Vista and the missing compatible Software
Checking the Logitech website for a driver for my beloved MX310 mouse … nowhere to be found! Not even a working 32bit driver! Not even a word mentioned about a future driver release! How about sound? I check M-Audio’s website to get a driver for my Delta Audiophile; Their 32bit WinXP driver doesn’t install while their 64bit Beta driver installs but Vista gives me an error afterwards that it wont accept unsigned drivers! There’s a ton of other Peripherals that I’m using for which I’m sure no compatible drivers are available so I don’t even bother searching for them now.
How about applications? Flash runs fine, though it’s tool windows look a bit odd with thin borders/corners around it. Photoshop runs smooth as if it never did anything else while ImageReady’s tool palettes seem to be not style conform anymore. Illustrator then goes completely bonkers with Molasses style window-dragging and tool palettes that sometimes have round corners and sometimes not. At least Eclipse runs fine! Well, on 32bit that is! On 64bit it will spit out an error about an incompatible DLL.
That said my Vista Experience went a bit limiting so far! Dynamic Font Management is a foreign word for Microsoft too! It seems nothing has changed about how Fonts are handled! They are either installed or not. I guess I hang a little longer with MainType! Let’s hope other companies aren’t sleeping and have drivers ready until release, even if they don’t loose one word about it. It would suck otherwise!
38 Responses to “Vista and the missing compatible Software”
By Mark McDonnell
on Nov 17, 2006 | Reply
I also have Windows Vista RC1 but it doesnt have any compatible sound drivers?
Does anyone know the procedure for getting sound to work?
I’m not sure what my soundcard is so I dont know what vendor to go to to try and find a compatible driver.
By sascha
on Nov 17, 2006 | Reply
Mark, it’s better to know what kind of Soundcard you have installed before trying to find drivers. Maybe some System Info tool can spit out some info on what Hardware you have installed. Last Ditch would be to open the PC case and take a look at the card to find out what it is.
By Mark McDonnell
on Nov 17, 2006 | Reply
Hi Sascha,
Thanks for the quick reply, do you happen to know if any ’system info tools’ that could be downloaded for me to use.
Thanks again Sascha.
Kind regards,
Mark
By sascha
on Nov 17, 2006 | Reply
Hummm, maybe check this site … http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/System-Info/ … something like Sisoft Sandra or Dr. Hardware should help (though they are commercial). But there are many other diagnostics tools too.
By Mads
on Nov 21, 2006 | Reply
Have any of you noticed any oddities when running Flash 8 Professional on Vista RTM? If I double-click an object to edit it, it takes forever for the zoom-in effect (the dotted bounding box) to finish. Probably around 3-4 seconds. Makes it a PITA to do anything in Flash. I’ve upgraded my display driver to the latest nVidia nForce drivers to no avail.
The funny thing is, everything else runs speedily. Only the “zoom-in-to-edit-in-place”-effect kills the experience.
By sascha
on Nov 21, 2006 | Reply
You’re right Mads! I’ve just checked it and it opens up like Molasses! Must be an incompatibility with the UI that Adobe used for Flash/Fireworks/Dreamweaver. I haven’t tested the later two yet.
By Mads
on Nov 21, 2006 | Reply
I’ve emailed Mike Chambers from Adobe - let’s see what/if he replies…
By Mads
on Nov 22, 2006 | Reply
Got a reply from Mike Downey. He has forwarded my mail to the Flash Q&A team to make sure it’s addressed in the next release. Doesn’t help the poor suckers (like me) who upgrade to Vista before Flash 9 i released, unfortunately.
By Mads
on Nov 22, 2006 | Reply
The above should read “Flash 9 IS released” of course…
By sascha
on Nov 22, 2006 | Reply
Thanks for the info Mads! Adobe (and other companies) have to deal with making several other Applications Vista-conform anyway (like above mentioned Illustrator and ImageReady for example).
I will probably have to stay with WinXP (at least keep a partition with it) until such incompabilities aren’t fix and especially as long as several drivers are not available.
By Dorin
on Nov 29, 2006 | Reply
To fix Flash Professional problem just change your default windows vista to classic theme and will work
By Mads
on Nov 29, 2006 | Reply
Dorin - you’re right! Thanks a lot! Guess I’ll have to switch themes now when I work in Flash. No way I’ll be staying with the old classic theme when Flash isn’t running
By sascha
on Nov 29, 2006 | Reply
I only switch to the classic theme if somebody hold a pistol to my head!
By matt
on Dec 2, 2006 | Reply
Guys, you don’t have to change the Vista theme. Just set the flash 8 .exe file to compatibility mode for Windows XP SP2. Then the zoom-in effect should work…
The only thing is that Vista’s Aero UI will not work with the current version of Flash. In Flash 9 pre-release it works, but not Flash 8. Vista will temporarily change over to Aero Basic (or whatever), without the transparency effects. When you close Flash, it will change back.
By James
on Dec 2, 2006 | Reply
I’m getting the same zoom problem with Flash 8. I’ve tried compatibility mode, disabling visual effects, etc. I’d rather not have to switch themes every time I use flash. Anyone else found a way round it?
By Mads
on Dec 3, 2006 | Reply
matt, compatibility mode works like a charm! Excellent - thanks for the tip. Let’s hope this thread floats to the top of Google for anyone else having this problem.
By Grim
on Dec 17, 2006 | Reply
Vista Build 6000 (RTM) is so much better, especially Ultimate, they fixed many compatibility problems as well as sped it up
By sascha
on Dec 17, 2006 | Reply
I agree Grim. But still Logitech, M-Audio and probably a dozen other hardware manufacturers haven’t given any lifesign about compatible drivers releases, not even beta drivers. Just makes me wondering!
By Pandan
on Jan 10, 2007 | Reply
I installed vista today. And I also have the problem with the zoom effect when editing objects.
It hangs for several seconds.
What supprised me is that I can’t find any information from either Adobe or Microsoft about this bug.
So now I have use disable desktop composition when running flash.exe.
As a flash developer this means that I always have to use “disable desktop composition” . It sucks
By sascha
on Jan 10, 2007 | Reply
Yes there is a solution: Don’t use Vista!
Honestly don’t expect any feedback from Microsoft when software from their opponents doesn’t run on their OS.
By Mike
on Jan 27, 2007 | Reply
For Vista I would recommend a Vista capable machine. i.e. A new purchase. Sound drivers are a nuisance but in my case it was Realtek HD Drivers that Realtek said “Worked” when they in fact did not. 3 updates later it’s all OK but this was on a Vista Capable Laptop.
Along with Vista goes MS Office 2007. THINK there are compatibility problems (BIG Ones) with 2007 and Office XP. I would let the dust settle and certainly make no business decisions on either upgrade path yet. If you are geeky Vista is interesting. Please don’t tell me you want to upgrade because of the colour scheme though! Windows XP will allow all sorts of mods to it’s front end look. So that should not be a factor in your decision making.
An off the cuff point. Vista Ultimate, I am not a fan of media centre, the hijacking nature of all media programs gets me down. You put some tunes off your CD’s onto the Comp and before you know it they are “Protected” So you cannot now tranfer them to your mp3 player unless it’s a Zune or an iPod. Naff! DRM should be DMM Driving Me Mad!
By James
on Feb 7, 2007 | Reply
I think we sould wait for Adobe CS3 and Studio 9… I hate the awful look of windows clasic, but is the only way I get Flash Professional to work “ok”.
By Jason
on Feb 8, 2007 | Reply
Thanks for the tip for compatability mode! a lot
By Dan
on Feb 9, 2007 | Reply
James, Flash 8 runs perfect on Vista Enterprise, WITH the Aero theme. Also PhotoPaint X3 and Corel Draw X3 and any other graph design app I’m tryin` tyo use. My HUGE problem is with m-audio and their stinky drivers… how come they only released for XP and not even a beta for Vista? Geeeez, that’s a very nasty thing to do to leave their customers without the right to use the products they purchased. I have a M-Audio Delta Audiophile 2496 and I managed to install the XP drivers in Vista, but they don’t spit any sound and if try to use them it gives me an error like they’re in use or invalid. Does anyone know or presumes how to solve this compatibility issue? I also tried to load the drivers in XP Compatibility Mode but… no luck. Thanks in advance for your help. Cheers mates.
By sascha
on Feb 9, 2007 | Reply
Dan I know your problem too well! I have the same soundcard (which is a very good one btw). I don’t think you will be able to get XP drivers working under Vista. We simply have to wait until they (or MS) release the correct drivers. The same goes for Logitech but they already made clear in their forums that there probably will be no Mouseware for Vista.
By Mike
on Feb 11, 2007 | Reply
On Vista I eventually got my Realtek audio drivers working. However on some DVD’s the sound would disappear although superficially the sound system appeared OK. (Signal strength meter etc working.) I then find right clicking the sound icon bottom right of screen gives me differing hardware options to choose from and default selection options. Invariably a combination of these works! What I do not understand is why it is not automated as it was under XP.
By ViSTA STYLe
on Feb 12, 2007 | Reply
Viasta is the best my computer rating is 19.7 and flash works like a charm wit no problems what so ever
my specs are:
windows vista ultamate
8GB ram
2GB vidieo card ati x1950 crossfire (2 video cards hooked together)
2 terribytes hdd (hard drive 2048GB
Intal Extreame Quad processor (4 cores)
Liquid Nitrogen Gel Cooling (My PC NEVER GETS HOT)
17 in 1 card reader firewire and all the other stuff
suround sound speakers
24 bit high definition sound card
This PC costad $23579 !!
By Dan
on Feb 13, 2007 | Reply
ViSTA STYLe, Nice pc… hope you’ll buy it sometime in the far far far future. Anyhow, if we started talkin` ’bout the systems… I have an Intel Xeon 3.20 GHz, 2×512 DDR, Intel MB, Seagate Barracuda 120 GB 10200 rpm, ATi Radeon 9600 Pro 120 MB, Thermaltake Soprano case, LG DVD-RAM, ASUS TV-FM and so on… anyway, let’s cut the crap and do some business… Sascha, the M-Audio Delta Audiophile 2496 is a very powerfull soundcard, high quality in/out and so on.. but the HUGE problem is that M-Audio takes so long to develop teh new drivers. btw, what happend to Logitech and how come they don’t release some mouse drivers Vista compatible? This is stupidity and at the same time a restriction for the consumer from them to use XP or some other crappy OS. Even if MS Win sucks BIG time with it’s backdoors and security holes, lookin` at the graphics, they hit the jackpot for us, the ones blessed by their pc’s
Cheers mates and have a bite of reality.
By sascha
on Feb 13, 2007 | Reply
@ViSTA STYLe and what do you do with your super computer? I hope it’s more than ‘just playing Solitaire”!
The high rating comes mainly from your large amount of RAM and the quad cpu.
Even a value of 5 is a very good Vista ranking for a PC!
Dan, M-Audio is indeed slow with drivers but then again I have no experience with other Pro-Audio makers. The Logitech situation is a debacle! They seems to have become ridiculous! I can only hope they change their mind about providing Legacy drivers!
There are several points that keep me back from using Vista:
- Missing Drivers (Mouse, Sound),
- No OpenGL (yet)
- No compatible third party Firewall (or lets say since I’m using Zonealarm, it is not compatible yet).
My Hardware is rather up-to-date so if these things were fixed I’d switch in a second simply because Vista is more stable and secure than XP (although I’m sure there is still much room for improvement) and IMHO Vista’s look and feel is quite nice.
By Rob
on Feb 28, 2007 | Reply
hey dan. i hate that m-audio takes forever with drivers. have you tried contacting them? i am also in the same situation as you. that soundcard is awesome btw.
By viktor
on Feb 28, 2007 | Reply
Right click on the shortcut to Flash, select Properties > compatibility: check “Disable desktop composition”.
This solves the Flash zoom problem on Vista Ultimate for me.
By Dan
on Mar 7, 2007 | Reply
viktor.. tried that… didn’t work out… Vista style.. u’re so full of shit… the score in vista is up to 10 points… so cut the crap and lie to someone who buys your stuff.
By Rudy
on Mar 11, 2007 | Reply
End of the month starts the Frankfurter musicmesse. I think m-audio can’t show up without vista compatible stuff don’t you think ?
By sascha
on Mar 17, 2007 | Reply
Tayga don’t misunderstand! In my opinion the Audiophile is an excellent and inexpensive Pro card. I have 6ms latency when using audio applications with that card and I don’t like to replace that card with any other in near future. So M-Audio should come up with drivers soon or they are banned forever!
By Will
on Apr 11, 2007 | Reply
Hey, would anyone be able to tell me if Flash MX 2004, Dreamweaver MX 2004 and Fireworks MX 2004 are compatible with Windows Vista. I’m thinking about upgrading but as a web developer these tools are essential and set me back quite a bit.
By sascha
on Apr 12, 2007 | Reply
Will, they are compatible with Vista. There is just a small issue in Flash when clicking in/out of movieclips. Thats an incompability that other apps have too (Eclipse and Photoshop CS2 have similar glitches). However switching to compability mode helps and lets not forget that CS3 is soon to be released.
By Will
on Apr 12, 2007 | Reply
Thanks Sascha, one last thing would I need the Windows XP Installation Disc to upgrade to Vista Premium? If anyone knows any help would be appreciated.
By Jess
on Aug 1, 2008 | Reply
Eeer hi i have vista home basic and i wanna play maple story but then ic ant find the compatibilty tab on prperties or anything like that but on other thing everything is going great