One of my gripes with Windows Vista in the enterprise is that it simply says “Please Wait†during the startup and won’t tell you when it is trying to install managed software. Fortunately, this Group Policy change can resolve the issue:
Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\System\Verbose vs normal status messages
Enable this setting and you are good to go.Sure, it’s so verbose it tells you when it is playing the logon sound, but in my mind, verbose is good.
I rely a fair bit on being able to bring up the help file when working in Visual Basic for Applications. When working with new functions or functions you only use occasionally, this life saver of a tool at least tells you how it’s all supposed to work.Well, that’s the idea, but with Office 2007 they’ve introduced a new prettier help file. Unfortunately like the stereotype, this is all beauty, no brains. When using the F1 key on an add method of the Sheets object I got this screen:
Each of these Add methods are different. I have no way of working out what object it applies to. Fortunately not all is lost. If I change to Offline help I can see the full description. Offline it is then…
After reading an editorial article suggesting Microsoft should dump Vista I felt sorry for the Operating System. I wasn’t fond of it, but I figured my exposure was minimal. So therefore to get an accurate overview of how well Vista actually worked I grabbed the test machine with Vista installed, stuck it under my desk and use it as my primary workstation (using Remote Desktop) to access the Windows XP version.
So far I have been generally happy with it’s stability, but certain things are bugging me.
To be fair, I do like a few things about Vista:
So all in all, not a bad experience so far. Software compatibility has been ordinary, but the latest updates tend to fix most problems. Unfortunately the transition to Vista is inevitable (unless some real crazy stuff happens). Better to be ready before it is necessary.
Here at work we recently purchased a Dell laptop. It’s something that I wouldn’t recommend, but it was incredibly cheap, we needed a new laptop and it seemed like good value.And so far it has been, at least for the person who primarily uses it. Having used a Dell laptop before she is familiar with the exact keyboard layout. Performance wise it is quite good (although it is also chunky, which is what happens when you combine cheap and powerful).
Anyway, Dell seems to take it upon themselves to make some changes to the configuration that are quite annoying, including changing the resolution of images so they look all pixelly!One of the more annoying settings is “Hibernate” as the default shut down option. Now, as a laptop the hibernate option is quite useful, but I’m a purist and like to Shut Down Windows whenever I’m forced to use it. To fix it so it will use your last setting you need to edit the registry. (Of course, this problem only affects you if you use the “Old School” Shutdown Dialog, which you are forced to use if you are a member of a domain.)
CAUTION: Editing the registry may screw up your computer, particularly if you do anything other than these instructions, even if you do it could blow up, harrass your family or whatever. The point is, don’t hold me responsible. Do this at your own risk. If you aren’t prepared to do that, pay someone to take the risk for you.
To fix, run regedit and look for the following key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\System\Shutdown
The name, value pair you want to change is HibernateAsDefault. This will be 0×00000001 (1). Right Click and select modify. Change the value to 0 and click OK. The change will take affect immediately. Go on, try to shut down. For those of you who would prefer it to be the default option, change it to 1 instead.
I’m not quite sure who would use this functionality as most laptops can detect when the lid is closed or the power button is pressed and you can define the action you want for these. Hell, this Dell (hehe, a rhyme) even has Hibernate as a function key (and an eject CD function key, which seems redundant with an eject button on the drive itself).
Hopefully someone will find this useful. I know that I would have preferred a Google Search to answer my question.