This is one of those store it on the intarweb so someone else can benefit deals. Nothing but tech follows.
I upgraded my primary work PC to Vista (RC2).
Notes:
- My upgrade from XP failed twice before I uninstalled enough stuff to get it working. I believe the culprit was Virtual PC, but I can't confirm this.
- I really really didn't want to have to reformat, but I was going down that road, fortunately I didn't have to (this time). Here's where syncronization tools can really help. 1) Foldershare 2) Google Browser Sync 3) Exchange/Outlook
- SocksCap is an effective workaround on Vista for Winsock Proxy Client or Windows Firewall Client.
- My attempt to keep the upgrade on the DL are being thwarted by the giant non-customizable (that I know of) Vista welcome screen.
- The nVidia "pro-workstation" Quadra 550 video card actually sucks. I get a 2.6 rating and Aero performance is not very good. I'm leaving it on though because I'm stubborn like that.
- Ad Muncher is having problems with the proxy client, so I switched to FireFox specific AdBlock Plus + Adblock Filterset.G Updater
- I bought a SanDisk Cruzer Titanium 2.0 GB flash drive to be able to run ReadyBoost. I've struggled with this all day today. Everything works when I enable it, but about 45 seconds after the cache file is created it disappears. I've messed and tinkerered, formatted and reset fifty times, and now it seems to be working -- touch wood as they say. Since not all USB memory is created equally, be sure to check the compatiblility chart here first: http://www.grantgibson.co.uk/misc/readyboost/ Also, if you are so inclined, there's a great ReadyBoost FAQ here: http://blogs.msdn.com/tomarcher/archive/2006/06/02/615199.aspx
- Oh, and I am loving ReadyBoost now that I have it working. I can absolutely tell the difference, especially since my HDD is quite loud on access and I can hear the huge reduction in drive reads/writes when programs load.