Windows Vista RTM

[schmosef]

Seems to have been quietly released on MSDN.

Get it while it's hot!

[KeiFront]

It was released last Friday .

I test-drived it a couple of times this week just lacking time to use Vista a bit more. The RTM build is much better then RC1 at least it feels a lot faster, I never installed RC2 so I can’t compare RC2 with the RTM build.

There are still some bugs left and inconsistencies in the UI. I managed to crash the installer . Autostart always says that my usb-stick is unformatted although it works fine if I explore it with explorer, etc. So I still got a feeling they rushed Vista.

So far I haven’t formed a final opinion yet; I need to spend more time with it first.

[agallag]

I've been running it since last friday full time. Overall, it's pretty stable. Like KF said, there are some small issues (I had the same problem with my SD card reader). I'm glad I built the dual core system for this, it really chews up CPU and RAM resources. I may throw it on my HTPC box in a few weeks. Single core, but still 2GB RAM, so hopefully it'll manage ok.

[uberlad]

My HTPC is running RC2 with only 768Mb RAM and is pretty happy. Most of my problems seemed to be related to some motherboard settings fighting with the GFX card.

I am seriously considering actually buying Vista for the HTPC box when it's out.

RTM is only for full MSDN peeps, right?

Uberlad

[agallag]

It's available for MSDN Universal and TechNet Plus subscribers right now. It'll be available to large enterprises in the Volume License program at the end of this month.

[Jammrock]

It's available for MSDN Universal and TechNet Plus subscribers right now. It'll be available to large enterprises in the Volume License program at the end of this month.

Speaking of which, I found out from my company's licensing guru that MS now has a volume license server. Basically you build, or MS sells you didn't ask which, a server that validates your license internally. That way anyone using your key outside the corp is flagged as a pirate.

Interesting...

Jammrock

[KeiFront]

It's available for almost all msdn volume license programs (I have to double check which license we have at work).

I test-drived Vista the last 2 hours. It's nice it has it's good and bad sides. does it give an added value compared to XP, nope at least not for me. I'll wait until SP1 is released and when I'm forced to upgrade because some game needs DX10.

positive points:
- little previews in the taskbar (altough the preview isn't always up to date)
- Resource monitor
- finally a decent copy file dialog a nice progressbar with usefull information
- almost the same speed as XP but I got a feeling Vista caches a lot

negative:
- still no decent user switching (no seperate screen resolutions, etc)
- User Account Control is bloody annoying, after a while you just ignore the messages and you click continue.
- I had some windows defender crashes

nitpicks/annoyances
- IE7/Windos Explorer you need to press the ALT-key before you can access the menu bar
- Why do they have to append Windows to all the application names (Windows Calendar, Windows Contacts, etc)
- Vista consumes a lot of memory compared to XP
- UI inconsistencies

[agallag]

Speaking of which, I found out from my company's licensing guru that MS now has a volume license server. Basically you build, or MS sells you didn't ask which, a server that validates your license internally. That way anyone using your key outside the corp is flagged as a pirate.

Interesting...

Jammrock

It's called "Volume Activation 2.0", and it's going to absolutely suck. Particularly once it's required for Longhorn Server.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsvista/plan/volact.mspx