This month I felt that my Windows Vista Home Premium still getting slower and slower each day, although my laptop’s specs are a lot better now than what it once was, . And I highly suspect that my outdated laptop BIOS and near-full hard disk drive are causing this. This utterly means that I will need to buy a new external hard drive pretty soon so that I can free some space from my hard disk and recover some speed. See my hard disk’s gauge above. It’s pathetic.   I’ve already have removed large video files, emptied my recycle bin and deleted all temporary files and uninstalled unnecessary programs, but it didn’t truly helped at all.

Online Computer Stores Give Ideas

I checked this online computer store Super Warehouse to get some idea how much it would cost me to get a new mobile hard drive. I am planning to get a mobile SATA, then I’ll put it on a mobile hard disk enclosure so I can use it like a large capacity USB drive. On the site I also browsed the notebooks section, to see what’s the latest gaming laptop specs I wish one day I could reward myself one. I am particularly in loved with Acer, HP Laptops and Sony laptops having high-end processors, high definition speakers, and discrete graphics card. I like Apple laptops too, especially the Macbook Air, but it’s rather too much for me (the price, that is). I currently own a Neo Empriva 540NVP2i  laptop and I am pretty sure only Filipinos knew this brand.

Finally, I browsed through Super Warehouse’s digital camera section. I saw that new digital cameras are now reaching beyond 10 megapixel level, which is awesome. If I had the money, I would probably get a Sony or Samsung digital camera and then pair it with some photo printers — but I don’t have, so I left the site and just wrote this post.

How about you, what you buy these days if you have the money for a computer store?

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.

Why I Love VertrigoServ Ever Since

As a webmaster, web developer and web designer, it is easy to fall in love with VertrigoServ web server environment in the first place. It is very lightweight, professional and easy to use with up-to-date components. As of this writing, I am using the latest version, VertrigoServ 2.21.  It comprises fully-functional, up-to-date components that include:

• Apache 2.0.63
• PHP 5.2.6
• MySQL 5.0.51b
• SQLite 3.5.9
• Smarty 2.6.19
• PhpMyAdmin 2.11.7
• ZendOptimizer 3.3.3 and
• SQLiteManager 1.2.0

And Why I Am Starting To Dislike It

I’ve been using VertrigoServ for more than a year and been happy with it when I was still working on my old personal computer running Windows XP Professional operating system. VertrigoServ’s web server environment is very stable and fast, outperforming Apache2Triad that I’ve known since my university days. VertrigoServ web server package features an easy to use, minimalistic user interface perfect for both beginners and advanced users. Now enough with good things, when I moved to Windows Vista Home Premium, VertrigoServ started to crash randomly showing the worst, disappointing and most dreaded Microsoft operating system screen — the “blue screen of death” or BSOD. And it is a puzzling problem since sometimes VertrigoServ loads successfully and sometimes not.

I just hope that this blog post will reach the developers behind VertrigoServ and will work to make their product more friendly and compatible with Windows Vista. Lots of avid users like me are using it and waiting for the beloved fix. I hope they would act soon before I decide to uninstall it due to annoyance. For now, I will stretch my patience.

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.

By default, Windows Media Player 11 cannot play many kinds of media files which is truly disappointing. But there’s a way to solve this: you only need to download third-party video and audio codecs or update your existing ones. Codecs, which in full term means “compressor-decompressor,” is a way video and audio files are shrunk to relatively small file sizes with a little loss to none of its video and sound quality.

So, let’s get started and upgrade your Windows Media Player 11. Among all video codecs I’ve found on the Internet, the best one that suits WMP 11 especially when you are on Windows Vista is the latest versions of Vista Codec Packages by Shark007. It is one of the most active video codec packages to give you the best media playback functionality. As of this writing, the latest version is 4.7.2 for 32-bit Windows Vista (15.3 MB) and version 1.5.1 for 64-bit (5.88 MB). These versions are far better than before so download the right one and install it.

After installation, try playing some video files that didn’t play before and you’ll be surprised to watch them with glory on Windows Media Player and Media Center. Finally, other than media file playback, there are still lots of cool features hidden inside Vista Codec Package (to let you know). I will write about them in my future posts so stand by.

System Configuration

My laptop (Neo 540NVP2i) runs with 1.6 GHz Intel Core 2 processor (two cores) and Windows Vista Home Premium. It came with 1 GB RAM default but I upgraded it to 2 GB after few months of purchase because I realized that it was not good enough for multitasking of my commonly used productivity software (in addition to our knowledge that Vista is a memory hog). Now, the RAM is upgraded again to 3 GB as mentioned above.

The image below tells more about my mobile computer’s processor features.

This one tells about the additional DDR 2 RAM stick I bought for the upgrade. The RAM upgrade costs Php 2,050 (more or less $50 US dollars).

Windows Vista or Motherboard BIOS Bug?

I wonder why but if you look at the image below taken from Windows Vista’s Welcome Screen, it reported 5 GB RAM. It was wrong since I only installed a total of 3 GB on both slots. When I rebooted my system and entered the BIOS configuration, my motherboard correctly detected 3 GB RAM – telling me that this might be another Vista bug or something.

How 3 GB RAM Vista Feels Like

After adding the new 2 GB DDR2 RAM to achieve a total RAM of 3 GB, the boot-up process is tad longer than before because of the bigger capacity of RAM which makes boot-up RAM test longer. I noticed that applications running on my Windows Vista Home Premium are now faster and they don’t feel “choked” with RAM resource shortage. However, it did not increase the total speed of the system – though the little lags when you switch on different programs are noticeably gone. Windows Vista feels better with 3 GB RAM – period.

Now, web browsing at the same time running Adobe Dreamweaver, Photoshop and all instant messengers from Yahoo Messenger to Skype, is a breeze. It would have been much faster if the processor in-built with my laptop is upgradable, but it’s not.

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.

My laptop felt great in the beginning. However, when I started to install some software that I used to work with when I was still using my old PC, my system went very slow despite the promises of large RAM and two-core processor. I can still remember that my old PC only had 512 MB RAM, yet it was able to carry out my need. Historically, I added another stick of 512 MB DDR PC2700 memory to it and I was able to gain additional measurable performance on my Windows XP Professional system especially when it comes to video editing, Photoshop editing, and other RAM-intensive applications.

Now with my Vista, I was thinking the same. The package default 1 GB RAM feels like having 512 MB on Windows XP, so I decided to do some upgrades. I bought another stick of 1 GB RAM for my laptop few months ago and the performance gain was rather significant. Still, it is hard to think that with 2 GB RAM, my Vista system still throttles when I am doing multiple tasks. I’ve never encountered an operating system as resource hog as Vista is. Next month, I am thinking of upgrading again to 3 GB. I hope it will work for me, otherwise I could conclude that the problem is not my system but Vista.

The case would be the same for iMac users. If you have enough dough to upgrade and add iMac memory to its default package, go on. It would significantly extend the performance of your system.

The best upgrade and most efficient way of improving the performance of laptops and computers is by adding computer RAM – hands down. You can try browsing the RAMs sold online by Memory Deal. I heard it is good, and it claims to be the “first and only online store offering customers genuine factory original memory modules for each and every memory upgrade.”

If adding RAM doesn’t work for you, check if you need to buy a new laptop or computer.

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.

To end users like me, here are the major features we have to care for included in Windows Vista Service Pack 1:

• Previously-released updates, security patches, and fixes (if you missed them).
• Windows Vista kernel update from version 6.0 to 6.1 for Windows Server 2008 compatibility.
• Changes to Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) that will remove the Reduced Functionality Mode (RFM) and Non-Genuine State (NGS) mode. If you’re using a genuine Windows Vista, then you don’t have to worry about this.
• Changes to Kernel Patch Protection “PatchGuard” feature. This lets antivirus products to integrate tightly to the operating system.
• Changes to Vista’s Instant Search feature. Now, third party desktop search products like Google Desktop can integrate more with Windows Vista.
• Device compatibility improvement: Windows Vista SP1 will now support over 80,000 devices than its original package support of 40,000 devices.
• File operation improvements. Microsoft says SP1 will enhance the file copy operations both local and network from 44 to 71 percent. I am definitely very happy for this.
• Increased reliability and security. Windows Vista SP1 is expected to deliver higher number of hours between disruptions. Meaning, things like non-responding applications, application hangs and crashes, and system crashes, are significantly reduced.

So, what do you think?

How Vista SP1 Will Be Distributed and When

How and when Windows Vista SP1 will be distributed is a bit confusing. What is certain is that Microsoft will deploy Service Pack 1 release starting the second or third week of March.

To those who have Windows Vista on their PCs and laptops (like me), you will be able to install the service pack in a staged manner through Windows Update. Last week, I got one of the two prerequisite updates of Windows Vista SP1 installation. Microsoft will also release standalone download installations of Vista SP1 through Microsoft Download Center on mid-March. PCs and laptops with Windows Vista SP1 pre-installed, Windows Vista SP1 for enterprise customers, and Windows Vista SP1 retail copies, will be released in the coming months after the upcoming distribution on March.

Oh well, while I’m still waiting for its release, I’ll just keep my fingers crossed. I trust Microsoft with this. How about you?

Are your ready for Vista SP1?

Braindump Exams: PMI-001 is almost as complicated as 640-816. This is why both are awarded same level of credibility and hence qualify one for 650-393. For those who want to go for 70-648, it is compulsory to write 1z0-042

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.

The Good

Considering its track record, Windows Live Messenger is the ultimate product of Microsoft’s IM “evolution” to date. I’ve used MSN Messenger before, though I admit that I am not an avid user of it because there are just terrible things that didn’t amuse me.

By first run, I was truly impressed by the lush implementation of Windows Vista-styled graphical user interface (GUI). It doesn’t just look simple, it’s straightforward and I considered it one of the sexiest IM clients I’ve seen this year next to the Yahoo Messenger for Vista pre-beta version. Well, not all GUI stuffs of this messenger are applaudable, you’ll find out later the shortcomings.

I was truly impressed by the lush implementation of Windows Vista-styled GUI. It doesn’t just look simple, it’s straightforward and I considered it one of the sexiest IM clients I’ve seen.

Functionality-wise, the Windows Live Messenger is supercharged. Chatting, voice and video call works great – no major complaints with that. Its interoperability with Yahoo Messenger really helped retain its user base (or even allured people who prefer to use Microsoft products). I really wish all other messengers will work with each other – but it’s unlikely to happen in the next few years.

I definitely like the Winks feature, similar to Yahoo Messenger’s audibles, but still very limited. Also, the Windows Live Spaces button in the Live messenger is worth-mentioning. Windows Live Spaces is Microsoft’s social community and blogging platform. Clicking the Live Space button will let you explore more of Windows Live features and enjoy them if you can.

Overall, I am glad that Microsoft did so much for this version. I love its messenger, and I wish I could give it 9 out of 10, but there are bad and worst things I’ve found out.

The Bad

Way back on MSN Messenger, the first thing I sought was the public chat rooms but with no luck. It’s one of the great features other IM (like Yahoo Messenger) are having. Though it’s also the feature that spammers and bots are enticed to attack, making messaging clients the “vector” of trojans and viruses, along with other vulnerabilities, I believe that it is a good venue to show off Microsoft’s muscles in the IM department. If anyone knows that this functionality is present, could anyone tell me please?

The ugliest thing I’ve seen in this souped up IM client are the smileys. It’s crazy – I expected that they’ve gone through the evolution but it is so disappointing to see that they are still ancient-looking. I really wondered why they didn’t change that much. Microsoft seems to be very proud of their emoticons that fail to truly exhibit serious facial expressions. People may find it difficult to express themselves using them.

Microsoft seems to be very proud of their emoticons that fail to truly exhibit serious facial expressions. People may find it difficult to express themselves using them.

I remember that I’ve lost interest in using MSN Messenger before because of the terrible emoticons, and it seems today (though many of my other complaints were addressed now), my major rant is still unchanged. Smileys still look like they were drawn by a grade three kid – they don’t amuse the adults at all. Yahoo Messenger and Skype smileys are still a lot better. Windows Live Messenger definitely has the worst smileys I’ve ever seen on an IM client.

The Expectations

If Microsoft will be successful to acquire Yahoo in their recent $42 billion bid, we would expect giant changes not only to the Windows and Yahoo messengers, but the ways we interact and market in the Web itself. It would be a big, great change. However, if that happens, I wish Microsoft would copy YM’s emoticons and make it a standard on both messengers, including other missing features. It will definitely please many people (and me).

While I’m excited with the current events involving companies who are attempting to topple down Google’s Web leadership, as a normal Web user, I guess I’ll just take a deep breath and wait for the new benefits the changes would bring.

If you prefer media player looks over performance (that is, you are inclined to love a player by its design over its speed and capabilities), you might not like Media Player Classic as much as you do with other media players. Commercial media players usually reign the graphical user interface (GUI) department and unfortunately, Media Player Classic was not developed for it.

Media Player Classic’s design was aimed to mimic the simplicity of the old Windows Media Player 6.4. However, it boasts a set of additional features that is hard to find in an in-built media player: a native DVD-support with real-time zoom, support for AVI subtitles, QuickTime and RealVideo support (requires QuickTime and/or Real Player), and built-in MPEG2/SVCD/DVD codec.

What captivated me most of Media Player Classic is its speed. Even now that I’m already using Windows Vista, and there are lots of modern players, they are still unable to knock out Media Player Classic’s leadership in speed. The program is very fast and movie files are loaded almost instantly when you hit the play button.

I therefore encourage you to try Media Player Classic now. It’s the best for me. You’ll see what I mean when you start experiencing its playback performance and you will strongly like it.

Click here to download Media Player Classic.

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.

Performance-wise, I found the preview release version too slow for my messaging needs. Although I know that it’s pre-beta, considering the time Yahoo spent for the development of this application, it seems that my expectations were so high (well, I am not alone with this). Of course, the program’s chat functionality is working well and I just love the enhanced emoticons. Chat windows are contained in a single tabbed window for easier management as well. However, some useful features are missing yet (perhaps on this release). I would like to have the Archive functionality of previous versions to see easily the chat history, and the chat rooms and webcam (they are gone). The messenger window is also space-consuming by default (good thing you can resize it). Yahoo people need to tweak this out and make it fast. It’s great, however, that they provided with the installation a useful YM sidebar widget – two thumbs up for this!

Overall, the release of preview version of Yahoo! Messenger is a relief. At least this calms people losing patience for waiting the messenger meant for Vista. Yahoo deserves their time, so I guess I’ll wait until they complete it. I just hope that it would be better that time and will exceed my expectations. I just can’t wait to use it every day. For the moment, I switched back to YM version 9 beta version – perhaps until Yahoo announces the release of the next stable, functionally-complete YM for Vista.

Download Yahoo Messenger for Windows Vista (preview release).

Well, to tell you, I’m a Vista user too. I have Home Premium version in my laptop and been running for almost six months. For sure, I found some annoying things on Vista that make the previous Windows versions (like Windows XP) a little worthwhile. But hey, I found some great things people missed or under-appreciated.

First, the good thing about Vista is that Microsoft took a major revamp on its Graphical User Interface (GUI) that modernizes its look. By revamp, I’m not only talking about the windows transparency feature of Aero, but I’m pertaining to the overall aesthetic efficiency or the improvement of accessibility and folder navigation.

The folder navigation in Windows Vista is exceptional. As you refer to the image below, folder to folder navigation in the system is faster and easier. You can virtually jump to any folder you want in just few clicks. On the left side of Windows Explorer, the traditional explorer view or pane is enabled by default. This speeds up the navigation as it automatically scrolls horizontally whenever it is needed. This is an intelligent Microsoft work in removing the daunting horizontal scroll bar of the previous Windows versions.

The sidebar on Windows Vista is very useful to me. You can add little gadgets (this is similar to widgets) to it and applets like calendars, photo slideshow, among others. Microsoft provided a gadget library at Windows Live Gallery where people can upload and download gadgets.

The other things that I liked in Vista are the system utilities which let you assess or do comprehensive reports for better performance and reliability analysis. Security is robust in Vista, although its persistent User Account Control feature can be annoying to some. This can be disabled, however.
Here is a screen capture of the Windows Experience Index, an inbuilt system-wide benchmarking tool included in Windows Vista’s Performance Information and Tools. Mainly it is used to determine what software (especially graphics, resource-intensive applications) can run in your system – the greater the number, the better. In my case, I scored 3.1 and it’s pathetic.

Despite Vista’s glory, it is still quite detrimental to know that this operating system’s elegance requires higher hardware specifications compared to its predecessors. In my personal standpoint, this is just a normal characteristic of software technology evolution as it tries to parallel the extended capabilities brought about by modern hardware. The Windows Vista I have runs over a 1.6 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 2 GB of RAM, and 256 MB video memory (in-built graphics chip). You can see the details below.

If these hardware specifications are used for a Windows XP system, it would surely bounce to the roof.

To let you know these are the few major things I wish Microsoft would resolve or improve in the forthcoming Service Pack 1 (SP1) release for Windows Vista in first quarter of 2008 (they say in February):

• Speed of copying and moving of files in the Windows Explorer
• Random freezes, lost of responsiveness in some programs
• Performance of ailing Internet Explorer 7
• Overall system performance, reliability and stability

It seems however, after reading Paul Thurrott’s article for Windows Vista SP1, most of the issues I stated above will be addressed on SP1’s release along with new features. This is good news to me and to other prayerful Vista users. We truly need it.

In light of the issues, I can still proudly say that I love Windows Vista. It still keeps my work done, and its new environment inspires me and removes boredom. However, if you’re not too patient before the release of any service packs, you might be inclined to go for XP instead of Vista, or wait until 2010 when Windows 7, the next version of Windows, will be released.