After you upgrade a Windows XP-based computer to Windows Vista, you experience the following symptoms:

• One or more of the following Windows XP-related groups appear in the “Local Users and Groups” Groups folder:
  • HelpServicesGroup
  • Offer Remote Assistance Helpers
  • RS_Query
• One or more of the following Windows XP-related user accounts appear in the “Local Users and Groups” Users folder:
  • SUPPORT_388945a0
    Note: The 388945a0 part of this user account represents a combination of numbers and letters. This combination may differ on your computer.
  • HelpAssistant
  • WIIS_ComputerName

You expect only Windows Vista-related users and groups to remain on the computer after you upgrade to Windows Vista.

When you migrate user data to a new Windows Vista computer after you stop the InputPersonalization.exe process, the InputPersonalization.exe process may not start correctly. Additionally, you may lose personalization data and functionality.

Additionally, you may receive the following error message:

An error occurred in the Handwriting recognition personalization tool

Additionally, the following messages may be logged in the Application log:

Handwriting recognition personalization failed to initialize the store of handwriting samples that are used to personalize handwriting recognition.
Handwriting recognition personalization: Some or all of the handwriting samples that were collected to personalize the handwriting recognizer are unreadable

The thirteenth tip video by PCWizKid. A useful feature known as user account auditing is not turned on by default in Windows Vista. Turned it on and log all attack attempts to login to your PC.

User Account Control (UAC) is bound to be one of the more talked about features of Vista because it has a tendency to ‘get in your face’ with dialog windows every time you try to change or install something (see image below). Administrators will be quickly annoyed by this and likely look to disable it all together. Though it is easily turned off, before doing so, it’s best to know what the different options are, because you’ll want to find a balance between security and convenience. Keep reading →