Revisiting Vista - Bye Bye Big V

[ravinhood]

ORIGINAL: nim8or

ORIGINAL: marcusm

Most important argument. MOO2 doesn't work properly in Vista. That makes it no go asap .

I've got MOO2 running on Vista currently... what kind of problems are you having, maybe there's a fix?

ORIGINAL: ravinhood
Hey Nim8or I don't know if it will work on Vista but I know it does on XP. If you are having lockup issues with Warlords III, on your command line after .exe type in
-wincursor (that's a space and a minus sign then wincursor next to the minus sign) I had issues with Warlords III both editions until I found out that little tweak and both of them work now without locking up or crashing.

If you don't know where your command line is make a shortcut of your Warlords .exe icon and then open the shortcuts properties, at the top you should see something like C:\Warlords III\Warlords.exe (depends on what drive your game and what folder name you have it stored actually), but, after that Warlords.exe (just type) -wincursor
Just be sure and put a space inbetween the minus sign and the last e in exe. which should finally look like this:
C:\Warlords III\Warlords.exe -wincursor

Hope that works for yah.

Well, whatdyaknow? I re-installed the game, set-up the shortcut with the '-wincursor', set admin rights, set compatibility to Windows 95, set the option 'Run in 640 x 480 resolution' (after several other tries), and now it works! Thanks, ravinhood!! That was my one lone holdout I continued to have problems with. I really appreciate the help. I haven't played Warlords III for probably two or three years now... [:'(]

See and some think I'm a demented mean old man. Glad it worked. I was in the same boat with XP and someone on another forum suggested it to me.

As for Vista, it's not so much as it's another money grab by Microsoft/Gates it's that out of the chute it's more highly not recommended by some of the professionals and experts that it's just not real popular right now. If it works for 1 out of a 100 does that make it good OS for everyone to buy? Even if it worked for 50/100 would that be a good OS to buy? Regardless if people build their own or not or those that buy them straight up from the factory all of them should be running it at 95% rate of success anything less is just unexceptable. I expect the "casual" issues with ANY OS, but, these issues aren't casual with Vista, everytime I turn around I hear another complaint about it long before I hear of someone having a success.

Just look at Adam Parker...lol, lord knows he was sooooo adamant of how great Vista was and then look what happened to him and his experience with Vista. So, just because it hasn't happened to you yet doesn't mean murphy won't hit you later on. I'm not wishing or hoping it will happen to you...it's just that there's too much information of issues with it right now to warrant even using it for several more years. It was a long time before I upgraded to XP, I certainly didn't rush out to get it when it was released or even years later. I don't think I got XP until I was playing some online game that required it. There's nothing worth it right now to get Vista and in a few years it will be as inexpensive as ME I betcha.

[mllange]

I won't make that argument. I would never argue that Vista is a worthwhile upgrade from XP as a stand-alone purchase, for a business or individual. It is certainly overpriced and doesn't bring anything groundbreaking to the table. I guess I just get frustrated by the seeming non-stop bashing of a system that I haven't had any real problems with, I don't see it as an evil OS - and I also suppose I am lucky. Based on my experience, if you buy a new Vista-installed system that has been crafted with care and professionalism and take care of it, Vista should perform for you. Better than XP? Yes in certain areas and almost certainly worse in others. That's my experience with the operating system over the last year. Then again, I am someone who likes to fart around with Linux, even though there are few people I would recommend it to, and even then only those I knew had some technical savy and patience (and another system for emergencies so they can still get online to figure out how the heck to fix their newest problem when they change something or install new hardware).

There I go, I've probably jinxed myself and my Vista systems will go on the fritz tonight corrupting all of those saved game files...

[Awac835]

More games would be made for Linux/Unix if more people would use it. Its not like OpenGL cant stand up to DirextX. Sure you might be missing something on the sound and input not sure there.

And its a myth that Linux is so hard to use. Today you can do 99.9% of everything from within a graphical context just as you do it in windows. The only reason to use a console today is its easier on the wrist and quicker if you know what your doing, and dont forget about the geek factor(i love my VIM).

Linux have short falls such as stupid dependecy issues and you need to be know some programming some times if you want to compile from source. But for your everyday programs you get as binarys its easy as pie.
But thats not saying windows dont have shortfalls to. Since everything runs much faster in Linux on my humble laptop i only boot windows when i need to play either Advanced Tactics or do some .NET stuff. Ive even grown fond of LaTeX. And have sworn off MS Word from now on. I even got some class mates to admit that TeX was pretty neat and better for bigger repports then Word.

But indeed death to Vista 

Long live, Tiger, Leopard and the pinguin [:D]

[Kuokkanen]

ORIGINAL: dinsdale

Got 4 PCs with Vista. Apart from older software not running on it, never had a problem. No blue screens, crashes or hardware issues, including 2 pcs I've build myself.

Same here... almost. I'm typing this with my dad's new PC with Vista on it. So far only two major problems with Vista:
1. Learning its ins and outs
2. Old printer don't work

Greater problems are with PC's hardware, or lack of it: no parallel port, and no disk drive. Had to buy external USB drive for 40 €... my dad pays it, so no problem for me. And old printer will go along with old PC to other building, so it isn't crisis either.

[marcusm]

nim8or

My solution is very simple. It is not to fix what isn't broken. The right answer would have been to enhance XP, not make something worse. Vista ran for me (except MOO2 for some weird reason). It just didn't run as well as XP. When even my MS apps ran worse then I began to wonder if something was fundamentally wrong with the Kernel in Vista. Now it turns out MS themselves felt there was something wrong with it.

My personal solution is to either wait for Windows 7 or buy something with Leopard next time. Unless Ubuntu catches up for real like IBM says .

Here is something funny. The Vista Explorer directory tree didn't always synchronize the contents with the selected directory. How can something like that be broken in an OS 2007?

[leastonh1]

ORIGINAL: ravinhood
Hey Nim8or I don't know if it will work on Vista but I know it does on XP. If you are having lockup issues with Warlords III, on your command line after .exe type in
-wincursor (that's a space and a minus sign then wincursor next to the minus sign) I had issues with Warlords III both editions until I found out that little tweak and both of them work now without locking up or crashing.

If this works Ravinhood, I'll be your best friend forever! Warlords III has been sat glumly on my shelf for ages, gathering dust. I played the game for years until it died under XP, and I still miss it. It's a fantastic light strategy game and I had a lot of fun with it. So, I'll be giving it a go tomorrow. Fingers crossed. Thank you for sharing [:D]

Regards,
Jim

[e_barkmann]

you can use the -wincursor command line feature to get Warlords III - Darklords Rising to work in xp but I don't think it will work for the Reign of Heroes version.

Have a look at this page for help:

http://www.warlorders.com/howto.html

Also make sure you have installed the 1.02 patch, lots of new features and balancing of units.

cheers

[ravinhood]

Worked for me Chris on both games of Warlords III. [:D]

[e_barkmann]

there's really no need to load up ROH, as all the ROH scens and campaigns are in DLR upgraded to the DLR engine.

cheers

[ravinhood]

Yes there is because if you don't patch up ROH you can make Dragon Mercs that you can get from easy quests. You can't do that in DLR. They really made it hard to get a decent unit in the #1 merc slot of DRL at 2500pts for the majority of the good ones. Been awhile since I played it, but, I think I was able to create a custom army with Liches in that spot and nothing else good anywhere else even in the allies boxes.

Also, even if you do patch up ROH you can still get Liches and Elephants in that #1 Merc slot anyways and still a pretty good unit in the #1 box of Allies. And after playing them both I still like the AI play in ROH than I do DLR. I was amazed at the ease really that I swept the AI in DLR.

Now, if you really want the experience of a tough strong Warlords AI, get Warlords IV with the 1.04a patch. My gawd the first time I played that on the most difficult levels I got stomped so bad. lol Wow, it has an amazing AI and strong too. I had to move down to normal difficulty just to get 3 retinues that I could fight with on the harder levels. But, what happened is because you retain your relics throughout your retinues lives I was able to build up three practically unbeatable heroes and I had one that was truely invinicible with some shield and sword and crown I found, but, getting there was the fun part. You start over once you become invincible and look for those relics again.

[JMHawkins]

There are a few things I'll miss. Vista did look shmick. The new IE was nice.

 
You can get the new IE (IE7) on XP.   Just go to http://www.microsoft.com/ie and install it.  Works great. 

[ravinhood]

Yeah my auto update wants to install IE 7 all the time. lol I won't let it though, why move to something that's going to be buggy as hell for awhile? lol One thing you can bank on in the computer product line NEW does not always mean better. A new car yeah, new OS or new IE no no no nono no! lol Five years down the road yeah.
 
Remember this fine advice when it comes to computers:
 
1. If it ain't broke don't muck with it
 
2. Don't upgrade graphics cards until you can't stand the slide shows.
 
3. Add more memory before adding a new graphics card
 
4. Tweak your memory settings to 2-1/2 times your physical memory but don't go over 4000, also set your min and max to the same settings IE: 3200 min/3200 max this is my setting for 1gig of ram. I find it optimum for what I play.
 
5. Don't update drivers until you've tried everything else, this is another one of those just because it is NEW doesn't mean it is best or better. It's always the first thing most troubleshooters tell you and most often is the last thing that is the problem.
 
6. Ask before you leap when buying, upgrading, building a new system. Sometimes you can save a lot of money just by listening to those with more experience.
 
7. Never buy anything Microsoft puts out when it's NEW! lol Nope not even games they will be buggy and flawed I betcha.
 
8. When Ravinhood speaks....listen ~
 
9. Periodically backup your My Documents files about once every 6 months or at least once a year. If you ever have a failure or hard drive goes caput you'll be glad you did.
 
10. Buy more Matrixgames games so David/Erik will let Koios go back to making Ancients games.

[pad152]

One of the big issues with Vista is it's micky mouse memory manager that does things that just eats ram no matter how much you have. It's not a good idea to mess with programs in memory when your trying to play a game or run some other non-MS software! Vista should have been a Mac killer now that Macs are nothing but PC's (intel machines), instead it increased Apple sells, the whole Vista develop team should have been canned!

[JMHawkins]

1. If it ain't broke don't muck with it

 
IE7 fixed a lot of stuff that was broke with IE6, and only broke a few new things of its own. 

[ravinhood]

ORIGINAL: JMHawkins

1. If it ain't broke don't muck with it

IE7 fixed a lot of stuff that was broke with IE6, and only broke a few new things of its own. 

You forgot to follow rule #8:

8. When Ravinhood speaks....listen ~

[Crimguy]

My computer fried last december. Bought a new mobo etc and learned that my OEM copy of windows essentially followed my old, now fried motherboard. Got Vista home premium. Thoughts:

Slower.
Makes even less sense from an organzational point of view.
I'm tired of authenticating services etc. I've been a linux user for 10 years now and know authentication. MS' method is overkill.
Compatability has reared it's ugly head with some older apps.

On the flip side:
It's been very stable for me.
The revamped home folder is an improvement.
The Windows defender app successfully found a piece of malware that was trying to change my home page.
The overall security measures are an improvement.
I've grown to like the glass interface.

I'm much happier with my mac at work. I intend to get a 24" iMac for everyday computing at home, and leave the windows pc for work.

[marcusm]

LOL at this "commersial".

http://youtube.com/watch?v=jYJwwUVQaRY

Sums up Vista hehe.

[Peter Fisla]

ORIGINAL: JMHawkins

There are a few things I'll miss. Vista did look shmick. The new IE was nice.

You can get the new IE (IE7) on XP.   Just go to http://www.microsoft.com/ie and install it.  Works great. 

Why on Earth would you want to do that ? FireFox is 100 times better browser...more secure and takes less space on my HD.

[Peter Fisla]

ORIGINAL: marcusm

LOL at this "commersial".

http://youtube.com/watch?v=jYJwwUVQaRY

Sums up Vista hehe.

Amen!

[Zap]

ORIGINAL: Peter Fisla

ORIGINAL: JMHawkins

There are a few things I'll miss. Vista did look shmick. The new IE was nice.

You can get the new IE (IE7) on XP.   Just go to http://www.microsoft.com/ie and install it.  Works great. 

Why on Earth would you want to do that ? FireFox is 100 times better browser...more secure and takes less space on my HD.

Peter i took your advice and bought a router (linksys) haven't set it up yet. Hope it gets rid of the slowness from the firewall.
I'm happy with XP for now.