Vista Blog

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Here’s a question from Barb:

Hello Vista Blog!

I recently installed windows vista ultimate SP1 on my new computer, after I installed and connected to the internet, I noticed that Windows update started installing a bunch of other updates, when I say a bunch I mean a bunch, because it looked like it was over 1GB of data and when I checked my hard drive to see how much additional space was taken I discovered that indeed it was over a gig of space.

It’s not that I have a problem with this additional space being taken up, because I have a 750GB hard drive (lucky me), however, I was wondering if there was a way for me to save these updates, I mean save them to disc , i.e. DVD or CD?

Thanks I’ll wait for an answer,

Barb

Hello Barb!

I can understand why you would want to save your updates, even for those on a highspeed line it can be frustrating when you’re updating more than one system, especially if the other computers don’t share the highspeed connection.

First ) you might want to check out Windows Update Catalog for more information on how to download updates and drivers from the Widows Update Catalog.

Second ) here we will provide a step-by-step guide for how to use Windows Update.

1. Go to http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com.
2. Click “Personalize Windows Update”.
3. Now select the display the link to Windows Update Catalog located under the “See Also” check box.
4. Next click “Save” to save your settings.
5. Now a Windows Update Catalog link will appear under “See Also”, click the link.
6. Next click Find updates for Microsoft Windows operating systems.
7. Now select your specific product and then click “Search”.
8. Next click the “Critical Updates and Service Packs” link.
9. Now locate the patch you need and then click “Add”.
10. Finally select “Go to download basket”, now in the Type or Browse to the download location of your choice box you will need to select the path to which you desire the patch to be saved to, you may want to save this to somewhere you can easily access it, perhaps the desktop or an easily locatable folder.

After the updates have downloaded you can burn them using your favorite DVD/CD burning software so you can have them for another computer that might not have access to a highspeed connection.

We must admit that it’s pretty obvious for all to see that developers have been excruciatingly slow to the table in writing programs for Windows Vista, which seems odd to us. With over 140 million copies sold thus far it would appear that the market is there but lack of interest by developers themselves may be hurting the marketplace. It doesn’t help that Vista’s difficulties have been more than well publicized over the past year plus but it’s upside is at least just as strong.

A recent Computerworld.com survey shows that a mere 8% of devalopers (from 380) are currently writing apps for Vista, while a whopping 49% are still writing for XP, interestingly though is that still another 9% (more than for Vista) are writing Linux applications.

This could be changing however, as this same survey discovered that about 29% suggest they will still be developing for XP next year, while 24% or triple this years total will be writing Vista applications in 2009.

Recently we were asked if Vista would work with Norton anti virus or Windows One Care. Here’s the question from Laura:

Hello guys! I just bought a new computer (I had my old one for almost a decade) and it ran just fine. Anyway, I have a subscription for WOC for another year and a half, and I like it more than most other AV softwares. My new computer is preloaded with something called Norton 360 but Ive never used this before and to be honest I don’t know if I even want to.

So my question is, will Windows Once Care still work on my new PC? Even though I will be switching from XP to Vista on the new one?

Hello Laura!

The simple answer is YES! Of course Windows One Care will work well with your new Vista operating system  but I must say that I am a fan of the new Norton 360 (despite a few quirks with it), and since it’s pre-installed  on your system already you may not need to switch to WOC.

I can understand if you’re more familiar Once Care and that might be one reason to switch but if you dont want to go through the hassle of removing Norton and installing WOC, I can assure 360 is quite capable as a solid Vista anti virus.