Drew Wutka
DWUTKA at Marlow.com
Thu Mar 19 17:48:49 CDT 2009
Ironically, I just moved my laptop back to Vista. When I bought it (almost exactly a year ago), it came with Vista. Being an IT guy, I figured I might as well have something with Vista on it, to get used to it. First thing I ran into a problem was that Office 97 wouldn't install. Well, I have a TON of 97 .mdb's, especially ones with web interfaces, so I had to have Access 97. I use Virtual PC a lot, but I didn't want to have to bring up a virtual machine every time I needed Access 97 (because it happens a lot, and usually isn't planned....). So I immediately wiped my laptop, and went with Windows XP. Now back in December, I replaced 4 SCSI drives in my main desktop, with 4 SATA drives. On my main work desktop, every since Windows 2000 came out, I've run a Server OS on my desktop, so that I could mirror my C drive. I had bought all the components and built this current desktop a year ago (right before I got my new laptop), and it's motherboard had a SATA Raid controller on it. So in December, when I put in my SATA drives, I realized that I no longer needed a Server OS to have fault tolerance on my desktop drives. So I did a striped mirror (giving me a 320 gig fault tolerant drive (4x 160 drives)), and I thought to myself...hmmmm, I can put any OS on here I want, and it's even a 64 bit processor! So I installed Vista Business 64 bit, with SP1.....and WOW! Turned of UAC. That is a pain, but it's not hard to turn off. Had two software packages I can't install, Toad (for our production database, which I'm not in charge of, so I hardly use Toad anymore anyways, and it was the 64 bit part, not Vista, that was the issue) and our Hours program (old dos based program, crashes with the 64 bit...don't care, can use it in a Remote Desktop session on our terminal server when I need it once a week.). Things I like about Vista: Performance!!!! I can be actually using my desktop in about 30 to 45 seconds after I hit the power button, and a good 15 seconds of that is the BIOS booting up (can't seem to get it not to try the network boot). Once I log in, it takes about 5 seconds to get a desktop and once that is on the screen, I can start working, while vista is loading everything else. With almost no delay! File transfers: You can click 'more details' when you are transferring files, and it will show you how much is left to copy, in actual size. Very nice. I do a lot of big file copies, and that's handy to have. The look: Having a visual representation of how much drive space you have is kind of nice. Aero is pretty slick, especially if you have a video card that can handle it. Sidebar: I have some handy gadgets, and with Windows Key - Space bar bringing the sidebar up to the front, it's very handy. Much more intuitive: On my laptop (which I just put Vista back on this weekend (because Office 97 will install with vista SP1), when I installed Palm Desktop 6.2 (for my Palm TX), to sync with Bluetooth was a simple checkbox, no setting up a virtual com port, etc. Searching: The Vista search is very powerful! Vista OS native capabilities: Burning data to CDs\DVDs. Speech Recognition. On my laptop, to connect with a VPN while logging in is a snap. Now....Access 2007...that's a different story, played with it few a few minutes, and wiped out that virtual machine.... ;) Drew -----Original Message----- From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Paul Rodgers Sent: Thursday, March 19, 2009 4:17 PM To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving Subject: Re: [AccessD] FMS Article on the new features in Access 2007 Couldn't agree more, David. My latest laptop came with 2007 - fortunately not the dreaded Vista - and I did try to cope with Access2007. But I found it hardly worth the challenge of learning the whole program over again when the new version offered so little improvement. For me as an occasional user - MySql is my main thing - I decided it simply wasn't worth the worry. I took 2007 off the machine and replaced it with 2003. Was I wrong to do that? I don't think so, but just in case I am going to a short course on converting to 2007 at the local college next week - with an open mind. But the lecturer will have to be very convincing, I confess, for me to replace it. In the thick of trying to sort out Access 2007, before I did myself the real favour of removing it, I really felt we had been betrayed by Microsoft. All the best paul The information contained in this transmission is intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain II-VI Proprietary and/or II-VI Business Sensitive material. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender immediately and destroy the material in its entirety, whether electronic or hard copy. You are notified that any review, retransmission, copying, disclosure, dissemination, or other use of, or taking of any action in reliance upon this information by persons or entities other than the intended recipient is prohibited.