Vista Annoyances Help Please?

[EKKC]

a) How can i have Windows Photo Gallery parse only picture files like the old XP Preview days? It's annoying that it looks at videos as well while I'm scrolling left and right.

b) How can I defrag only C:\ I have a bunch of partitions, but this dumbed down Windows defragger does not let me choose which partition to defrag.

c) System Restore, in XP you used to have total control on how much disk space to allocate for the the system restore points, I can't find the option now. I just found out after some apps were installed, there are well over 10GB of space wasted by restore checkpoints. I mean, yeah I have a 160GB partition for you, but that doesn't mean you can have it!

d) I disabled UAC, there's always an icon now to warn me, I don't want to get rid of the Windows Security Center warning messages and icons but I want it to ignore just the UAC. I want it to check my firewall, antivirus and defender definitions.

any help from anyone would be greatly appreciated. vista is nice but they took away some control from the power users, which sucks

 

[stash]

a) How can i have Windows Photo Gallery parse only picture files like the old XP Preview days? It's annoying that it looks at videos as well while I'm scrolling left and right.

Click the option for "Pictures" instead of "All Pictures and Videos"?

b) How can I defrag only C:\ I have a bunch of partitions, but this dumbed down Windows defragger does not let me choose which partition to defrag

I think the command line version (defrag.exe) can do this. Not really necessary though, the system will defrag itself on a regular basis.

c) System Restore

From the help: "To store restore points, you need at least 300 megabytes (MB) of free space on each hard disk that has System Protection turned on. System Restore might use up to 15 percent of the space on each disk. As the amount of space fills up with restore points, System Restore will delete older restore points to make room for new ones.

System Restore will not run on disks smaller than 1 gigabyte (GB)."

d)

Not possible AFAIK. Why are you disabling UAC?

 

[EKKC]

Originally posted by: stash

a) How can i have Windows Photo Gallery parse only picture files like the old XP Preview days? It's annoying that it looks at videos as well while I'm scrolling left and right.

Click the option for "Pictures" instead of "All Pictures and Videos"?

I mean when I open a picture in a folder, and starts to press left and right, not really opening Windows Photo Gallery

b) How can I defrag only C:\ I have a bunch of partitions, but this dumbed down Windows defragger does not let me choose which partition to defrag

I think the command line version (defrag.exe) can do this. Not really necessary though, the system will defrag itself on a regular basis.

i knew about the cmd line, but just wanted to see if they really dumbed this down so much that you can't even specify a partition in the UI. i have a 800GB Raid 0 filesonly setup that I do not want defragged as it will take forever, i only want to defrag the OS/system partition.

c) System Restore

From the help: "To store restore points, you need at least 300 megabytes (MB) of free space on each hard disk that has System Protection turned on. System Restore might use up to 15 percent of the space on each disk. As the amount of space fills up with restore points, System Restore will delete older restore points to make room for new ones.

System Restore will not run on disks smaller than 1 gigabyte (GB)."

Again, I want total control of it like during the XP days, I would prefer it much better if I can set it down to 5%. I do not need that many restore points. I like to have a lot of free space in my system drive, as I regularly ghost the system parition as a backup. All those restore points made my ghost image 20GB, after deleting them, it was less than 10GB.

d)

Not possible AFAIK. Why are you disabling UAC?

[/quote]

Frequent prompts are annoying. I was okay with XP and I don't need to be bothered every time i want to move a file or copy something or install a small program. but i do want the warnings to come up when definnitions are expired or if my antivirus or firewall are turned off.

thanks

 

[exaltair]

B: )

My Computer -> Right click on Drive C -> Properties -> Defrag

D: )

No way around it, just disable the whole warning message. Firewall will never get turned off so you dont have to worry, you could always go into your control panel to manually check your Security Center.

 

[EKKC]

thanks

its annoyances like this that makes me almost want to go back to XP... almost

the aero is just too damn sweet

 

[rxblitzrx]

How come we can't see the defrag anymore? I like the visual reinforcement of knowing how neat/messy everything is.

 

[rxblitzrx]

Is there a better defrag program for Vista than Diskeeper??

 

[EKKC]

Originally posted by: rxblitzrx
How come we can't see the defrag anymore? I like the visual reinforcement of knowing how neat/messy everything is.

i havent used anything else since the days of Diskeeper 8 (i think its now 2007, or version 12? i want to buy it)

they got rid of all the power user stuff in vista, which is stupid IMO

 

[Smilin]

Originally posted by: EKKC

Originally posted by: rxblitzrx
How come we can't see the defrag anymore? I like the visual reinforcement of knowing how neat/messy everything is.

i havent used anything else since the days of Diskeeper 8 (i think its now 2007, or version 12? i want to buy it)

they got rid of all the power user stuff in vista, which is stupid IMO

defrag is "just handled". It's scheduled, runs in the background and is fully automatic. The REAL power users have better crap to do than look at a pretty block display while it runs. There is no reason for anything 3rd party.

 

[Tom]

Originally posted by: Smilin

Originally posted by: EKKC

Originally posted by: rxblitzrx
How come we can't see the defrag anymore? I like the visual reinforcement of knowing how neat/messy everything is.

i havent used anything else since the days of Diskeeper 8 (i think its now 2007, or version 12? i want to buy it)

they got rid of all the power user stuff in vista, which is stupid IMO

defrag is "just handled". It's scheduled, runs in the background and is fully automatic. The REAL power users have better crap to do than look at a pretty block display while it runs. There is no reason for anything 3rd party.

Just curious Smilin, do you think Vista is perfect, or is it just my imagination ?

 

[Smilin]

hahaha. NO! It is not perfect and I know this better than most. It's amusing that you would think that I think it's perfect.


However, so far everyone is griping about the wrong things. I haven't seen the real issues come up yet. Defrag is not a shortcoming of Vista at all. People not seeing a block display during defrag or thinking they need 3rd party is just silly. Diskkeeper and the bunch just add that display to provide some value where there is none. It doesn't make your disk work any better by having a fancy interface on your defragging program.

Defrag works like a champ on Vista. Problems certainly exist with Vista but they are elsewhere.

 

[Tom]

Originally posted by: Smilin
hahaha. NO! It is not perfect and I know this better than most. It's amusing that you would think that I think it's perfect.


However, so far everyone is griping about the wrong things. I haven't seen the real issues come up yet. Defrag is not a shortcoming of Vista at all. People not seeing a block display during defrag or thinking they need 3rd party is just silly. Diskkeeper and the bunch just add that display to provide some value where there is none. It doesn't make your disk work any better by having a fancy interface on your defragging program.

Defrag works like a champ on Vista. Problems certainly exist with Vista but they are elsewhere.

hmm, why does this make think of Aero ? :laugh:

 

[Nothinman]

hmm, why does this make think of Aero ?

At least Aero gives you some visual benefits and has potential to be expanded on later, limited as MS may have made it, but defragging is almost pure placebo.

 

[Smilin]

Originally posted by: Tom

Originally posted by: Smilin
hahaha. NO! It is not perfect and I know this better than most. It's amusing that you would think that I think it's perfect.


However, so far everyone is griping about the wrong things. I haven't seen the real issues come up yet. Defrag is not a shortcoming of Vista at all. People not seeing a block display during defrag or thinking they need 3rd party is just silly. Diskkeeper and the bunch just add that display to provide some value where there is none. It doesn't make your disk work any better by having a fancy interface on your defragging program.

Defrag works like a champ on Vista. Problems certainly exist with Vista but they are elsewhere.

hmm, why does this make think of Aero ? :laugh:

Because, as you demonstrated in the other thread, you don't really know what Aero is or what benefits it brings.

 

[EKKC]

i love vista. but the little annoyances i listed i wish they could fix soon in a patch or a service pack (doubt they would release one before 2009 though)

one major gripe. X-fi is not supported out of the box, as many are complaining about.
and i got the driver, and enabled the digital i/o in the sounds config, but it's not outputting 5.1 Dolby Digital or DTS via my Coax cable hooked up to my Logitech Z5500, it's only doing 2.1 no matter what speaker configuration I try. I heard there's nothign but problems too for optical output...

man, i hope Creative fixes this and don't release another stupid sound card on us.

 

[Markbnj]

Originally posted by: Tom

Originally posted by: Smilin
hahaha. NO! It is not perfect and I know this better than most. It's amusing that you would think that I think it's perfect.


However, so far everyone is griping about the wrong things. I haven't seen the real issues come up yet. Defrag is not a shortcoming of Vista at all. People not seeing a block display during defrag or thinking they need 3rd party is just silly. Diskkeeper and the bunch just add that display to provide some value where there is none. It doesn't make your disk work any better by having a fancy interface on your defragging program.

Defrag works like a champ on Vista. Problems certainly exist with Vista but they are elsewhere.

hmm, why does this make think of Aero ? :laugh:

Yeah, Aero sucks. Windows stutter when I drag them, and sometimes they leave little trails of stranded pixels on the screen. There's no transparency, and it's slow as hell.

Oh wait, that's GDI+ on XP. Never mind.

 

[Tom]

I didn't say Aero sucks, and I was just playing around with Smilin on account of his comment that I bolded.

I don't have the issues you have with XP though, how can I duplicate them so I can see what you're talking about ?

 

[Markbnj]

Originally posted by: Tom
I didn't say Aero sucks, and I was just playing around with Smilin on account of his comment that I bolded.

I don't have the issues you have with XP though, how can I duplicate them so I can see what you're talking about ?

Nah, most of the time XP UI works fine. All those effects I've mentioned do happen from time to time, and if you have never seen them you've been lucky. Primary advantage of Aero is that it is built on Direct3D instead of the tottering GDI+ architecture.

 

[rxblitzrx]

I think with a visual defrag, you at least have an idea of how bad it is and how long it will take to fix. I don't leave my machine over night to defrag because 1) it's too hot in my room and 2) it's too hot in my room. Plus it's hard to sleep when all you hear is disk access. I personally think the Windows version sucks because of this. True, eye candy doesn't provide any benefit other than retinal stimulation but it sure as heck couldn't hurt to leave it in.

 

[pcgeek11]

Originally posted by: Smilin
hahaha. NO! It is not perfect and I know this better than most. It's amusing that you would think that I think it's perfect.


However, so far everyone is griping about the wrong things. I haven't seen the real issues come up yet. Defrag is not a shortcoming of Vista at all. People not seeing a block display during defrag or thinking they need 3rd party is just silly. Diskkeeper and the bunch just add that display to provide some value where there is none. It doesn't make your disk work any better by having a fancy interface on your defragging program.

Defrag works like a champ on Vista. Problems certainly exist with Vista but they are elsewhere.

Defrag does work as well as anything else on Vista, XP etc... It is just so darn slow as compared to " Perfectdisk " and others. No I haven't timed it to see for sure and maybe it is a perception that the others are faster. Just a preference of mine I guess...

pcgeek11

 

[Nothinman]

I think with a visual defrag, you at least have an idea of how bad it is and how long it will take to fix. I don't leave my machine over night to defrag because 1) it's too hot in my room and 2) it's too hot in my room. Plus it's hard to sleep when all you hear is disk access. I personally think the Windows version sucks because of this. True, eye candy doesn't provide any benefit other than retinal stimulation but it sure as heck couldn't hurt to leave it in.

Frankly I'd just forget about it if I were you, do you have any real proof that defragging actually helps anyway?

 

[bsobel]

Originally posted by: rxblitzrx
I think with a visual defrag, you at least have an idea of how bad it is and how long it will take to fix. I don't leave my machine over night to defrag because 1) it's too hot in my room and 2) it's too hot in my room. Plus it's hard to sleep when all you hear is disk access. I personally think the Windows version sucks because of this. True, eye candy doesn't provide any benefit other than retinal stimulation but it sure as heck couldn't hurt to leave it in.

This is still somewhat of a personal choice, but it's funny to me that people care about watching the defrag. I argued strongly to nuke the defrag UI from Norton Utilities for NT and just make it work slowly and correctly in the background. Always trying to make the layout better with little user interaction. Most people (based on focus groups) tending to agree, but damm if those that didn't weren't a vocal little minority

I still think its the right decision, defrag should be an ongoing idle time work not something you manually do once a week (at least if you want the most out of the benefit it gives you).

Obviously, IMHO, your mileage may vary, etc.

 

[rxblitzrx]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

I think with a visual defrag, you at least have an idea of how bad it is and how long it will take to fix. I don't leave my machine over night to defrag because 1) it's too hot in my room and 2) it's too hot in my room. Plus it's hard to sleep when all you hear is disk access. I personally think the Windows version sucks because of this. True, eye candy doesn't provide any benefit other than retinal stimulation but it sure as heck couldn't hurt to leave it in.

Frankly I'd just forget about it if I were you, do you have any real proof that defragging actually helps anyway?

Actually I do... I call it computer drag racing. I use AIM and when you sign off it shows what time you logged off/logged on. Since my AIM auto starts when Windows starts, I've had people time me. Before a defrag I've been clocked at approximately 64 seconds. After defrag it went down to 60 seconds. I've actually noticed programs open up faster due to defragging. Keep in mind that this is only after a clean install of Windows, Office, Firefox and Kaspersky. New installs put files all over the place. It's really annoying. So that's my stance on visual defrag programs. I think it helps.

 

[Nothinman]

Actually I do... I call it computer drag racing. I use AIM and when you sign off it shows what time you logged off/logged on. Since my AIM auto starts when Windows starts, I've had people time me. Before a defrag I've been clocked at approximately 64 seconds. After defrag it went down to 60 seconds. I've actually noticed programs open up faster due to defragging. Keep in mind that this is only after a clean install of Windows, Office, Firefox and Kaspersky. New installs put files all over the place. It's really annoying. So that's my stance on visual defrag programs. I think it helps.

That's pretty circumstantial, any number of things could account for that 4s since a lot more happens in the background during bootup than just disk I/O.

 

[EKKC]

i have another issue, file copy and move seems to take forever. or a lot longer than on the same computer/specs than when it was under XP

i have a XPS700 with nForce 590 for intel. there's no new vista drivers for it yet, would that be why? copying things to 2.5" USB HDD or USB stick is crappy-slow. while full size external is so slow on "calculating tiem remaining" what the hell, stop calculating and just start copying!