The Latest and Greatest

Internet Explorer 7.0

Internet Explorer 6.0 is old enough to be in school, and the Mozilla Foundation's open source Firefox browser took a small but noticeable share of Internet Explorer's monopoly. Firefox's tabbed browsing, improved security, and other advances were well received and finally matched by Internet Explorer 7.0, but upgrading immediately might not be in everyone's best interest, despite what Microsoft would have us believe. Every web site in the world has been checked out on Internet Explorer 6.0, and even though 7.0 was available for a long testing period, many web sites still are not rendered correctly by IE 7.0. For example, even though their home page says “Yahoo! recommends upgrading to the NEW, safer Internet Explorer 7”, their mail reader does not work properly on IE 7.0. There are others.

Internet Explorer 7.0 can be installed only on Windows XP with Service Pack 2 and Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 1. It can not be installed on those operating systems if they do not have the latest service packs, and it can not be installed at all on Windows 2000 or any earlier versions. IE 7.0 is a component of Windows Vista, with no option for Vista to run IE 6.0. Make sure every web site you need works correctly with IE 7.0 before you commit to it.

If Automatic Updates installed it for you as a High Priority update and you discover it has problems with your web sites, you can uninstall it from Add/Remove Programs on the Control Panel and reboot. To finish the job, go to http://update.microsoft.com/, hit the Custom button, wait a few minutes for it to scan your system, uncheck Windows Internet Explorer 7.0 for Windows XP in the High Priority section, and when it expands, check the Don't show this update again box. When you are ready for it, you can go back to http://update.microsoft.com/, hit Restore hidden updates under Options, and select it.

Windows Vista

Microsoft finally released Windows Vista, the successor to Windows XP, to large corporate customers late 2006 and to the general public late January 2007. There is a lot to like about Vista, but it requires a gaming class video adapter, at least a full gigabyte of memory, and a fast CPU. Unfortunately, graphics and other drivers still have problems, and many programs do not run on Vista.

Most new PCs sold in retail stores are now supplied with Vista, but business class computers are still available with Windows XP from CDW and other major distributors, and from HP's and Dell's web sites. Upgrading from Windows 2000 or XP to Vista often encounters problems with insufficient hardware or unavailable drivers.

Display Drivers – Still Bug-Ridden

Windows Vista's Aero Glass interface impresses many, but it requires a gaming class display adapter, with hardware shading and preferably 256MB of video RAM, and a DirectX 9 WDDM driver. The least expensive upgrades from the two major vendors are:

• nVidia GeForce 6200 – This has the advantage of pixel and vertex shading V3.0. Many different board manufacturers offer 6200-based products, some better than others, so check the board manufacturer's reputation before buying. We found a 6200 display adapter with 256MB by PNY at Tiger Direct for $40, probably the best value for Aero Glass.
• ATI RADEON 9500 – ATI's entry level Vista display adapter supports the less powerful pixel and vertex shading V2.0, but it is a worthy competitor. Some older charts listed the 9250, but at the time of this writing the 9500 is the minimum.

These are the minimum to support the Aero Glass interface. If Vista sees a less capable display adapter, it reverts to the familiar Windows XP interface. Recent motherboards support the more powerful PCI Express bus, rather than the older AGP, for graphics. If you upgrade an existing machine, make sure your card matches your motherboard's backplane.

Both vendors have driver issues, and both are working to address those problems, but for now, there are problems with Vista graphics drivers. Adrian Kingsley-Hughes' blog entry describes problems with ATI drivers, and Ed Bott blogged worse about nVidia. Many columnists and bloggers predicted it would be a year past Vista's release before graphics drivers had their bugs worked out. We hope it will not be longer.

Other Drivers – Not There Yet, Either

Video drivers, being the most complicated, get the most attention, but other drivers also must be supported. Run Microsoft's Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor on your PC to see which of your devices have Vista drivers and which will not work on Vista. If, for example, it tells you your scanner will not work on Vista, believe it. For incompatible equipment, check the vendor's web site for Vista plans. They should say when Vista-compatible drivers will be available, or that the device will never be supported on Vista. Jay Garman's blog entry shows Vista can even have trouble with a mouse!

Editions

Microsoft thought it would be a good idea to create enough different subsets, called Editions, of Vista that most people would have no clue which one to buy. Home Basic is at the bottom of the heap. It's the lowest priced, but does not support the new Aero user interface or lots of other desirable features; it's pretty much Windows XP with enhanced security but runs slower. Click here for Microsoft's latest "Choose an Edition" page.

And you get a choice of 32- or 64-bit versions. 64-bit hardware, which includes most newer systems, can run 32-bit Windows just like 32-bit hardware, or it can run 64-bit versions of Windows, which allow more than 4GB of main memory and can run some applications faster than 32-bit systems. Unfortunately, few applications have been recompiled for 64-bit Windows.

Many 32-bit applications run reasonably well on 64-bit Windows, but some do not, which creates a lot of confusion. 32-bit device drivers, on the other hand, can not run on a 64-bit system, and of the devices that have 64-bit drivers, some do not work. Even if you have 64-bit hardware, run 32-bit Windows on it unless you know all of your drivers work.

Advice from those who have been there

For details on how to upgrade, Adrian Kingsley-Hughes has a good blog entry. Read it here.

Nine well-respected columnists each offer a bit of advice in this article.

Check your upgrade eligibility

Microsoft provides an upgrade advisor that will tell you how well your current computer will do with Vista in minimum, normal, and high performance configurations. Download here and run it.

Upgrade license problems

Various unpleasantries have been discovered while using the upgrade DVDs and reported in various blogs and magazines. We will post Microsoft articles on the subject right here as soon as we find them.

Internet Explorer 7.0

Vista only runs Internet Explorer 7.0, which as mentioned above can not render some web sites correctly. If you need a web site that requires Internet Explorer 6.0, it will not work properly with Vista.

Software

In general, the Windows 2000 to Windows XP to Windows Vista programming model has gained in power and sophistication, while reliably running code written for earlier operating systems. Although most software written for Windows 2000 or Windows XP will run on Windows Vista, some software is not supported on Vista because the vendor has not completed testing, and some software can not run on Vista.

For example, QuickBooks 2006 and earlier will not run on Vista, and Intuit has announced that they never will. Some in the press and blogosphere have condemned Microsoft for breaking established programs, but this is strictly Intuit's fault. QuickBooks was written for Windows 95/98, which was a pretty face on the old and very insecure DOS operating system. Windows 2000 was the fourth release of the Windows NT kernel, which has a far better security model, and supports much safer programming than Windows 95/98. Intuit should have supported that security model back in 2000, but Windows 2000 and later Windows XP both forgave programs that used the old Windows 95/98 security model and allowed them to run. Seven years later, in order to improve resistance against viruses, spyware, and other evilware, Windows Vista no longer allows any program that still insists on Windows 95/98 insecurity, such as QuickBooks. We cite QuickBooks because its vendor is a $2+ billion corporation growing at 15% annually and for seven years has been too cheap to pay programmers to make a minor change in their software to correct a serious security flaw. They finally fixed it, but only for customers who pay for QuickBooks 2007, one of the more egregious examples of customer-can-drop-dead arrogance.

Other software that has never been rewritten to correct insecurity flaws dating back to Windows 95/98 days will also be blocked by Windows Vista, as well it should in the face of ever more sophisticated criminals attacking thousands of computers at a time. In short, check with the vendors of all of the software necessary for your business before you commit to Vista. On the other hand, software that was correctly written for Windows 2000 or XP should work. Check Microsoft's Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor and vendors' web sites for information about the programs needed to run your business.