Vista Reduced Capability Mode

Vista Reduced Capability Mode

I work in IT and have been testing Microsoft Windows Vista, their latest Operating system (OS). It seems to work OK and they tout it as “more secure”, but I have no evidence for or against that yet.

So we finally got our act together at work and setup the server so the new OS can validate its authenticity (yes, Microsoft is worried about LOSING money because of piracy. How many times have they been dragged into Court for doing that themselves???). After the techs set my PC up to use that server, I took off for home and booted up my laptop there. It came up in Reduced Capability Mode, because I was outside the secure work network and could not connect to the server.

In Reduced Capability Mode, all you get is an IE browser window, that's it. It will tell you it is in this mode, but not why. What you HAVE to do is type in “c:\windows\explorer.exe" into the Address Bar in the browser, so you can go start your network and/or wireless services, so you can connect. In my case I had to also start a secure network connection to work, which worked fine. I was up and running normally in minutes.

So please remember this when you are in Reduced Capability Mode, because without doing this, you are screwed!