You might think I'm little behind with this news, believe it or not but until now I was still runing on Windows XP. But no more excuses! This week I want ahead and finally bought Vista for my home computer. To be precise it's Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit version. The fun begins!
Why I choose Ultimate edition? The politically correct answer of course is that I use the computer for both work and fun… but hey, the truth, as you all know, is that I'm a geek so I just want the best system I can get!
Why I choose the 64-bit version? One reason is that is that was the only Ultimate edition they had currently in stock in my favorite store. Second, since I have Core 2 Duo here I'm not going to waste these additional 32-bits it offers. It should be faster, right?
The system installed quickly and with no problems. It properly recognized all my hardware. I only downloaded the latest ATI Catalyst Drivers for Vista (64-bit). The drivers for Xbox 360 controller were updated during first automatic update. Later I've connected the LifeCam VX-3000 web camera and there is 64-bit version of software available for download.
After that I started installing some tools. I've read on many sites before that there are problems with Daemon Tools on Vista so I started looking for another software to mount ISO images. On one forum MagicISO was mentioned to work properly on Vista. Not in my case however, because it tried to install additional drivers and Vista 64-bit requires all drivers to be digitally signed (more on this later). What's more, now I have a broken installation that I can't reverse and it complains about missing drivers after each boot (sucks!). After some more reading I found that the latest version of Daemon Tools somehow manages to bypass this limitation and in fact it does work on Vista (sucks that is still have the broken MagicISO).
All video plays properly after installing the latest K-Lite Codec Pack Standard 2.85. There is even a 64-bit Codec Add-On but currently in beta and it requires a 64-bit player. One thing you might not know is that 64-bit version of Windows Media Player is installed with system but it's not used by default (the same goes for IE). You have to manually update the shortcuts to point to the correct Program Files folder (the one with no x86). However I've tried it on some movies and it didn't work properly.
So it's time to test the games. For first shot I've decided to try Prince Of Persia: The Two Thrones that I'm playing currently. The installation went smoothly. But when I tried to run it first started installing some additionally stuff for copy protection including propertiary drivers. And because there weren't signed Vista blocked this. So this won't work, end of story? Wrong. After rebooting I got an error screen that the drivers can't be loaded and the machine can't boot. OMG! I just crashed my brand new Vista! This is bad!
The only way to fix it was to boot from the Vista DVD and use the recovery console. Ubisoft uses StarForce copy protection but although they claim Vista compatibility I couldn't find any update for their drivers. So if you want to play any of Ubisoft games be very careful. I've also read that recently, after many complains Ubisoft stoped using StarForce altogether.
As for work part, until now I've only installed Microsoft Expression Blend (the RC came out yesterday) and Virtual PC 2007 (to run the Visual Studio "Orcas" March CTP). By the way, one reason I choose Vista Ultimate is that Virtual PC will only run on Business and Ultimate editions. There is a 64-bit version though. I've installed Paint.NET and you don't need special 64-bit version cause it's all in .NET (I love how they NGen their assemblies during install). However I will hold my opinion if this version is suitable for development until I install Visual Studio. I will update this post when I finally get to this.
If you going after 64-bit platform like me first consider all the limitations it has (read here, here and here). If you decide to switch to 64-bit but have a 32-bit version already you can order a DVD with 64-bit version at very low price from Windows Vista Alternate Media. And here is a cool site called Start64! with news on software for 64-bit platform.