Almost installed Vista

Abe Olandres Editor-in-chief November 8, 2006 · 2 min read

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Yeah, I almost installed Windows Vista.

Anton gave me his copy of Windows Vista Beta 2 which is part of Microsoft’s Customer Preview Program. He got it from the Microsoft CIO Summit he attended the other week (see Microsoft Loves you with Vista & Office at PTB).

He thought I might have good use of it since I just bought a new Core 2 Duo laptop. And I thought it would be fun to test it with my new rig.

So. there I was preparing the System Recovery disks (2 DVDs) before I upgrade to Vista. Been trying to finish the backup process but it failed at least 3 times. All this time, I was just staring at the 2 DVDs contemplating which one to install — the x86 32-bit version or the x64 64-bit version.

Windows Vista

I rarely read manuals and stuff and I always rely on on-screen wizards but because I was kinda frustrated with the repeated backups, I glanced on the inside cover of the DVD.

Then, I saw this — This is a time-limited pre-release software and will expire on June 1, 2007.

I stopped, canceled the backup and said never mind.

P.S.
The kit also contains a unique product key. Will I be able to use this with the final release? No? Okay….

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Abe Olandres

Editor-in-chief

Abe is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of YugaTech with over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. He is one of the pioneers of blogging in the country and is considered by many as the Father of Tech Blogging in the Philippines.

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20 Comments

Miguel · 20 years ago

I downloaded the DVD image but backed out. Didn’t want to break my working PC.

Instead I installed Ubuntu and Solaris.

Carlo · 20 years ago

Yup @jhay, Good thing there’s Ubuntu. The 6.10 Edgy Eft have great new features including th GNOME 2.16 :) Ubuntu stopped shipping free CDs but you can request for a small fee that will handle the shipping :D But still, a robust operating system that’s free!

J. Angelo Racoma · 20 years ago

I’m sticking to Tiger. And I’m in eager anticipation for Leopard next year! :P

jhay · 20 years ago

I’m with Ade, I can only imagine how the ordinary Pinoy could afford a system that is Vista-capable. The first time I saw the bare minimum specs, I nearly fell off my chair. It’s no different from building a high-end gaming rig.

It’s a good thing there’s Ubuntu Linux. :D

jun · 20 years ago

i also noticed a problem with networking. there were times when i couldn’t locate anyone on my network, weird, since i had no problem with xp before.

Carlo · 20 years ago

Windows Vista is quite good however, it’s really a memory hog. I installed it on my Desktop and while Idle it still consumes 512MB of memory. That’s really a hog. MS Office 2007 have many great features but then again it uses a lot of memory which causes the computer to slowdown.

Microsoft already started shipping Vista to corporate customers. We already received an advice from M$ that they will be shipping our copy of Vista early December. I hope the final release is far better than RC1 & RC2.

Kiven · 20 years ago

been running Build 5600 for quite a while now, with the newer builds on some of my machines. still a resource hog.

take the rc for what it is, an evaluation version. i would never run it on a production machine but its fun to tinker with it on a side machine.

take note that vista will be the future platform for PC gaming with dx10 and beyond (?) unless youre just into solitaire, minesweeper and ports of a handful of games.

Bob · 20 years ago

I installed Vista RC1 and tested it. After 2 hours I went back to my Mepis Linux install that was previously on the machine.

Yawn!

ade · 20 years ago

Although I can’t wait for Vista to come out, I’m already an Ubuntu convert.

jun · 20 years ago

abe, i’ve tried vista beta 1, beta 2 as well as rc1 and rc2. it looks cool but don’t even bother. i guess i’m gonna wait for the first service pack to come along before upgrading. the product key will work only on pre-release versions. u can use it on a maximum of 10 pcs.