A Technician’s Guide to MS Vista Software/Hardware Compatibility Issues

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What it is:

This is designed to be an informative technical guide for the implementation of Microsoft[1] Windows Vista [2] operating system whether by clean install or upgrading from the approved operating systems. I hope to see an ongoing community collaboration of updated materials as this will greatly simplify research for the average Technician and home user alike by centralizing information into one resource location. This book's Sole intent is to help Technicians plan ahead for the purchase of MS Vista. These are experienced but not necessarily expert opinions on compatibility issues when installing MS Vista. It is primarily up to the readers to research the material in this book and is meant solely for a reference resource only.


What it is NOT:

This guide is not designed to reflect Microsoft's new operating system, Vista, as poorly constructed software as it is mainly up to the software and hardware vendors to provide drivers for the latest OS. That being said, it's primary focus is on incompatible software and hardware that users have experienced during the installation of MS Windows Vista. My experience will be an upgrade from XP Pro to Windows Vista Business.


Contents

[edit] Software Issues

This is the list of known software issues (please provide reference e.g. Vista error screenshots etc.)

[edit]

Example: Software vendor name and version

[edit]

Windows Vista Home:

Alphabetically Listed: hp officejet 7130 will not run on ms vista

[edit]

Windows Vista Home Premium:

Alphabetically Listed:

[edit]

Windows Vista Ultimate:

Alphabetically Listed:

  • Symantec Antivirus Corporate Edition Version 10.1.6: Program installs, but the driver won't load and the application won't run. (10.2 is the earliest version that supports Microsoft Windows Vista)

HP Laserjet 6124 does not have a driver for Vista, but you can substitue the 990c, it will just not always print correctly

[edit]

Windows Vista Business

Alphabetically Listed:


  • AVS free DVD player: simply will not execute after upgrade. Tried uninstalling and reinstalling it but to no avail. No diaglog box just doesn't respond.
  • DivX: will need to be updated to the latest codecs.
  • Outlook Express: Be prepared for Windows Mail for it will replace Outlook Express during install. If you have a Hotmail account that was grandfathered accepted it will no longer function because Windows Mail now completely restricts HTTP email access. The restriction was started several years back but if you had an old Hotmail account it would still let you download email and use it through Outlook Express under the grandfather rule. This isn't the case anymore.
  • SoundBlaster Audigy 2 ZS applications:, had problems installing the drivers and it's very buggy, many features disabled by Vista.
  • Sygate Firewall 5.6 :The Windows Vista Advisory said that Sygate Firewall was incompatible and to uninstall it and try reinstalling after the upgrade. After Vista installation was complete I was unable to successfully install Sygate (older free version).
  • WinDVD 5 :Advisory said WinDVD 5 would not run but after install I was able to play a movie using it.
  • WinDVD 8 :Advisory - Installed trial WINDVD 8 - Does not allow for uninstall in VISTA remove programs?

[edit] Hardware Issues

This is a list of known hardware issues (please provide reference e.g. Vista error screenshots etc.)

[edit]

Example: Card type, Chip type

[edit]

Windows Vista *All Editions:

Alphabetically Listed:

  • Asrock 775VM800 Motherboard AC'97 Sound not functioning or downgraded to 2ch
  • Cisco AIR-CB21AG 802.11a/b/g wireless CardBus adapter is included in the Cisco disclaimer below. However Vista recognizes it (perhaps because of its Atheros chipset?) and it is marginally functional.
  • Cisco AIR-PCM350 802.11b wireless PC card adapter is currently unsupported. Cisco as of July 2007, "Currently, Cisco does not support wireless clients on the Microsoft Vista Operating System."

[edit]

Windows Vista Home:

Alphabetically Listed:

[edit]

Windows Vista Home Premium:

Alphabetically Listed:

[edit]

Windows Vista Ultimate:

Alphabetically Listed:

[edit]

Windows Vista Business

Alphabetically Listed:

Video Cards:

Sound Cards:

  • Audigy 2 ZS: card has been very difficult to run under MS Vista OS. Creative's Vista Beta drivers do not work under Vista and had to do a step-by-step uninstall of beta drivers and re-install of XP drivers but still don't have all the features e.g. EAX 2.0. UPDATE: 05/08/07 Had to uninstall drivers from creative and use the on-board sound card.

[edit] How To's

This is a list of "How To's" for features and functions under Windows Vista.

Disclaimer:
Use these instructions at your own risk. They have not been verified by Microsoft or any other certified expertise on Vista and are the instruction opinions of the editors and do not guarantee OS functionality and stability upon following these instructions. The editors of this book are experienced technicians as well as general OS operators and should be researched and used with caution.

[edit]

Example: Turn Off services


  • Index Service: If you are like me, with 16 drive partitions and needing to conserve on resource usage, you might find the "Windows Search indexing service" a resource hog. I found at least 3 different processes in the task manager that the Windows Search feature had started. These processes were constantly using CPU resources and were topped out at 8% and more depending on the user's activity. I love the speed at which Windows Search finds files but not the level of CPU taxation that I am getting.
  1. Turn off the service: SO I set off to disable the service all together which is just one option to help try and regain resource usage. If you go to "Administration Tools" and then to "Services" and drill down to "Windows Search" you will see that service is set to "automatic" and "started" UPDATE: After reading a FAQ question located on a Microsoft forum I have discovered it is impossible to turn off indexing. Even after disabling it in services upon a reboot the index service automatically re-enabled itself. The only means of cutting back on CPU resource usage is to manually remove extensions from the index properties and remove folders from it's list.That's all I have now until I can find a registry hack.



  3. Disable rarely searched file extensions:
  4. Manually remove a folder ĐĐfrom being indexed:
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