Sometimes Vista appears to lose Aero Glass. Aero Glass is the fancy effect that gives windows a semi-transparent border and adds a certain gloss to the desktop. Purely aesthetic but very pleasing. But very occasionally my screen flickers and then Aero Glass gets disabled. I’m not sure why - my best guess is the memory somehow gets maxed out so Vista downgrades the display. Trouble is it doesn’t come back again automatically. I’ve always had to reboot the machine, which is annoying. But I’ve just discovered this little trick to get it back: Stop and restart the “Desktop Window Manager Session Manager” service using these commands in an elevated DOS prompt:
To run WebRecorder, or VBScript macros which automate Internet Explorer in Vista (IE7), you will first need to disable “Protected Mode”. Consider this simple VBScript code:
Dim IE
Set IE = CreateObject(”InternetExplorer.Application”)
IE.Visible=1
IE.Navigate “http://www.mjtnet.com”
In IE6 and in IE7 under XP this code would create a new IE instance and then navigate it to mjtnet.com. But Vista adds something to IE called “Protected Mode” and for some reason Protected Mode causes the Navigate method to open up a new IE window. This is most annoying because it means any subsequent code in a script like the one above would fail because IE object refers to the instance created with the CreateObject call, but the page is now in the second instance.
You can disable “Protected Mode” in IE under Tools/Internet Options/Security. This puts things back to normal and means code like the above will continue to work.
One known issue with WebRecorder’s IEAuto.DLL is that the WaitNewIE function hangs when using IE7. We’re working on this now. This function is only used when an action in IE causes a new window/tab to appear. Apart from that, once you have disabled “Protected Mode” WebRecorder/IEAuto works fine with IE7/Vista.
Update: Version 1.78 is now available, fixing the issue with WaitNewIE on IE7.
If you’re thinking about upgrading to Vista and want to know if your favourite apps will run, here’s a very simple test to try first. In XP create a standard, restricted user account. Now try and run your apps. If they fail to run, or pop up access denied errors when trying to save data or settings, then they will very likely have similar issues when running under a default Vista install.
With previous versions of Windows the default account was always an administrator. If you’ve installed XP out of the box you are probably running as admin. And every application you start has administrator privileges. This means it can do things like write to the Program Files directory, or HKLM, etc. Because this is default, software developers have got into a bad habit of assuming that the user is an administrator. Believe it or not there are developers out there who don’t even realise there’s a different kind of user, and have never tested their software under a restricted user account. Until now this hasn’t been much of an issue because the vast majority of users are administrators anyway.
But with Vista things have changed, for the better. Now, while the default user account is still the Administrator account, all applications run at least user privileges. Applications that require administrator privileges to run, e.g. system configuration tools, can be marked as such and when started will prompt the user to ask permission to continue. This means that the user now knows when an app is about to do something that requires admin rights. If the user is not an administrator she can ask the admin to come and enter his/her password and allow the administrative function to proceed. Or not. This new approach will cut down on malicious programs, trojans and viruses etc, because a process that needs to make a system change cannot do so invisibly. If the process is not marked as requiring Admin privileges, it will not be able to perform administrative tasks. If it is marked, it will pop up a confirmation box.
So lots of applications you have been using happily on XP may be assuming that you are an Administrator. And you may find when you try to run them on Vista that they fail to work. Perhaps because they try to store settings in HKLM or Program Files. If the application lets you change the folder it uses to store settings and output files, change it to a folder in your personal Documents folder.
If you can’t change the fact that it needs to write to a privileged location, and assuming you are logged in as Administrator, one workaround is to run the app with Admin privs. Right click on the application and select “Run as administrator”. Or modify the shortcut. Right click on your shortcut, select Properties then Compatibility and check the “Run this program as administrator” option. But please only do this for applications you trust! Don’t go and give any old application administrative privileges, or you defeat the purpose of this new security feature. Likewise, please don’t disable UAC (User Account Control) altogether.
I’m running a small number of tools that I have to do this for. For now I’m running them as Admin. But I hope the developers will issue updates soon so that I can run them more cleanly under Vista. Reading through various developer groups that I’m a member of I’m constantly amazed at how many developers only just seem to be thinking about Vista, and seem to be confused about these simple changes. Yet Vista has already been released to businesses and has been in beta for the best part of a year.
But only if you’re in the USA. If you are, you might want to check this out: http://www.powertogether.com/. According to this you just have to watch three webcasts on each product within 30 days of registering and Microsoft will send you Vista Business and Office 2007 Pro, for free!
So I downloaded the final version of Vista last week and I’m now running Vista as my main environment. Am I mad? Let’s see how it goes. Lots of my favourite apps need to be run as admin because they write to the programs folder, or HKLM. For years, developers have made the bad habit of assuming the user is admin due to the way previous versions of Windows install by default. But with Vista defaulting to run apps at least user privileges, all that will have to change. But until these legacy apps get updated or replaced, there will be lots of workarounds. And I wouldn’t be surprised if many people switch off the new security features of Vista in order to run their old apps, and in so doing defeat the purpose of the main focus of this new operating system! Time will tell. Of course, Macro Scheduler is already Vista compliant and v9.0 has been built with Vista in mind, so no problems there.
I’ve already found what appears to be a bug in the final release. Vista wouldn’t let me attach to a network printer, shared by an XP machine. It kept saying access denied. Yet I was able to add the printer driver manually under LPT1 and then change the port to the network name of the shared printer. Then everything worked. Go figure.
Since RC1 I’ve been baffled by the shutdown options. And it seems I’m not alone. Why are there so many ways to switch off Vista, and what does the off button do that’s different to the six shutdown menu options? Do I want to lock/log off/switch user/switch off/restart or sleep!? Maybe I’ll just leave it running and not touch anything! Seems this is a result of design by committee and corporate bureaucracy.
The biggest annoyance for me with Vista is that, by default, the “Run..” option is no longer on the Start menu. If you’re like me it’s probably one of the most used items on your computer! Now, you can use the search box in Vista in the same kind of way. But there’s no drop down bringing up the last typed entries. Apparently, Microsoft removed the Run box from the Start menu because they seem to think most people won’t need it any longer. Hmph. I’m obviously not most people!
Luckily you can get good old “Run command” back by right clicking on the Start menu and selecting “Properties”, then “Start Menu”, then “Customize” and checking the “Run command” option.
But the simplest solution is one I missed completely! Just press the Windows key and R together. Win+R is the shortcut for the Run command. Simple!
Well, after painstakingly working with the Vista UAC team at Microsoft to ensure Macro Scheduler would be Vista compatible, and lots of testing with the Vista betas I was happy to report a while back that Macro Scheduler ran well under Vista beta 2. Recently Vista RC1 was made available under our MSDN subscription so we installed it. Guess what? Well, unfortunately it seems things have changed again and there are now a few things that fail to work under the default restricted user account. I’m pretty sure we just need to make a few tweaks and everything will be hunky dory again in due course. But I’m somewhat annoyed that after our efforts to ensure the software worked with beta 2 it seems lots has changed in RC1.
I’m resisting the urge to turn UAC off. I’m only leaving the default settings intact so that I can be sure Macro Scheduler will install and run under the default configuration. But oh how annoying it is! Try just copying and overwriting a file in the program folder - something power users will do all the time. What a nightmare. Honestly - how many dialogs are really needed for a simple file copy!?
Sometimes I feel like Microsoft’s security philosophy with Vista is analogous to building a house with no doors and windows. Utterly secure and impenetrable but also completely unusable! OK, that’s a bit unfair, it’s more like a door with 15 locks. Very secure, and just about usable … but frustratingly unfriendly!
Update:Ok, I may have ranted too soon. Turns out the problem with Macro Scheduler under Vista RC1 was due to a change we’d inadvertently made, rather than a change in Vista. Looks like we have it sorted!
According to Sven Hallauer, Director of Windows Release Management, in a podcast interview yesterday, Microsoft has only a couple of weeks to ensure all critical bugs are fixed and in place to meet the Vista deadline. Any delay and the bugs either won’t get fixed, or the release date will slip.
Certainly Vista Release Candidate 1 is much more polished than Beta 2 and it does seem like Microsoft has stepped up a gear to try to meet their target release date.
We’ve recently entered the Microsoft Windows Logo Program and just obtained the Works with Vista logo for Macro Scheduler 9.0 
