Urrghhh......Vista !!!!! (Vista Business SP1)

[bhdavis]

Sorry about this........just need to vent some steam.

Vista.........sheesh. It came on my Sony Vaio notebook last year and is still driving me nuts. It will randomly change settings such as POWER and SCREEN RESOLUTION on it's own for no apparent (perhaps the key point here) reason. Even when it hasn't changed the POWER settings it will still sometimes go to sleep when I lower the screen even though I have everything set to never go to sleep.

For some reason that I can't track down the SEND drop down menu item used to send a file right from a program works in some programs and not in others.....no rhyme and reason. It's just simply grayed out in AutoCAD, Word XP and Excel XP. I also can't use the SEND button in PDF Factory. I have to save the .pdf and then attach it to an email. Yet, the SEND option works just fine in Paint Shop Pro. Granted, most of these programs are hold overs from Windows XP, but seems such a simple thing shouldn't be a problem.

I doubt there are any answers to these issues but if anyone has any insight that will restore my faith in MS then I'd love to hear. In the mean time I'll keep thinking I should have gone back to XP ages ago.

Thanks for allowing me to lower roll on and on.

BH

[JoeP517]

Do you have admin rights on the PC? Are the drivers up-to-date? Is the PC up-to-date with Software updates & patches? Do you run any of the affected program in XP compatibility mode?

Joe

[bhdavis]

Joe,

Yes, I have admin. rights. Everything on the PC is up to date as best can be accomplished and I've tried running the programs that have a grayed out SEND menu item in XP compatibility mode with no improvement. I've spent hours searching for solutions to these problems and have tried everything I've found on on various forums and tech sites, including Microsoft.

BH

[JoeP517]

For your Power settings, have you tried creating a plan rather than modifying one of the existing plans? Screen resolution can be changed by a program. So, it could be one of the 'old' programs that is changing the resolution.

Is Outlook your default mail client? Is the "Mail Recipient" entry in the SendTo folder for your userid?

Joe

[bhdavis]

Joe,

Thanks.........I have not tried creating a power setting from scratch. I will give that a go.

As to the resolution change it happens when lifting the laptop lid after it's gone into sleep mode without warning. So, perhaps a newly created power plan might solve that as well.

I don't use Outlook.............I use Firefox and Thunerbird mail. As mentioned, some programs will SEND a file just fine.........just not all. I've gone over the Windows settings for defualt mail programs at least a dozen times (perhaps a small exaggeration...........but not by much).

Thanks again,
BH

[JoeP517]

The resolutions for similar issues that I've seen all say to set the default mail program in IE.

Joe

[bhdavis]

Yes, I've seen the same things............and tried it a couple different times. No help for me............
BH

[JoeP517]

Is Thunderbird set as the default mail program now? Have you seen E-mail button in Windows Photo Gallery does nothing in your searches?

Joe

[bhdavis]

Joe..........you're a persistent fellow.............and it is very much appreciated !!!!

Yes, Thunderbird is set as the default mail program. I changed it to Outlook a few times to try to fix the problem, but always set it back to Thunderbird when done.

But .........NO..........I've not seen that particular set of instructions re the SEND button in Windows Photo Gallery. I have done the first step settings a bunch of times to no avail, but the other 3 suggested fixes are new to me. I will try them tonight .

Thanks again,
BH

[JoeP517]

Did you use Control Panel | Programs | Default Programs | Set program access and computer defaults when you made T-bird the default mail program?

Joe

[bhdavis]

Yes indeed.
Thanks,
BH

[JoeP517]

If you go to Control Panel | Programs | Set your default programs is T-Bird listed and is it set to handle eveything you need?

Joe

[bhdavis]

Yes, under DEFAULT PROGRAMS in Control Panel T'bird is set as the default program in all 3 headings.........MS programs, Non-MS programs and Custom.

Also it is set as the default program under SET DEFAULT PROGRAMS.

BH

[JoeP517]

Have you had a chance to try any of the suggestions in the article?

Joe

[bhdavis]

Joe,

I tried the scan and it locked up the computer at 31% completed. When I rebooted it ran a t thorough check disk (disk scan). I hadn't seen anything like that before, but it did reboot. Of course the desktop icons were all changed back from CLASSIC to LARGE again (I hadn't mentioned that), but other then that the box was fine.

At that point I quit for the night. I'll try the last suggestion later.

BH