OT -again. Vista compatibility

[darryl]

Well, I gave it my best looking for answers to the camera/computer compatibilty issue, and now I'm back here to ask the experts.

I bought a computer with Vista on it. Looks like that was a mistake. The only way I can get a picture from the camera to the computer is through the suggested driver which only works for a camera mode which is not compatible with the camera's software. HUH?

The software reports a problem during its instal and won't complete. If I pick one of the four components separately and instal that alone, a problem is reported, but that component appears to be installed. If I do that for all of the components, they do appear to be installed, and will come up if I start the application. There are a lot of issues- I can take a pic by remote from the computer, but there's no pic to be found anywhere- that's just one issue. When I restart the computer, I can no longer read the camera. The only way I found is to wipe out and re-instal the driver, rebooting between of course. I'm sick of all this and I don't want to rattle on about these things- so-----How can I get Vista off this box and instal XP? Can I even buy that anymore? Can I buy any other operating system and put it on this box? Say, ME or 2000? Should I slingshot this computer back to where I bought it and get a Mac?

That twain driver I put on my old box for this camera is starting to look pretty good about now. I'm feeling an even stronger urge to keep this old box running than I ever had before.

I'm doing my best to remain calm and objective, and I've done everything I can to make the new box work my way, but I'm finding that it's an almost completely self-serving resource hogging piece of dog ooze. Much as I didn't care for XP, now I wish I would have bought a box with that before they became unavailable. Yes, I was warned, but it's too late.

I like the new monitor, but I'm not willing to be a guinea pig or a sucker for Msoft. The only afvantage the computer has for me is that it processes images faster. But I've probably wasted more time fiddling with this one that I would have sitting waiting for my old box to do it's work.

This is a shi--y situation and I feel ripped off.

[tattoomike68]

XP pro can be found with SP2 and WMP11 all packaged into a nice ISO.

have a geek burn you a copy.

Then its just a matter of format and install.

[dp]

Try VMWare.com. They have a number of virtual machine offerings that let you run multiple versions of other OS's (concurrently if you have enough memory). They also have tools that will suck in a running version of Windows and make it available as a VM. This is how I'm able to run Windows on my Mac. If you install Linux as the host OS and use VMWare to run the virtual machines you can solve a lot of problems. It's also possible to create problems, but these are worked out pretty well.

[kendall]

XP and 2k are available on ebay at a fairly reasonable price, XP is still available at nearly any computer store that caters to geeks (not the big box dell/hp/emachine stores like Best buy etc), or XP 64 is available as a 120 day free trial download from microsoft, and if you are good at looking you can find OEM or academic versions for around $35.00 on line.(runs MANY programs that choke on Vista)

I've never had trouble removing vista, but I know many people who claim XP has a problem installing after vista
Use a win98 or ME CD/boot disk to boot up and run fdisk/mbr, format that drive then install your OS.

Alternative on the camera, if it uses cards, pick up a thumb drive converter, uses the memory cards and plugs into the USB port like a regular thumb drive, about $10.00 at office depot, works with any computer as long as the camera uses a standard graphics format (jpeg etc).
I use a couple of those as regular thumb drives as I've broken a couple of cameras and had some otherwise unuseable memory cards, figured spending the $10 and getting some use from them was better than just tossing them out.

ken.

[wierdscience]

I bought my mother one awhile back and it came with Vista,only choice they(Dell) offered.

Every piece of hardware I have installed has required going to the mfg's website and downloading the drivers.Nothing will install off a disc.

My camera software wouldn't install period,not even off the website.I ended up just using the photo software that came with the print which is fine since it works better anyway.

Vista is the typical Windoz product,by the time all the bugs are worked out,they no longer support it.

BTW,I hope you have a CD-burner,you will need it for backups between re-installs

[darryl]

I've just been talking with a network engineer who suggested buying from central microsystems (canada). Apparently xp is still available for business computers as many businesses won't or can't use vista. Compatibility issues-- .

I may think differently in the morning, but I don't think so. I'm taking this one back. I don't see any point in keeping it and going through all the hassles, I've done enough already. Sad.

It does read the cf card and the sd card, plus flash drives, so there isn't a problem transferring data, but I don't want to be removing the memory card all the time to do this. No, this computer with vista doesn't meet my needs, simple as they are. It's a no-brainer- as my friend just said, vista sucks bad. Sigh.

Should I also be taking the lcd monitor back- it's a SyncMaster226BW- seems to be decent to me.

[tattoomike68]

Watch this, it will make you smile.

http://blip.tv/file/340692

Its true.

[Evan]

Darryl,

If you have Vista Business or Victa Ultimate Microsoft will authorize a free "downgrade" to XP Pro. I posted info on it in the thread where you were asking about what camera to buy.

Remember, Veni, Vidi Vista, Verto (I came, I saw Vista, I ran)

[darryl]

Thanks, Evan. I did read what you posted before, but unfortunately I have neither of those versions. That would have been too easy

What I have is Vista home premium. Hey, if they were willing to 'upgrade' that to XP for me, they could save a sale. I did read the write-up on the site you posted.

WS, your experience with this 'run from' operating system is just what I need to avoid. For the time that I've already wasted, I'm thinking of sending a bill to microsoft. Call it my fee for being a beta tester. Should be worth just about the total cost of this system.

Mike, I'm getting a kick out of that video already, but only in short spurts. I'm on dialup.

[rohart]

Darryl - Forgive me if I'm not picking up on this correctly, but you've got a Canon Digital Rebel XT (EOS 350D in the UK) which takes Compact Flash cards, and stores images in Raw, Raw+JPG or JPG.

The JPG should be compatible with most photo editors, and there should be some third party software to run Canon RAW format. I know there is some that loads Nikon's Raw format.

Where have I got it wrong ?

[sch]

I have a Canon pocket bought about a year ago and an
older Sony 707, both of which have USB ports, and the
same cable works for both cameras. I just plug the camera
into the port, turn the camera on and XP recognizes the
camera and asks if I want to down load, gives me the option
of looking at the photos and nixing any I don't want and
then downloads the lot and puts them where I specify.
Both cameras came with software that is still in the box.
Never needed the camera software and doubt seriously
that it provides any more functionality than what Vista
or Photoshop elements provide. The files downloaded
are what you tell the camera to record on the chip: if
JPEG 320x480 or 2580x3240 that is what you get. If RAW
ditto. Window viewer may make a hash of RAW, but Photo
shop won't. Have you tried just plugging the camera
in to the USB cable and turning it on?

Just tried it on mine and seems to work same in Vista Home
as XP.

[Evan]

The JPG should be compatible with most photo editors, and there should be some third party software to run Canon RAW format. I know there is some that loads Nikon's Raw format.

XP has no trouble with the Canon RAW format once you install the correct MS Powertoy. It's the Microsoft RAW Image Thumbnailer and Viewer for Windows XP. It supports Nikon and Canon RAW formats and you can get it free here:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=D48E808E-B10D-4CE4-A141-5866FD4A3286&displaylang=en

I would expect Vista to have native support for RAW images.

[darryl]

All I can say at this point is that vista was not able to recognize the camera without the driver being installed, and did see it after I did that. Then I delved deeper into the canon cd, and found that this same driver is part of the cd. It should have installed it with the software package- but something went wrong. Regardless of how I changed the camera's communication setting, I couldn't get both things to happen- computer sees camera on usb, and software also sees camera. I went through the laborious process of uninstalling software and driver, restarting, re-installing just the driver- then uninstalling the driver, reboot, instal just the software- etc, etc. I followed the instructions at first, just so I would not screw up the instal.

I could very easily get the computer to 'hang', just by clicking a software function- but remember the software instal reported a problem and wouldn't complete the instal. I couldn't expect things to work properly anyway with that being the case. By the way, the camera does have the latest firmware version in it.

Something else I thought was funny was the fact that vista reported that it was installing the camera driver each time I started it up. I could offload an image from the camera once (without using the canon software) but if I shut the computer down and started it again, it wouldn't see the camera the next time. Hmm.

At any rate, my experience with vista was less than pleasurable to say the least. I could not retain my personal preferences between restarts, and it wanted to bring back all the folders I took out that I didn't want. It was its own computer, not mine. A few times it went into whole hog processor and ram usage without me pushing any buttons.

Anyway, problem is solved with that- it went back to the store and I managed to find a box with xp pro on it, and no 'blow up in your face and see how much I can improve your life' cartoons popping up. I can actually recognize items in the program files list and in other parts of the exploder tree. This one is a real computer, not an annoying electronic advertisement with an inflated ego. One more thing- without the shipload of stuff from HP or others, the computer seems as fast as the processor and configuration suggests that it should be.

And hey, this box recognized the camera right away thru the usb port, and I was ready to download a few seconds later. I have not installed the software yet, but it will probably work like it's supposed to.

Thanks again for everyone's support. I guess I'll have to post some pictures of something soon.