So, my mother bought a new HP PC.

[Mr. JiB]

Why to India?

That's where all the tech support goes anymore, I could make some blind assumptions if you want

Just choose the phone in option on the activation screen. You call in and it'll ask you to read off the activation code on your screen. After a few minutes you'll get a live person who will ask you a couple worthless questions such as, "Why are you installing this?", "Is this the only PC it's installed on?", etc. They'll give you an activation code on the phone that you can type in while they're on the line and you're set. In all it should take about 15 minutes total.

It's about the easiest thing about a microsoft product actually now that I think about it.

 

[Stag]

Die.

Too many people hate Vista...Vista is really very nice. Probably not worth the 200 bucks to upgrade, but if you're building a new rig it's the only OS that makes sense. Even the big driver issues have been solved for Nvidia.

 

[Mr. JiB]

Die.

Too many people hate Vista...Vista is really very nice. Probably not worth the 200 bucks to upgrade, but if you're building a new rig it's the only OS that makes sense. Even the big driver issues have been solved for Nvidia.

I installed vista on my desktop for about 15 minutes. Then I was angered by the fact that they had no native drivers for a 3com 3c905 netcard which has been pretty much unchanghed for several years.

After that I loaded it on my laptop only to find there is no support for any pre-DX9 video cards, ie Nvidia Geforce Go 420/440.

My advise is that if you don't have a brand new pc, forget about vista for now. Personally I'll wait about 6mo to a year as a lot of software is still incompatible with Vista as well.

 

[Stag]

I was referring to the DX10 drivers, for clarification.

As I said, if you're building something new, get Vista.

 

[Mr. JiB]

I was referring to the DX10 drivers, for clarification.

DX10 is nice, built only for Vista and from what I've seen is a hell of an improvement in gaming quality.

What I was referring to is that in researching Vista and support for video, if you have any video card that is not supported in at least DX9, there is no Vista compatibility. It loads as a standard VGA adapter and shows a Code 43 in device manager (device failure). So any gaming is out of the quesiton. It was an adventure running Majong in vista in this state.

This in itself is not an issue if you have a decent desktop and can switch the card out with a cheap intel 950 or something, but when you have a laptop like mine, you're screwed.

 

[Stag]

Yeh, which is why you oughta get a DX10 card...

DX10, afaik is a major improvement in optimization, so that you can have higher quality, but the new version will do little to actually improve the quality. Note the afaik, though.

 

[Mr. JiB]

I saw some screens from Company of Heroes that someone took that were direct comparison before and after with DX10, same settings in game, and the difference in image quality was readiy noticeable. From reflection/refraction on water to facial features zoomed in, it was quite a difference.

In fact, here's a link to a similar article on FameAlmighty.com:

http://www.gamealmighty.com/story-individual/story/DirectX10_and_Company_of_Heroes_Time_to_Upgrade/

 

[Stag]

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/lost_planet_dx9_vs_dx10

Sir, I challenge you. (And your link.)

 

[Sorrow]

I finally managed to get the damned thing running. It has some interesting functionality. Too bad the Microshaft decided to spoil the whole experience with that DRM shit.

 

[Maphusio]

Don't be sorry, <img src="http://www.nma-fallout.com/images/miscfunny/newbshelpedit8ob.jpg" height="140" width="212"

Sorrow: You can phone a toll-free number of Microsoft and they'll thank you for the call and activate your Windows, even on Saturdays.

Be prepared though, the android that dictates the activation key to you is a fucking machinegun.,

"Please...... prepeare..... to.... listen..... to..... activation...... key..... setion...... A...... 4328336 .... to...... hear.... section.... A.... again.... dial...."

Also, prefabs suck and use Linux.

I'm reminded of Family Guy episode mocking Stephen Hawking and his girl friend... Oh.....S...s...Stephen.... You, you're.... ouch going to.... fast.... stop... stop.... your hurting.... me.

 

[SuAside]

Fuck, now I discovered that in 30 days the fucking thing will stop working, because it has to connect to the fucking internet to work. The problem is that the other comp isn't connected to the internet. Fuck, now I'll have to reconnect my modem and install all net drivers just because a bunch of fucking morons has to protect themselves from piracy.
The irony is that I'm the only person that uses an original copy of their operation system that I know from RL.

you really need to get informed before spamming whinethreads like this.

use the fucking telephone. it aint hard... sure you'll have to listen to the activation code twice, but deal with it.

if you don't want to hassle with that kind of thing:
1) dont buy HP/Compaq or Dell
2) dont use Windows OEM

All those problems stopped existing the moment I recieved my copy of keygen-free, registration-free win XP pro. One of the two universities I'm attending has a license with microsoft.

Is Win XP Pro a special version of Win XP that doesn't have paranoia?

actually, that's XP Corporation or XP Pro Education copy probably.

 

[Silencer]

I'm reminded of Family Guy episode mocking Stephen Hawking and his girl friend... Oh.....S...s...Stephen.... You, you're.... ouch going to.... fast.... stop... stop.... your hurting.... me.

Yes, but for the full experience, insert Peter saying names of all the states in ,5 sec there.