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[Southcross]

I installed MS Vista (ya I know  ) on my laptop, using the Microsoft Vista COA on the bottom.... go to activate windows and I get the message "invalid certificate, call MS and buy a new one..." FUCKERS

anywaysies, I know there are hacks/cracks to Activate, and the Windows Genuine Advantage cracks... I've never needed them before, where the fuck do I find them?

[Luckyy]

What version of vista?

Most OS cracks nowaday are paired, you not only need a crack fix things up but you need to run it on a cracked install, so your best bet is going to be pirating a whole new install, burning your own boot cd, then cracking. Should be easy enough to find on isohunt or demonoid, just make sure you give anything you download a good scan before you go installin'.

[Southcross]

What version of vista?

Most OS cracks nowaday are paired, you not only need a crack fix things up but you need to run it on a cracked install, so your best bet is going to be pirating a whole new install, burning your own boot cd, then cracking. Should be easy enough to find on isohunt or demonoid, just make sure you give anything you download a good scan before you go installin'.

bah... what a PITA, I'll just wait the 7-10 days for my DVD from Toshiba to come, and not have to deal with cracks and having to find & install all my drivers

edit...
well, my Vista install is good for 30 days without activation... so I'll just limp along on it, learning it (long time Xp user)

[boner]

why didnt you just skip vista and go to 7

[Southcross]

why didnt you just skip vista and go to 7

*sigh*  because the laptop has a Vista COA and I am NOT FUCKING PAYING FOR 7, Ubuntu FTMFW

[scurvy_bandit]

kubuntu or even fedora.   They are all nice.

[Southcross]

I plan to run dual boot... say 80-100GB (of 250GB) dedicated to a windows partition... for any "windows only" applications.  The rest will all dedicated to Linux.  Fuck, I'd install XP for the windows partition but the laptop was built for Vista, and my XP install CDs won't recognize the HD/HD Controller.

[Smokestack]

I don't have too many issues with Vista on my machine, but it is porky and has it's quirks. I have a dual boot setup using SUSE Linux but I don't use it much for a really dumb reason. The mouse scroll wheel pisses me off. It takes forever to scroll down to the bottom of a page with it, and changing the "settings" for it doesn't seem to help much. Got a bunch of windows programs running on Wine though (MS Office 07, Visual Basic, Visual C++, Warcraft III, etc.). One of these days I'll try to fix it again, but right now I'm hoping an update will give me the control I want. Till then I'll slug away with Vista, or Win 7.

[LOS]

I have 7 on my new laptop and I love it.  Never had vista, but all the bs I heard about it, this is pretty stable and haven't had a problem.

[scurvy_bandit]

my vista laptop is much more slower than my Ubuntu one... the Ubuntu laptop flies!

[sad_rocc]

7 is 8 billion times better than Vista. If you have the hardware to handle it, and spend some time learning how to turn on/off features, I think you'll really like it. It is considerably faster to boot than Vista, takes up about the same space, runs using less memory and will increase notebook battery life. I have a crapload of Win 7 RTC disks if anyone is interested. I dunno if they are expired or good for 1yr from activation tho.

[scurvy_bandit]

Odile bought a netbook with 7 basic... it seems ok, but sucks because she cant even change her wallpaper. All of the options are non-existent with the basic version

[Southcross]

I'd consider using 7 if it came free with the computer.... but alas, getting a laptop 2nd hand (with a dead HD) for free doesn't qualify you for a Free Upgrade to 7... nor can I confirm if the laptop is even capable of running 7.  there is a "serial number" decoder on the Toshiba website that tells you if the laptop is 7 ready (i.e. Toshiba support & drivers)... haven't really cared to flip the laptop over to find out

Two things Vista has going against it... the biggest gripe: shitty gaming support, and DRM issues early on... oh and some complaints about running the MegaSquirt tuning software.  three things I won't honestly care about, as none of the above affect me, I have a laptop dedicated to tuning MS.  Also, 1.6ghz DuoCore w/ 2gb ram running Vista is a shit ton faster than a PIII 750 w/ 384mb ram running XP LOL!

[sad_rocc]

1 of the coolest features of 7 is XP mode. It's a virtual desktop that allows you to run anything non-compatible within XP.

As for 7 Basic, it's probably called Win 7 Starter. It pretty much blows. http://www.liberteks.com/inthenews.cfm
Halfway down the page you'll see an article about it comparing it to XP. Often you get downgrade rights.

[Southcross]

As for 7 Basic, it's probably called Win 7 Starter.

Windows "Basic" was the starter package Microsoft promotes... the Windows "Starter" package as I have read in press-releases was a version meant for PCs/Laptops being marketed toward emerging markets (i.e. 3rd world countries), primarily the "one child one laptop" (or visa versa??) initiative.

[sad_rocc]

It also comes on the cheapest netbooks because it requires so little and most netbooks have so little hardware.

[Southcross]

It also comes on the cheapest netbooks because it requires so little and most netbooks have so little hardware.

oi.... only thing (almost?) worse than Microsoft OS's is a laptop full of "trial versions" of software...

I need recomendations of a "Vista Compatible" Anti-Virus, and not MacAff'malware, and doesn't rape the pocket for $50+ a year for service

[Smokestack]

I need recomendations of a "Vista Compatible" Anti-Virus, and not MacAff'malware, and doesn't rape the pocket for $50+ a year for service

I have always had good luck with Windows Defender. Yes it's a Microsoft product, but it's free and it works good. After all it is in Microsoft's best interest to protect their own software from attack.

[Southcross]

I need recomendations of a "Vista Compatible" Anti-Virus, and not MacAff'malware, and doesn't rape the pocket for $50+ a year for service

I have always had good luck with Windows Defender. Yes it's a Microsoft product, but it's free and it works good. After all it is in Microsoft's best interest to protect their own software from attack.

vary vary interesting... . http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/defender/default.mspx

but no AV support?

[Southcross]

wow... followed a few links from the Defender page, came across this "free" version that gets 5-stars from CNet:
http://download.cnet.com/Avast-Free-Antivirus/3000-2239_4-10019223.html?tag=mncol

[sad_rocc]

Yeah, Avast is pretty commonly used and recommended. A decent amount of stuff will slip by it, but the same can be said about a lot of AV. Then again, the price is right. I use it at home, my only complaint is the web scanner slows things down a little bit and it seems to scan every program you open. There is constantly a slight delay while the taskbar icon spins around.

Defender is a software firewall.

[Southcross]

I don't do a ton of "risky" trolling on a laptop, especially at work LOL!  I'm just primarily getting the basics down.  The computer at home is behind hardware FW and running Sym Corp (too bad the version I have doesn't support Vista )

[VWO4L]

I have used Avast on one of my computers for the past few years.  I also have used AVG Free on another computer.  I didn't have any real issues with either except there was a time that AVG kept trying to update and failing.  I had to uninstall/reinstall it and it worked fine after that. 

I recently uninstalled AVG on one of the computers though since I also get Norton AV free with my Comcast service and finally decided to use it.

[{OF}Erad]

Free, from Microsoft, Anti-Virus...  works great:

http://www.microsoft.com/Security_Essentials/

 

[Southcross]

Free, from Microsoft, Anti-Virus...  works great:

http://www.microsoft.com/Security_Essentials/

 

dang.. missed the "viruses" part, I only saw that it protects against Malware/etc