Windows Vista Capable

[Guest Hans Weismuller]

Judge greenlights lawsuit against Microsoft

By Kelly Fiveash → More by this author

25 Feb 2008 11:04

Sticky issue of deceptive 'Vista Capable' labels

 

 

A US judge has given the go-ahead for consumers to file a class action

lawsuit against Microsoft for providing misleading information about

Windows XP computers being able to run Vista.

 

Redmond’s “Windows Vista Capable” labels first appeared on computers in

April 2006, even though the firm’s latest operating system didn’t get a

general release until January last year.

 

According to Associated Press the class action lawsuit, which was

certified by US district judge Marsha Pechman last Friday, will

specifically look at whether Microsoft’s labels generated artificial

demand for computers in the 2006 run-up to Christmas.

 

It will also examine if prices had been overstated for computers that

couldn’t be upgraded to the full-featured Premium version of Vista,

which includes the Aero user interface.

 

The two people who originally filed the lawsuit didn’t take advantage of

a program devised by Microsoft to advise customers on compatibility

pre-launch. Despite that, both claimed that anyone who bought “Vista

Capable” machines before January 2007, had been deceived because the

majority of users could only run the stripped-down Basic version of

Vista, which lacks the media centre, and Aero interface with flip 3D and

thumbnails.

 

In May 2006 Microsoft issued an advisor tool that told Windows users

whether their existing computer was able to be upgraded to Vista.

 

Redmond said at the time that customers could run a more basic GUI of

the OS if they had an 800MHz CPU, 512MB of memory and any DirectX

9-capable graphics card. Together those specifications were enough for

Microsoft to define a PC as being “Vista Capable”.

 

The software giant later described its efforts to prepare customers for

its Vista onslaught as “a very broad and unprecedented effort” to help

PC vendors, retailers and customers “understand the hardware

requirements to run the various flavours of the Windows Vista operating

system”.

 

Microsoft said it is reviewing the ruling, according to the AP. ®