Our view on Vista & Office 2007? Wait.

New Microsoft offerings not ready for prime time in the BSD.

April 2007

Microsoft has released the latest version of its Windows operating system and office suite, and each is radically different from its predecessors. BSDIS strongly urges customers not to upgrade their software at this time.

Office 2007

By default, Office 2007 saves files in a format that is incompatible with earlier versions of Office for Windows and Mac. For example, while all previous versions of Word for Windows saved documents with a ".doc" extension, Word 2007 uses the ".docx" extension.

Anyone using Office 2007 needs to save files in the older format in order to share them with people not using Office 2007. Microsft has released a special "compatibility tool" for computers running earlier versions of Office, but this must be installed on the computer prior to attempting to open Office 2007 files.

Office 2007 also has a radically different user interface that takes some getting used to; common features are sometimes hard to find or are in different places than previous releases.

Windows Vista

New versions of Windows have always posed a challenge for those wishing to make the switch; hardware and software often aren't compatible out of the gate. The release of Vista takes this to new levels, however (see below). Due to compatibility concerns, BSDIS customers are strongly urged not to upgrade to Vista at this time, as we can not yet support it in the BSD environment.

All in all, compatibility will be on a case by case, vendor by vendor, or model by model basis. Please call us at 2-2056 with your compatibility questions and concerns so we may either consult with your schedule a technician visit.

Software compatibility

The bottom line: Critical BSD applications are not yet certified to work on Vista.

Vista is not certified to work with applications such as Oacis, Epic, VPN, Stentor, Gargoyle, and several CD/DVD burning programs.

Business Objects, FAS, and Hummingbird have had some success in testing, but further testing is required.

McAfee Antivirus version 8.5 is Vista-compatible.

Many departments use custom-built applications, and it is not confirmed whether these will work with Vista or not.

Hardware compatibility

The bottom line: Vista requires the latest & greatest (and therefore more costly) hardware to run properly.

Computers: To run properly, Vista requires machines with top of the line components, which in most cases will mean buying a brand new computer. Our recommended specifications include:

Processor/CPU - Machines need a lot of processing power to handle Vista, namely a dual core processor (Core 2 Duo); available with newer PCs
Hard drive - Vista itself takes up a lot of space, so your hard drive should be at least 120GB. It also needs to perform faster than most drives, so speed is also important (7200 RPM minimum).
Video card - Vista's interface is much more intensive than past versions (completely 3D), so a superior video card is a must (256MB).

Printers: Most departmental computers should work fine with Vista, but some "personal" printers that people use at home may be incompatible.

Other hardware: A lot of older hardware will simply not work with Vista (i.e. scanners that are a few years old). If you buy a Vista computer, you may have to buy newer peripherals (scanners, external drives, etc.) to go with it.

Buying a new computer?

The bottom line: consult with us before you buy.

New computers purchased through the Campus Computer Store (CCS) are still shipping with Windows XP. This could change in the near future, however, so please contact us before buying to ensure that all your necessary software/hardware will work, and that we will be able to support your machine.

CBIS Home

If you have software you need to run for your lab and are concerned about future compatibility with Vista, please contact us and provide us with: