Vista compatibility?

[EHaskins]

Its about time for me to buy a new notebook, but I don't know if I'm going to need to downgrade it to XP after I buy it. I have read reviews on the internet, but most of them either love Vista or seem to hate Microsoft.

Has anyone had any issues running MPLab, IFI Loader/Dashboard, EasyC, or Visual Studio 2005, on Vista?

I'm not trying to start a another discussion of Windows vs. Mac vs. Linux, but I thought I might be able to get an less biased answer here than most of the review sites.

[EDIT]I'm currently looking at a computer equal to above:
Processor: Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T5600 (1.83GHz, 667MHz FSB, 2MB L2 Cache)
OS: Vista Ultimate
HDD: 80gb
RAM: 2gb
[\EDIT]

Thanks,

[Qbranch]

Hate to give you a biased answer... but just my first inkling is it wont work. I think your major issue will be finding a usb -> serial converter compatible with vista.

-q

[chris31]

Originally Posted by Qbranch

Hate to give you a biased answer... but just my first inkling is it wont work. I think your major issue will be finding a usb -> serial converter compatible with vista.

-q

I didnt even think about the fact that the drivers for that probably dont exist. Maybe look for a laptop with a serial port. I havent tried any of the software under Vista so I dont know if they work or not. Let us know if they do or dont once you get your laptop.

[EHaskins]

Laptop with a serial port. are you joking?

I hadn't even thought of USB-Serial adapter, but I will need to look into that.

[Render]

dual boot for the win...

[GRaduns340]

If you ask the supplier directly most, if not all, will provide Windows XP and a free upgrade to Vista. The catch is that the Vista coupon must be redeemed by March 31 if you get the Windows coupon. Some manufacturers might give you more time, but if not you can always just redeem your coupon now and hang onto the disk until you're ready to use it.

[chris31]

Originally Posted by EHaskins

Laptop with a serial port. are you joking?

I hadn't even thought of USB-Serial adapter, but I will need to look into that.

I think some Dells ship with it. Im not sure as I was never in the market for a laptop.

[Cuog]

I know when I was running the beta for VISTA it was able to run MPLAB and mcc18 and IFI Loader through my desktop's serial port. I do not know about any of the other apps that you will need, as I don't like easyc and I didn't need VS2005, although I would be very surprised if it didn't work with VISTA.

And you can get a laptop with a serial port, I have an HP Compaq nc6220 business model that has a REAL serial port.

[whytheheckme]

Originally Posted by EHaskins

Has anyone had any issues running MPLab, IFI Loader/Dashboard, EasyC, or Visual Studio 2005, on Vista?

Lol. I've had issues running built in-software and hardware. Let alone third party stuff. God-forbid we should run anything else than a Microsoft product...

Seriously. Lab-view has issues (USB-Serial port not recognized. Not sure why.) Everything is such a pain in Vista. Why can't it just work? [SarcasticEDIT] Oh yeah... Answered my own question. It's Microsoft.... [/SarcasticEDIT]

That's probably pretty mean, and Microsoft is a FIRST sponsor, so I'll shut up now. My advice is: get a new laptop, downgrade to XP and sell your Vista key for half price. Someone out there wants it. You don't.
After you have XP loaded, you should be all set. I mean, what advantage does Vista have over XP, besides hogging more resources and not being compatible with anything? Until they fix it, it's not worth the headaches. And by then, who knows... Maybe Vienna will be out...

Just my advice.

Jacob

[Gamer930]

Dell has laptops that have serial ports. Just search a bit. . .

I just installed MPLab7.52 and C18 V2.4 complier and was able to compile our 2006 code. IFI Loader did open and looked for a connection when I tried downloading. . . Don't have VEX or FRC nearby to test fully. I plugged in my USB to serial adapter and it says it is working correctly (Again nothing to test it with)

Visual Studio 2005 does work with Vista after getting the VS2005 SP2

Laptop Specs:
HP Pavillion P4 3.4 ghz
1 GB RAM
100 GB HD

I wouldn't attempt to install on anything less then 1GB RAM

I didn't have any problems with drivers for any of my devices. I did run into some problems with compatibility issues with older software. For Example: Rational Rose (a class digram/model software designer) wouldn't work.

Note: I did a complete reformat when I installed Vista.

Stop by in Milwaukee Eric

[Brandon Holley]

I won a copy of vista from Northeastern last week...bad news...it doesnt run inventor


thank god i have my work laptop too or i'd go crazy

[Bharat Nain]

I have run all the programs you mentioned above without any problems. My computer's specs are also way below what you mentioned so I'd imagine they will work fine. However, I am not sure about drivers for USB to serial converters. Also, I am running the 32-bit version of Vista and not 64-bit. I could not get drivers for most of my hardware on the 64-bit. These are just my results, I cannot guarantee anything for you. Windows Vista is new and there are many compatibility issues with other softwares. Many vendors are yet to upgrade but I am sure by the end of 2007 Vista will be more inviting. Good luck.

[Cody Carey]

When I had vista installed on my computer, I went through the works with FIRST software, Autodesk 11 installed and ran fine... although it was pretty laggy (probably due to the system specs). Mplab works fine, as well as the ifi loader, although I haven't been able to test the usb -> serial drivers. didn't get to check vb 2005 before I took vista off...

This was all on a pretty old 2.0 Ghz pentium 4 with a gig of ram.

I'd like to note that Vista is a brand-spankin'-new operating system, and as with all new things; it needs a couple months to be debugged. It isn't 'till millions of people start to quality control test an OS that a lot of the problems come out of the works. Back when XP came out, people were comparing it to 98 and asking why they needed to upgrade. After all, as of the release of XP, it only hogged more resources and wasn't compatible with DOS, right? For a while, XP will get you where you need to go... but you might want to hang on to your copy of Vista for when the world starts to phase XP out. Give it time, it will get better.

[ptan]

I'm currently running Vista Ultimate (32 bit), and have no problems with USB-> Serial converters (in fact, I have tried both the ones based upon the pl2303 chipset and the FTDI chipset). They work without any problems.

MPLabs and IFILoader seem to work as well.

Paul Tan.

[whytheheckme]

Originally Posted by Brandon Holley

I won a copy of vista from Northeastern last week

lol. You know it's sad when an operating system is so expensive that you have to win it to afford it.... This is the only way that I could get my copy (raffle).. Mac OS is 79 bux with student discount.

Originally Posted by Cody Carey

I'd like to note that Vista is a brand-spankin'-new operating system, and as with all new things; it needs a couple months to be debugged.

They have had 6 YEARS... (since development in 2001...) I'm just saying...

[/M$Rant]

I love the folks at Microsoft. I just think they have too much on their plate. It's unforunate that the rest of the world has to suffer from this. Windows could be a much better place, and it's too bad it's not.

Jacob