Monday, July 17, 2006

Vista Ultimate/Office 2007 - compatibility issues, install problems

i've installed Vista Ultimate Beta2, Build 5384 Office 2007 on one of my networked machines
below I've listed compatability issues and bugs and suggestions... for end users and MSFT.

Webshots Client 2.2.0.4644
install succeeds, pointing client to previously downloaded picture sets succeeds,
on Vista boot, Vista can't find webshots, and throws an error dialogue press ok, and webshots seems to work correctly after that.

Outlook 2007
i'm very disappointed with the Outlook 2007 implementation.
  1. on boot, Outlook 2007 throws a dialogue box "an extension failed to initialize". it would be nice if a log file exists to identify "what extension".... Outlook operates correctly as client. It crashes on boot throwing an extension error, but won't identify "what" extension.
  2. it is slow at downloading mail or moving emails/contacts from one place to another, Outlook is extremely slow if many messages need to be downloaded. it almost seems like its single threaded... blocking moving or deleting mails until the download is complete.
  3. doesn't use 'the ribbon' unless your editting a mail, so User Interface integration with Excel, Word and Powerpoint apps, is only partial.
  4. "The messaging interface returned an error" dialogue occurs occassionally on search.
  5. Search is folder based (not hashed based, modal meaning it "blocks" and slow. my work flow is still very email centric and searching for contacts, emails or tasks was impossible using Outlook XP, 2003 folder based lame search. 2007 does not fix this problem.
Lookout offered a plugin which does hashed search across all outlook objects, quickly indexes, and searches are rapid. MSFT bought Lookout, but hasn't bother to use the technology in Outlook 2007. In fact Outlook 2007 deliberately disables Lookout v1.2 or above.
Lookout installs, it just wont' run. WHAAAAAAA !!!! what kind of nonsense is this.

if you use Lookout for quick search you contacts, emails, calendar items etc. you'll be extremely disappointed if you install outlook 2007 and need to find something why the Outlook team would break this compatibility is beyond me. it's a deal breaker for me.

HP Photosmart 2575xi,
no driver exists from HP or MSFT for this scanner, ink jet combination. customer support at HP said drivers were underdevelopment and due mid Aug06. Current XP-SP2 drivers won't install, Vista says verboten.

HP 1320 Duplex LaserJET
installs off HP CD, took a little coercing. but finally it works great.

Fineprint, 5.5.1
application installs but Vista can't find the print dispatcher when a print job is to be queued. Fineprint management said "we will look into this when vista gets closer to shipping. thanks for letting us know. " In some ways, i don't blame them.

Word, Excel, Powerpoint
the ribbon bar rocks,
it makes editing documents much easier, context editing is always at hand
a problem is the Ribbon isn't in all "office apps" like Visio, Project and other apps, this feels odd and slow when moving from one app to the next.

2 Comments:

Blogger Unknown said...

Hey if you search for a equal replacement for Lookout, which works in outlook 2007, take Lookeen (www.lookeen.net)
It has the same features as Lookout even more, beside this it is faster, very easy to use and works perfect with exchanger server!!!
I had the same problem as you, when I switched from outlook 2003 to 2007, but with Lookeen outlook 2007 is perfect!

8:31 AM  
Blogger Alex said...

One day I opened my MS Outlook and was shocked. Reason of my emails had been corrupted. I made up my mind to started looking for a decision of this problem. I was born under a lucky star - converting ost files to pst files. It worked out my problem absolutely easy and without payment as I bore firmly in mind.

9:48 AM  

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