Comments

1. pkarlos_76

   
   Posted on: February 13, 2007 at 1:41PM  

   BTW keep in mind that registration, activation, and product key are 3 different things. registration is you providing identifying information to MS to say hey I own this product with this product key associated with it, so no one can steal it from you. Activation is the electronic process by which your computers says hey I'm a valid copy of vista, can I legitimize this users copy and generate a valid product key. The product key is virtual item that when provided to MS says hey this user is a legitimate user go ahead and help him. Sorry for the mispelling in my previous post.
2. Nick White

   
   Posted on: February 13, 2007 at 2:16PM  

   Hey pkarlos_76:  thanks for the notice of this (and for the compliment!) -- I'll do some digging and see if there is an explanation as to why you've had this experience.  Also, let me know directly if your issue is not resolved satisfactorily.
3. Nick White

   
   Posted on: February 13, 2007 at 2:22PM  

   Hey GS-SSCIA-Fox:  it sounds like you're referring to the new view available via ALT-TAB?  Give that a try and see if it's what you're thinking of.

   With respect to your second question, you can find the video on that other, non-MSN Soapbox video sharing site, by simply searching for "microsoft 'share the pain' video" on Live Search.
4. GS-SSCIA-Fox

   
   Posted on: February 13, 2007 at 8:47PM  

   pkarlos_76: My apologies for misreading your post, by simply overlooking “IE 7” in the third line down, your entire post sounds like your having a problem with activating your copy of Windows and you’re trying to go through general support versus Microsoft’s activation hotline.

   To clarify myself, I have no knowledge of your technical background and you are very correct that there is a difference between activation and product registration. I work with end users all day long who in some cases are very novice computer users and others are very experienced. Because of this, I have to adapt my terminology to meet the level of the user I am trying to support. The term “registration” was used in this case to keep the terminology consistent with what you had in your post so it doesn’t confuse the person I’m trying to help. One much more common example would be a user calling in and saying he has a problem with his printer and asks if he should bring in the “hard drive” with the printer. So you tell him to bring in the printer with the computer, the big box that everything plugs into. The user responds with “The hard drive right?” ……. Um… “yeah, bring in the hard drive”

   LOL, you gotta hand it to me though, if you WERE having trouble with activation, I fired off just about every question needed to help resolve the issue.
5. GS-SSCIA-Fox

   
   Posted on: February 13, 2007 at 9:12PM  

   Hey Nick: no, ALT-TAB wasnt it.. im well aware of alt-tab. I could swear I saw this “third view”, as described in my first post. The presenter from Microsoft had nice setup with a few networked PC’s and a bunch of virtual PC’s on one of the computers for various demos. The Vista Launch event was put on by Microsoft so I really don’t think they would demo a third party app that did this. Now he did demo the ultimate extra, DreamScene, which is something we just got today, patch Tuesday…o wait, the dreamscene patch just says it’s a preview. Could a third view like that possibly be another ultimate extra that he demoed that just isn’t available yet?

   I’ve searched a bunch of sites with no mention of anything like this so I’m starting to doubt myself on this third view thing… maybe I’m seeing things but I thought I saw it demoed at the event.
6. pkarlos_76

   
   Posted on: February 13, 2007 at 10:02PM  

   Nick, thanks for your response, I'm waiting for a response still, as my case worker was off sick, I have rescheduled for Wed the 14th for a callback, but I will have to reschedule that as I have to update a certification that has expired on me for work tomorrow. I will let you know, I can provide you the case ID through your private email if you so request it.
7. pkarlos_76

   
   Posted on: February 13, 2007 at 10:09PM  

   GS-SSCIA-Fox, my apologies I was a bit snappish that day after getting off the phone with HP, Palm Treo, and Dell Tech support for making sure that they knew I need 64 Bit Device drivers for my 0 to 2 year old products, they were a bit novice in there understanding, and one did not know even what a device driver was.

   P.S. I consider my knowledge about computers average, however the novice users look unto me as a genious.......sighs. Although I've been using and playing with computers since the Commodore 64 days, yet I know very little about coding or writting html. I just know how to find and diagnose software and hardware problems. And I'd never do that as a career, I've got very little patience for helping the novice users, I endured 2 years of ISP Call Center Technical Support and I got burned out of my patience. :D
8. pkarlos_76

   
   Posted on: February 16, 2007 at 12:51PM  

   Sighs...looks like my issue is going nowhere Nick, I'l be contacting you shortly.
9. clay58

   
   Posted on: February 17, 2007 at 7:18PM  

   I have Vista Home Premium and I am very satisfied with the OS except for two things. First off, the process of switching users is horribly SLOW. It takes 90 Seconds on average to switch users. This is horrible and worse than XP. What gives with this slow switching time. Also my Microsoft Picture It Pro 7.0 software will not function properly in Vista. I cannot believe Microsoft would not even create a system that will run their own software. I await a response from you Microsoft.
10. Brandon LeBlanc

    

    
    Posted on: February 18, 2007 at 8:13PM  

    The process of switching users will get slower depending on the amount of applications you have running when you switch users. I would post your Fast User Switching problems over on Microsoft's Windows Vista Public Newsgroups as I know support folks are looking at issues there:

    http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/community/default.mspx

    In regards to PictureIt Pro 7.0 - I own a copy of this and I installed it on a XP Virtual Image and ran the Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor. The Upgrade Advisor doesn't pick it up as a incompatible application.

    However its important to note that PictureIt 7.0 is pretty old and Microsoft no longer supports it.

    You can see that Picture It 7.0 left the extended support phase on Dec. 31st, 2005:

    http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/search/?sort=PN&alpha=Microsoft+Picture+It&Filter=FilterNO

    PictureIt has been replaced with the new Microsoft Digital Image Suit:

    http://www.microsoft.com/products/imaging/default.mspx.

    - Brandon