Windows Vista: the Missing Manual 220
John Suda writes "It's been over five years in the making and its nearly perfect. No,
Im not referring to Microsoft's vast new operating system named Windows
Vista, but to the reference book Windows Vista: the Missing Manual,
by author David Pogue. The book is the latest, and perhaps best, in the Missing
Manual series published by Pogue Press / O'Reilly Media, Inc. The Missing
Manual series is the benchmark of quality for computer manuals. Unless youre
a system administrator, programmer, or uber-geek, this is probably the only reference
source you'll need to learn Microsofts Vista." Read below for the rest of John's review.
| Windows Vista: the Missing Manual | |
| author | David Pogue |
| pages | 848 |
| publisher | O'Reilly Media |
| rating | 9 |
| reviewer | John Suda |
| ISBN | 0596528272 |
| summary | The only reference source you'll need to learn Microsofts Vista |
Vista is the long-awaited successor to Windows XP and it is a major overhaul and upgrade of that operating system. It was designed primarily to address long-standing security issues with XP and its predecessors, but it also has a vastly new look and feel graphically and in operating features. It comes with a large number of new programs and features and its innards have been significantly beefed up, as it is a 64 bit operating system, focused on the intermediate future of computing hardware and software.
There are so many changes in Vista that it would take perhaps a dozen pages just to provide a bare-bones description of everything. You dont get any written material from Microsoft when you buy Vista. There are digital support and help resources built in and available elsewhere for Vista, but they are not convenient to use and they are relatively limited in scope and depth. Vista, the Missing Manual, provides the information Microsoft doesnt. It covers all five North American versions of Vista. Page 6 has a handy comparison chart of each version. The beginning of every content section refers to which version of Vista the discussion applies.
This Missing Manual uses every bit of 827 pages (including index) to provide similar descriptive and informational material as the built-in Vista sources, but provides much, much more:
Beyond mere description of features and functions, the book explains and evaluates all of the major (and many of the minor) changes from Windows XP to the new Vista. The introductory chapter itemizes all of the most important changes providing perspective on what Microsoft has done with the new operating system. It also highlights some of the more significant interface changes the new search tool, the revised Start Menu, and the new ribbon bar.
The author notes, at every point relevant, the options a user has in either using a new Vista feature, or in reconfiguring the operating experience to return to pre-existing features and the aesthetic elements of Windows XP and earlier versions of the operating system.
Pogue provides an expert users perspective on the value of the changes and new features in Vista. Some things are improvements and upgrades; others are rated as inferior to what was before. If you dont like the new or changed feature, Pogue guides you how to revert to previous iterations of the featuress, or otherwise provides workarounds.
Pogue is great at providing an expert users perspective on working with the operating system efficiently and pragmatically. He doesnt just describe a feature or function but includes tips and guides on how to be more efficient and practical with it and provides reference to other resources available for additional information or guidance. The Manual is written so that one almost feels that they are getting a one-on-one, hands-on lesson, in using Windows Vista. He represents the Alpha-geek relative you might have to help you out when you cant figure out how to do or fix something.
Beyond all of the information, guidance and perspectives, Pogue has a great writing style. The writing is sprinkled with wit, sarcasm, and good-natured humor, extremely rare for a computer related book. Microsoft gets more than a few slams for its many foibles, all well earned. WordPad, for example, no longer opens Word files!
The author writes for multiple levels of need and understanding. He details the basics of Windows Vista for beginners, provides richer material in breadth and depth for intermediate users, and a good amount of material useful for power users, both informationally and in advanced tips. There are many sidebars sprinkled throughout called Power Users Clinic which offer more technical tips, shortcuts, and information to PC veterans.
There is a lot new to Vista. The most important, if not the most noticeable, are the security enhancements. Microsoft now has a user account control which limits installation of new applications to a user who has administrative permissions. By default, the operating system generates accounts for simple users, without the ability to allow installation of new programs. There is a full page of FAQs just regarding the user account control.
A major security upgrade is service hardening which prevents access to the all-important system files by outsiders or unauthorized users. Other new security elements are the Windows Defender program designed to prevent spyware installs, a phishing filter in Internet Explorer, parental controls, protected mode, drive encryption, address space randomization, and much more. That list doesnt even include a new backup program to help protect users from nonfeasance in basic computer operations (although the author recommends third-party software.)
What is most noticeable is the appearance of the desktop, windows, icons, system font (Sergoe UI), and interface features. These are all redesigned to take advantage the vastly enhanced graphic capabilities of Vista referred to as Aero. The Start Menu has been redesigned to be easier to use. The conventional menu bar for the desktop and most application windows has been replaced with a content-based ribbon bar.
There is a lengthy list of new applications, most significantly Windows response to Apple Macintoshs iLife suite of media applications. In Vista, these are the Photo Gallery, Calendar, DVD Maker, Media Player 11, and DVD Maker. It adds to that group, Meeting Space, which is a collaboration program for local network users.
The Windows Sidebar is modeled after Apples Dashboard, which allows customized applets to be displayed and used. A useful cautionary note mentions that the Sidebar gadgets dont save data or configurations when closed. You must start all over again.
Mr. Pogue is an accomplished writer and computer expert having authored over 40 books, including 17 of the Missing Manual series. Hes well regarded as the weekly technology columnist for the New York Times and a correspondent for CBSs News Sunday Morning. Hes been assisted here by four other experts who contributed chapters or parts of chapters to this manual. The writing is clear, concise, and jargon free. The book provides a fair evaluation of Microsofts latest operating system and gives it good grades overall. Pogue routinely points out the areas that Microsoft has unashamedly copied from Apple Macintosh, and notes it as a good thing.
The book is organized into eight parts including a set of appendices. These include the Desktop (or user workspace), the Vista software, Online and Internet connection matters, the new Pictures, Movie, and Media applications, hardware and peripherals, PC health and maintenance, and networking with Vista. The page layout is clean. The book is filled with hundreds of screenshots and numerous step-by-step instructions on nearly all of Vistas elements. The discussion is comprehensive and deep.
Part One explains the Desktop and whats new, including the Welcome Center, Start Menu, and the greatly enhanced search tool which graces every window and the desktop itself. It now offers natural language searching for the first time. For those using older hardware which may not be up to par for Aeros graphic demands, Pogue provides a handful of suggested speed tweaks. A full 10 pages is devoted to Microsofts improved speech recognition system, including a large handful of insights from an experienced user of such software. The author is a fan of Dragon s Naturally Speaking program, but gives good reviews to Vistas capabilities.
Part Two contains most of the material on the new programs and the improved programs Internet Explorer and its new RSS capability, tabs, and search bar, Mail (the Outlook replacement), and the Control Panel, which now contains at least 50 icons for mini-applications, wizards, links, and folders. Chapter 8 provides an applet by applet description. Dealing with the Internet with Internet Explorer and Mail comprises most of Part Three. There is a comprehensive section on connecting to the Internet with the growing number of methods-cable, DSL, dial-up, WiFi, cell, etc.
The media applications are covered in detail in Part Four including comparisons of Microsofts media applications to iTunes and Zune. The discussion of Media Center includes tips on managing recorded TV and setting up media hardware. Part Five deals with the fax, print, and scan functions and hardware related matters. Especially interesting are the printer tricks and the section on laptops, tablets, palm tops and hand-recognition software.
For maintenance, troubleshooting, and problem solving, there is a trio of chapters in Part Six covering disk maintenance and repair, the new dynamic discs feature, compression and encryption, and backups. Geeks may be interested in knowing how to uncover the hidden controls for the new improved firewall. Pogue even provides material on energy conservation and how to configure Vista to work most efficiently for the user.
Part Seven covers the basics of accounts and networks. There is a lot new in Vista, especially in regard to its separate users architecture. The difference between workgroup and domain networks is explained clearly. Sharing and collaboration functions are explained and there is a comprehensive and deep section on remote control using a multitude of methods.
The appendices are great. Appendix A. discusses the installation of Vista in a comprehensive, systematic manner, from pre-purchase and installation considerations, to making decisions about upgrades or clean installs, to dual booting. He describes the new Welcome Center which aggregates many of the initial configurations for a user, or for multiple users.
Appendix B. is cheekily titled Fun with the Registry and is an introduction, with examples, to the notorious registry which is carried over from XP and predecessors. Most authors writing for this level of reader tend to avoid discussion of the registry, but Pogue provides just enough material to intrigue the intermediate user.
Appendix C. is a short itemization of whats missing in Vista from previous Windows operating systems. It makes it easy to figure out why something youve used before cant be located and used. Appendix D. is a master list of keyboard shortcuts for both the operating system and its major applications, like Internet Explorer 7, and the new Windows Mail.
There is no wasted space or text in this book. Its worth every cent of its $34.95 price. As a small bonus, copies of shareware programs mentioned in the book are conveniently available for download at www.missingmanual.com.
You can purchase Microsoft's Vista: the Missing Manual from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
weekly updates (Score:5, Funny)
Vista Help Forum [vistahelpforum.com]
Re:weekly updates (Score:5, Funny)
ORGA (Score:2)
Oh.... And you can come out of hiding now... your book passed the ORGA test this time.
True (Score:5, Funny)
I just installed Vista for the first time. I opened up the command line prompt (that was a challenge) and typed "man vista", and you know what it told me? Command not found. What the fuck is that?
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Thanks for that, Anonymous Coward!
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And this is only the start. Now, I need a list of services I can turn off, ways to make Vista perform as well (or dare I hope, better?) than XP, and instructions for turning off every bit of DRM support.
Then I'll pick up that dis
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Are you really saying that Windows isn't meant for people who want to do anything besides "consume"? Is that really what you mean?
In my "dreamworld" the winner of the Golden Age award would be someone who manufactured a commercially available, big-budget operating system that didn't suck, wasn't booby-trapped, and helped me work instead of getting in my way. I guess in your book th
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Meanwhile, Vista requires pretty stiff hardware upgrades, and even most systems IN STORES NOW are underpowered with regards to what Vista requires. Consumers don't run bleeding edge hardware.
What are you talking about? I haven't updated my machine in 3 years, in it runs Vista fine. The *recommended* (not minimum) CPU requirement is 1GHz -- AMD first released a 1GHz processor seven years ago. Even Aero Glass only requires a DirectX 9 capable graphics card -- DirectX 9 was released in 2002 -- and these days, even Intel's crappy integrated graphics chips can run it.
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Meanwhile, Vista requires pretty stiff hardware upgrades, and even most systems IN STORES NOW are underpowered with regards to what Vista requires. Consumers don't run bleeding edge hardware.
Utter rubbish. Vista's hardware requirements aren't even particularly high, these days, let alone unreasonable.
Apart from the $30 you might have to spend to get a DX9 video card, you can comfortably run Vista on machines seven years old.
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Not in Vista. In Vista, you can just hit windows key and type a command name; the start menu auto-searches for what you want. It's a very nice addition that should be promptly stolen by Linux and Apple.
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DVD Maker? (Score:4, Funny)
Is DVD Maker so good you had to say it twice?... I'm still not sold on it.....
Re:DVD Maker? (Score:5, Funny)
From the department of redundancy department.
Re:DVD Maker? (Score:5, Funny)
Surely too soon? (Score:5, Insightful)
Cheers,
Ian
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Re the SP1 thing, IIRC from what I've read that's a combination of bringing Vista up to date with the by-then-released Longhorn Server and pacifying the "Don't upgrade till SP1!" crowd; but I could be wrong.
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So let's look at that (patches or updates, as they are called at Apple) 10.0.1 April 2001 10.0.2, 10.0.3 in May and 10.0.4 in June.
What about Linux (let use the often sited Ubuntu as example)
Ubuntu [wikipedia.org]
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Vista hasn't really been in consumer use enough to know what kind of problems people will hit in the real world. Surely this is a bit premature?
O'Reilly usually has several books that come out. The "Missing Manual" series tells you the stuff that the manufacturer ought to have put in a user manual (if they could afford to hire tech writers as competent, independent, and forthright as Pogue... who's been playing with the beta builds and probably an advance copy of the final build). There's also the "Anno
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The sad thing is, I can't figure out if I'm being sarcastic or not.
You have opened a book... (Score:5, Funny)
Yes/No?
Re:You have opened a book... (Score:5, Funny)
Would you like to read the next page? Yes
Oops! You did not read and agree to the copyright page! Would you like to read the copyright page? No.
This book requires activation. Please enter your product activation code now: ____________________________________
Would you like to use this activation code? Yes!
Would you like to activate the book? YES!
You are trying to make notes on the page. This is not allowed. Ok
You are trying to make illegal copies of this book on your copier. This is not allowed. Ok
You are tearing your hair out? Would you like to tear your hair out? YES, YES YES YES!!!!
You appear to be insane. Would you like mental help? ARRGGHGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
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My microphone indicates you are screaming at me. Do you think I care?
I detect you are attaching a Linux rogue to this LAN. Do you want to let it on?
Something is trying to inFECT me. Do you want to allow this?
You indicated no, but I am overriding. So, as a feature or as a bug?
When a stranger calls, s/he will know you're alone. Have you checked the children?
Re:You have opened a book... (Score:5, Funny)
Watch this video [youtube.com] and just imagine the security prompts if the book in that video were running Vista (ink and quill edition).
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I can't help feeling that the tone of these UAC jokes is very generous. Personally, I'd have gone for a more traditional:
Windows Vista detected.
(A)bort, (R)etry, (F)ail?
64-bit (Score:4, Insightful)
So was XP [microsoft.com]. What else about it is "beefy" without also being labeled "cruft"?
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What did pogue have to say to billy gates? (Score:3, Funny)
nonfeasance? (Score:2)
Microsoft's strange manual policy (Score:4, Insightful)
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There were a couple other instances where help actually worked as advertised.
Who on earth would really read a manual supplied by msft?
-=-=-=-=-
Check out my new AMD FX70 system build, now with Vista. http://amd4x4.blogspot.com/ [blogspot.com]
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Ohhh nooooo (Score:2)
Appendix B. is cheekily titled Fun with the Registry and is an introduction, with examples, to the notorious registry which is carried over from XP and predecessors. Most authors writing for this level of reader tend to avoid discussion of the registry, but Pogue provides just enough material to intrigue the intermediate user.
I do not want to be the one to try fixing what happens when general users get 'intrigued'
FTFA
Appendix C. is a short itemization of whats missing in Vista from previous Windows oper
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FTFA
Appendix C. is a short itemization of whats missing in Vista from previous Windows operating systems. It makes it easy to figure out why something youve used before cant be located and used.
Apostrophes seem to have been left out of this OS.
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A better Vista manual (Score:3, Funny)
2. Load Dreamscape and play the cool volcano video on your desktop.
3. Say "Wow, that's nice, but my processor is pegged according to this gadget thingy".
4. Lunch time, so open 'Hold em' and kick ass at Poker while eating your sandwich.
5. When it is time to get some work done, Load VMWare and boot Windows XP.
My wife and I were very happy for many years, then we met."
I forgot the Index: (Score:4, Funny)
Option A: Prozac.
Option B: Get on the floor and kick and scream, until your Computer un-crashes itself.
For Nvidia SLI owners who spent a fortune on their video subsystem:
This section will be completed upon the cessation of laughter.
For AMD Graphics card users:
It is no longer necessary to say prayers before booting your computer, when it crashes, there is a 50% chance that your boot sector will remain unscathed.
Descriptive index? (Score:2, Funny)
This Missing Manual uses every bit of 827 pages (including index) to provide similar descriptive and informational material as the built-in Vista sources [....]
The index provides "descriptive and informational material"? Sounds like an odd kind of index to me...
Not really (Score:2)
Sounds descriptive and informative to me.
You May Be Thinking Of Someplace Else (Score:2, Insightful)
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Gadgets don't save config? (Score:2, Informative)
Gadgets don't save configurations? That is a lie.
Metareview: the missing review of the review (Score:2)
Here's the missing metareview:
Buy this book. The author knows Vista way better than even Bill Gates does, and might even make you crack a smile now and then as you learn. Imagine that.
the Missing Manual? (Score:4, Funny)
Cancel or Allow?
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Largely pointless (Score:2, Insightful)
1) Vista is actually fairly intuitive. If you have to resort to a book to figure out what WordPad or Paint is, perhaps you shouldn't be using a computer in the first place...
2) I can, possibly, slightly, maybe see this book being useful to someone without the internet. But then, why buy Vista? Any problem identified in Vista is likely to be fairly unique, and almost certainly no
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I've got news for you: Somewhere along the line, somebody let all of those people think it's their right to use one anyway. And it's your job to keep it working in spite of their willful ignorance. That makes a book like this quite necessary, and I hope it does well.
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1) Vista is actually fairly intuitive. If you have to resort to a book to figure out what WordPad or Paint is, perhaps you shouldn't be using a computer in the first place...
Actually, if you are using Wordpad or Paint, perhaps you shouldn't be using a computer in the first place. :)
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But, god... Paint. *shudders* My officemate often says something like, "Oh, just send that
Only 2 week (Score:3, Funny)
GUI changes (Score:4, Insightful)
But what else can they do? They so heavily vendor locked into Microsoft they have to pay the protection money. There will be no Vijay Verma for them riding into the pier to clean up the mess.
Re:GUI changes (Score:5, Insightful)
You are making two erroneous assumptions:
Surely the fact that Microsoft does not include a manual with the product, instead providing the user with a context-sensitive electronic help system, indicates that Microsoft doesn't actually feel that a printed manual is necessary at all?
O'Reilly and Pogue say that the manual is "missing," but remember, they are biased. They are in the business of printing books.
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No, it just indicates that they believe they can get away with not providing one.
I have no experience of any MS OS later than W2k, but the so-called context-sensitive help there is worthless. For me it has been a waste of time three times out of four. It's just a bunc
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Considering you don't have any MS OS experience past W2K, perhaps you shouldn't make comments on how bad the help system is in an operating system released 7 years later. From what I've seen (and heard from many others) the Vista help has been greatly improved.
Perhaps you should try it before bashing it. If they shipped without an manual, either it's a grave mistake on their part, or maybe they actually have improved the help function to
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Sidebar (Score:2, Insightful)
Apostrophe? (Score:5, Funny)
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Who else is here? (Score:5, Funny)
But I thought... (Score:2)
I heard it here on
If You Need A Manual . . . (Score:3, Insightful)
Sidebar no different from Dashboard wrt Config (Score:5, Informative)
Actually, this "warning" of losing preferences when closing gadgets also applies Apple's Dashboard: any widget removed from the Dashboard loses its preferences. The act of moving a gadget (widget) from the Gallery (Shelf) into the Sidebar (Dashboard) is what instantiaties a new gadget (widget). Persistence of configuration data is only acheived by keeping the gadget (or widget) alive. Both platforms save configuration data between logouts/shutdowns -- but for instantiated widgets (gadgets) only. Close them, and their done.
And now, some shameless self-promotion for you Vista early adopters, courtesy of lifehacker [lifehacker.com]:
Turn any web widget into a Vista Gadget
The Amnesty Generator for Windows is designed to let you convert any embeddable web site widget (including Google Gadgets) into a Vista Sidebar Gadget with very little work.
Compared to Vista's Gadget library's relatively meager 275 gadgets, Google Gadgets for your web page, for example, currently sports over 3000 widgets - meaning that if you're a fan of Vista Gadgets and you want to expand your palette, the Amnesty Generator looks like a good way to do that. If this sounds at all familiar, OS X Dashboard-lovers may remember that Amnesty Generator is also available for Dashboard [lifehacker.com]. Right now the generator still has a few kinks (particularly in the looks department), but in all it seems to work fairly well.
Amnesty Generator for Vista [mesadynamics.com]
To return to pre-existing features (Score:2)
Neat, so now I can disable them tilt bits and the DRM.
Researcher or Fanboy? (Score:2)
Of course, I come down on the cynical mac fanboy side of things. That paranoid group that says
What's the point (Score:2, Insightful)
My Fiancee is not a system administrator, programmer, or uber-geek. She can use both my linux laptops, and mythtv, without any need for a manual. What is in an operating system that needs a manual? If Vista needs a manual, why doesn't it come with it? I'm sure that Office 4.3 came with thousands of pages of printed material, but now you drop a few hundered quid on
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Besides, both Windows and Linux include help files -- a virtual, if not a printed 'manual'. Also, I've never used it, but some posters above have said that context-sensitive help in Vista is greatly improved on that in XP.
The "Missing Manual" series: I bought it for Win2K (Score:2, Interesting)
I have never YET used Vista, nor have I seen this particular book. But I HAVE bought one of the book's (and Operating System's) predecessors. By that I mean to refer to "Windows 2000: The Missing Manual" (part of the same series), and I was immensely satisfied with it because it filled all the needs for immediate knowledge that I had at the time.
</p><p>
<b<Microsoft DOES NOT DO ANYONE ANY JUSTICE</b> when they leave out such incredibly pertinent amounts of information as I
Re:The "Missing Manual" series: I bought it for Wi (Score:2)
'ed all over that post!
Nice audience... (Score:2, Funny)
"Unless youre a system administrator, programmer, or uber-geek, this is probably the only reference source you'll need to learn Microsofts Vista."
So... it's probably the only reference source you'll need unless you read Slashdot. Good story!but but but (Score:2)
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Here ya go. [amazon.com]
Just use the associates link. (Score:5, Insightful)
<petpeeve>
Why are people so averse to using the associates link? Stoolpigeon has saved you some time and effort in going out to Amazon.com and looking the book up yourself. He is referring you to the book, and as such, deserves at least a miniscule amount of credit for it via the associates link.
Besides, it's not like you're going to pay more for the book if you buy it using his referral link than if you don't. If you click on his link, it's $23.09. If you look it up yourself, it's $23.09. If you use a non-referral link such as the one posted in your message, it's $23.09. The only difference is who gets $0.92 (4%) of that $23.09: Stoolpigeon of Amazon.com. While I don't have anything against Amazon.com, I figure they're making lots of money already, and it certainly wouldn't hurt them to fork over that $0.92 to someone for helping to sell products from their site.
I have a little-used associates account at Amazon.com. I know from experience that if you order something using a referral link, all that person knows is that the item was ordered, which is kind of necessary in order to know how much you've got coming to you. It doesn't tell you who ordered it, where they live, what their credit card number is, or anything else except that x number of item y's were bought.
So given the choice of clicking on Stoolpigeon's referral link or stang's non-referral link, click on the referral link. Not doing so is really pretty stupid and needlessly spiteful. Or else someone please explain to me why you think that Amazon.com deserves that extra $0.92 more than Stoolpigeon, especially when if it hadn't been for Stoolpigeon, you wouldn't have paid Amazon.com the other $22.17.
</petpeeve>
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It diminishes the content here because the post is crafted with something to gain.
Granted, this is one of the few times I have really seen a need for a direct link, but then again it isn't exactly hard to visit your favorite retailer (online or off). None the less, it is generally not needed and can be done without very easily.
A creative person can usuall
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i'm not trying to diminish the importance of those arguments to
And...? (Score:2)
So? Isn't that kind of the point of the comments section of Slashdot, to give responses?
I disagree. If someone posts something informative and it also happens to net them a few cents here and there, what's wrong with that? I doubt that anyone is going to seriously tr
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i've done this a total of 3 times now. the first time it was pretty much ignored moderation wise. the second got modded up to +4 informative and this one is currently at -1 troll. but i don't really sweat it. i don't understand why it bothers people, and i've asked without getting a response - but it's not a big deal. all my referral fees are paid to me as amazon gift certificates and it's just a way to get a free book or cd once in a while. for all
Isn't it obvious? (Score:2)
It's not a reflection on you, but it's a general trend. Slashdotters are smart enough to "know the difference"; in that if you _REALLY_ wanted to comment on the book, having bought it, and encouraging others to buy it, then you'd put a non-referral link. That speaks to slashdotters who know you have
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as i mentioned i've had mixed reactions when i've done this so far. but peop
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No, he'd just give the name or ISBN. A "non-referal link" is just a free gift to Amazon: the price is EXACTLY the same, and if you decide to use a non-referral link instead of a referral link... well, you're giving extra money to Amazon that you didn't have to.
It's like not tipping your waitress and instead hand
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The missing security in Vista (Score:5, Insightful)
I expect a certain number of security holes in any massive software undertaking. But I couldn't let this go by without referencing a recent
http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/02/13/19
Which to me says "wow, MS still got it ALL wrong"
Notwithstanding a raft of smaller ones, there's basically two big security problems in Windows - 1) ActiveX et al and 2) a totally improper use of Admin/user privs.
The whole #2 problem is basically: Too damn many things make you need to login as admin to do, so it's way too easy to grant high privs to something malicious. In OS X you're never "logged in" as admin, you sudo as necessary for specific actions. Same is good practice in Linux. And in both cases, you need to do that as rarely as possible; you can do everything a user could want without being root.
But Vista apparently lets a normal user run random exes they've added to the system, (as it must be, for my definition of a "normal user") but _doesn't_ let them run anything Vista detects as an installer, no matter how unimportant the installer is. Meaning, "of course my new solitaire game needs complete and total access to my system" is par for the course. Instead of "boy, anything that needs admin privs must be VERY important and should come with a stern warning"
I HOPE that Vista has fewer problems with having apps that must-run-as-admin, and fewer problems with applications that can only be installed as admin but then can only be run by the user who installed them. (This is rampant in XP... I don't know if Vista has a "sudo" functionality the way OS X and Linux do and XP didn't, really. "run-as" doesn't have the capability of giving the files the nonadmin-user's ownership, which is the critical missing feature.)
But they've already demonstrated a continued disregard for the basic principles of privileges. *sigh*
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Intriguingly enough, I believe there are no software additions. Apple has tablet software built into MacOS X. You can use it if you buy a Wacom tablet and hook it up to your Mac.
D
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Re:Here's Hoping Linux Doesn't Bork Vista Partitio (Score:2)
Linux's incompatibility with NTFS is a known issue. The standard procedure for dual booting is to create an NTFS partition for Windows, and leave some space for a Linux partition and possibly a FAT32 shared partition. As you've found out, though there are tools that will claim to resize an NTFS partition, they are a "hit or miss" proposition due to the proprietary nature of NTFS.