There are good reasons why applications may need to know what version of Windows they running on. Some things work differently, such as Unicode on Windows 9x vs Windows NT series; some features may need to be enabled or disabled; or at worst the application may need to close because it just does not work … Continue reading The tangled web of Windows Vista versioning and compatibility
This was a major struggle on the pre-release versions of Vista. I’m happy to say it is much easier on the final release, though I haven’t done extensive testing as yet. I ran the install, which seemed to hang until I realised there was a dialog behind the master setup screen which was waiting for … Continue reading Installing Delphi 2006 on Vista
At the official Vista launch yesterday (UK version) Microsoft’s UK Managing Director Gordon Frazer called the launch of Vista, Office 2007 and Exchange 2007 Microsoft’s “biggest launch to business ever,” following up with further extravagances such as “a new era in business computing.” Clearly these launches are exceedingly important to Microsoft, but I doubt they will prove … Continue reading Vista hyperbole and reality – and what happened to the pillars of Longhorn?
MSDN subscribers can now download the final build of Vista, which means it is available to a large number of people outside Microsoft for the first time. If you are one of them, you will have one or maybe two tricky decisions to make. I take it for granted that you will install it, for test … Continue reading Vista is on MSDN. Now for the tricky decisions.
If you go along to the Microsoft Office Developer Center you are currently offered a “Developer Map for the 2007 Microsoft Office System”. It’s described as a poster, but is delivered as an executable. I’m normally suspicious of documents that come as executables, but this is a Microsoft site so I downloaded and ran. You … Continue reading Microsoft’s deeply-ingrained local admin culture
I remain concerned about application compatibility and Vista’s virtualization. Here’s an example. After setting up a Tablet PC with Vista RC2, I installed one of my favourite time-wasters, a game called Jack Bridge; not a major piece of software, but typical of countless existing Windows applications that users will want to install on Vista. Setup seemed to go OK, though … Continue reading Vista application compatibility: it’s not going to be fun
I’ve been trying Vista RC2 on a Toshiba Portege M400. Toshiba describe this as “Vista ready” and provide drivers in various states of beta. Installation was fairly painful, but that’s to be expected at the bleeding edge. I put in a new hard drive for Vista, and immediately hit problems because the installation lacks a … Continue reading Vista on a Tablet
Microsoft says Vista is more secure – but nobody out there will believe it. They “know” that Windows is insecure, and even if Vista really is a secure operating system, it will take a long time to change that perception. How secure is Vista? Nobody knows as yet; though I don’t doubt that enormous effort … Continue reading Vista security: now prove it