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TimLaLFlag for United States of America

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Vista "Ultimate" - ultimate software incompatibilities?

Am I the exception here?

Last Saturday, I knocked my XP Pro laptop off the side table and broke the power adapter jack.  Took it to the repair shop and found out a new motherboard would be required. After checking with the manufacturer (HP), I got the same news.  I had several recommend I just get a new laptop.  Checked around with local retail stores (Compusa, Circuit City, Office Depot, Frys, etc. etc.) and on-line (Dell, Gateway, Tiger Direct, ZipZoom Fly) trying to find a computer with XP Pro installed and ready for immediate use, - none found.  Everyone had plenty of Vista machines - primarily with Home/ Home Premium - very few with Business or "Ultimate".

I chewed on this until Sunday PM when I "gave up" and decided to get a Vista machine since I use my computer heavily every business day (electrical contracting - accounting, controls, CAD, etc.).  Found a single Vista Ultimate laptop at Office Depot (out of about 20+ laptops with Home/ Home Premium - in a business-related store????).  It was a beautiful machine, but after spending many hours (20 - 30) attempting to install my non-compativle software packages - which all ran without problem on my XP Pro machine -  I am returning it today and sending my OLD laptop to the manufacturer for a new motherboard.

I am extremely disappointed (disgusted is a better term) wiith MS that they would come out with an OS that was so incredibly changed that I have the choice of either buying upgrades to my software or quit using some of it.  
Vista is "pretty", networking was a snap, but that was the end of it as far as I was concerned.

Problem packages:
Quickbooks 2005 (but for $1300, I could upgrade all my company's workstations to the latest version.)
Motorola Q phone (just got from Verizon two weeks ago, but the software provided wiith the CD wouldn't work.)
Panasonic DP-3010 digital hub (laser printer, scanner, fax copier.  But Panasonic does have new drivers available for downloading.)
Palm E2 (gave up after two attemps to load the Hot Link software)
"Seeing" my network shared computers at home. (Even though I could see them and the other two workstations).
Enough is enough.

Next laptop may very well be a MAC if it takes this much effort to keep up with Microsoft.  May as well put the "upgrade" effort into something that will have noticable paybacks!!
Argggh!
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maninblac1

This list has been public and constantly updated since RTM was released.

http://www.iexbeta.com/wiki/index.php/Windows_Vista_Software_Compatibility_List
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Regardless, I feel that MS is nearly criminal in designing an OS that is so heavily incompatible with a HUGE base of installed software packages running on their OS.  If anyone knows what it should take to make migration to a new generation OS, the designer should.  No excuses.  I
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maninblac1

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Vista was built from the ground up - it wasn't BASED on anything earlier (like how XP was based on 2000 with the home user taken into consideration). Software makers have had since June 2006 to try out Vista Ultimate 32bit and you would think that nealry a year later most would have compatible software available by now. Same goes with companies who have to make new drivers that work on Vista.

Most people who run Vista on a desktop PC dual-boot it with XP to solve their probs. Others run XP through a Virtual PC on their Vista pc/laptop.
MS Virtual PC 2007 (free): http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/virtualpc/default.mspx
question..... was there a question in this or was it a blog?
Q: Am I the exception here?

A: No.
Ryan R

Much of Vista is new kernel code, but it is indeed still NT.  It is NT 6.0, as 2000 was NT 5.0 and XP was 5.1 and 2003 was 5.2.

Vista was supposed to be really really knew, but that was abandoned in 2004'ish when MS realized how many issues it was causing.  If you're not educated on these things, take it from a Paul Thurott who is about as pro MS as you can get, read his "road to gold" article here and get your facts straight.

http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/winvista_roadtogold_01.asp
Thanks for the facts (you could've worded it nicer though).
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Merete
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Hey folks,
thanks for all the insights!  I guess I really started more of a blog than anything else.  

Because of the issues involved in getting a Vista machine integrated into our office, I have fallen back to XP.  The laptop that I "killed" and then initiated this whole series of events is somewhat patched back together and I have a new Dell, XP-based laptop on order.

If'/ when we decide to take the office to Vista, we will seriously investigate the issues.

Even though we are electrical contractors, I am our default "IT" go-to guy because I've been playing with computers for years.  I've built computers, rebuilt computers, set up  our peer-to-peer network (Cat 5 10/100 as well as wireless 802.11b/g), supported software installs/ removals, etc. etc.
I subscribe to a couple periodicals (PC World, PC Mag) and try to stay somewhat informed on the goings-on in the industry.
I guess I just didn't really pay attention to the issues with Vista because I hadn't planned on making that transition ---  until I killed my laptop!!!

I still am somewhat aghast that there is such an involved migration path going to Vista.  
Until we are forced to make the next move, we'll continue running Win 2K & XP.  When we do make the transition, I think we'll have an outside vendor assist us - maybe even consider another OS platform rather than Windows.  

So, what do I do with the points I had given this topic?  
Good choice TimLaL I think a split on definate opinions that contribute to why not to install Vista would be apprecaited here since it is really just a blog now,
the public is a very trusting user, we went with xp so just assumed without reading and looking first, that Vista was simply just another upgrade like windows 98 to Me and 2000.
But it is not as so many find out too late.
I can't believe how fast the new computers come bundled with Vista.
So I spread the word unless you buy a new system and have no previous ( faithful hardware)
you'll be fine.
It is the users of xp that upgrade to Vista with existing hardware will hit the wall of progress replace to upgrade or lose.
Also while I am on this subject as you are back to xp again, be aware of the windows updates pushing WMP 11 and IE7, these are really designed to run smoothly with Vista but MS decided to push it out onto xp, from what I have seen here at EE this is cause for concern again. You dont have to upgrade IE7 or WMP 11, IE6 and WMP 10  function flawlesslyy so there is no need to fix them.

Thank you for your feedback and best wishes.
Merete
It's mainly home users who are upgrading; businesses are starting to test Vista on isolated PC's to check for compatbility with software and hardware and also to check out the performance since vista uses more resouces as you likely know.

When Vista SP1 is released more people might make the transition.