A few weeks ago I invited readers to throw some Windows Vista questions and comnments my way. Here are a few answers.

David writes:

I really dislike the UAC prompt seems to appear in diffrent places of the screen depending on where the action occured that created it. For example, move to a program files folder and select “organize>new folder.” Why am I prompted to continue in the upper left corner, why not the middle of the screen. It should be in the middle, in my book.

As far as I can see, the UAC prompt appears directly over the element you clicked. This makes perfect sense if UAC is acting as it’s supposed to and is immediately displaying a permission dialog box. Some video driver bugs in current builds cause some pretty severe delays, which can be annoying to say the least.

Another question from David:

Ok, so I run with an administrator account, I have no created a limited user. I with the UAC had a bit more flexibility in it’s configuration regarding the prompts I receive. For example. I use an explorer replacement. I’ve checked the box under the shortcut that I want the program to run in admin mode. Why am I still prompted to “allow” it to run. I knew what I did when I checked the box, don’t prompt me.

This behavior is the same as in Wiindows XP. Selecting that checkbox says that you want to be prompted to enter a different set of credentials when you run the program. It sounds like what you’re asking for is the ability to declare certain programs or features as being exempt from UAC; that won’t happen. sorry to say.

Kishore asks:

I read earlier (probably, not from this site) that Vista is going to include symbolic links. Is this feature implemented? Is it exposed in explorer or cmd.exe?

Symbolic links, aka symlinks are also known as aliases (to Mac users) or junction points (in the Windows NT family). They’re similar to shortcuts but much more powerful in that a symbolic link looks and acts as if it were part of the file system instead of being a pointer. You make and manage symlinks with the MKlink command. We’ll have several pages on this in Windows Vista Inside Out.

One more from David:

I’m wondering if you can comment on something I just read. In this document [IT Showcase: Explorer 7 Protected Mode] it says that Protected mode is only available for Windows Vista Enterprise and Windows Vista Ultimate. Everything else I’ve read says Protected mode is available in Vista, implying it would be part Windows Vista Basic.

I just checked with Microsoft and they say that’s a mistake. Protected Mode is part of every Vista version, no differences from one to the other.

From Desert Weary:

Just installed Vista Build 5384 and am wondering why SELECT.EXE process is constantly running at 85 – 94% of CPU in task manager. What’s going on? Is this normal?

No, that’s not normal. That process is not a part of Vista, so it sounds like you’ve got a third-party application that isn’t playing nice.

That’s all the time for questions today. Keep ’em coming and I’ll answer some more next week.

Interesting theory, I suppose.

I wish to ponder whether Microsoft might have directly or indirectly encouraged three prominent bloggers to publicly and passionately implore the company to delay the release of its long-awaited Vista release of Windows.

No, I don’t have evidence that Robert McLaws, Robert Scoble, and Ed Bott were involved in a conspiracy to give Microsoft cover for a significant delay of the next major release of its franchise operating system.

Still, the context of this three-part remonstration is awfully convenient for the executives back in Redmond.

Thank goodness Jim Garrison isn’t around anymore.

Robert McLaws says Microsoft needs to delay Windows Vista. I agree with about 90% of what he says:

I’ve been defending Microsoft’s ship schedule for Windows Vista for quite some time. Up to this point, I’ve been confident that Vista would be at the quality level it needs to be by RC1 to make the launch fantastic. Having tested several builds between Beta 2 and today, I hate to say that I no longer feel that way.

Robert says Microsoft should “Push the launch back 4-6 weeks and launch at the end of February [and] add another beta to the development cycle.” Make that “end of March” and I’ll sign up too.

There’s some truly great stuff in Windows Vista, but current builds are not at the quality level they need to be at for a release candidate to appear in the next few weeks. If management insists on hitting an arbitrary January ship date, the results will be disappointing at best, and potentially nightmarish.

Jim, are you listening?

No one outside of the 98052 ZIP code seems to believe that Windows Vista is really going to ship when Microsoft says it will. The latest skeptical word is from Wall Street:

Where on the horizon is Vista?

Officially, Microsoft said last week that it is sticking to its most recently announced schedule of shipping Vista to business customers at the end of this year and launching it for consumers and on new PCs in January.

Few, though, are taking Microsoft at its word.

“Our estimates have already assumed a delay in the Vista launch to March or April,” Goldman Sachs analyst Rick Sherlund said in a research note Friday. [emphasis added]

Another slip in the schedule won’t be disastrous, but it will be embarrassing. My best guess – and that’s all it is, a guess – is that the next time Microsoft makes an official announcement about Vista’s schedule it will contain an actual release date. Better to suffer in silence for another few weeks (or more) than to make another vague pronouncement.

Frank Schrader tells Andrew Tobias:

I installed the beta of Windows Vista [Microsoft’s new operating system] and one of the first things I tried was Managing Your Money DOS Version 12. It works just fine, which is great because I’m not ready to give it up yet. It still does everything I want it to and I have records dating back to 1987!

I used to use MYM DOS back in the late 1980s and early 1990s. It’s startling to think that a program that’s nearly 20 years old actually runs under Windows Vista.

Are you running Windows Vista Beta 2? Got any questions, comments, tips? Leave them here in the comments section and I’ll try to come up with some answers.