Vista In The News: Incompatibility Issues

Windows Vista has been released to the public for only a few weeks, and as expected, a number of credible sources are reporting that there are numerous issues with the new operating system.

Vista and iPod

The San Jose Mercury News as well as numerous other sources state that Apple is recommending to users that they wait to upgrade to Vista.

The reason: the digital music software has some compatibility issues. Among the known issues, songs purchased from the iTunes music store may not play, contacts and calendar entries won't sync to customers' iPods, and customers could corrupt their iPod unless they eject it from Windows using iTunes.

Microsoft is working with Apple in an attempt to rectify the situation and plans to release an updated version of iTunes in the next few weeks.

Vista Upgrade Loophole

Vnunet.com has stated that Microsoft has no intention of closing a loophole that offers consumers a cheaper way to upgrade to the new operating system.

An unnamed Microsoft spokesman told vnunet that "people without a licensed copy of XP that use this workaround are violating the terms of use agreed to when they purchased the upgrade version of Windows Vista."

Extending the Vista Activation Grace Period

DailyTech.com has reported a way to extend the Vista Activation grace period to 120 days instead of 30. All you need to do is log into Windows Vista with administrator rights, open the command prompt and type in slmgr –rearm. After you restart the computer, this command resets the licensing status of the machine.

ZDNet has reported outbound connectivity issues with the new Vista firewall. Most firewalls only allow outbound connections when the user allows them. With the Vista firewall, all outbound connections are allowed until a user blocks them. It seems finding and changing the settings on the "new and improved" firewall is proving a little difficult, even for more advanced users.

Vista and Nvidia: Incompatible, For The Most Part

APC Magazine claims that NVidia users are threatening a class action lawsuit over the lack of Vista compatible drivers for the video cards. Users have set up a website to collect information about the grievances of the graphic card users. Nvidia has been marketing many of its graphic cards as being "Vista ready" for months.

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