Getting ready for Vista

So you’ve heard all about Microsoft’s new Operating system, you’ve seen the gorgeous screenshots as well huh?!! Are you running to your nearest pirate to buy your copy? But here’s the catch.
I’m sure many of you want it, but most of the systems running Windows XP nowadays won’t cut it when it comes to running Windows Vista. So what do you do? Upgrade obviously! Vista in its entire splendor is a resource heavy OS and your battle weary P4 will have a hard time running it.

These are the official minimum requirements for Vista Basic:
1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
512 MB of system memory
20 GB hard drive with at least 15 GB of available space
Support for DirectX 9 graphics and 32 MB of graphics memory

And Vista Ultimate:
1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
1 GB of system memory
40 GB hard drive with at least 15 GB of available space
Support for DirectX 9 graphics with:
WDDM Driver
128 MB of graphics memory (minimum)
Pixel Shader 2.0 in hardware
32 bits per pixel

To make this kind of an upgrade you will have to have tons of cash right? Wrong!
An upgrade to a Vista Ultimate ready PC can be made in as little as 10,000 bucks but since were not really that stingy we will go for a slightly more Value for Money configuration. I am assuming here that the only components in need of an upgrade are the processor, motherboard and RAM.

Processor: AMD Athlon 64 3200+ (AM2 Socket) (8,500 with Motherboard)

The reasons for selecting an AMD processor are simple, price and performance! If you buy a super performing Core 2 Duo processor you will have to pay through your nose. The Athlon 64 3200+ fits the bill perfectly, it is currently one of the most widely available processors, is 64 bit ready and beats the Pentium 4 hands down.

Motherboard: MSI K9NGM2

Another very important reason for selecting an AMD processor is this, the motherboard. AMD motherboards come with superior onboard Graphics Processing Units (GPU’s) than there Intel counterparts. The MSI K9NGM2is a classic example of just that, with a GeForce 6150 GPU and nForce 430 MCP it is one of the best VFM boards on the market and most importantly the board’s graphics processor is Vista Ultimate ready.

RAM: 1 GB Transcend DDR2 (4,200)

Like I said before, Vista is a resource heavy OS and while running the Ultimate version it is recommended that you use 1 GB RAM, which is exactly what you should get. If you want to save a few bucks here you could go for a 1 GB Dynet chip instead of Transcend.

Mastering Windows - msconfig

The system configuration utility in Windows provides an excellent way to troubleshoot problems with drivers, services and startup programs.
Go to Start > Run and type msconfig and you will get a dialog box that looks like the one alongside.

The application contains six tabs :
1. General
2. SYSTEM.INI
3. WIN.INI
4. BOOT.INI
5. Services
6. Startup

Of which the second, third and fourth are not worth fiddling with unless you REALLY know what you are doing. The first (General) tab just gives you an indication of what the next startup will be like. A 'Normal' startup will load all devices as they are now, while a 'Diagnostic' startup will eliminate all devices and services other than the absolutely neccessary ones.

The 'Selective' startup, which is probably the most useful one, lets you select which Services and Programs to enable (or disable) using the 'Services' and 'Startup' tabs. This gives you a big advantage in finding out which program (or service) is crashing/slowing down or otherwise affecting the performance of your OS.

It is worth noting here that 'msconfig' only provides of a temporary means of disabling applications. It is primarily a troubleshooting tool. If you have found the offending program and want to get rid of it permanently then use the registry.

Mastering Windows - gpedit

Group policy is a setting that is made for a particular group of users.
An example is, if you want to disallow users from changing the firewall settings for your internet.
To do this Windows provides a tool called "Group Policy Editor". Go to your Run box (Start > Run) and type "gpedit.msc", you will see a window like the one above.

You will see two main configuration options

• Computer Configuration (for general settings like firewalls, error reporting etc.)
  
• User Configuration (for user specific settings like folder sharing, display options etc.)

In the "Administrative templates" key of each section you will find a host of settings that can be changed, along with detailed a explanation. For e.g. if you wish to change your settings so that users cannot change firewall settings, you can go to :
"Computer Configuration > Administrative templates > Network > Network Connections > Standard Profile"

and change...

Windows Firewall: Protect all connections - Enabled
Windows Firewal: Do not allow exceptions - Enabled

Let the tinkerer in you free, you can change a variety of settings in both sections that allow you to modify the way your Windows runs.