Information Technology began examining an upgrade to Vista based on requests from students who wanted to have access to the latest operating system.  While examining Vista, it was discovered that it contained a number of back-end administrative features that will help make the lab system more reliable and secure.   The current Windows XP lab system has a number of customizations that have been implemented over the years to allow the lab nodes to operate in a specific manner.  In the move to Vista the need to perform customizations has been greatly reduced because of new features already included as part of the operating system.

Currently there are over 1200 computers and over 150 software packages on the UWStudent lab system.  In addition to changes with the operating system itself, Information Technology is also using the upgrade process to implement new technologies that will make the deployment of lab images and software packages more manageable.

The primary reason to upgrade was based on student feedback requesting access to the latest technology.   The planning, development, and testing of the Vista lab system has been underway for over a year.  When work began on the Vista lab system the estimated release date of Windows 7 was mid to late 2010.  The XP operating system was originally released in October of 2001, which makes it nearly 8 years old and it has been running on the UWStudent lab system for over 7 years.  At the time the decision was made to upgrade to Vista, staying with XP would have kept the same OS running on the lab system for almost 9 years.

In addition to exposing students to the latest technology the move to Vista also provides an opportunity to revamp a number of back-end administrative features which helps make the entire lab system more stable and secure.  Work done in developing the Vista lab system will carry over to the probable development of a Windows 7 based lab system.

The major changes from XP to Vista are explained at What's changed from Windows XP?

When implementing the Vista lab system all profiles had to be reset.  As a result, some of your specific profile setting, such as drive mappings and custom backgrounds, will need to be reestablished.

No, we have disabled the ability to collect data for use by InPrivate Filtering.  The use of InPrivate Filtering creates an index.dat file to be created in a user's roaming profile.  The longer a user uses the lab system, and browses the internet, the larger this file becomes and in turn causes a user's profile to exceed the user quota.  To keep users’ profiles under quota and prevent problems we have disabled the ability to collect data for use by InPrivate Filtering.

The replacement for FrontPage is Microsoft Expression Web 2. This program can be accessed under Start, All Programs,  Web Editors.

When opening your H: drive using Explorer, you may not see the Personal folder where your documents were stored in the XP lab system.  This folder now displays as Documents.  However, if you look at your H: drive using a command window, you will see the Personal folder.  This is because Vista uses a special file to allow folders to be displayed with a different name than how they are named on the file system.

Non-students will receive this message each time they log into the Vista lab system.  Vista has created a temporary user profile for you.  Any changes you make, such as a desktop background, will not follow you.  If you are a student and receive this message, contact a lab assistant or asu-it@uwyo.edu to have your profile recreated.

It is possible that the audio output device has become disabled on a Vista lab computer.  This will be indicated by the following icon in the notification area (bottom right corner of the screen):

If the device has become disabled, either contact a lab assistant to have them re-enable it, or you can follow these directions:

1. Right-click the speaker icon with the red X
2. Select Playback Devices
3. Right-click in the box and select Show disabled devices
4. Right-click on the device you want to enable, typically Speakers, and select Enable

The settings used to control the sidebar are stored in a location that does not roam with a user.  This is by design from Microsoft and cannot be changed.  Due to the amount of resources the sidebar consumes it is disabled by default.  If you wish to enable the sidebar, on the Start menu, click All Programs, then Accessories, then select Windows Sidebar.

There are many programs that attempt to open a hole in the Vista firewall.  Most of these programs do not need the firewall hole to function properly.  Any program that requires a firewall hole has had the exception added.  If you run across a program that displays this message and does not function properly, please notify asu-it@uwyo.edu with the name of the program, which computer lab this happened in, and a screenshot of the error (if possible).

When significant hardware changes are made to machines the Vista operating system may decide it is installed on a new computer.  It is possible when modifying the hardware of a computer that Vista will require re-activation.  This should occur silently and without any user interaction required.  However, a notification may be displayed after first logon with the new hardware that Vista has been successfully activated.

On the student lab system, there are three ways to logoff

• Click on the Start Pearl – then click on the right arrow and choose logoff
  
  
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  Click on the Start Pearl – then type logoff and press Enter
  
  
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  Press Ctrl-Alt-Delete and then select Log off