So I just upgraded to Vista and...

[danholo]

...problems arose immediately. I installed Home Premium on XP Home and everything was going fine and dandy until, well, something unexpected happened. I'm really liking Vista's "features" and "look" (and how the Mighty Mouse finally works) but what could be just classified as "weird Windows ****" just keeps happening. At some points, I don't know why, everything just disappears; the taskbar, open windows, everything. Only the mouse cursor and desktop background picture are showing. Sometimes a program window might remain open but I can't get the Start menu to pop up, a right-click menu or even get the Task Manager running (having a MacBook doesn't help considering the lack of the "Delete" button (I don't know what genius designer left it it out).

So, is this just Windows? This hasn't happened on my brothers Fujitsu laptop. I'm using a MacBook Pro (2.4ghz) with BootCamp. I know Vista is new and isn't the best choice but hey... This is working faster then XP did.

[mikewl]

I had a similar problem with Vista once, taskbar screwed right up, stuff disapeared and nothing worked when clicked. It turned out to be this gambling software I had installed, once uninstalled everything was fine.

Was the Vista install fresh or an upgrade from XP?

If you upgraded and have loads of stuff installed it might be hard to identify whats causing the problem but its likely something thats installed, maybe something that runs in the background.

[danholo]

I upgraded. That's so very possible... Most of the times it happens when I was fiddling around with display settings... It even happened when I changed the setting for the language bar to be "docked in the taskbar". Weird stuff... Hasn't happened in a while though so I'll see if it happens again.

Thanks for the tip though! (One really finds help on this board for anything!)

[SubparMario]

Does Fn + Backspace work as the delete key? I know it does in OS X.

You might also be able to bring up task manager directly using CTRL + Shift + Escape. Not sure if that shortcut is present in Vista.

[kryss]

ctrl+alt+delete still works.

[Taka]

Are you running the version of Bootcamp which comes with Leopard or one of the beta versions?

As somebody else suggested, upgrading between Windows versions on relatively old installs will cause all manner of problems. I know service pack 1 for Vista is just around the corner so perhaps it's worth holding out just a bit longer?

[SubparMario]

Format + Reinstall is good for the soul

[danholo]

It's always good for the soul, I know. Vista's been working fine lately... although the Language Bar pops up floating on the Desktop when I reboot even though I've set it to dock in the taskbar in the properties and continues to remain checked after reboot. Just absurd.

Thanks Wush for the button combination. I didn't know that one, and I've been looking for it! (Considering how essential it is...)

Are you running the version of Bootcamp which comes with Leopard or one of the beta versions?

As somebody else suggested, upgrading between Windows versions on relatively old installs will cause all manner of problems. I know service pack 1 for Vista is just around the corner so perhaps it's worth holding out just a bit longer?

Relatively old? I was using the September release of XP which I had installed previously about a month ago.