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I’m a few weeks into my Vista testing and beginning to compile lists of
show-stoppers, annoyances and incompatibilities.

The most significant issue to date seems to be a lock-down on user profiles implemented with Vista. In Windows XP one was able to simply create a local profile, customize it and copy its contents to the Default User folder for use as a default profile. That method no longer appears to work. Neither does deletion of a user profile in order to spur its regeneration. Finally, this problem extends to user profile migration. While Microsoft has offered up tools for that purpose (namely, the User State Migration Tool 3.0) I’m unclear as to whether or not that can be trusted to grab each and every third party software setting.

[addendum]

It appears as if I spoke too soon.  For some reason the default ownership of files in a user’s profile is now SYSTEM.  When changing the ownership to SYSTEM for a manually copied user profile it works as expected.  I’ll have to dig a bit deeper to find out why exactly this has changed.

The other day I was trying to copy profiles from one Windows install to another.  One Windows install existed on an IDE drive, the other on a SATA.  I installed the two drives in the same machine and then proceeded to boot one of the installations in order to perform the file transfer.

Somewhere along the way the SATA drive, which would become the primary drive, had its letter renamed from C: to E:.  This created a problem as initial logins would crash explorer.exe, and subsequent logins failed entirely even after removing the secondary drive.

In order to restore the drive to its former glory, I booted from the IDE drive, loaded its SYSTEM registry key and looked in  the MountedDevices key.  There I found DOS\Devices\C: and DOS\Devices\E:, each with a GUID value.  I swapped the values, unloaded the SYSTEM key, rebooted to the SATA drive, and was able to log in; the SATA had been renamed C: and the IDE as E:.

So I spent the better part of a week trapped in this scenario: the Sony Vaio VGN-SZ26CP/C, a Chinese market only model, was dropped in my lap with the request to put a clean install of the English version of Windows XP on it.

Anyone who has reinstalled Windows on a Vaio available in the US knows that it is not a pleasant experience due largely to the fact that devices will cease to function if the order of driver installation isn’t strictly adhered to.  In the case before me, I had no reference materials and only some of the necessary drivers kindly left at the root level of the C drive.

After days of trial and error I finally emerged with a fully functional Vaio.  In summary the process involves extracting the drivers from the factory install via a third party utility, requesting a special patch from Microsoft, restoring some of the extracted drivers in a particular order, then using the original driver installers for a similar US model via the Sony support site to take care of the remaining troublesome hardware.

Please note that when an actual installer is indicated for US model VGN-SZ260P in the steps below it is meant to be the original installer that shipped with the machine. An updated installer checks the make and model of the machine and will prevent an installation.

1. Extract the drivers from the original factory installation (I used Driver Magician).
2. Install the extracted Intel Chipset.
3. Request KB909667 from Microsoft and apply it.
4. Install the extracted Sony Notebook Control driver.
5. Install the extracted Sony Programmable I/O driver.
6. Install the Sony Shared Library for US model VGN-SZ260P.
7. Install the Sony Notebook Utilities for US model VGN-SZ260P.

At this point you should have the Vaio-specific keyboard functions working.

8.  Install the SigmaTel Audio driver for US model VGN-SZ260P.
9.  Install the HDAUDIO Modem driver for the US model VGN-SZ260P.
Your audio should technically be working.  I had to repeat steps 8-9 multiple times both before and after 10-11, but eventually the sound came to life.

10.  Install the Bluetooth Stack for the US model VGN-SZ260P.
11.  Install the Bluetooth Control driver for the US model VGN-SZ260P.

After installation of Bluetooth, the remaining drivers should install individually without issue.

Why has it taken me the entire life span of Windows XP to even think to look for this?  This has been on O’Reilly since 2004.  This is incredibly handy when you have to work on a machine locally as administrator but the user is nowhere in sight.  Now I just have to find out how to script the part where it says to use the Task Manager to disconnect the user.  That’s annoying.
“Disable Welcome Screen& Fast User Switching via Control Panel > User Accounts. Manually edit the registry and set AllowMultipleTSSessions=dword:0000001

Now, “Disconnect” the current user using Task Manager > Users tab.

Type in the login name in the Classic Logon dialog and login as other user.

P.S: The Winkey+L cannot be used in this case to switch users. The only option is thru Taskmgr. Winkey+L still brings up the Classic Logon dialog, but terminates the current session, unlike the Task Manager method.”

I was flipping out today because I rush ordered some PC5400 SDRAM. Instead of doing it before placing the order, I looked up the compatible RAM after the fact. The machine indicated that it would only take PC5300 SDRAM.

As I prepared to cancel my order I incidentally looked up how the whole PC categorization of RAM comes into being. It turns out that it is derived thusly:
ddr speed x 8 = PC value

This little piece of information was significant in my case because 667×8=5336. It turns out that some vendors simply round up and some round down. The voltage and speed are what really matter, and so PC5300 and PC5400 are essentially the same thing.

Finding DOS drivers for Sony VAIO hardware can be a bit of a challenge.  All I needed was the driver for the network card of a VGN-BX540B.  The card was listed as a RealTek Marvell Yukon PCI-E card on Sony’s support site, however they do not post any DOS drivers.  A search for drivers for this card turned up nothing until I dropped the “RealTek” from the name and just searched for the drivers for a Marvell Yukon that could do Gig-E.  Only then did driverguide.com cough up a compatible set.

I’ve heard some pretty strange noises coming out of dead or dying hard drives, but nothing has ever been musical.  Maxtor drives appear to have a diagnostic error code sound that is emmited from a tiny internal speaker.  There is no official acknowledgement of this musical sound in the documentation or on Maxtor’s support site.  The best and only source for information has been this forum discussion thread.  People have had some success with either tapping the drive or disassembling it to get the read heads unstuck.