meddlingBanter

Two of my biggest annoyance’s I have with Vista are both a result of the new security features on Vista. Those of us using Vista (I know I just put it on my laptop today, but I’ve used it a handful of times on my desktop) know that the UAC(User Accounts Control) is pretty annoying when you’re installing a bunch of apps, like when you’re reinstalling everything. Truth be told I think it’s a good idea and I’m glad the feature is in Vista. Trouble is with a new system it’s way more clicking than I want to be doing. It’s simple enough to remove though; check out the link from lifehacker. Now like the article suggests (at least I think it does) it’s probably a good idea to reenable the feature on your system. I know I plan to.

My other annoyance stemming from UAC is flashing my screen every time a UAC box pops up. I think I can handle the box, just not the seizures I get everytime. I think a box popping up and a windows sound are plenty, good thing there is a way to remove it.

Update: From reading the comments on the link above, it appears removing the screen blanking is a baaaaaaad idea.  When the screen goes blank Vista enters a secure desktop mode, meaning that nothing can interfer with the UAC dialog box.  If you disable the feature any malware can simply send a continue signal to the dialog box and thus UAC is no longer secure.  Ok Microsoft, can you please make a way for me to run secure desktop mode without giving me a seizure?

While I’m doing a bit of ranting, I noticed on my copy of Vista Business edition that when I searched for games using the new searching feature (which I love, or at least like that it provides pretty much the same functionality as my beloved launchy does on XP) no games popped up. It seems as though for the Business edition games are not installed by default. Fair enough, thats probably a wise thing for Microsoft to do, I’m sure many a business owner requested they do that. There is an easy way to enable the games though, so get back to Solitaire!!

Speaking of games, yesterday I was talking to Chris and he was asking me what was so great about Vista Ultimate over say Business or Home, or at least what I thought regarding all three of them. Now of course I haven’t used Ultimate that much, but about the only think I could come up with at the time was the cool Texas Holdem game on UE, and of course there is the media center stuff. For me though I don’t particularly need any media center funtions since I don’t have an XBOX 360, nor do I have any particular want for the thing. I’d rather purchase a couple of old XBOXs for when my current one fails. Since I’ve modded my XBOX I can stream all my video to it from my computer without the need for a $400 operating system and a $400 gaming system. Eventually I’ll build myself a MythTV box, but that project won’t be for a while yet. I really don’t need a MythTV box yet anyway as my XBOX is still chugging along. The only thing thats wrong with it is the DVD player rarely reads a disc, like when I tried to watch Borat last night. Of course I can always stream the disc from my computer to the XBOX, so that’s not such a big deal for me. Owell, time for some Solitaire and finishing up Season 3 of 24.