Well, Vista is officially launched and the mainstream media has picked up on the story, but it's best to take some of what the "computer experts" say with a grain of salt.

We've heard a lot of misinformation about the OS in the last few days, much of it of the FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) variety. Consumers are being told that you must buy a new PC to run Vista, which isn't true, especially if you aren't particularly interested in running the fancy "eye candy" Aero Glass interface. And there's a lot more to Vista than just Glass, although you'd never know it to listen to some of the tech pundits.

(An aside: why is that when OS X looks pretty and has a lot of "wow, neat!" visual effects, people fall all over themselves to oooh and ahhh at the coolness factor, but when Vista offers similar visual punch, those same people denounce it as "just fluff" and "a resource hog?")

Another "expert" said you can't run two operating systems on the same computer with Vista, as you could with previous OSes. That's news to me, since I've been working for months with a dual boot Vista/XP machine on which I frequently switch back and forth from one OS to the other.

Then there's all the talk about how Vista doesn't offer any more security (an outright lie) or the complaints that Vista provides a little too much security (you just can't win if your name is Microsoft).

Is Vista the perfect OS? Having worked with it from the early betas and now running it as my primary operating system, I can confidently say "no." But it's the best OS I've used, and I expect it to get better with each service pack. XP is a good operating system, too, and for many folks there'll be no really compelling reason to upgrade until they buy a new computer. OS X is a nice OS, too, although I don't find it nearly as usable as Windows, but if you don't mind being tied into Apple's hardware and the more limited selection of applications, it is lovely to look at. Linux ... well, it's Linux.

We're going to be hearing a whole lot more about Vista in the weeks and months to come, as more folks give it a try. I just hope those who talk and write about it, especially those who represent themselves as technical experts, will take the time to get their facts straight.

deb@shinder.net    www.debshinder.com

After installing Vista and Office 2007 on the new Dell, I discovered a big problem: I was no longer able to access some of my public folders. This is a problem because messages from WXPnews readers are routed into a public folder so that Tom and I can both easily access them, and I need those messages each week when I write the newsletter - that's where I get the questions for Question Corner, summaries for the followup to the previous week's editorial, and suggestions on what topics readers would like to see addressed.

The problem seemed to be a permissions issue; at least, that's the message I got when I tried to open the public folder. Properties on the folder showed that I had no permissions to it - but on the Exchange server, I was shown to have full permissions. What's up with that?

I'd already been running Office 2007/Vista on another computer, and didn't have this problem. Except that when I opened up Outlook on that machine now, I did have the problem.

Well, I thought a quick workaround would be to RDP into one of the XP machines on the network, which was running Outlook 2003, and access the folder from there. No go. Same problem. What in the world had happened? Was it just a coincidence that the problem occurred when I installed Vista/Office 2007 on the network?

I started doing some web research and discovered that I wasn't alone. Others were reporting that after installing Outlook 2007, they couldn't access their public folders.

Before trying anything drastic, Tom suggested that we try rebooting the Exchange server. Did that, and lo - all my public folders were once again accessible. So it appears that when you install Outlook 2007 on the network, permissions on public folders get screwed up. Restarting the Exchange server appears to fix it. Apparently Exchange had been restarted after I installed O2007 on my older machine, so that I never noticed this problem then.

Unfortunately, many of the users who are complaining about this don't have admin privileges on their Exchange servers and can't so easily just reboot it - but feel free to use my experience here to help convince your Exchange administrator to try it.

DEBRA LITTLEJOHN SHINDER, MCSE, MVP
deb@shinder.net   www.debshinder.com

For those who expressed curiosity about what's "under the hood" of the new Dell, here are a couple of photos:

Dell has made it extremely easy to add expansion cards and hard drives. No screws are required for either; it's just a matter of popping a few plastic clips. And there's plenty of room to work inside this monster.

It sounds like a 747 revving up for takeoff when you first turn it on, but once it's started, it runs almost silently.

 
DEBRA LITTLEJOHN SHINDER, MCSE, MVP
deb@shinder.net   www.debshinder.com

In the next edition of WXPnews, I recount the story of how I got Vista working exactly like I want it on the new Dell (www.wxpnews.com, Jan. 22 edition).

Here is a photo of the new command center with the XPS in place under the desk and Vista running (finally!) on three monitors. I may or may not add a fourth one later.

Command Central

The big guy under the desk

 
My desktop - times three

Screenshot of my primary monitor's desktop

As my faithful readers know, getting multiple monitors to work with Vista is something of a challenge - but now I know the secrets.

Most important is this: if you want to run Aero (and of course you want to run Aero, or you probably wouldn't even be upgrading to Vista) on multiple video cards, all cards must use the same WDDM driver.

That's where I was going wrong with my old computer. I had an ATI x600 PCIe x16 card as the primary and a Matrox 450G as the secondary. Four monitors (one DVI and one analog on the ATI card, two analogs on the Matrox card) worked fine with XP.

Thinking the problem was the Matrox card's incompatibility with Vista, I replaced it with a Geforce 5200 GS that was listed as Aero compatible -- but I got nothing at all on the Geforce card as a secondary, never mind Aero.

The problem (I finally discovered) is that if you install two cards that run different WDDM drivers, Vista disables one of them (in this case, the Geforce).

The new XPS machine came with a Geforce 7900 card. When I took the Geforce 5200 out of the old machine and installed it in the new one as a secondary, the two share the same driver and eureka - multiple monitors work. I now have three monitors (and can add a fourth) running Aero on Vista, which is all I ever wanted. So it appears that I could have just bought a new Geforce video card to replace the ATI on the old machine, or bought an ATI card for the secondary, and spent a couple hundred bucks instead of $2200 -- but then I wouldn't have this amazingingly fast new computer downstairs, so all's well that ends well.

When I was struggling with the multi-monitor problems, I could find no help anywhere, including talking directly to some of the folks at MSFT. Now they've finally documented the problem, at http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/display/multimonVista.mspx 

DEBRA LITTLEJOHN SHINDER, MCSE, MVP
deb@shinder.net   www.debshinder.com

My new Dell arrived last night, and is it ever a big guy. You can't tell from the web site how physically huge the XPS is. My first challenge is finding a way to fit it under my desk. Meanwhile, it's living in the kitchen while I get the software all installed and configured. Here are a couple of photos:

I spent the morning installing Vista, Office and my other programs (including Live Writer, on which I'm writing this post). This thing is awesomely fast.  With a Core Duo processor and 4 GB of RAM, it ought to be. It came with an nVidia 7900 GS graphics card. It had me a little worried when I saw on the packing list the words "Vista Capable" instead of "Vista Ready." The former usually means you can run Vista but not Aero. However, once I installed Partition Magic, resized the gigantic single partition with which it shipped (why do they do that?) and created a second partition on which I then installed Vista Ultimate, it booted right up with Aero already enabled.

Next chore is to open the case and install a second video card. The whole reason I sprang for this new system was because I couldn't get three monitors to work on Vista with my old computer (a Dell Dimension 9200). This baby has two PCI Express 16x slots, so I can put in a second Vista-capable card and run a third (and fourth) monitor. The nVidia it came with has dual DVI connectors so I can get two monitors on it. It'll be interesting to see how that works. But I probably won't get around to that until tomorrow or the next day.

It's blazing fast, though. Installing Office 2007 Ultimate (almost 2 GB) took only minutes. And everything works out of the box. I'm happy so far. If my second video card works without too much hassle, I'll be very happy. And I'll take some pictures of its insides while I'm in there and post here later.

DEBRA LITTLEJOHN SHINDER, MCSE, MVP
deb@shinder.net     www.debshinder.com

Well, it looks as if a few of the questions I asked in yesterday's post have been answered: http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/01/09/the-iphone-is-not-a-smartphone/

Unfortunately, the answers aren't the ones I was hoping for. With no ability to add memory, install third party software, or have a second charged battery and no support for Office docs or Exchange, my interest is drying up.  As I said before, maybe I could be seduced by an Apple phone -- but this isn't the one.

deb@shinder.net   www.debshinder.com

Vegas may be Fun City, but it's great to be back home.

People, people, Everywhere
Even for an avowed "people person," CES can be just a little too much of a good thing. Fighting the crowds can get tiring after a while. For instance, trying to up front at the Microsoft booths called for a lot of patience, as shown in the photo below:
 
Crowd waiting to see Vista Home Server

It was just as crowded outside the convention center as inside:

Crowds outside the LVCC

Now I have time to go through all the photos and figure out just exactly what we saw, and which of the million+ electronic devices we wish we could have brought home with us.

TVs, TVs, Everywhere
There must have been at least a million television sets on display, from teeny tiny handheld sets to gigantic widescreens.

There must have been at least a million TVs on display

First, we encountered a 72 inch DLP with picture quality that took my breath away. In fact, many of these sets had incredible pictures. Whether you'll get the same in your living room, I can't say -- a lot depends on the source, of course.

72 inch DLP TV from Samsung

The crowning glory, though, was the 108 inch 1080p LCD billed as the "world's largest TV." I shudder to think what it would cost, but it certainly was pretty.

108 inch 1080p HDTV would look awfully nice in my media room

Some of these sets are super thin, too:

Super thin TVs abound

If you want to go even larger than that 108 incher, there were plenty of projectors and screens to help you do just that. And some of the projectors were small enough to take with you anywhere you want:

 
These projectors are smaller than Tom's hand

I was impressed by this screen that rises out of an attractive wood platform:

 
Rising screen is just the thing for my living room

There were even TVs for your car, or at least DVD video players. As a former police officer, I always saw these as something of a safety hazard, but I have to admit that they add a lot of bling to your automotive experience.


Movies to go: We saw lots of DVD players for the car

Phones, Phones, Everywhere
The second most popular item seemed to be phones. Cell phones, IP phones, regular PSTN phones, even old fashioned retro-look phones that work with modern digital lines. Here are some of the phones that caught our eyes:

The Samsung BlackJack was getting a lot of hype - there was even a giant ad for it at the front of the convention center. Here it is, next to our Samsung i730 Pocket PC. As you can see, it's actually slightly longer and about the same width.

However, when you turn them sideways, the BlackJack reveals its advantage: it's far thinner than the i730.

 
One big trend we noticed was the rotating screen on many of the mobile phones.

We found this combo Skype/PSTN phone that's great for folks who need to make both IP calls and use the regular phone network.

 
And here's an example of many business IP phones that will work with existing IP PBX systems such as Asterisk.

 
Then there were the communications devices that were much more than phones, like this Samsung Wi-Max Communicator with a full size folding QWERTY keyboard and a huge (by phone/PDA standards) 5 inch screen. It works with CDMA cellular networks and can also connect to EVDO and WiMAX broadband services. It runs a full version of Windows XP and has a 30 GB hard disk. Is this the Holy Grail of convergence, the "sweet spot" that balances size and functionality? Maybe not, but it's a great effort.

Yes, Virginia, there were more things than just TVs and phones there. Later I'll post photos of some of the neat computers and other "smart" devices we saw.

Apple certainly tried to steal the thunder from CES this week, with the introduction of their new phone (which might or might not end up being called the iPhone, now that Cisco is suing for trademark infringement over the name) and to a large degree, they succeeded. Everybody's talking about the sleek little black phone. Both dedicated Mac devotees and those who've never used an Apple in their lives are looking forward to its release.

Apple has always been great at the design end of things, perhaps a little less great at the business end (pretty dumb to announce a new product with a name that you're still in negotiations about, in my opinion). Once again, they've come up with a beautiful little piece of equipment. How functional it is remains to be seen.

Cade Metz of PCMag.com (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,243395,00.html) was one of the Chosen Few who actually got his hands on the device briefly. He praises the touchscreen but his comments about poor, "kinda fuzzy" sound quality throws up a red flag. The iPhone is, after all and despite all its other features, a phone. If the phone part doesn't work properly, it's going to go over like a ton of bricks. I also don't like the fact that Cingular is the exclusive carrier. I've been there and done that, and switched to Verizon. It would take a very special phone to make me switch back.

Of course, according to most reports, this is a very special phone. And even though I probably will never own one, I'm excited about it. I'm hoping other phone vendors will be inspired to copy it. Because whatever its faults may be, Apple did several things very right with this design, things I've been wishing for years that other PDA-style phone makes would do.

Ever since I got my Samsung i730 Pocket PC, I've been saying they should make a model that ditches the slide-out keyboard (which I never use) and go with an on-screen keyboard only. Everyone looked at me as if I were nuts when I said it. Now Apple has done it, and that allows them to make a slimmer, more compact device. My other wish was for the screen to take up more of the face of the phone to give me more screen real estate and get rid of all those buttons I never use. Again, Apple granted my wish. I never use the stylus on my Samsung, having fingernails long enough to allow me to use the touchscreen without it. Apple's phone doesn't even have a stylus, and has large enough on-screen keys so that even nail-biters can use it without one. Finally, the switch from portrait to landscape mode should be automatic when you turn the device around, and with the iPhone, it is. That's a lot to like. Hmmm ... maybe I could learn to put up with Cingular again.

But first I have a few questions. Battery life is the first big mystery. In all the articles I've seen about the iPhone these last few days, nobody mentions that. If Apple can manage to make a slim phone with decent battery life (say, 6 to 8 hours of talk/Internet time on a charge), I might just agree with those who say it's a revolutionary development.

They say the phone runs a version of OS X, just like my PPC phone runs Windows Mobile. I'd like to know more about the operating system. Can I install additional apps? If yes, what apps will be available? Will the email client connect to my Exchange Server? Can I read PDFs and Word docs on the device as I do on my PPC?  Is there a GPS application I can install on it? Does it have an SDIO expansion slot for adding memory and peripherals (Two slots would be awesome)?

They say you should "never say never" and that's the reason I keep saying I'll probably never buy the iPhone. On the other hand, I'm keeping an open mind on this one. Depending on the answers to the questions in the previous paragraph, I just might be able to be seduced.

deb@shinder.net   www.debshinder.com

After miles of walking through thousands of booths at CES this week, my husband complained that "there's nothing here but millions of cell phones and TVs." That was a bit of an exaggeration, although it's true that we saw a lot of both. But as much fun as it is to get a look at the new devices, I have to say I didn't really see anything that made me sit up and say "This is going to revolutionize my world."

And no, that little phone over at MacWorld doesn't do it, either.

I did, however, see a number of things that would make my life easier and/or more fun. Probably if I had to pick the one thing I saw at the show that was most exciting for me personally, it's the Samsung i760 Pocket PC phone. I've been waiting for a while for a replacement for my i730 that would give me the same functionality but in a more functional design, and this appears to be it - maybe. I'm still wary of the performance hit of going from Windows Mobile 2003 to WM 5. It's a tradeoff for the ability of the device to keep your information even if the battery runs down completely, but I'm not sure it's a tradeoff I want to make. With Sprite backup, restoration is pretty easy and I'm spoiled by the speed of WM2003. We'll see about the software side.

On the hardware side, though, the new version is extremely attractive. The side slide keyboard might even actually be useful -- I never use the bottom slide keyboard on the i730, preferring the on screen keyboard. The form factor is also slightly sleeker than that of the i730, as you can see in this photo:

We were told the i760 will be offered by Verizon and should be available by "mid-year." No, there's nothing earth-shaking about it and it certainly won't stir up the kind of hype that the iPhone is getting (oops, can I call it that? Apparently Cisco is about to sue Apple over the appropriation of their trademark), but it might make my life just a little better.

DEBRA LITTLEJOHN SHINDER, MCSE, MVP
deb@shinder.net   www.debshinder.com

As always, the Consumer Electronics Show is huge. It's easy to get overwhelmed (and/or lost) - we spent yesterday trekking through the North and Central Halls but didn't even come close to seeing everything.

The Microsoft "booth" (more like a small country) was enormous and had a number of interesting exhibits, especially the Vista Home Server and the Ultra Mobile PC ones. Saw a version of the OQO that runs Vista. I can't come up with a good reason that I need a UMPC, what with both my tiny Sony VAIO laptop and my Pocket PC phone, but I can think of lots of reasons to want one. The miniature form factor is just so ... cute. Here's a photo of Tom holding the OQO (well, his hands, anyway):

We got lots and lots of good pictures, and I'll post more of them when I'm back home and have time to sort through everything. But in the meantime, here's one of my favorites. The big trend in mobile devices is to get smaller and smaller, but I couldn't resist this great photo of Tom with the world's largest cell phone:

Now we're off for another day of fighting the crowds and expanding the blisters on our feet!

DEBRA LITTLEJOHN SHINDER, MCSE, MVP
deb@shinder.net   www.debshinder.com

Tom and I are leaving tomorrow for the week-long Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas - sure to be an event to remember. Around 150,000 attendees are expected, and this year's show is shaping up to be a good one, with new products from all sorts of vendors on display.

Microsoft is set to announce their Vista home server, and we're also keeping an eye out for new VoIP products and in-car tech toys. We were in Vegas right before Christmas and although the town wasn't dead as we'd anticipated, I'm sure it's going to be way more crowded this time around.

We're looking forward to Bill Gates' keynote speech tomorrow evening and Michael Dell's on Tuesday, and planning to take plenty of photos and come back with lots of cool stuff to write about in our blogs and newsletters.

See you there!

DEBRA LITTLEJOHN SHINDER, MVP, MCSE
deb@shinder.net    www.debshinder.com