Windows Vista is Microsoft's next generation operating system. We've been working diligently to ensure that Aurora will continue to run correctly on Windows Vista, whether you choose to upgrade your existing PC or purchase a new PC with it already loaded. This page contains useful information about our Windows Vista compatibility project.
For more about Windows Vista, visit Microsoft's dedicated site for it, found here.
What makes Windows Vista so different from Windows XP?
With Windows Vista, Microsoft has significantly improved and updated the core security safeguards built into Windows. The most noticeable of these features is the new User Account Control feature (or UAC for short) that requires a user to supply an additional set of administrator credentials anytime an attempt is made to write to a protected area of Windows.
To learn more about Windows Vista's new UAC feature, click here.
Should I upgrade to Vista?
We've been evaluating and working with Windows Vista for months now, since the BETA 2 release in July 2006, and while there are many new and exciting consumer features to be found, for most appraisal businesses there is no compelling reason to upgrade imediately after it becomes available. Windows XP will continue to be supported by Microsoft for many years to come, and continues to be an excellent and stable operating system.
Our recommendation on upgrading is simply to wait until you are in need of new hardware, and to aquire Windows Vista with your new PC purchase. This will ensure that you also have the requisite hardware to get the most out of Windows Vista.
Known WinTOTAL Issues
Because of the many changes in Windows as a result of Microsoft's focus on improving security in Windows, there are some known issues with how WinTOTAL will interact with Vista. Here is a list of items that we're currently aware of, and our plans to address them.
QuickBooks Integration - Intuit, the makers of QuickBooks, have officially announced that the only version of QuickBooks supported on Windows Vista is the QuickBooks 2007 and above family of products. As such, if you're running an earlier version of QuickBooks you will want to consider continuing to run Windows XP as your operating system, or upgrading to QuickBooks 2007. NOTE: For more details on Intuit's decision not to support earlier versions of QuickBooks on Vista, click here.
WinTOTAL Athena (v4) and Windows Vista.
At this time, there are no plans to make WinTOTAL Athena (v4) compatible with Windows Vista. If you wish to continue using WinTOTAL Athena, you will need to continue running Windows XP as your operating system.
Click here to read Adam's message to Athena users regarding Vista.
QuickBooks Integration - Intuit, the makers of QuickBooks, have officially announced that the only version of QuickBooks supported on Windows Vista is the QuickBooks 2007 and above family of products. As such, if you're running an earlier version of QuickBooks you will want to consider continuing to run Windows XP as your operating system, or upgrading to QuickBooks 2007.