Upgrading

No Clean Installs with Vista Upgrade

January 29, 2007 By terry Leave a Comment

George Ou at ZDNet reports, based on an Arstechnica article, that Windows Vista Upgrade Edition will not permit “clean installs.”

For years, just to make sure we have completely clean installations, we have been able to boot an upgrade CD, insert our valid previous Windows CD to validate it, and then install Windows (95, 98, 2000, Me, XP) in a partition of our choice.

No longer. Now, we have to install Windows XP or Windows 2000 first — then upgrade it to Vista. He also reports that there is one workaround — if you tell Vista to wipe the hard drive after validating an existing Windows XP installation, it will install as a clean copy.

Got a new hard drive? You’ll have to install XP first. Then, you can upgrade it to Vista.

What brain-dead, clueless idiot thought up this?

Filed Under: Compatibility, Marketing Blunders, Upgrading, Upgrading to Vista

Quickbooks Incompatibility with Windows Vista

January 28, 2007 By terry Leave a Comment

ZDNet has an interesting article by David Berlind about Intuit’s Quickbooks and its incompatibility with Windows Vista.

More interesting is George Ou’s article, quoted and linked from there, that puts the problem squarely on Intuit — who apparently decided long ago not to make the application capable of getting certified for Windows XP. Unfortunately, those same things that were “no-no’s” in Windows XP are now blocked in Windows Vista. Seems like Intuit was sending communications to other applications via the Windows Registry…

Filed Under: Application Incompatibility, Compatibility, Data Security, Upgrading, Upgrading to Vista

Long list of Vista bugs that will keep me off Vista

January 9, 2007 By terry Leave a Comment

George Ou has a great article on Windows Vista bugs at Tech Republic (www.techrepublic.com).

Check out his Long list of Vista bugs that will keep me off Vista

Filed Under: Bugs, Compatibility, Design Blunders, RC1, Upgrading, Upgrading to Vista

Vista Impacts on the Corporate World

November 12, 2006 By terry Leave a Comment

Excellent observation on the corporate impacts of Vista in 3 Reasons Why Corporations Are Going To Hate Windows Vista

The first two were obvious to anyone who has ever been in a corporate environment (but, apparently that excludes Microsoft Corp.).

The third observation, though, is the hidden problem. I noticed it when I saw a demo and then promptly forgot about it. But, most users are lost without the Start button.

Filed Under: Admin Control, Compatibility, Data Security, Group Controls, Upgrading, Upgrading to Vista, User Interface

Microsoft changes Vista license terms

November 3, 2006 By terry Leave a Comment

ZDNet columnist Ed Bott reports that Microsoft has changed its planned EULA for Windows Vista retail purchases (not OEM copies) to allow transfer to other machines for your own use. Of course, you have to remove the copy from your old computer — you don’t get to use it on multiple machines.

Good move, Microsoft.

This goes to show the power of blogging…

Filed Under: Marketing Blunders, Requirements, Upgrading, Upgrading to Vista, User Interface