Safe or possible to use incompatible programs?

My boyfriend does the billing for his father's medical practice and uses the
Medisoft software. His computer recently crashed, so he ordered a new one
from Dell (since the local computer place wanted to charge $850 for a plain
tower with 1G and Windows XP). Problem is, all Dell offers are computers with
Vista. Medisoft has already acknowledged that their programs are not
compatible with Vista and that a version that is will not be out until
October. However, upon saying their program is "not functional" with Vista,
they go on to say that they will therefore not be held accountable for any
functionability problems one might encounter by using the program in Vista.
Does that mean you CAN use the program in Vista but it may not work just
right or does it mean you can't use the program in Vista at all? And why are
so many programs that are comptabile with XP not compatible with Vista?

Last question: Since my boyfriend obviously can't stop working to wait for
the company to come out with a version of their software that is compatible
with Vista, would it be possible for him to just go out and buy Windows XP
and install it on a computer that comes equipped with Vista? A downgrade, I
guess?

"ADPSportsChick" <> wrote in message
news:4BF07883-EB90-492F-A4CB-...
> My boyfriend does the billing for his father's medical practice and uses
> the
> Medisoft software. His computer recently crashed, so he ordered a new one
> from Dell (since the local computer place wanted to charge $850 for a
> plain
> tower with 1G and Windows XP). Problem is, all Dell offers are computers
> with
> Vista. Medisoft has already acknowledged that their programs are not
> compatible with Vista and that a version that is will not be out until
> October. However, upon saying their program is "not functional" with
> Vista,
> they go on to say that they will therefore not be held accountable for any
> functionability problems one might encounter by using the program in
> Vista.
> Does that mean you CAN use the program in Vista but it may not work just
> right or does it mean you can't use the program in Vista at all? And why
> are
> so many programs that are comptabile with XP not compatible with Vista?
>
> Last question: Since my boyfriend obviously can't stop working to wait for
> the company to come out with a version of their software that is
> compatible
> with Vista, would it be possible for him to just go out and buy Windows XP
> and install it on a computer that comes equipped with Vista? A downgrade,
> I
> guess?

Dell will still sell you a PC with XP installed....(In Europe at least)
http://search.euro.dell.com/results....&k=xp&cat=prod

Install the program using Vista's Program Compatibility Wizard
and it should run just fine.

Make older programs run in this version of Windows
http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Win...f5f101033.mspx

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows Shell/User

----------------------------------------------------------------------

"ADPSportsChick" wrote:

My boyfriend does the billing for his father's medical practice and uses the
Medisoft software. His computer recently crashed, so he ordered a new one
from Dell (since the local computer place wanted to charge $850 for a plain
tower with 1G and Windows XP). Problem is, all Dell offers are computers with
Vista. Medisoft has already acknowledged that their programs are not
compatible with Vista and that a version that is will not be out until
October. However, upon saying their program is "not functional" with Vista,
they go on to say that they will therefore not be held accountable for any
functionability problems one might encounter by using the program in Vista.
Does that mean you CAN use the program in Vista but it may not work just
right or does it mean you can't use the program in Vista at all? And why are
so many programs that are comptabile with XP not compatible with Vista?

Last question: Since my boyfriend obviously can't stop working to wait for
the company to come out with a version of their software that is compatible
with Vista, would it be possible for him to just go out and buy Windows XP
and install it on a computer that comes equipped with Vista? A downgrade, I
guess?

"Julian" <> wrote in message
news:3E2BEBDF-34CC-412D-B828-...
>
>
> "ADPSportsChick" <> wrote in
> message news:4BF07883-EB90-492F-A4CB-...
>> My boyfriend does the billing for his father's medical practice and uses
>> the
>> Medisoft software. His computer recently crashed, so he ordered a new one
>> from Dell (since the local computer place wanted to charge $850 for a
>> plain
>> tower with 1G and Windows XP). Problem is, all Dell offers are computers
>> with
>> Vista. Medisoft has already acknowledged that their programs are not
>> compatible with Vista and that a version that is will not be out until
>> October. However, upon saying their program is "not functional" with
>> Vista,
>> they go on to say that they will therefore not be held accountable for
>> any
>> functionability problems one might encounter by using the program in
>> Vista.
>> Does that mean you CAN use the program in Vista but it may not work just
>> right or does it mean you can't use the program in Vista at all? And why
>> are
>> so many programs that are comptabile with XP not compatible with Vista?
>>
>> Last question: Since my boyfriend obviously can't stop working to wait
>> for
>> the company to come out with a version of their software that is
>> compatible
>> with Vista, would it be possible for him to just go out and buy Windows
>> XP
>> and install it on a computer that comes equipped with Vista? A downgrade,
>> I
>> guess?
>
> Dell will still sell you a PC with XP installed....(In Europe at least)
> http://search.euro.dell.com/results....&k=xp&cat=prod

Oops... yes, a Vista capable PC will run XP.

"Julian" <> wrote in message
news:518F5D34-4D24-471D-A8D5-...
>
>
> "Julian" <> wrote in message
> news:3E2BEBDF-34CC-412D-B828-...

>
> Oops... yes, a Vista capable PC will run XP.

Not necessarily so.
My cheapo Compaq with Vista preinstalled runs fine, but I want to dual boot
it with Vista. HP's website has NO WXP drivers for the proprietary mother
board and claims the BIOS was optimized for Vista and won't run XP. All the
DOS programs I've tried run rine under the W98SE version of DOS, however.

-Paul Randall

Another option would be to instal Virtual PC (free) and create an XP
virtual machine on which to run the app. This does incur the cost of a copy
of XP on top of the Vista youi've already paid for.

Val


"Carey Frisch [MVP]" <> wrote in message
news:ECF13520-4325-44E5-A469-...
Install the program using Vista's Program Compatibility Wizard
and it should run just fine.

Make older programs run in this version of Windows
http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Win...f5f101033.mspx

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows Shell/User

----------------------------------------------------------------------

"ADPSportsChick" wrote:

My boyfriend does the billing for his father's medical practice and uses the
Medisoft software. His computer recently crashed, so he ordered a new one
from Dell (since the local computer place wanted to charge $850 for a plain
tower with 1G and Windows XP). Problem is, all Dell offers are computers
with
Vista. Medisoft has already acknowledged that their programs are not
compatible with Vista and that a version that is will not be out until
October. However, upon saying their program is "not functional" with Vista,
they go on to say that they will therefore not be held accountable for any
functionability problems one might encounter by using the program in Vista.
Does that mean you CAN use the program in Vista but it may not work just
right or does it mean you can't use the program in Vista at all? And why are
so many programs that are comptabile with XP not compatible with Vista?

Last question: Since my boyfriend obviously can't stop working to wait for
the company to come out with a version of their software that is compatible
with Vista, would it be possible for him to just go out and buy Windows XP
and install it on a computer that comes equipped with Vista? A downgrade, I
guess?

ADPSportsChick wrote:
> My boyfriend does the billing for his father's medical practice and uses the
> Medisoft software. His computer recently crashed, so he ordered a new one
> from Dell (since the local computer place wanted to charge $850 for a plain
> tower with 1G and Windows XP). Problem is, all Dell offers are computers with
> Vista.


That's not at all true. Dell offers computers with WinXP, Vista, and
even Ubuntu Linux.


> Medisoft has already acknowledged that their programs are not
> compatible with Vista and that a version that is will not be out until
> October. However, upon saying their program is "not functional" with Vista,
> they go on to say that they will therefore not be held accountable for any
> functionability problems one might encounter by using the program in Vista.
> Does that mean you CAN use the program in Vista but it may not work just
> right or does it mean you can't use the program in Vista at all?


It means exactly what they said. They haven't tested that version of
their product with Vista, and don't know how it'll work. Rather than
find out, and perhaps have to issue a free patch or two, they'd rather
develop and then sell their customers new versions of their software.

One thing that your boyfriend could do is try running the application
in Vista's WinXP-Compatibility mode. Right-click on the pertinent
application's Shortcut > Properties > Compatibility Tab.


> And why are
> so many programs that are comptabile with XP not compatible with Vista?
>


Actually, considering how different Vista is from WinXP, I found it
surprising that so very many WinXP-designed (or older) programs work
with Vista, at all.


> Last question: Since my boyfriend obviously can't stop working to wait for
> the company to come out with a version of their software that is compatible
> with Vista, would it be possible for him to just go out and buy Windows XP
> and install it on a computer that comes equipped with Vista? A downgrade, I
> guess?

Possible, yes. But completely unnecessary, and doing so might void the
support agreements (and maybe even the warranty) of the new machine.


--

Bruce Chambers

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