new computer question...

[Chopper]

thinking of buying a new lappy. they all have Vista on them. i have figured out so far that i need 2 GB of RAM to run efficiently, but wondered how any of you have done with Vista on...

PT?
the sites?
HUD?

stuff like that. was it a pain to set up and transition? or did you find a way to go back to XP/ME/2000?

[pankfish]

I never played poker on a computer that didn't run vista. It's simple. Only adjustment you have to make is that you have to right click on the software (all poker related software) and run as administer for the software to work with each other.

[Hawk]

As someone who supports desktop computers, I'd recommend staying away from Vista...at least for now. I've found very few Vista users who are happy to have "upgraded" from XP.

It's slower and and it's security "features" drive people nuts...and I'm sure there are plenty of other problems people could come up with.

Maybe after MS has had more time to work out the problems it might be worth a shot (XP sucked at first too), but until then, let others be the guinea pigs.

[pankfish]

I haven't had too much to complain about with vista. The only beat I've found is that it uses up more resources. The security features aren't a bother for me really. All you have to do is confirm that you want to dl a file or grant a program permission to access the internet. Both of which take all of 2 seconds.

[Chopper]

pank, i think, from what ive heard, too, that you are severely in the minority here. but, its good to know that it runs ok.

i'm just a little spooked since i seem to hear repeatedly that you need 2 gigs of ram to run efficiently.

wtf was microsoft thinking?

[taipan168]

If you have a choice to get XP rather than Vista on your new computer, definitely get XP. I have XP on one of my laptops and Vista on the other one and the XP one runs FAR better - quicker, more stable, etc.

The nanny state on Vista is terrible (make sure you appoint yourself administrator but even then every bloody action brings up a pop-up box) and I agree with Chopper that you need 2GB+ of RAM to make it work even moderately well. You also need to disable all the transparent windows, 3D effects etc. which will make a laptop without the best graphics card run very slowly.

Other than that, I have managed to run PS, PT and PAHUD on my Vista computer, as Pank said you do need to right click and run as administrator. It's just the overall operating system experience I have an issue with.

[elitemob]

Hey guys,

since that is a topic I really can give a lot of input about (geek + studied informatics), so I'll give you guys some info.

First of all, above posters are correct about the hardware requirements, you will definitely want 2 gigs of RAM which isn't a lot these days, it's mostly standard in almost every pc now except if you build it yourself of course. Additionally if you want to use Aero-Glass (the "shiny" new desktop) you'll need a descent gfx-accelerator card, it works fine with all of the current ones from nvidia and amd (former ati). Laptops can be a different thing, as taipan has already stated since most suppliers use on-board grafic chips that have like zero performance. So if you want it shiny, get a nvidia-go or an ati gfx chip with your laptop and aero will run fine. Otherwise: just turn it off as taipan already wrote.

As a next thing, simply from my standpoint microsoft has done an excellent job with vista, I cannot understand why everyone is just complaining. The new security concept is pretty sophisticated. The way I see it: Everyone complained how unsecure XP/2k/... were and how there're loopholes like everywhere. Now MS has released a descent security concept and everyone complains again. You either want your PC secure or you don't, you can't have like both at the same time, mutually exclusive Additionally there are so many great features that you can use, you just have to know how to use them (like the search in the start menu, I use it every day and it is just so amazingly practical), so many tiny, but great improvements, well let's just say I'm very happy with it and I think they've done an excellent job with managing something so complex as an operating system of this magnitude. I just thought I'd put a different opinion in contrast to the previous posts.

About the stability: I've got vista on my desktop pc since about 1 month before the release (universities got it sooner) and I have not had 1 single problem since, no crashs, nothing.

Ok so that's the general babble, now let's get to PokerTracker/PokerAce Hud and Poker Software. I have recently migrated my stuff to my desktop pc so I can multitable without hurting my eyes, so here's the thing:

PokerTracker uses 2 Database-Files for management (here's an example path):
C:\Program Files (x86)\Poker Tracker V2\hhdb.mdb
C:\Program Files (x86)\Poker Tracker V2\ptrack.mdb

Copy these from your old PC to your new pokertracker installation on the other pc and it'll work like a charm, you'll have all the data Make sure that you do not overwrite anything important. If you guys want and somebody needs that, there should be a possibility to merge 2 different mdb files together. (you know, if you always kept 2 different installations simultaniously and you think it really sucks to not have complete overall stats)

PokerAce Hud works fine on vista. If you want to transfer all your layouts and configuration copy this folder to your new machine and overwrite thee one from the installation and you'll have everything on your new machine:
C:\Program Files (x86)\PokerAce Hud\Data\Config

Running PokerTracker/PokerAce Hud/Poker Software with elevated priviledges all the time is very easy, here's how it's done. If you access your software only via a shortcut it's simple, just right click on the shortcut, select the compatibility tab and there you have it, check the box for "Run this program as an administrator", Apply, Ok and do that for PokerTracker/PokerAce Hud and your pokersoftware and you'll never have to right click --> run as administrator ever again If you use the exe file directly or via start menu shortcut just do the same thing to the exe/other shortcut

Another thing, since there were some complaints about the priviledge popups (a program needs permission to continue ...). The technology is named UAC (user account control) and can be deactivated if it's getting on your nerves (just remember ... don't complain if you have a security issue lateron b/c you deactivated it). I know many ways how to deactivate UAC and all the nasty popups will be gone, here are the simplest:

1)
open the start menu, type in the search box: user accounts, hit enter
there you should have an entry "Turn User Account Control on or off", click on the the text
uncheck the checkbox, hit ok and (probably) reboot

2)
go into the start menu, in the search field type: msconfig
press enter
select the "tools" tab
scroll down till you find "disable UAC", select it
press the launch button
reboot


be happy and send my $10 for my bankroll, will ya?

PS: Sorry about the long post, I just thought I'd contribute

[Chopper]

now THAT was awesome.

is it still cool to bookmark your own thread, but care nothing about what you, yourself, said?

[elitemob]

now THAT was awesome.

is it still cool to bookmark your own thread, but care nothing about what you, yourself, said?

ok, now I'm like really confused. Did I say something wrong?

[Chopper]

no. quite the contrary!! that was a lot of help.

i bookmarked my own thread, for later reference, because of YOUR post. not because of anything profound that i said.

i chuckled because i have a lot of bookmarked FTR threads, but never one i started. usually, they are deeper thoughts provided by the original poster... i guess what i was getting at was, i never thought i would bookmark MY OWN thread.

[elitemob]

Ahhh, ok, I totally misunderstood that You're quite welcome

Maybe I should make an extra thread or something b/c I can imagine many other ppl having similar questions about migrating PT/PAHud and Vista.

[Chopper]

make the post, and see where it goes.. thats all i ever do. lol.

[Rage2100]

I have to agree with almost everything elitemob says here. You definitely need 2Gb of RAM and the first thing you should do is set up an administrator account and turn the User Account Control (UAC) off. I know it's only a couple of clicks to confirm any action but after a while this will drive you bonkers. It did with me anyway so I just turned it off.

I've had Vista for around 3 months now and it hasn't crashed a single time. Also, PT, PAHud and all the Poker Site software work absolutely fine.

BTW, I don't think turning the UAC off makes the computer much less secure. If you are logged on as a user other than administrator, where you used to get a prompt for the administrator password, it will now just refuse to perform the action. The only way it is less secure, is when you are logged on as administrator, it will no longer give you the warning prompt. But if you are the administrator you should know what you are doing anyway.

[Chopper]

bump. hey, multi-tablers?

can you resize stars and get 6 tiled on a 17"? or is there significant overlap?