Vista beta problems?

hi,
it has just come to my attention that students doing computing and other IT related subjects can get lots of free downloads off M$ while they are a student at the university :) . This includes free version of visual basic, XP, etc and vista final when it comes out. One of the available downloads is the vista beta. so i just wanted to know if there are any downsides of having it? are drivers hard to come by? lots of bugs? etc and is it worth the upgrade considering it's free? or will it cause more problems than it's worth?
also does the beta have all the features of the final?

You can get the various Visual Studio Express editions for free anyway, regardless of whether you're a student or not.

Drivers are definitely a problem with Vista at the moment, not all the features are there yet, and there are plenty of bugs - that's the whole point of having a beta program after all. By all means try Vista if you have a spare partition, but whatever you do, don't rely on it as your main OS. You can't upgrade your existing OS either, you have toi do a clean install with the Vista betas.

Beta = program full of issues that need to be tested by beta users....

Nope it doesn't have all the functions of the final release.

It's a 2.7gig file if you download it and it requires a dvd burner to get it to disk. Downloads take 6 to 12 hours due to the MS setup...

well I’m sure i have a spare partition to put it on so i will do that and see how it goes. i have a 10mb/s connection so hopefully that might speed the download up a bit, but I’m not to bothered with the wait anyway.
so what are your impressions of it? and is it any slower or faster than XP?

I have a 5mb connection which doesn't matter cause MS has the system choked down...

It's a pretty interesting new OS. Everything is moved around and it takes a while to find somethings.
Defrag has a built in schedular which is cute.

It's a MUCH larger program than XP.

well it turns out the beta was on the uni network so i got it in 30 minutes. only problem is i don't know how to make a bootable Vista DVD, never had to do it before. the file is a 2.8Gb ISO but i don't know what to do with it now. do i extract it and then copy to a DVD or is there a way to burn the ISO as bootable?

ISO's are bootable, just open up nero burning rom in the main window click Open on the bottom right, select the ISO, click Burn.


Liam

well first of i selected 'data dvd' in Nero and burned it using that. but it won't boot . so i went back and selected 'bootable dvd'. when even i try to add the ISO it says that 2.8GB is too big to be put on as an ISO and to use a different file system that is something like UDF, but i forgot the rest.

Oops, i forgot to mention, whe you select Open|The Image|Select DVD from the dropdown in the top left, and it should be fine.


Liam

:confused:
'open' in what? nero or when i open the ISO?

I just replied and the page went down. :mad:

Open Nero Burning Rom|Select Open on the windows that appears (Bottom right) and find the ISO, select it, then select DVD from the dropdown in the top left of the window, then burn.

OR

Download an emulator like Daemon Tools, and emulate a drive, that way you'll save a dvd, and setup will run instantly.


Liam

Download it here: http://www.daemon-tools.cc/

Run it|Right click the systray icon|Virtual CD/DVD Rom|Set number of Devices at 1|Right click it again|Virtual CD/DVD Rom|Go across to the device|Go across again and select mount image, locate the ISO, and it should run the OS setup.

Liam

in order to save a DVD i will use daemon as your suggested, but after your other explanation i understand how to use it in nero as well so thanks for that.
only other thing i need to ask before i install it is can you install it on a partition with daemon? my 2 HD's are both split into 2 partitions each and only one of them is free.
I’ll asking you this stuff now as the account I am installing it with does not have internet access.

In Nero, all you need to do is go to Recorder>Burn Image, then navigate to where you saved the ISO file. It's as simple as that.

I'll let someone answer who has Vista, but it is down to the OS, Daemon just runs the ISO, the OS lets you install it, i don't have it so i'll let Nick/Steve step in and let you know if the setup is the same as in XP.


Liam

well my nero is set up a bit different that most. when i open it i have many options and about 3 different burning programs all within nero. but i found 'Nero burning rom' and followed Supers advice. i'll tell you how it goes.

well i managed to get the DVD working. only problem is i don't have a serial key yet so i will have to wait until tomoz when i can get one. so thanks for the help.
just a few more questions;
i have been informed that M$ release monthly updates. do you have to upgrade every month, as that would be time consuming, or can i just upgrade at my will?
and is there any good websites that keep you informed of the new beta builds and other beta information?

Have to do full clean installs. But they don't come out every month. And, you don't have to anything if you don't want to.

www.microsoft.com ->search there for "beta newsgroups"

cheers.