A short overview of my two days at Dev & IT Pro Days 2007 in Belgium. The sessions I'v followed and more.

If you have a Creative Soundblaster X-Fi, you will be happy to know that they have released a new version (2.13.0012) of their drivers for Vista.  Finally gone out of beta.  Download the driver here.

I just have installed them and I must say the sound is better now.

The first troubles with Vista are comming up.

I had installed the Windows Mobile Device Center.  I have succesfully connected to my PDA and have succesfully synchronized with my PC and Outlook 2007.

Since today I got following error when connecting my PDA with my PC :

This is strange as Outlook is installed.  Have to find a solution for this.

It seems that there's a problem with installing SP1 for Visual Studio 2005.  After a first try of almost 5 hours the installation file was still extracting and even not halfway.  I redownloaded the SP, and try again.  After almost 24 hours, the same result.

When trying to instal SP1 for Vista it says that I'm missing the correct patch.

Have to look why ? But it's strange.

For my work, I use remote desktop a lot.  Now there's a gadget for it.  Frameworkx has released this gadget.  You can download it here : http://www.frameworkx.com/frameworkx/download.aspx?id=294.  The latest version is 1.5.

Part 3 of software which I'm installing on my Vista Machine. This list contains the version I have and if they work or if you need a patch or a later version. Also problems during the installation are mentioned.

Part 2 of software which I'm installing on my Vista Machine. This list contains the version I have and if they work or if you need a patch or a later version. Also problems during the installation are mentioned.

Since yesterday I'm busy with installing the first software on my Vista machine.  I will list up what's working and what's not working.

First about the hardware :

1. Printer : HP Officejet 7310.  Although on the site of HP they stated that it will only work with basic functionality, my printer works fine.  I only have to test the scan functionality.
2. Scanner : HP Sscanjet 4070 : I haven't installed this one.  HP stated that there's no driver at this moment.  I'm just going to try.
3. Freecom FSG-3 storage drive : See this post on my blog.
4. Fingerprint reader keyboard : The latest drivers of Microsoft gives a fully working keyboard except for the fingerprint reading function.  The software for this will be availlable somewhere April - May this year.
5. Microsoft Wireless IntelliMouse Explorer : With the latest drivers of Microsoft the mouse has a full functionality.
6. IPAQ 2210 in craddle for synchronization : Use the synchronization center of Microsoft.

Next what about software :

1. Office 2007 : No problems
2. Kaspersky Antivirus : You need to download their latest version (at least version 6.0.2.614) which is Vista ready.  All previous versions won't install.
3. ACDSee Pro V9 : It installs but gives an error about a DLL that's missing under Vista.  Somewhere in March a patch will be availlable
4. 2Go Favorite Sync tool : It installs and works fine, but you have to setup following conditions :
   1. Compatibility Mode to run : Windows XP SP2
   2. Run as administrator

The next days I will update this list with my experiences.

At this moment I have a few problems that need to be solved :

1. When running a program from my Freecom FSG-3 storage drive, I got the message that I don't have the rights for running a program from a network location.
2. 2Go Sync tool, doesn't startup when booting the PC, because Vista doesn't trust this program.  I can run it from the message window that Vista shows me.  Then I got the question if I trust the program.  So in some place I need to setup that this program always can be seen as a trusted program.

Update : If you want to check if a program is compatible in Vista, checkout this site : Windows Vista RTM Software Compatibility List

After playing around this weekend with Vista, this is my second post about it. First of all, If you want to have the 3D look when tabbing between programs, you must have installed the Aero theme (which is by default enabled). Then Don't use the ALT-TAB key combination. This give you the old fashioned way of tabbing, but with screen preview (like the powertoy under Windows XP). Use WINDOWSKEY-TAB to use the 3D tabbing. Next something about dreamscene under Vista Ultimate...

After setting up my new machine I came to the first problem.  This is the situation :

I have a Freecom FSG-3 storage Drive (500GB).  I can connect to it through the admin page, but when I want to add it through a share, I can't login.

After searching to the problem I came to following solution (at your own risk):

1. Open mmc
2. Add snap-in : "Group Policy Object Editor"
3. You'll get a message pop up asking you to confirm what object you want to edit - local computer is in by default and this is correct so just click on Finish and then on OK
4. use the tree to navigate to Console Root\Local Computer Policy\Computer Configuration\Windows Settings\Security Settings\Local Policies\Security Options (phew!)
5. Changes following policies :
   1. Microsoft network client: Send unencrypted password to third-party SMB servers - set this to Enabled
   2. Network security: LAN Manager authentication level - set this to Send LM & NTLM - use NTLMv2 session security if negotiated
6. Restart your PC
7. Now you can login to the shared drives
8. Done!!

From what I understand is that the problem is with Samba which is the program the FSG would most likely be running to make it visible/accessible to windows.  The problem would be fixed in firmware 4.x, which will be relaesed ???.