Unable to download after Vista upgrade

[neomaine]

Part I:
Just upgraded to Vista Ultimate so that I can use my 360 as a media extender. That part works fine, except for mpeg2 files...

Long story short, I'm unable to download ANYTHING from any website. Nothing. At first I thought it was just .zip or .exe but its everything. Any clues as to what setting I'm running into thats stopping me from downloading files now?

All I get is an error message that the site is unavailable and to try again later. That was OK for the first one or two, but now that I've tried multiple sites. Nothing...

Part II:
How do I find and uninstall video codecs in Vista? I've upgraded my old ATI AIW to a newer ATI x1650 and don't need all the ATI codecs. I think this is the main reason that my mpeg2 files aren't playing on the 360.

Thanks in advance!

[redwudz]

Part l: I have no idea why you would be unable to download files. Or do you mean you can't connect to any sites? It could be your IE security settings. (If you run IE) Or it may be a setting in the Windows Firewall. If so, it should tell you when it blocks a download.

I have 2 Vista installs, and they have never blocked downloads without explaining it. Ultimate has quite a few more security settings. But still it should inform you if it's blocking and why. Check the Windows Firewall settings and make sure 'Display a notification when a program is blocked:' It should say 'Yes'. Also check to see the Firewall is set to 'On', not 'Block all incoming connections.' Check the 'Exceptions' list also.

Part ll: Codec Sniper seems to run on Vista 32, don't know about Vista 64. It will give you a list of installed codecs and should allow you to uninstall problematic ones.

[neomaine]

Redwudz,

- I can connect to the internet just fine, just can't download any files.

- I have a firewall w/nat built into my router. Windows Firewall is turned off. Are there any new, for Vista, built in virus/spyware/adware tools?

- I'll check out Codec Sniper. Sounds exactly what I'm looking for. Now, if I could just download it.....

[steveryan]

If you cannot download Codec Sniper PM me your email addy and i'll email it to you.

[redwudz]

For your download problem, I suspect IE. The next time you get that message, copy down the exact wording and open 'Windows Help and Support' and put that into the the question box. You may get a exact match or at least some direction. It looks like your IE security setting is too high.

Open IE, then click on 'Tools>Internet Options>Security. The slider should be at 'Medium-High'. Click the 'Default level' button if it's available. Exit, then restart IE and see it that helps. When I change my security setting to 'High', that disables downloads and I get this error: 'Your current security settings do not allow this file to be downloaded'. You might also check the 'Restricted sites' list. Try resetting everything to default in IE if all else fails.

Most of this effects sites, not specifically downloading, so I'm not sure that will all help. But if you can get a copy of FireFox browser or if it's already on your computer, try using it instead IE. That will at least rule out IE as the problem.

If you get nowhere there, try typing in the exact error you get when downloading into a Google search box.

Your Vista Firewall should not be causing your problem. It's not a great firewall, but I would leave it running.

The only other blocking I can think of is DEP, but you would get a specific warning if it is activating. It has more to do with running programs than downloading, though. It's in XP also, so nothing new.

But I think this is an IE problem.

[CrayonEater]

DO NOT use IE, regardless of Vista or not. For anything. Use Firefox or Opera. You should be able to download to you user folder just fine. If you can't, create a user account with the same permissions as Administrator. That should handle the download problems.

[redwudz]

CrayonEater brought up a good point about user permissions that had escaped me. Thanks.

If you don't have administrator privileges, you may also not be able to download or install files. But again, Vista should have warned you about that.

[neomaine]

Had the security setting to med-high. Set it to medium and that didn't help. Well, it did get rid of the 'unable to connect to site' message. Now dowloads just hang there doing nothing. Not completely true. I do get to watch the nice document flying over to the manilla folder...

Thought it might be Spybot S&D. When I reinstalled it after the upgrade, the immunization database went from like 7k entries to 14k entries. Figured something might have happened there. No love. Also had the 'block all bad pages silently' set, as I've always had, and set it to prompt instead. Still no love.

I'm going to check out the account setting when I get home tonight. My account was, and I assumed still, an admin account. I hadn't thought of that one.

Crayon-eater, I understand yours and others concern with IE and a push towards Firefox. But, I've been running IE for forever without many issues. I'll use Firefox as a last resort. Though I'm getting pretty close to it. I need to download the Vista driver for my printer... If the kids can't print their homework via my system, it just may be the last straw.

Thanks a bunch for keeping the advice coming everyone...

[neomaine]

I was definitely still an admin on the box. No problem there.

Looks like the culprit was Windows defender. Once I disabled it I was able to download again and my internet and overall system response was once again nice and crisp. What a difference. What a POS....

Though its a slight PITA, I reenabled UAC.

One other thing of note. I had ugraded my video card before doing all this. Went from a ATI AIW 9600xt to a Saphire (ATI) x1650. After uninstalling all the ATI stuff I no longer needed now that the AIW part was gone, I was unable to drop some of the directories ATI had created. Nothing major, just that directory MMC would create to put the recording before it moved it to its destination.

Windows complained about me not having permissions. I simply went in, set the permission to FULL for EVERYONE and was able to delete them. It baulked a little when emptying the recycle bin but it got rid of the directories/folders anyway.

Thanks everyone for all your help on this. Its genuinely appreciated...once again.