Reference Manual

HOW TO run NAT32 under Windows Vista.

Introduction

Windows Vista is the most feature-rich operating system ever published by Microsoft. Many of those features make interaction with the operating system very cumbersome, and several features cause problems for software like NAT32 that requires access to network configuration details, networking services such as Remote Access and Connection Sharing, device drivers and the Windows Registry. NAT32 must therefore be run with Admin privileges, and that is why the manifest included in Builds 1046 and later specifies the "requireAdministrator" Execution Level. All in all, Vista is not an ideal platform for NAT32, but for users with no other choice, this document describes some of the points that need attention if NAT32 is to function correctly on that platform.

Hibernation and Standby

A fresh Vista install configures the machine to sleep after 1 hour of user inactivity. This is of course undesirable when NAT32 is functioning as your gateway to the Internet, so NAT32 Builds 1046 and later prevent this from happening. Note that the NDIS3PKT driver is non-functional after the machine resumes from standby or hibernation, so it is best to modify the Vista Power Management settings so that the machine never sleeps.

Also note that the Vista power-down Start Menu item actually causes the machine to enter either the hibernate mode (state saved on disk) or the standby mode (state saved in RAM). NAT32 will therefore not work unless the machine is actually reset after resuming from either of those modes.

User Account Control

Before an application that requests privilege is run, Vista displays a dialog box on a seperate desktop asking the user to decide whether or not the application should run. Unfortunately, the dialog box does not display sufficient detail about the application, even though its manifest and other resources usually contain a wealth of useful information that would allow the user to make an informed decision. Instead, Microsoft chose to display only the digital signature of the application (if available) and many users will be unsure of whether they should allow unsigned applications to run.

Can NAT32 be trusted?

Microsoft Corporation constantly implants fear of all things non-Microsoft in the minds of users and deliberately creates the impression that only signed applications and drivers are trustworthy. In actual fact, very many signed applications and drivers are best not installed on a system because they bloat the registry, make hidden modifications to user settings and consume large amounts of memory, disk space and CPU time.

NAT32 is a small, multi-threaded application written almost entirely in C. Only a small amount of C++ code is used to interact with certain Windows COM objects. It makes very few changes to your registry and uses very little memory, disk space and CPU time. Of course, it contains no hidden features (easter eggs) and no advertising or spyware of any kind.

See Also

The NAT32 Application