Microsoft Windows Vista

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Information about Microsoft Windows Vista

KU Information Technology (IT) recommends campus users continue using Windows XP at this time.

KU Information Technology (IT) staff have been evaluating Windows Vista and are recommending that campus users continue to use Windows XP and wait to upgrade to the Windows Vista operating system. Reasons for this recommendation include both hardware requirements and software compatibility issues. Many software programs have not yet been updated to run on Vista, including some programs that are used on campus. Also, many of the drivers necessary to use additional hardware such as printers and scanners are not yet Vista compatible. A few of the potential challenges associated with using this new operating system are detailed below.

Hardware requirements

Hardware requirements for running Windows Vista are much higher than previous versions of Windows, and the advertised minimum requirements for this operating system have been shown to produce less than satisfactory results. Here are the requirements from Microsoft:

• Minimum requirements - 800 Mhz processor and 512 MB of system memory
• Optimal requirements - 1Ghz processor and 1GB of system memory

LAN Support Services (LSS) customers: Computers supported by LSS will not be upgraded to Windows Vista. All new machines purchased with Vista installed will be rolled back to Windows XP until LSS is prepared to fully support this new operating system.

Software compatibility

• Many software packages do not yet run with Vista. A few of these include SPSS, SAS and AutoCad. Other universities have also reported issues with Blackboard on Vista.
• The Novell client, software used to access documents stored on file servers, is not available for Vista. This software is in development by the vendor and is expected to be available in mid-2007.
• Compatibility issues with PeopleSoft (HR, Financials and Enroll & Pay) are being researched.
• Compatibility concerns - Public lab machines will not be updated due to compatibility issues.

IT Recommendations

• Continue to use Windows XP.
• If you plan to purchase a new Windows computer for campus use, select the Windows XP Pro OS, not Windows Vista.
• Wait to upgrade at least until Service Pack 1 is released.

What if I already purchased a computer with Windows Vista installed?

• If you have a university owned computer ask your departmental technical support person about rolling back to Windows XP.
• If you are going to use Vista, install the Sophos anti-virus client for Vista.
• Students in the residence halls who have Vista installed on their computers will be able to use the ResNet registration process to access the network. Other support for Vista may be limited.