Last updated on: 8th August, 2007

Since the time I purchased my Toshiba Satellite (A100-294) Laptop, I was eager to see Windows Vista! The curiosity was increased when I found out that I was eligible for the Vista Express Upgrade Program run by Microsoft.

Now the biggest deterrent in my, or for that matter any other soul on the planet, adopting Windows Vista is that we have tons of software running on Windows XP which right now seem to be incompatible with big brother Vista! Funny to say, but isn’t backward compatibility a real issue when releasing new version of popular software? Well Microsoft didn’t remember that they were releasing a new version of an operating system into the market!

Well this doesn’t make things any better for us. When it comes to operating systems, my favorite one is still Windows XP followed by Windows 98 Second Edition. These have been the defining products produced by Microsoft. Not many compatibility issues have occurred when I ran software written for Windows 98 on Windows XP.

I think the biggest selling point for XP (if you exclude the Luna interface) was its great level of backward compatibility.

Well without further delay, I present to you a list of software that I tested to be compatible with Vista:

1. Nero 7.7.5.9 (earlier versions are not gonna work)
2. Ashampoo Burning Studio 6.x/7.0
3. WinRAR 3.x (I tested with v 3.60) (I’m using v3.70 now and it is fine)
4. Visual Basic 6.0 with SP6 (recommended) (Microsoft has already announced support for VB 6.0 on Vista)
5. Visual Studio 2005 (with the latest service pack, or even without it.)
6. JDK 6.0 (with a patch from Sun for Vista) (The patch is for some conflict and Java 6.0 should work fine for you, I’m also using it like that)
7. Ares P2P (I’m using v2.0.8) v2.0.9.3808 (thanks to kerste for the update!) ^[NEW!]
8. Microsoft Office 2003 and above ( 2000 may work, but I tested 2003. If somebody finds O2K compatible, please inform me so that I can update the list here)
9. Winzip 11
10. SQL Server 2000 with SP4 (recommended)
11. Norton Antivirus 2007 (earlier versions are not compatible)
12. Universal Shield v4.2 (pre-release version requested from Everstrike.)
13. –
14. Yahoo Messenger v 8.1.209 and above (the one I’m using now is v8.1.402 which includes a critical security upgrade)
15. Google Talk v1.0.0.100 and above (I’m using the latest one right now, v 1.0.0.104)
16. Windows Live Messenger
17. Microsoft Office 2007 Enterprise (and all related releases)
18. Adobe Photoshop CS2
19. 4t Tray Minimizer v4.40 Free version (you can get a version from here.)
20. Total Video Converter v3.01
21. SUPER Converter (their latest build should work fine. I’m using their March build)
22. AOL ActiveVirus Shield v2.5 (as I had given you the info previously)
23. Crystal Reports 7 Professional (as I explain here, you can use it on Vista and it works fine.)
24. Gigaget Download Manager v1.0.0.23 (I am using it and it is working fine.)
25. Free Download Manager (I got a version from my friend to try and it was working fine, should have been the latest version I’m sure.)
26. Ultra Video Converter v1.6.6 ^[NEW!]
27. AnyReader v1.9 build55 ^[NEW!]
28. Pidgin Instant Messenger v2.0.2 ^[NEW!]
29. Kaspersky Internet Security v7.x ^[NEW!]
30. NOD32 Antivirus v2.7 ^[NEW!]
31. Eset Smart Security Suite v3.x ^[NEW!]
32. BitDefender Internet Security v10 ^[NEW!]
33. Avast v4.7 Professional/Home Edition (thanks to kerste for this update!) ^[NEW!]

Well that’s it for now, but if you find ways to make existing software to work with Vista, please post your comments here. Or if you find software working properly with Windows Vista, please share it with us here or you can email me at: contact[at]fiqbal.com.

***This list will be updated by me from time to time to reflect new software that I can have info on as to their compatibility with Windows Vista, so keep checking back on this page.***

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