Strange things happen when you can’t sleep. Last night I laid down completely intending to get some good sleep and making a stab at going to work this am. About 1 AM I finally got up and went down to the office to plink around.
Last night’s grand adventure? I decided to install Windows Vista Ultimate, 64 bit Edition on my new machine. I did a little research first to make sure my hardware was good to go and that my games would still run and all was well in the world. After having my mind settled a bit, I popped in the second disk in the Vista packaging and rebooted the computer.
A Needle In A Haystack
The install itself is identical and just as painless as the standard Vista install. Once it’s back up, then the fun begins. I had three devices that did not install automatically. Unfortunately for me, the most important one was the network adapter. The “SMB Bus Controller” was second on the list as well as the obvious, the nVidia 8800 GT video card I had just put in the system.
The nVidia driver is a no brainer, it’s available in 64-bit on their website, the other two are a different story. When you put in my computer’s model number, select Vista 64-bit as the OS, you find a staggeringly short list of 3 files, none of which are actually drivers. This left me with a quest at hand.
- Identify the network card and chipset
- Find actual 64-bit drivers for them
After tracking down a cryptic number for the network card, and doing some reading, I found that the PROVISTA64.EXE package on intel’s website will work with the onboard network controller, I moved it over sneakernet style and that at least got me on the network so I could install the nVidia reference drivers.
It took some research, but I finally identified my chipset as an intel G33 express and found appropriate drivers on intel’s website. They installed without event and I was back at ground zero. I clean Vista Ultimate box with no software (after about 500MB of Windows Updates of course).
Back To Basics
So I began with the most simple so if I crashed out at this point it would be usable in the morning. I installed Office 2007 Standard, Firefox, Windows Live Writer & Live Gallery, Flickr Uploader and Adobe Photoshop so I could do my basic work.
Game On
Ah, on comes Crysis. I have already documented my disappointments with Crysis previously, but let me say that the combination of 64-bit Vista, Crysis update 1.1 and the nVidia GeForce 8800 GT 512MB, Crysis is a dream!
I am running it at 1920×1200 with all settings on high and it’s incredibly fluid. I didn’t take a whole lot of time to play it as I finally managed to be tired, but what I did look at was more than impressive. When I got up this morning, I called Dawn in to take a peek and she sat in the chair in something near a state of awe at this game. It’s truly impressive.
Final Thoughts
This could very well just be me, but 64-bit Vista just “feels” faster. It opens dialogs and navigates the UI faster, it opens IE faster…it just has a more snappier feel to it. And I haven’t even installed SP1 yet. Perhaps I will give that a shot later and then sneak another 4 GB of ram into the system to make it truly a beast to be reckoned with.
Microsoft Technical Fellow and desktop guru Mark Russinovich will be hosting an interactive virtual roundtable—broadcast LIVE over the Internet on Wednesday, March 5th. The subject? Windows Vista adoption and deployment. On the panel with Mark will be independent industry experts and IT pros from organizations that have already deployed Windows Vista—all openly discussing known challenges, solutions and workarounds, and sharing tips & tricks. But this event is really focused on the “virtual” participant—you!
