I recieved the Beta 1 version of Windows Vista from MSDN today. foobar2000 works fine, and the VIA Envy24 drivers work (sort of, no VIA GUI). One of the interesting improvements is the bit rate detection for LAME generated VBR files has been vastly improved. Still not the same as the foobar2000 values, but a lot closer than they are under XP.



Edit: XP detects the file as 460kbps.

They are already accurate for me under XP Home SP 2 and WMP 10 (yes, I mean VBR files).

WMP 10 detects it as 460kbps under SP1. I don't use SP2 so I wasn't aware they'd changed the detection. Guess this isn't really news then.

That's what happens when you use outdated software.

Why should you use SP2 apart from the fact it's newer? I'm not upgrading to SP2 for better bit rate detection.

Doesn't work for me. Same setup. Weird.
Bitrates are correct(ish) in WMP but not in explorer.

Bitrates in Explorer are still wrong. Even for WMA files.

From your software usage patterns, I'd say it's perfectly OK to update to something newer that brings nothing to the table other than more eye candy.

having XP SP2 and WMP 10 installed does not guarantee that WMP nor Explorer will report correct bitrates. there must be more to the equation

I don't use WMA, but they're definitely wrong in Explorer with SP2 here too.

--
Baxter

Explorer and WMP library MP3 VBR bitrate detection is still hosed in any version. (Seems to be closer to "maximum bitrate.") However, when playing the content in WMP 10... it shows a more accurate VBR bit-rate at the bottom.

Maximum bitrate? Not even close.
Explorer reports ridiculous numbers such as 454 kbps, which is, umm, a little bit high for a maximum bitrate of MP3.

Ummm.. okay.. that's another way to look at it. Seriously though, read some articles on SP2, like this.

I've read the advertising from Microsoft, and several reviews. Since you asked though:

- New Security Center dashboard
Useless. I can tell the status of my firewall and anti-virus software without the help of Security Center. I have it disabled under Vista, but for some reason it occasionally pops up anyway and I have to disable it again.

- Enhanced firewall protects your system, even during boot time
It's a lousy firewall. As for protection during boot time, even during the period where Blaster was most prolific it would take around 5 minutes to become infected using an unpatched PC. Most PCs can boot in 5 minutes. I daresay by the time any worm gets prolific enough to present an infection risk during boot time they'll be an update available from Microsoft.

- Internet Explorer: Say goodbye to pop-up ads and drive-by downloads
I use Firefox, except for obtaining patches from Windows Update. Unless they're suggesting the Windows Update site contains pop-up ads and "drive-by downloads" it's not helpful to me.

- Block unsafe attachments in Outlook Express and Windows Messenger
Don't use either. Thunderbird for email, Miranda for instant messaging.

- Better Bluetooth discovery and configuration
Don't use Bluetooth.

- Automatic Updates improvements
Don't use automatic updates, I'm notified by SMS whenever a critical vulnerability is discovered.

- Simple wireless configuration
I wasn't aware wireless configuration was difficult.

- A cleaner Add or Remove Programs
The old one works fine for me.

- Under-the-hood code changes
The reviewer is too vague to figure out exactly what was changed and what it means for security, but Sygate will block intrusion attempts and I don't open potentially infected files so I'm guessing this will mean little for me. Of course, if anyone presents a situation in which these new code changes will protect me (that is, has a situation where these code changes would prevent someone using Sygate, AVG, and Firefox becoming infected where they would've have been infected using SP1) I'll reconsider. If the "under-the-hood changes" consist only of adding NX bit and the new firewall then I'm not missing out on anything.

- Multimedia Enhancements
They also added these to Vista. I'd prefer to have them removed.

Some people might find SP2 very useful. For me, all it brings to the table is the risk of compatibility problems. I'm not saying it's a bad service pack, I'm saying that blindly saying "Update to SP2 because it's better" is ignorant. Other users have pointed out that explorer bit rate detection is still incorrect in SP2 so it's really a non-issue anyway.

Whatever happened to the good old "shut up and take your medicine" attitude? Then again, I always did have too much free time and nothing better to do than to update first and deal with problems later. Case in point, Knights of the Old Republic 2, the update patch does fix things, but it actually introduces a few bugs. For instance, the hidden base on Telos, if you choose the option to surrender immediately, the game breaks and drops you out immediately, with your party idling behind you in the same positions as they normally do in their cells. Using the cheat menu conversation dialog that Atton displays to jump to the story conversation ahead only changes the party by leaving Atton knocked out on the floor. Long story short, game is broken, don't use that option unless you want to see bugs and be forced to reload.

Just as a side-note, new updates will require Service Pack 2 to be installed.

I can assure you that it didn't take more than 20 seconds on most of my systems. It was practically impossible to install the patch from windows update because activeX refused to work (because it depends on the crashing RPC-service) before the page was fully loaded. Downloading the patch from other (trusted) sources was the only way to get it then when you had no firewall running.


I can understand your point of view. I'm using almost exactly the same software as you (fx, tb, miranda, ...), and i had the same provision regarding the installation of SP2 (compatibility problems, etc..). But i have changed my mind some time ago and installed it, and i didn't have any problems since then (although i use lots of very picky software).

And i didn't do it because of MS-propaganda, but because the new DEP (data execution prevention) brings some very real security benefits as it prevents malware from exploiting buffer overflows in vulnerable software. I can remember that it prevented an exploit for firefox (version 1.03 i believe), that was already in the wild before it was fixed in 1.04. It also prevented the jpeg-exploit and the recent metadata in media-files exploit from working.

So it is not only about 'not running possibly unsecure files', nobody in their right mind does this anyway. Also you don't always know that files are possibly unsecure. There were more than enough examples of infected free-/shareware on normally trustworthy sites like download.com. And even though you can update your virus signatures all the time, there's always a window of opportunity for malware to infect you.

And the most convincing reason to update is the fact, that MS said it will stopp providing security updates for pre-SP2 systems in the not to distant future.

just my 0.02€

Even though they are all too high on VBR files, I've never seen more than 320Kbps displayed in Explorer for MP3 files. Maybe it's related to what MP3 related codecs you have installed.