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I got the final copy of Vista Home Premium Update to install on my Mac with Boot Camp. But it wasn’t without casualties. Here’s some things that didn’t go well and others that did with the Driver Disk. Apple, take notes.
- The installation stopped before finishing.
- I can’t seem to get Bluetooth to work. Windows doesn’t seem to see any Bluetooth antenna.
- The ATI stuff seemed to have installed. The shortcut on the desktop works but I got an error message. I think it was for the Control Panel elements. They redid some stuff in the CP that probably made the ATI stuff incompatible.
- Keyboard Support got installed. I hate that the French keyboard settings only applies to French French keyboards, not Canadian French keyboard support, like my MacBook Pro’s.
- The SigmaTel Audo control panel installed well but requires a UAC intervention to launch.
What you saw during the latest Get a Mac ad (Security) is true. I have seen it when testing early versions of Vista and it’s sad to say it’s still here. It is the wrinkle on a new shirt, the hole in your favorite pair of pants. It’s User Account Control. It is the most annoying addition I have used in Vista. And It works in such a way that is defies it’s very purpose.
First off, UAC isn’t as awful as the ad shows. It’s useless but you aren’t required to accept every single action. To better understand, let’s investigate some situations.
Let’s say you want to create a new account on your computer. In the User Accounts section of the Control Panel, you select Manage another account. The screen dims and a single dialogue box comes up, asking you to confirm that action. How about enter the System Properties panel ( Computer name, allow Remote Assistance, etc.) or Parental Controls. You need to confirm. Really, it’s only the real important settings that require you to confirm. What happens if you need to run a program as an administrator? You get UACed every time you open the program. The ultimate sign of UAC is a small quad-coloured shield. Whenever you see this, you will have to confirm your actions.
That’s OK, right? How about we download Yahoo! Messenger (not the cool, upcoming Vista version). I decide to run and not download the software. The download is complete and I’m required to confirm the use of some Yahoo! program. Something crashes and Windows offers me to restart the install with better compatibility settings. I’m then asked if I want to open the file. I have to confirm again. It crashes again… OK, let’s try something else. Let’s try Skype. I choose run again. I get UACed again. OneCare, Microsoft’s paid-for security program, asks me if I want to unblock the firewall. I need to confirm this. It asks me again (maybe for something different) but doesn’t UAC me again. This might seem reasonable but think, you get all these messages, day after day, seeming all alike. You don’t read them anymore. Clicking Continue has become as automatic as entering a password.
As if the simple fact of having to confirm actions annoys you, do not operate Vista under a normal account and not an administrator account. Think of all those boxes. Then think not just pressing a button but imputing an administrator password every time.
What can you do about it? Keep it or leave it. You can deactivate. Or not.
“You are coming to a sad realisation. Cancel or Allow?”
The new Get a Mac ad is both the funniest and the most truthful. God, are thoes new boxes in Vista useless and annoying.
I finished laughing in the faces of the Mac Gods yesterday, in other words, installing Vista Home Premium on my Mac. I have a license for the update version and I decided to add more space to my Windows partition so I had to redo the XP install and then install Vista now that you can’t do a clean install strait to Vista with an upgrade license (You can refuse input your key at the install, though, but I haven’t tested that out), and you need to launch the installation from within XP. So I reinstalled XP but as far I could tell, I didn’t activate it before installing Vista. Now I might be wrong or I might have missed something but if someone could test this out again, this might be an interesting hole in the update process.
