starkers, you'd think microsoft would be interested in a shop whose owner installs a warez version of xp, wouldn't you? i've let ms know at least 5 times about the shop's owner in the last 12 months but nothing has been done about his use of warez on the new rigs he sells. he tells his customers when they bring the rig back for service due to not being able to run windows update that he intentionally disabled the service because he doesn't want anyone installing service pack 1 because it screws up the os. lol. i've confronted the owner numerous times about this but he doesn't seem to care one iota. he's getting his money from the sales and has no intentions of refunding the cost of the new rigs to unsatisfied customers. it surprises me that he's still in business.

Yeah, you'd think that MS in the US would be all over him.  I read in a newspaper article here in Oz that a Sydney PC store was reported to MS Australia for selling warez XP on rigs when XP became unavailable here, and was promptly shut down... the case has yet to go to court, but I'd say the owner is in deep doo-doo.

At least when I purchase something from my local PC store I can be rest assured that it is legit... Pat is as honest as the day is long. He unwittingly overcharged me once for an item by just 2 dollars, but realised his mistake and refunded it the next time I was in the store, some weeks later.  Now THAT is honest.

While some of those Mojave respondants may not have had high standards for an OS, the exercise did prove one thing... that Vista had been given a bad rap by people who hadn't even seen it, much less tried it.  You know, I'm still hearing people saying negative stuff about Vista, and when I ask: "Have you actually tried it?", many of them reply: "Well that's what I've heard!"

So, it just goes to show how many people formulate opinions and base their decisions on what others 'think'... and when it comes to Vista, too many based their decisions on what some 'less than expert' press-desk critic had to say.  Funny thing, that, how some of those critics, upon delving further into Vista, retracted their earlier comments and now say that they quite like and enjoy using Vista.

More importantly, how many of the World's PC users are actual power users, and thus have high standards with regard to high-end usage?  For the most part, the average PC user is just that... average, and therefore isn't requiring an OS that performs above their daily tasks: ie, word processing, simple calculations and surfing the net, etc.  Hence, Vista would be more than adequate for them... but no, too much doubt was placed in their minds by press-desk critics professing to be more knowledgeable than they actually are. 

I've already read some bad reviews of Windows 7, even before it goes to RTM, so the rot starts yet again, and the sheep among us will believe the anti-hype and stay away in droves.... fiecely guarding XP with their very lives and saying: "XP, me upgrade from XP: only if you pry it from my cold dead fingers!!!!"

That's an amazingly poor way to run a business. Just because he doesn't like it doesn't mean he shouldn't sell it. That's pretty much shooting yourself in the foot, especially if there's a demand for the product.

I have to break it to you, but Microsoft's target market isn't nerds. As much as we like to beat our own drums sometimes, we're not the audience Microsoft has in mind.

A good example is the Office ribbon: A lot of "nerds" and power users complain about it because it doesn't offer much in the way of customization. However, one of the reasons for this was explained in Microsoft's User Interface blog: It hurt more than it helped. A lot more than it helped. Many of the regular users didn't know (and didn't want to know) all about the customizations. They simply wanted to get things done. A lot of people would, by accident, move a toolbar and not know how to revert it back to its original position, or would be afraid that if they closed something they'd never be able to get it back again. The result is often an interface "customized" by accident and filled with junk.

Those are the people Microsoft designs for, and that aspect of design is showing up a bit in Windows 7, as Microsoft has some of the Office UI people working on Windows 7's interface.

. . . and I'm convinced that the Office Ribbon has totally met its design goals. My mother, who barely knows how to use her computer except for basic tasks, knows how to use it. She even explored the Ribbon's tabs, wondering what each of them revealed. Everything is just there - nothing is hidden in an archaic dialog box, nothing is many layers deep. Nothing tries to hide itself "randomly" if not used. The "adaptive menus" from previous versions of Office were messy, and frankly broke more than they fixed. Everything in the new ribbon is accessible and won't try to change around in some apparently random manner. All changes to the UI are now based on context, not on usage, which makes a lot more sense.

After watching a few ordinary people use the ribbon, I am convinced Microsoft hit their target market squarely on the head for Office. Sure, the power users complain a bit about losing some customization and flexibility, but the ordinary users gains a lot from having a consistent, difficult to break UI.

Microsoft has moved some of the Office UI team to Windows 7, so I expect tht similar changes are happening there as well. In fact, I can already see some of that in how Windows 7 works.

One thing that is interesting is the (apparently intentional) blurring of the line between software that is running and software that is not running. This is something I have seen in many mobile OSes; in particular, Palm OS is well known for not caring about this distinction.

Even in  a modern OS, the distinction is blurred a bit: Many OSes don't clear a program from memory right away, so that if the program is launched again, it's already in memory and can be launched faster. In Vista, it even attempts to pre-load software into memory based on user habits (SuperFetch). So there's less distinction between what's already running and what it not running - it's more a matter of what's in the task list rather than what's in memory and what's not.

Or as highly ridiculous standards. Sometimes we "nerds" don't mind if something's as complex as the controls of a Space Shuttle, but something like that would absolutely confuse the average user. Linux has long had (and arguably still has) a UI that appeals to power users more than anybody else.

. . . and THAT is a store that would've earned my trust and a place I would be glad to return to for future purchases. That amount of honesty is rare, and it's sad to see that most people are not that honest. Honesty is a value that our society and culture all too often chooses to ignore, and sadly even ridicules.

True, but stuff like that is where Microsoft seems to be headed - the person who came up with the Office Ribbon was moved to the shell team for Windows 7, hoping to improve the experience with the Windows shell.

By "Stardock," do you mean Stardock Central?

Stardock Central isn't supported in Windows 7, and it's very unlikely that they will add support for Windows 7, as they are replacing SDC with Impulse.

Try Impulse instead.

That won't happen anytime soon... and the EU has rocks in its head, coming up with archaic laws that disadvantage European MS customers who want an OS with media player and the like straight out of the box.

Furthermore, MS' bundling of additional apps does not disadvantage third-party developers as no version of Windows has barred the installation of third-party apps... should a user opt for a third-party media player they can freely do so.  The EU can not prove disadvantage to third party devs, so in effect, the EU anti-bundling laws are a restriction of trade to Microsoft marketing a 'complete' product that's sold elsewhere in the World with little or no fuss.

Glad I don't live under the EU's umbrella... as a customer I'd hate having some fat arsed bureaucrat with half a brain telling me what I can and can not have included in an OS.

Well it's the public beta - build 7000 - and I updated everything I could. I have Steam and Firefox and a few other things installed, but that's about it. Mostly games thus far, not many applications.

The installer just hangs. Bah.

I rather like the windows 7 approach. Nice and clean, with *optional* bloatware. If it wasn't for fat arsed bureaucrats with half brains, Microsoft would likely not have made it happen.

This is good advice. We have no clue what's causing it, but we do know that Impulse seems to install fine on our systems with a clean setup.

Have you installed any security applications, such as antivirus or firewall?

My suggestion, if all else fails: Download Process Explorer and Process Monitor from Sysinternals, take a look at Mark's blog to see how he uses his software to troubleshoot problems, and see if you can't zero in on a particular problem.

Figured it out...used Impulse,though WB/Logon Vista don't work...Icon Pakager and cursorfx work fine though...Haven't tried the rest of OD yet... 

Yeah I know...But got another problem...since I activaed OD in Windows 7,I can't get Wb to load skins in vista??? Anybody know how I can fix this problem??? thanks in advance for any help.