If you’re running Vista on a computer you use, especially a mobile computer like a notebook, then you’ve heard the Vista Symphony whether you realized it or not. The Vista Symphony is that rhythmic melody played by your hard drive that is doing, well, who knows what even if your computer is sitting idle. Call it the super-fetch, or pre-fetch, or post-fetch, whatever you want to call it but it rolls on no matter what.
This morning I decided to turn on all of the computers in Mobile Tech Manor so they could do any housekeeping that Vista likes to do so each one would be ready to go if I needed to use it. I powered up all five notebooks in addition to the one I was using and just let them run sitting in the dock or standalone for those without docks. I went about my business working on the Lenovo U110 and in a lull in my work I heard a hard disk humming along with activity. It was actually louder than that and the reason soon became apparent as I looked around me. The Vista Symphony was in full swing as three of the notebooks were spinning and accessing their hard drives in full force. The three notebooks thrashing away are all running Vista and the other two were dead silent as one is running Windows XP and the other is a Mac. Now, as I looked around and listened raptly to the Symphony I verified that none of the three singing computers was actually doing anything. No programs were running, no updates were happening, nada. They were just singing away to get a little attention, I guess. The Vista Symphony was performing even though no one asked it to. One of life’s mysteries for sure.
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