Hey, fellas,I am tired of searching all these forums that don't answer my particular question, so I am posting this new thread here at microsoft, hoping that one of their supporters can explain in detail how this is done. After all, you people wrote these programs. And, by the way, I must say, that this new Vista you guys put out is total ***! Well, back to my problem: as I said I am trying to hook up a network connection between my newly bought Vista notebook and my XP desktop through this yellow ethernet-cable. I had done this before with two XP computers and it worked fine. But somehow I can't do it with the new Vista and XP. Please, if you can, explain in detail how I should go about this.And another problem I am having with this new Vista ***: I was trying to install a codec pack. But half way through installation it stops, telling me I wouldn't be the one with full administrator rights. My question is, if I am not the administrator of my own friggin computer, then who the *** is? Now, I done heard before buying this Vista ***, that there will be issues with this bugged security ***! But please, this is so friggin ridiculous... Tell me, why can't I just wipe this Vista *** off my computer and install the good old XP? When asking the guy at the place I bought the notebook at, he tells me that this new notebooks are configured for Vista and that XP will not run on it, because I wouldn't be able to get the needed drivers. He also said, that they (the industry / microsoft) won't be putting out drivers that work, so people have to stick with this Vista ***...Is that true? Please help, I am desperate...Thanks, Larry

Hi and thanks for posting here. I understand your frustration but I'm going to ask you to control your language. This is a publicly available forum that can be accessed by anyone. To answer your first question, I suggest you do the following: connect the 2 computers (from what you have described, you are doing a computer-computer connection) with the ethernet cable. Set the IP on the XP computer 192.168.1.2 and the subnet mask 255.255.255.0, Ok your way out to apply the settings. On the Vista computer, in Network and Sharing Center > Manage network connections > Right-click on the LAN connection > Properties > TCP/IPv4 > Set the IP 192.168.1.3 and the subnet mask 255.255.255.0 > Ok your way out. The scenario above applies for Computer-to-computer direct connection. If you are connecting thru a switch or router, we are going to need to put the Gateway IP aswell, so you can have Internet Access. For the second problem, Vista has a new approach to security. It applies the principle of least privilege, meaning that even an administrator is treated as a regular user when doing actions that require regular user access. Whenhe tries to do an action that requires administrator privileges, he is prompted for consent by the User Account Control. If you have a legacy application or an applicationbadly written that doesn't manifest the need for administrator privileges, the installation will fail due to the fact that Windows didn't receive a manifest for administrator privileges. This is because Independent SoftwareVendors haven't followed design specifications for Vista Applications. The solution to your problem would be to right-click the codecssetup file and select "Run as administrator". You will be prompted for consent, accept the prompt, and the application should install.Careful though, make sure thecodec pack you are installing is Vista-compatible.