Or should this be a rant?

[D-Dan]

Since I installed Vista 64, much to my chagrin, I'm starting to like it (don't shoot) but I'm still the first to admit that getting it working properly is not for the faint hearted. One of my favourite features is the inclusion of Windows Media Centre, although it bugged me a little that I couldn;t get the FM radio on my HVR-1300 working.

Anyway, I searched and found a way to fix that, so all's good - so you'd think.

The past couple of days, I've noticed that if I had any kind of audio playing, my mouse would stutter, and I'd have to triple click everything to get it working. I finally figured it out tonight.

To get FM working with MC, I had to install the TV Pack (not easy in itself since MS doesn't offer it for download to us poor, paying, users). At the same time, it also installs an icon into the tray. Now, I've no idea what the hell that innocuous little icon was up to, but it's the culprit. I disabled it from starting (you can't exit it, and they call it something odd - ehTray.exe) and my mouse is behaving again.

No-one can tell me it's because my PC can't handle it - AMD 6400 3.2 Ghz, ATI 4670 HD (1 Gig memory) and Creative X-Fi Audio - all sitting on an Nvidia 5 Ultra MB with 4 Gig PC6400 RAM plugged in, so just what is that damned icon up to?

Anyhoo - posted in case anyone is having a similar problem (you'll really notice it when watching a video in your browser and have the devils own job trying to get your mouse to actually click a link to navigate away from the page).

Steve

[LesD]

I have just Googled for ehtray and found the quote below here.

ehtray.exe is a process is the tray bar process for the Microsoft Media Center. It gives you easy access to the digital media manager. This is a non-essential process.\r Disabling or enabling it is down to user preference.

I know nothing about processlibrary.com so make of it what you will. 

[D-Dan]

Processlibrary (amongst others) are sites I make use off when I'm deciding what needs to be running on my PC. They aren't the only ones to link ehTray to WMC. But it doesn't explain why it makes my mouse choppy whenever I play a music file. Even playing through Winamp has the same result whilst ehTray is running

Never mind - I'll just keep it killed now.

Steve

[LesD]

Yes I know what you mean but it does imply that it is non-essential and your choice whether to let it run or not so no harm done with it shutdown.

Have you looked at the processess with Task Manager when it's running or with a Gadgets CPU/Ram meter as it could just be a resource hungry process despite the adequacy of your machine.

I have looked to see if I can see it running on my 32 bit Vista Home Premium setup and cannot see it with Task Manager or in my Start-up files so I am out of ideas I am afraid. 

The hardware platform my 32 bit Vista is on (See below) would ever likely support the 64 bit version but I have heard that even less "legacy" s/w runs on the 64 bit one than on the 32 bit one that I am trying to like!

   
CPU   INTEL   Core 2 Quad Q6700    2.67GHz 1066MHz FSB   64 bit Quad Core
Motherboard   Gigabyte   GA-EP35-DS3 (Rev 2.1)   ATX Intel P35  Chipset   Max Bus Speed 1600 MHz
Memory   OCZ   2x1GB DDR2   PC2-6400 800MHz CL=4   4-4-4-15 Dual Channel Kit
Memory   OCZ   2x1GB DDR2   PC2-6400 800MHz CL=4   4-4-4-15 Dual Channel Kit
Graphics   Gigabyte      GF8500GT DX10   PCI-E Sli
Hard Disk   Seagate   ST32500620AS   250GB SATA2   7200.10, 3Gb/s, 16MB Cache
PSU   Tagan   Easycon 530 Watt Modular   ATX12V 1.3/2.01 & EPS

[Sebby]

Steve, I don't like what I'm hearing.

Anyway, don't get too familiar with Vista - Windows 7 will be along soon and MS will be doing all they can to pretend that Vista never really existed.

[D-Dan]

Re ehTray - it proves to be more difficult to disable than I thought. I can stop it starting at boot, but it launches when WMC is started, and I have to force quit it afterwards with ProcessExplorer (my taskmanager replacement of choice). I'll have to keep researching this to find a way to permanently disable it without killing WMC.

Re Windows 7, I agree that it looks much better, having installed the beta to a VM. However, it's more money to spend. 64 Bit Vista is generally stable and responsive (at least, here it is) and from what I hear about SP2, it should improve. I'd like to move to Win 7 eventually (assuming Ubuntu 9.04 doesn't manage to make it to my main system) but I have to assess cost against worth, and whether I want to spend even more.

I have to say though, driver and software support for 64 bit is much improved since I first tried Vista 64. All my hardware is now supported in native 64 bit mode, and where there are no 64 bit compatible versions of programs I use, I've found perfectly acceptable alternatives.

Now, if only 64 bit firefox would get the plugin support it so badly needs, and 64 bit versions of QT, DivX (pro - since I bought it) and flash were available (both of which are reported to be imminent) I'd be happy.

Steve

[mrapoc]

How is firefox x64 btw?

Never actually tried it - does it perform a lot better?

I like my x64 vista altho i hope they give us a realistic upgrade route to windows 7..as it is almost like a patched vista

Something like £20 for an upgrade on your cd key

[Sebby]

There isn't an official 64-bit Firefox, is there?

[D-Dan]

There is a perfectly functional 64 bit version of FF, but only useful if you don;t want web 2 features, such as video and flash, since there are no 64-bit versions of quicktime or flash player.

Steve