how to use the OS. There has been so many anti-Vista comments about the OS that it is was quite scary. I did some research on the possibility of installing XP instead on my notebook, but found that everything I read pointed to the fact that if I did, the graphics and video card would not work anymore. I have resolved to just get used to the new format and really am not having a lot of problems with and I kind of like some of the features.
Mary

**MitchellCooley** · 28th October 2008

Mary

Oh, it'll grow on ya. I think you'll find a lot of the "problems" are from new installs replacing another OS. I don't think there have been a lot of problems with "pre-installed" software except when folks start adding new hardware or software etc.

I think you'll like it. I'll never go back to XP - I really don't miss it.

Mitch

hawk22 · 28th October 2008

Hi mary, I also have both XP and Vista except my Vista is a testing setup only. I have been installing all sorts of software to try out I installed my Canon 8200 Scanner about 5 years old and it works just great. Up to now I have not been able to throw anything at it that would cause it to crash I have done many installs then uninstall used the Auslogics Defrag works great with Vista.
Just like Mitch says the more you use it the more you like it.
hawk22

mary651 · 29th October 2008

Mitch and Hawk22,

Thanks for replying, it is greatly appreciated.

I really had a challenge when I tried to get the wireless network to let me send printing from the Vista Notebook to my XP desktop printer. I worked on it for a couple of weeks and then I found the answer to the problem at a different forum. I thought it had something to do with the differences between the two OS, but it wasn't that. For some reason I had to make it a local printer to get it to work. If anyone has this problem please contact me and I will send the solution. When you have challenges like this, you learn a lot by just experimenting and trying to solve the problems. I really do like challenges.

The only person that I know that had a real problem with Vista on her laptop was my daughter. She has a 2G and Vista downloaded an update and her system crashed. She was so disgusted with it that she had her husband(who is a real computer guy) delete the OS and install Linux on her laptop. Concerning the computer, she really doesn't like to be challenged. She just asks her husband to take care of it.
Mary

Markala · 26th November 2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by mary651

Mitch and Hawk22,

Thanks for replying, it is greatly appreciated.

I really had a challenge when I tried to get the wireless network to let me send printing from the Vista Notebook to my XP desktop printer. I worked on it for a couple of weeks and then I found the answer to the problem at a different forum. I thought it had something to do with the differences between the two OS, but it wasn't that. For some reason I had to make it a local printer to get it to work. If anyone has this problem please contact me and I will send the solution. When you have challenges like this, you learn a lot by just experimenting and trying to solve the problems. I really do like challenges.

The only person that I know that had a real problem with Vista on her laptop was my daughter. She has a 2G and Vista downloaded an update and her system crashed. She was so disgusted with it that she had her husband(who is a real computer guy) delete the OS and install Linux on her laptop. Concerning the computer, she really doesn't like to be challenged. She just asks her husband to take care of it.
Mary

Hi Mary, I had a problem getting my networked printer to work. I solved it by installing the driver on my laptop and then I set up the printer sharing. I'd be interesting to see your solution of making it a local printer so I'll take you up on your offer. Please send me the solution, Thank you.

As for learning Vista, I learned a lot by reading Windows Vista for Dummies and yes, I now like vista better than XP. I've been able to do a few things with it that I could not accomplish with XP. The closest I have come to a problem is I cannot share files from the desktop to the laptop, but it's not a major issue because I can share files from the laptop to the desktop.

mary651 · 27th November 2008

Markala,
Thank you for responding. If you have found any special things about Vista that you would like to share, it would be helpful to hear about them. I don't think I can attach a file on this site so I will copy and paste it. Hope this will help someone:

I had the same problem and here’s what I did to fix it.
Go to Control Panel. Choose printer Then choose Add Printer.
Choose Add a local printer. Click on Create a new port. The default in the drop down box is Local Port. Do not change that. Click next.
A dialogue box will appear asking for you to enter a port name. Type in the \\computer name\printer name ie: \\maryscomputer\HPOffice.
Yahoo! It worked. Go figure! I guess Microsoft thinks printers on a intranet are local.
I hope this helps, I scoured many forums before finding this fix. Microsoft’s support docs and HP’s tech support were no help.

Will look forward to hearing from you on tips for Vista.
mary651