Quickie question about Vista

Work colleague had a Vista machine, which he needed me (being resident techie) to do quick installs on (and resolve a few issues) one question... right before the "ANNOYING AS HELL" authorize every program under the sun to do anything (sorry, just really annoying when you are installing a bunch of products) does the screen always go black, or is that just his PC?

Always scared the bejuses out of me since normally if my screen goes completely black things are NOT going well.

 

A program that is not really Vista compatible (particularly with respect to the display) will do that. Also, not having all the vista drivers for the hardware up to snuff can.

 

At least on my PC, yes, when the UAC dialog comes on the entire screen goes completely black for a split second, then the background becomes a dark grey and the focus is on the UAC window. It's alarming at first but now I'm used to it.

I will say this much, though, when I had older drivers installed the blackout period was a little scarier. It's hard to describe but the entire screen would flicker instead of a brief, solid flash of black.

I just tried print screen but it doesn't capture it.

 

The screen always goes black, that is Vista's way of not allowing any code to run while it is asking for your permission. I don't know the fine details but that sums it up. You can turn the UAC off while doing major installs by going into control panel, user accounts, uncheck the box and then restart. It helps when you know what you are putting on and makes life a little easier.

DrewN I tried the same, capture screen but it didn't work for me either. That's when I found out about the above, that it stops everything pretty much until you say ok.

(Hello I'm a pc, mac do you wish to allow me to talk to you?) I'm not an apple user myself but that commercial was freekin hilarious!

 

Yeah, at first the commercial seems so close to how you feel about UAC, especially when you're first using Vista. It was especially annoying when you first install Vista, because you're trying to get familiar with Vista and where all the menu options are, plus you have to manually install multiple drivers and install software, PLUS on top of all of that you have to respond to UAC each and every time, it was annoying as heck!

Nowadays I don't even notice UAC is there, it's like "OK, hit the Continue button" and move along. You just have to actually use it everyday to understand that UAC and that extra dialog window isn't that big a deal.

At least that is my experience

 

I agree, I was like you have got to be kidding me, plus it made that annoying noise, boop boop. Windows needs your permission to continue. Thanks for asking, I gave you permission when I said ok...hahaaa

 

While I realise that UAC is worse on initial install (installing a bunch of programs that need access takes a while) what bugged me more (having been used to Kerio Firewall which does a very similar UAC thing) is the black screen. I've used Linux, that does a grey screen, no problems there, the UAC black screen (particularly on the computer I was using) was not quick, it was long enough to make me wonder if the PC was rebooting or something...

 

UAC is no big deal, turn it off if you hate it. I have it on and it doesnt slow me down, and its nice because there will be some time probably when some random program would run that you dont know about and this is the way you would stop it.

I think the double pop-up is abit essesive tho. first one asks for permission to run then the second one is my administrator ok diaglog.

 

Just turn it off. But you will lose some functionalities such as IE7 protected mode (i think).

 

Agreed, it can seem like it is taking a little bit to come up and I believe that it is based on the computer speed, memory etc. I don't use it myself but I believe it does serve a good purpose for the average user. At least until they get tired of it and just click it no matter what. "Do you want to install this virus on your computer" "ok, ::I'm tired of looking at this stupid box:: "

 

Its the video drivers which are to blame for the long black screen before the UAC prompt appears. It happens to me as well whenever I use the latest Nvidia drivers(100.xx+).

 

Yeah, that may be, but I blame Windows... or Acer, haven't really decided which, but it's an Acer Machine with the Stock drivers provided, quite honestly it just shouldn't happen.

I'm going back to my nice XP machine that actually works (oh, and what's with the horrid boot times? Is that just all Acer's junkware or is Vista a dog when booting without 300GB of RAM?)

 

Probably Acer's junkware and I feel that Vista really needs 2gb's to perform properly imo.