As I assumed, some of the major PC manufacturers have begun to ship their Windows XP PCs with upgrade certificates to the new and upcoming Windows Vista for use next year. They had to do this, because otherwise there would be a serious impact on PC sales in the fourth quarter of this year and the first of next. If you knew Vista was coming, why would you buy a new PC now with Windows XP and then have to pay an upgrade price later?
Well, actually there are probably valid reasons for not considering Windows Vista right now. From what I have seen thus far, there are lots of software titles that is not yet Vista compatible. This is probably especially true in the custom software packages that businesses use, such as medical office software. You can start to check this out with the "Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor" that you can obtain from www.micrsoft.com\vista - click on Get Ready and then download the software. When I ran it recently there were a number of my programs that wouldn't run without updating.
So if you are a home user with no commitments, you might consider being an early adopter of Vista, but I would not yet recommended it for businesses.
If you do purchase a PC now, make sure you get an upgrade certificate, but check the fine print. There are six (count 'em!) versions of Vista and your upgrade may not be for the version you might want. Also, some PC vendors are charging a fee for these future upgrades - they are not free. More details on Vista as it rolls out.
On another front, I am starting to see the first skirmishes of the Spyware Software Wars. What is this all about? Many software manufacturers, including Microsoft, never saw the need to develop anti-virus software. Even those that did (Symantec, McAfee, etc.) at first only concentrated on malware that was strictly defined as viruses, and ignored other spyware threats. Other software such as Adaware and Spybot emerged to fill that gap.
But it was obvious that what was needed was one solution, one tool. Each of the vendors is now gearing up to be that provider, whether in traditional software or using a web-based tool. But did they have to get nasty about it?
The first skirmish I ran across was when installing the latest Norton Internet Security 2007. Symantec has been very vocal of late about issues with Microsoft Vista, along the lines that security implementations in Vista prevented Norton from doing its job. Microsoft is obviously going after Symantec's business by including spyware detection and possibly anti-virus in Vista.
I installed my first copies of NIS 2007 at one of my clients last week. Right at the start of the installation, NIS searched for and listed other spyware detection programs on the PCs - specifically Spybot and Windows Defender (from Microsoft). A popup said that these programs were incompatible with NIS 2007 and needed to be uninstalled first. I did not do this at first, and overrode the objections of the installer program. NIS 2007 installed OK on one PC, but not on the other. I had to uninstall Spybot and Windows Defender on that one PC to allow the installation to work.
But Microsoft is firing back. The Vista upgrade advisor indicated that my version of NIS (2006) would not run on Vista. This may be entirely valid, but it seemed that Microsoft might be making a case here.
No bottom line yet, but just be careful when picking your anti-malware solution in the future and make sure that it is compatible with Vista if you are going to upgrade to it.
(Bob Seidel is a local computer consultant in the Southport - Oak Island area. You can visit his Website at www.bobseidel.com or e-mail questions or column ideas to him at bsc@bobseidel.com. For specific inquiries, please call Bob Seidel Consulting, LLC at 278-1007.)