Vista OEM

[SickBeast]

I purchased Vista Home Premium 64-bit OEM. I can't run some of my games on it and would like to triple-boot XP/Vista 32/Vista 64. Do I have to re-purchase Vista to get the 32-bit version? Perhaps I should have bought the retail version...

 

[John]

You should have went with Retail instead of OEM. Not to mention you cannot legally transfer the OEM to another pc. 64-bit is a black sheep and as you can see a hit-or-miss in most cases. 🙁 All retail versions come out of the box as 32-bit but include a coupon where you can request the 64-bit version. Ultimate has both 32-bit and 64-bit versions included.

 

[mechBgon]

What games won't run on Vista x64, out of curiosity?

 

[Puffnstuff]

FYI you can only run one version of vista per license at any given time. If you have the retail with both versions you have to uninstall one before using the other. You cannot use both the 32 and 64 bit versions simultaneously unless you have separate licenses for each one. It's all in the EULA.

 

[SickBeast]

Originally posted by: mechBgon
What games won't run on Vista x64, out of curiosity?

Far Cry, UT2004, C&C 3 (without the patch).

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: SickBeast

Originally posted by: mechBgon
What games won't run on Vista x64, out of curiosity?

Far Cry, UT2004, C&C 3 (without the patch).

What problems are you having with them? I gave away my Far Cry, but I did just finish a round of UT2004 Demo (25-0 of course) on my Vista x64 as a test. I had to right-click it and choose Run as Administrator, and that's what I'd also suggest trying for Far Cry, since I know from firsthand experience that Far Cry freaks out when it's run from a non-Admin account on WinXP.

If elevating them to Admin works, then you can set them up to always run as Administrator if you like. It's very easy, just right-click a shortcut to the proggie and click the Advanced button on the Shortcut tab, then mark the checkbox. Also, note the Compatibility tab where you can set programs for WinXP mode (among others).

If you've disabled UAC (not recommended from a security standpoint, but I understand you don't care about that), then I think you'll be home free. If not, you can change something in Local Group Policy so that your Admin account bypasses UAC prompts.

 

[SickBeast]

Originally posted by: mechBgon

Originally posted by: SickBeast

Originally posted by: mechBgon
What games won't run on Vista x64, out of curiosity?

Far Cry, UT2004, C&C 3 (without the patch).

What problems are you having with them? I gave away my Far Cry, but I did just finish a round of UT2004 Demo on my Vista x64 as a test. I had to right-click it and choose Run as Administrator, and that's what I'd also suggest trying for Far Cry, since I know from firsthand experience that Far Cry freaks out when it's run from a non-Admin account on WinXP.

If elevating them to Admin works, then you can set them up to always run as Administrator if you like. It's very easy, just right-click a shortcut to the proggie and click the Advanced button on the Shortcut tab, then mark the checkbox. Also, note the Compatibility tab where you can set programs for WinXP mode (among others).

If you've disabled UAC (not recommended from a security standpoint, but I understand you don't care about that), then I think you'll be home free. If not, you can change something in Local Group Policy so that your Admin account bypasses UAC prompts.

Cool, thanks for the tips, I'll try them out in a bit (for the moment I'm in XP because C&C 3 runs like a dog under Vista, even patched).

Far Cry is terrible; the menus are fine, but once the level loads up, everything is garbled and dark; you can't see anything, then you just hear the enemies kill you and you die. 🙁

 

[mechBgon]

Far Cry is terrible; the menus are fine, but once the level loads up, everything is garbled and dark; you can't see anything, then you just hear the enemies kill you and you die. 🙁

On WinXP with a non-Admin account, I typically had invisible arms and weapons in Far Cry, and no crosshairs. Always fun discovering you've got the Invisible Rocket Launcher and are aiming it too low 😱 It couldn't save games, either.

I'm hoping Vista finally sends software companies the message that HELLO, NOT EVARY CUSTOMER WILL AUTOMATICALLY BE USING AN ADMIN ACCOUNT, FOOLS :frown:

Oh, and if you're so inclined, here's where to find the UAC stuffs in Group Policy Editor:
http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/mechBgon/Vista_GPEDIT_UAC_stuff.gif (log on as an Admin and put gpedit.msc in the Search box on the Start menu). If you exempt your Admin accounts from UAC prompts, you could actually use a Standard user account, set your "problem" software to Run As Administrator, and maybe retain some semblance of enhanced security by leaving your browser, IM, media players and email clients running non-Admin. Not perfect, but hey.

In practical terms, you'd need to set up another account to leave as Admin before you can drop your own already-set-up account down to Standard. Easily done.