“Certified for Vista” May Not Mean Much
Vista has been out now for 9 months, but it’s still dealing with many software incompatibilities. For example, Photoshop CS2 isn’t compatible. If you have Vista and want to run Photoshop, you’ll have to upgrade to CS3. At $649, that’s a pretty painful price to pay! Going to buy a new printer? If it’s an all in one machine, beware of that “Certified for Vista” label. The machine may print just fine, but it’s fax and OCR software could very well be incompatible with Vista. That’s the story with the Brother MFC-5860CN and other printers as well. The sad facts are that Vista shipped before most software developers and hardware manufacturers had come up with drivers for it, and now, 9 months later many still haven’t released them. With so many devices being replaced quickly by upgraded versions, the industry can’t keep up. It’s the price we pay for our thirst for only the latest and greatest.
I upgraded from Windows ME (yeah I know, I know!) to Vista and fortunately had no problems. All my programs and devices worked perfectly. Unfortunately I appear to be the exception rather than the rule. If you’re one of the many who’ve experienced compatibility problems, you may want to consider going back to XP. If you haven’t upgraded yet but want to, do your homework! Note the manufacturer and model number of all your hardware devices (printer, usb drives, external hard drives, scanners, mp3 players, digital cameras, etc) and software, and check the manufacturers websites to see if they are compatible or have patches available to make them so. Be prepared! Finally, if you need a new computer but don’t want Vista, don’t worry. Several manufacturers, including Dell and HP, offer XP systems.
windows vista, microsoft, photoshop, vista incompatibility
November 7th, 2007 at 8:37 pm
[...] The Parenting Publications of America Association will charge you 50 bucks if you wish to have a listing of their parenting publications who are members….Sounds like great thing to have for us writers, right? Sure…but who wants to spend 50 bucks on it? (not me, thanks, I’m saving for a new printer that works with my Vista). [...]