Windows Vista

Windows Vista Desktop ScreenshotMicrosoft has released the newest member of the Windows family. The new operating system, named Windows Vista is the eventual replacement to Windows XP. Information Technology staff members in the college have been testing the Vista Business and Enterprise editions for several months. Until such time as we determine that the new Vista operating system includes all the improvements that are typically made to new releases,  new computers will be purchased with Vista licenses but we will re-install Windows XP before distributing them.  Vista licenses are part of a new machine purchase and will ensure that we have the proper Vista license to upgrade these computers when we determine that it is safe to do so.

 

 

 

 

 

 

ITLA Recommendations

Liberal Arts' IT department has been testing Vista (Business) edition for several months.  Our current recommendation is to not install Vista within the College.  However, we do recommend purchasing new computers with Vista licenses.  After receiving the new computers, we will re-install Windows XP.  The Vista license purchased with the machine makes the machine backwards compatible with an XP license, and therefore, allows us to install XP on that machine.  In the future, when we decide to move to Vista, we will already have the licenses to do so, and will reload Vista at that time.  Below is a list of software that is still not fully compatible with Vista..

      Cisco VPN Client   Disconnects after 30 minutes.
      Adobe Acrobat Professional 8.0 does have some issues.  An update from Adobe is slated for later this month.
      SPSS    Version 15 is the only version that is officially supported for Vista but must be patched in a 2 step process.
      Eprime - not compatible
      SAS 9.1.3 and earlier - not compatible
      FIT Tool

Our recommendation is to follow the University s plan of rollout next summer.  Vista service pack 1 is due out the end 2007 and should have enhancements to correct these issues.