My patience has finally run out with the most hailed, highly professional freeware web server environment package I’ve been using for ages. In lieu with my one year length work at home as webmaster (one many hats I wear), I’ve been suffering the dreaded  “blue screen of death” (BSOD) randomly since I first used VertrigoServ on Windows Vista Home Premium. In fact, the BSOD I experienced from using VertrigoServ is the first I’ve ever seen on Windows Vista. And guess what it’s not fun.

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Without third party codec support, Windows Media Player 11 (and even Windows Media Center) that comes in the default installation of Windows Vista operating system is truly lame. And even though it deserves merits for its sleek design, it still lags behind even to opensource media players. I once hailed Media Player Classic to be the best media player in Windows Vista, but since I  pity much Windows’ media player home court, I sought a way to beef it up functionality-speaking –  and here’s how.

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Not much, really. On my previous post I’ve told you that I am planning to boost my Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit system from 2 GB to 3 GB – and so I did it yesterday without second thought just when my funds got enough to buy a 2 GB memory stick for my laptop. The result: there was a measurable increase of responsiveness on most applications – but not really much to awe.

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My Neo laptop had breathe for almost a year now and yet, after several component upgrades, my Vista still feels slow especially when I am running productivity software. Is it my system or Window Vista that is keeping me from getting the computing performance that I need? Let’s explore that, shall we.

August last year my employer got me a laptop (Neo 540NVP2i) with the following specifications: 1.6 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 1 GB DDR2 memory (RAM), 80 GB SATA hard drive, a DVD writer drive, an integrated graphics RAM, and Genuine OEM Windows Vista Home Premium operating system.
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Last February 4, I was glad when I heard Microsoft announcing the finalization of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 in their website. They released the documentation of the service pack in Microsoft Download Center describing the service pack’s overview, notable changes, and installation instructions, along with the new features to be encountered when on the looming Windows Vista SP1 release.

Of course, the news got me excited as I am a Vista lover myself despite the odds that were brought about by its original package. I am certain that many patient Vista users are hopeful that the service pack would deliver solutions to the major issues of the operating system and improve further significantly its overall performance. I once posted in this blog how I love Windows Vista but I also pointed out some gray areas that I wished to be improved. The service pack most likely would address them.

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It’s already been six months of nice Windows Vista experience but it felt like I haven’t played enough with the value added things Microsoft launched alongside Windows Vista. I’ve started to explore recently about Windows Live services and software, and it was quite worth everyone’s attention.

Well actually, Windows Live services are not really attached to any Windows operating system, although Windows Vista may appear to be a “little bias” with the timing of the release. Windows Live constitutes some desktop but mainly web applications that are meant to extend and improve the Windows user experience. These experiences are grouped by Microsoft into three categories where Windows Live services and applications fall in: informed, connected and protected.

The first thing I scrutinized is the Windows Live Messenger, Microsoft’s instant messaging (IM) client previously known in its early versions as MSN Messenger. It is one of the services and software that belongs to the “connected” category of Windows Live. So, without further ado, here are the good, the bad, and the worst things (yes, they exist) of Microsoft’s flagship IM.

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Even before when I was still using Windows XP, I loved collecting downloaded video files from torrent sites. Video files such as Hollywood movies, Japanese anime and TV show series. I’ve come across different media players and sought for one that would match the performance I need. And the winner: none other than the simple-looking opensource media player, the Media Player Classic.

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Last December 5, 2007, online crowds who own Windows Vista was delighted when Yahoo’s Senior Product Manager, Josh Jacobson, announced the preview version (pre-beta) release of their long-awaited Yahoo! Messenger for Vista through its official blog.

As we all know, Yahoo Messenger (YM) is one of the most popular messengers in the world (other important messengers include MSN Messenger or Windows Live Messenger, Skype, Google Talk, etc).

Many YM users who own Vista have been waiting for quite some time. Lots of people dropped their emails through email subscription page provided by Yahoo to acquire the news as soon as it becomes available. I was one of them and I expected a lot.

By first impression, the Yahoo! Messenger for Vista preview version release looks good. Installation is smooth and easy – as usual. When I run the new messenger for the first time, it looks very modern and “Vista.” Yes, it exactly boasts a fresh-looking transparent interface, taking advantage of Windows Vista’s graphics subsystem, the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF). YM for Vista lets you customize the window theme and list appearance as you desire. It looks pretty much like a widget, which is great. Soon, programs meant for Vista will follow this interface trend.

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