As the launch for Microsoft Vista has finally arrived for home users, it seemed like a good idea to publish a list of programs tested on Windows Vista and report on what worked and what did not. Many of the programs are those listed in the top 20 of Download.com's most popular downloads so this should hopefully be useful to the greatest amount of people. Should you have any other software to include in this list, please add a comment and I will be happy to include it.
What worked:
Yahoo Messenger
SmartFTP
SnagIt 7
Office 2007 Professional
Adobe Illustrator 10
Microsoft Money 2007
ITunes
Macromedia Studio
BitComet 0.80
Limewire 4.12.6
AdAware SE 1.0.6.0
Spyware Doctor (slow to launch)
ICQ 5.1
IrfanView 3.99
BitTorrent 5.0.4
Adobe Photoshop 7
Morpheus 5.3.2.1062
BearFlix 1.1.6.1
WinZip 11
CamFrog Video Chat
Adobe Acrobat 7 (but Acrobat 8 would consistently not install due to "permission issues" that Adobe 7 did not have a problem with)
Software Components that worked:
Adobe Flash Player 9 ActiveX
J2SE Runtime Environment 5.0 Update 8
What eventually worked:
Firefox* (needed more than 1 install attempt)
What didn't work:
Nero 6 Burning ROM
Jury is still out:
Webroot Spy Sweeper (download version does not work on Vista but web site says they will release Vista-ready software when Vista releases to consumers in late January 2007)
Registry Mechanic (Installed and launched fine but didn't seem to recognize a lot of file types and values as being normal. Does it not recognize the changes in Vista?)
Make the counterintuitive intuitive.
Microsoft Vista
- 8 Steps to Ease Your Transition to Vista
- Associating File Types
- Complex Searching in Windows Explorer
- Connecting to a Secured Wireless Network
- Creating a Complete Backup with Wbadmin
- Creating Custom Search Providers in IE7
- Data Execution Prevention
- Deleting or Changing Profiles
- Entering the Activation Key
- Joining a Domain
- Make User Account Control (UAC) More Tolerable
- Minimum Hardware Requirements for Installation
- Restoring a Complete PC Backup
- Turning Off User Account Controls
- Video Tips and Tricks
- Where are the Drop Down Menus in Windows Explorer?
- Where's the Windows Vista Aero Theme?
- Windows Experience Index
- Windows Vista Application Compatibility Update
Other Great Resources
- 25+ Vista deployment tricks
- Extending The Windows Vista Grace Period to 120 Days
- How to Install a Vista Upgrade on a Blank Hard Drive
- Select Files using Check Boxes in Windows Vista
- Use Windows Easy Transfer Companion to transfer programs from Windows XP to Windows Vista
- Using Vista BitLocker under Virtual PC / Virtual Server