Upgrading to the final version of Vista fixed some problems I had forgot even existed. I wasn’t able to print from my computer, because Windows couldn’t connect to the networked printer. I assumed that this was because of a Vista-XP problem. Well, I was wrong. I can now print without any trouble at all.  There were some new problems, most likely caused by me changing the OS on several jumpy programs without telling them. The first couple times I loaded the OS, it was incredibly slow, yet the RAM usage was below 50%. I checked the processor, and sure enough, it was at 100%.  I looked for a while, and It seemed McAfee was using way more than it should. I reinstalled it, and everything returned to normal.

Windows Ultimate Extras is an amazing system. It gives Microsoft a chance to go back after Vista was finished and add things that would make it better. The first two ones they released were Texas Hold’em (yes, poker. It’s actually amazingly fun, and oddly real), and enhancements to Vista’s Drive Encryption program (BitLocker). I don’t use BitLocker, so I haven’t checked on the enhancements yet.  Microsoft also has a third extra on the way, which they released a preview for: DreamScene. It allows you to use movie files as desktop backgrounds. Stardock (a Windows customization company) released a program, developed with Microsoft, that allowed people to create .dream files, which made distribution easier.  This is all made possible by Windows Vista’s hardware acceleration, which uses as little CPU and RAM as possible, while still projecting a moving image onto the desktop. Put a couple semi-transparent windows on top of that, plus a semi-transparent taskbar, and Vista barely even sweats.

Of course, there are still some problems that need to be fixed. I think I’m getting a bigger hard drive soon, so I’ll do a clean install of Vista on that. When school gets out.