Vista compatibility issues

application test on vista :)

Published on October 12, 2006 By MagedMedia In Windows Vista

Well and Now here is Vista Review Part 2 -the compatibility issues
here i will write about the most common used programs and if there is errors in
installation , use ,.... etc

i have tried many programs and their different versions to try making a full
resource for you about compatibility issues so it took me a while after my
Vista New Features Review

First to Start with is the security programs to clear some points in that wide discussion
i have tested many programs of different Companies

1- Symantec Products as you see in the screen shot Vista refuses even starting installation
for any Symantec internet security and included products dated from 2003 to 2006

- and so i tried Symantec NIS 2007 .. now NIS was the one to refuse installation!!!

2- & for McAfee2006 Vista Refuses to install this version

- But in this screenshot Vista accepted the last version of McAfee security suite 2007

3- & "Trend Micro PC-cillin Internet Security 14" went with no problems all

4- and if we take a look about ad wares protection programs I have tried one program in that
field (well maybe i didn't try another program as I see adaware is doing all the job perfectly)
i simply didn't find any errors in SE version 1.05 & 1.06 installations

Let us enter another important field specially for the designers and skinners : the Graphics Programs

We Will talk about:
Adobe Photoshop CS2 , Paint Shop pro , ACD 8 Pro , WindowBlinds 5 & Skin studio

1- here i started with Adobe Photoshop everything was working perfectly here until i came to the update part
as u see from this screenshot there is an error in the PS update but for truth there isn't any other errors
except that update

2- in this screenshot here is my test for the Paint Shop pro well after setup version XI i launched the program
it said that this version is expired !!! and so after a little thinking i tried to right click
the program and choose run as admin (although i am really logged on using admin account )
and... it is done everything went right after that

3- and ACD while running installation and every time you will run ACD Vista will give warning about compatibility issues
but.... i have been testing it for a reasonable while and nothing happened every thing is working smoothly without any
errors

4- and the well Known WindowBlinds 5

Vista will give warning about compatibility issues i tried to pass this warning
and continue installation but this time this didn't work at all

by the way skinstudio worked if you still wants to make skins for XP using Vista

and also we will Not forget the Internet related Products here
of course Vista comes with the great IE7 and i will not talk about it here (of course there isn't any compatibility issues here

but also if u still want to read about IE7 you can read my Vista Review you will find it here in the same site
and many other sites that is discussing Vista you will find it under the name of "Vista Review BY MM" )
and now but to the other products

Messengers:

1- well first to start with and the most strange is Microsoft Windows Live messenger yes it didn't work (at least in my test)
when you try to sign in it gives an error message as u see in the screen shot

- but when I run the troubleshooter it didn't find anything interfering with its connection !!!!

2- Google talk working perfectly

Browsers:

1- here is opera 9 without any problems

2- and the new growing FireFox without any problems too

well and as i thought for zipping programs there isn't any errors i have tried Winzip and Winrare and i think they don't
need screenshots we all know them well

a small tip: if you tried a program in Vista and it didn't work don't give up that ey
but take an extra moment trying to pass compatibility warning if there is any and
try also right clicking the lunch file (exe) and choose run as admin
that what i did with ACD & Paint Shop Pro
did i hear you saying that this will be a silly thing to do every time!!
well vista is doing such things due to a new feature that is called "user account control"
Microsoft thought this will be safer that vista will always ask your permission to do tasks
but you can easily turn this off from the user accounts in the control panel

and if you want to know more about Vista features you can read my review under the name "Vista Review By MM" you will find it
here too

at last thanks for your Valuable time reading my compatibility Review hope you enjoyed it and also wish i have answered many
of your questions

Comments (Page 2)

brewman

on Oct 15, 2006

Having worked with Vista for a couple
of months now, I don't see any compelling
reason to make me pony up the money.
I'll be sticking with XP pro.
It gives me everything I need and
it's been rock solid.

Hapkido

on Oct 16, 2006

I've been running Vista RC1 for awhile and find it to be quite nice. I wouldn't have any problems replacing XP except for 2 major issues for me: 1) It's going to take some time for software/hardware developers to update drivers that are compatible with Vista, and 2) as others have already mentioned, there is the cost factor. It's a bit too steep for even the upgrade versions, especially "Ultimate".

starkers

on Oct 16, 2006

I think price will be a factor for me. $400 for a Vista edition is a lot of money.

It's a bit too steep for even the upgrade versions, especially "Ultimate".

This is the general reaction when most people learn of the price, though some are more vocal about what MS can do with Vista. I wonder if MS is listening to the general consensus...whether they'll rethink their pricing policy in order to sell more units to a greater number of consumers??????? I certainly hope so - it would be a shame to see Vista go the way of ME, not because it's a poor OS, but because it is too over-priced for the average user.

For $751 here in Oz, we can buy a package deal PC with XP Pro installed, which would be highly unlikely with Vista installed, so the average user isn't going to be tempted to into purchasing (just) an OS for an equivelant price. Shoot, we can even pick up a reasonable second-hand car for around 700 - 800 bucks, and being that car prices are often the benchmark on value for money, me thinks Vista won't fare so well here.....even Vista Home Premium will struggle to sell at AU$455, when we can pick up XP Pro Upgrade for AU$120 these days.

I will eventually get Vista, but it'll have to go on hold until much later in 2007 now, as the wife and I are moving from Tasmania to Queensland in February '07.

Island Dog

on Oct 16, 2006

I do agree with you Starkers. I have been running the beta for many months, and I do "like" Vista. It's just hard to justify a $400 price tag.

MagedMedia

on Oct 16, 2006

My voice goes with you too

although Vista is a real move from XP specially in Aero design and the redesign of many Main structures like My Computer .. etc
but $400 will be a very high Price to move From Xp which is satisfying all our needs untill now

Poddytat

on Oct 17, 2006

Perhaps the huge Vista price tag is because Mr Gates has lost touch with what money actually is to the rest of the world. I don't know that someone with that much money can realistically expect to grasp that the vast majority of people who use his products can't afford that much for an OS

starkers

on Oct 17, 2006

Funny you say that, I was thinking very much the same thing....that Bill Gates has lost touch with the real world. I think a part of his mission statement was along the lines of making cost effective computing available to more homes/average users. So what the heck happened to that idea = Vista prices?

For an extra $500 (on top of the AU751), I can get an 2.2Ghz duo core Intel Mac with 2gigs of RAM and 17" monitor, loaded with the Leopard OS and ready to go out of the box. As much as I like Vista, it would be better value for money in the end to just add the 500 bucks and go with the Mac. I was going to get Vista first then a Mac, but now I'm seriously considering going the other way and waiting until Vista has been on the shelves for a while.

It's ironic, isn't it, how MS zealots will say Macs are over priced and catering to an elitist market....compared to the latest version of OS.X (under AU$300), Vista's price tag comes across as being somewhat elitist to me. Suppose we'll just have to wait and see if a new kind of snob is created..."Oh, you're only running XP, I have Vista Ultimate and it's so much better, perhaps I shouldn't be talking with you."

Sosiosh

on Oct 19, 2006

This is ironic; I am buliding system for my niece who goes off to college next fall and I have been deliberating what to include as an OS because I don't want some frat-boy putting her down because she doesn't have vista! I have a feeling if I put vista on there she will end up with an OS full of bugs where Winows XP 64-bit would suffice and allow her the creativity of working with many third party apps. The rest of the system is also top notch. Believe it or not I even found a 'pink' case she wanted.

But all that aside, the price will be the determining factor in this build and vista sounds like it has an incredible price tag. I'd rather buy her a subscription to Stardock and give her an OS allows a lot of customization ability. I am hearing in this discussion the tweaks in vista are simply not worth the money at this time.

I have had a woderful experience with Windows XP 64-bit and at $70.00 for this or a little more for XP Pro (tuth, I found it for that price OEM)I will probably go that route.

LanWarrior

on Oct 19, 2006

If anyone wants me to, I'm an engineer with Dell and have been in MS Vista class for the past couple of weeks, from a design and engineering perspective. We've been testing various programs and I'll update with a complete list what we've found to work and not work.

On the topic of cost factor - I know that Dell and other manufacturers are going to be offering free upgrades for a while, depending on when you purchased your system. I'll post official specs later this weekend.

As far as security, as many have mentioned, most wont work because the kernel has been rewritten as well as the load up sequence. NT loader is no longer needed unless dual booting, and there are many major tools built into the recovery console. FYI - Recovery console was not written by MS, but by the design team of Winternals (sorry, tired and can't remember name of company) so its rock solid - Spent a week crashing and recovering system files. Restore is awesome, as it uses Shadow Copying, which is closer to a Diff backup and can be running constantly.

One note - if you create a dual boot scenario - and use Vista's restore point app, all of your restore points in XP will no longer work - due to the new shadow method.
I'll post technical details shortly - on morphine for my back and I'm about to fall asleep.

Security - One that wasnt listed above that I saw, was CA's Etrust - they have a beta out for Vista and free upgrades for a year.

Nero will not install or work

Were able to get Messenger live to work with no problems. RC2 by the way, has major improvements over RC1 - try it - fixed all my "bangs" and drivers that couldn't work in RC1

One thing to note - I installed 16 toolbars on IE, and then use restore point and it removed all of the toolbars, left the directories, but cleaned it up.

Daemon tools has been working with no problems.

There are many items that will not run with full security, even as an admin, unless right clicking and selecting "run as admin" for added security. The "Run" command is one such option.

You can copy and paste in Repair Tool- which is cool, among other things. Again, have 400 pages of Microsoft articles that were passed out to the L2 team at MS and will share some of the info that I'm allowed to -

Not sure if any of this helped or was interesting, but wanted to give my 10 cents worth - too tired to go into more.

One last note - Had no problems with Divx, Real, or many of the other players. One thing I did find, is even if you install a 3rd party plater, Windows still defaults to their player, even if you set them to be. Havent really tried to find work around, but will post.

Thanks for letting me ramble - WIll post a more detailed and organized document sometime this weekend when I study for my Vista Cert that I have to take by Tues.

Anyone care to know the official release dates and "Pay a fine and sell" release dates? Will see if I can post -

Night All,

MagedMedia

on Oct 20, 2006

Thanks LanWarrior for the valuable additional info and waiting for your post

Biglee1

on Oct 24, 2006

Nero have released an update for Nero which make it fully Vista Compatible. Here's a excerpt from an e-mail i recieved earlier this week.

Nero 7 Premium Reloaded, the fantastic update to Nero’s award-winning, all-in-one digital media solution, includes a variety of new features including a media center for mobile devices, free VoIP telephony, and Blu-ray and HD DVD disc data recording capabilities. What else is new? Nero 7 Premium Reloaded is Windows Vista Ready! Beginning with the October free monthly update available online, Nero 7 Premium Reloaded will be compatible with Windows Vista. Now you can enjoy your favorite Nero applications with the technologies offered by Windows Vista. Not using Nero 7 Premium Reloaded yet? Buy now or upgrade your Nero 6 or earlier version now!

MagedMedia

on Oct 24, 2006

thanks alot Citizen Biglee1 for the great news
i will give it a try and post my test results here

Iamfeathers

on Nov 09, 2006

Even IconPackager is having issues with Vista. I get the following message when I try to download this and some other programs. Note that I am using Vista with IE 7+.
IconPackager has detected that you are using WindowsNT4.0 with Internet Explorer 4.0 Active Desktop installed.

Due to an Internet Explorer bug, this shell will corrupt your icons after processing some updates on NT. We are working around this bug, but for the moment only a limited set of icon chages will be applied on NT4+IE4 systems with this beta of IconPackager. We have tested this beta with the official Internet Explorer 5 release and have not experienced the problem there, so this program will function full on NT4+IE5. Please note that this problem should not occur with Windows 95/98 or Windows 2000.

Okay...so what gives?

Island Dog

on Nov 09, 2006

Even IconPackager is having issues with Vista.

Let's remember Vista is not released to the public yet, so it's still too early to expect programs to run on Vista without problems, or at all.

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