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Zune Not Compatible With Windows Vista 319

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the dungeons-but-not-dragons dept.
danimrich writes "According to a report by AppleInsider and a Microsoft support document the software for the Zune player is not compatible with Windows Vista."
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Zune Not Compatible With Windows Vista More

Zune Not Compatible With Windows Vista

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  • That's ok... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Nefarious Wheel ( 628136 ) on Wednesday November 15, 2006 @04:15PM (#16859042) Journal
    ...because I'm not compatible with Vista either.

  • Well... (Score:5, Funny)

    by AltGrendel ( 175092 ) <`su.0tixe' `ta' `todhsals-ga'> on Wednesday November 15, 2006 @04:16PM (#16859058) Homepage
    Looks like Vista will be a Zune killer app.

    Yes, i know that Vista is an OS, not an app.

  • wow, comes with soft porn included. (Score:5, Funny)

    by yagu ( 721525 ) * <yayagu.gmail@com> on Wednesday November 15, 2006 @04:17PM (#16859086) Journal

    Disclaimer from the article:

    And for those wondering, the splash screen of three women in distress isn't our contributor's stab at a knee-slapper.

    Cool, Zune comes with it's own soft porn.

    All seriousness aside, I think I'd already heard Zune wouldn't work with Vista immediately. Is that really a big show stopper? I'm guessing they've laid plans to have it ready to go by the time the OEMs are rolling out Vista-installed machines. An embarrassment perhaps, but Microsoft has many bigger and better gaffes to be proud of (say Clippy, and Microsoft Bob!).

    Oh, and back to the soft porn, it must have been approved by the Ballmer himself, just look at the quote from his quoted Q&A session from Business Week in the article:

    "I want to squirt you a picture of my kids. You want to squirt me back a video of your vacation. That's [an] experience," he said.

    I think Steve's been spending a little too much time on-line.

    • Personally, I find this picture [roughlydrafted.com] more fitting for the Zune. :D
    • Cool, Zune comes with it's own soft porn.

      Well, now I have at least one reason to buy a Zune.

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by Alsee ( 515537 )
        >Cool, Zune comes with it's own soft porn.
        Well, now I have at least one reason to buy a Zune.

        Errr.... you mean being too clueless to locate free porn on the internet?

        ;)

        -

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by tenton ( 181778 )
        Well, now I have at least one reason to buy a Zune.

        Pssst...you have the Internet. Pr0n flows freely here. You're back to 0 reasons again. ^_^
    • Heh, true story, last time I installed MS Office on my wife's PC, I did it via the followin.. first, "run all from hard drive" on the main option, then change Outlook to "Not Available".. then change Office Assistant to "Not Available" .. continue install.... That evening, I was adding the stupid dog... (not clippy, she likes the dog).

    • Re:wow, comes with soft porn included. (Score:4, Funny)

      by uradu ( 10768 ) on Wednesday November 15, 2006 @05:09PM (#16860102)
      >> And for those wondering, the splash screen of three women in distress isn't our contributor's stab at a knee-slapper.

      I'm not so sure they're in distress--it looks like the one on top is squirting the one on the bottom...something.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by garcia ( 6573 )
      Of course he spends all of his time online, it's not like he has any comfy chairs left to sit down and watch TV or read a good book...

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by Bugs42 ( 788576 )
      Funny... first we learn the internet is only 1% porn, now we learn that it's packaged with the Zune. Perhaps MS is trying to up the percentage?

  • Not yet... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Armando_Mcgillicutty ( 773718 ) on Wednesday November 15, 2006 @04:17PM (#16859090)
    Dollars to doughnuts that there will be an upgrade for the Zune software that makes it compatable. as soon as you can actually buy Vista.

    • Re:Not yet... (Score:5, Funny)

      by Andy_R ( 114137 ) on Wednesday November 15, 2006 @04:25PM (#16859292) Homepage Journal
      You'll never be able to actually buy Vista, just a very limited licence to run it.

      Not that anybody sane would want to...

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Jeff250 ( 986303 )
      Still, this means that for those who bought a Zune now and will use Vista later, their CD software won't work, and they'll have to search the Internet for working software (assuming this isn't just an issue with beta Vista but an issue with Vista in general). It's not a terribly big deal for most of us, but I know a lot of people to whom this would be a major stumbling block trying to get their Zune working.

      • Re:Not yet... (Score:5, Informative)

        by VertigoAce ( 257771 ) on Wednesday November 15, 2006 @04:41PM (#16859592)
        The first thing the Zune installer does is check to see if there is updated Zune software available. It does this before it does the OS check, so the CD installer will work as soon as Vista-compatible software is released.

        From what I read they will be releasing a beta version of the Zune software that is compatible with Vista RTM sometime relatively soon (hopefully by the Nov 30 business release). The non-beta version will be available by the time Vista is released to consumers (Jan 30)

  • WTF ? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by jfclavette ( 961511 ) on Wednesday November 15, 2006 @04:17PM (#16859092)
    Please. That might be because the OS is NOT OUT YET, and that it will be added as a supported OS when it is ?

    Yes. Of course, Microsoft won't support Zune on his next OS. Thanks Slashdot. That wins the 'biggest troll story ever' award.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by setirw ( 854029 )
      Yes, but Vista ought to be backwards-compatible with documents readable on legacy devices. I agree, though, that this article is flamebait.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Stephen Samuel ( 106962 )
      Yeah, and despite going 'gold', Microsoft still doesn't have access to a properly working copy of Vista.
      ... because the OS is NOT OUT YET, ...
    • That might be because the OS is NOT OUT YET

      Sure it is. Maybe you can't buy it yet, but its out.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by pesc ( 147035 )
      Yes. Of course, Microsoft won't support Zune on his next OS.

      I agree it sounds ridiculous that Microsoft wouldn't support Zune on Vista. Almost as ridiculous as that the Zune wouldn't support Microsofts own PlayForSure format.

      So of course Microsoft will fix that when Vista is released, right?

  • Why support an unreleased OS? (Score:5, Informative)

    by bheer ( 633842 ) <{rbheer} {at} {gmail.com}> on Wednesday November 15, 2006 @04:17PM (#16859098)
    Especially when Zune was developed by a team with very little connection with Microsoft's OS/Office side? Also, they've said they're going to have an app update for Vista users in time for its Jan 30 general release. This is a non-story.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by smithbp ( 1002301 )
      It might be a good idea to support an OS that you have had such a large number of people beta testing for the last several months. While not all of these people probably ran out and purchased a Zune yesterday, a good number may have. How do you think Suzy HomeMaker whose husband installed Vista on their home pc feels now that she can't use the brown brick she just brought home from the local WalMart? The majority of the readers of this forum sit and laugh at the stupidity of this, but the average custome
      • Just in general, it's a good idea to make something compatible with the products you plan to release in say the next quarter.

        Especially when one of those products is The Flagship Product, which was supposed to be released... well... how many quarters ago?

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Ilgaz ( 86384 )
          I find it amazing that these guys are also Microsoft and they have access to SOURCE CODE of the OS which is not compatible.

          I am sure iTunes working perfectly on Leopard preview version (not available to public yet) and iPod working fine too or we would hear it.

          I have a good guess about the reason of incompatibility, their famous weird, non standard protocol for interacting with mp3/wma players, another plot to keep Mac/Linux users out in the cold. In fact, I HOPE it is the reason. Some should pay the result

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Baricom ( 763970 )
        Exactly correct. More to the point, I would hazard a guess that a large percentage of the people running Vista right now are not IT professionals, but Microsoft enthusiasts (It pains me to think that they're out there), and they're presumably running Vista on high-end systems. I don't think it would be a stretch to assume that these people have fairly large disposable incomes and a greater than average chance of purchasing a Zune.

        When you're introducing a new product, you need early adopters to shore up t

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by jZnat ( 793348 ) *
      Vista already went gold, so there aren't going to be any updates on the retail disc until SP1 or something.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by crabpeople ( 720852 )

      "Especially when Zune was developed by a team with very little connection with Microsoft's OS/Office side?"

      Do these comapnies not have a management hierarchy? They dont have weekly meetings with other departments? The same tired argument is braught up with sony conversations as well. "Why, its not sony's fault - one hand doesnt know what the other is doing!". Sorry but thats a management fuckup and can be blamed on the company that makes it. Its not as if they are even different companies! Like maybe a MS/C

  • Come on, feel the sarcasm (Score:5, Insightful)

    by User 956 ( 568564 ) on Wednesday November 15, 2006 @04:18PM (#16859104) Homepage
    Given that the Zune is also not compatible with Microsoft's own "PlaysForSure" music initiave, and its own Urge music store, could this be a trend?

    Clearly this is a visionary tactic on behalf of Microsoft, and we can only assume that they have something better and wonderful planned that will blow everything else out of the water. A paradigm shift in musical entertainment, if you will.

  • XP/MCE only (Score:5, Informative)

    by richdun ( 672214 ) on Wednesday November 15, 2006 @04:24PM (#16859268)
    *puts on flamesuit*

    So they don't "officially" support Vista. It isn't "officially" out yet. Big deal. They also aren't supporting anything other than XP SP2 and MCE 2005. ME, 2000, etc. are all left out.

    What I want to know, is whether they plan to even attempt native Mac OS X support. At least Apple supports Windows with iTunes. After all the complaining about choice, DRM that goes too far, etc., MS is doing even worse.

    But give them credit - the iPod was initially Mac-only, Firewire-only, and had no music store attached to it, and it started out fine. Sure, opening the flood gates with Windows + iTunes really propelled it, but this is the first edition.

    Linux fans, there's an article about Blizzard banning WoW Linux users down a couple more on the front page. Don't even bother with this discussion. :)
    • "iPod was initially Mac-only, Firewire-only, and had no music store attached to it"
       
      Good point. I never even considered getting an iPod until these three things changed... now I own two.

    • But give them credit - the iPod was initially Mac-only, Firewire-only, and had no music store attached to it, and it started out fine. Sure, opening the flood gates with Windows + iTunes really propelled it, but this is the first edition.

      Yes, but that was years ago. Over those past few years, the bar has been raised by... well, the iPod. If Microsoft wants an "iPod killer", they should be working on something that does at least as much.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by sponga ( 739683 )
      Windows does not need the Mac OS X market like the Apple needs Windows users to keep its Ipod successful; they can use them but they can gamble better on that they will end up with that consumber buying a Windows pre-loaded computer.

      Whole DRM issue the vast majority of consumers who buy it just do not care. I would try the product first before doubting it; see what you can do with your existing library of mp3's because WMP11 does not seem to interfere with my old collection of MP3s/Videos/etc and I can stil

  • If a Vista-compatible Zune software package isn't available on the day Vista is available to the general public, then you have a story. I don't blame Microsoft for declaring a time-bombed, semi-public beta of an operating system to be unsupported. Time spent on making Zune compatible with a handful of Vista RC1 installs is time not spent on a product that will ship to millions in 2 months.

  • Compatible with Vista (Score:5, Funny)

    by kaoshin ( 110328 ) on Wednesday November 15, 2006 @04:26PM (#16859326)
    By the time Vista is released, the only things compatible with it will be in museums.

  • Apparently Works with Vista RC2 - details (Score:5, Informative)

    by Jtheletter ( 686279 ) on Wednesday November 15, 2006 @04:27PM (#16859334)
    As claimed by a blogger, you can in fact install the Zune software under Vista RC2. Here is a link to his blog [blogspot.com], and the steps are included below to fend off karma whores and help save the guy a little bandwidth. Note, I do not have Vista RC2 or a Zune and have not tested this. Cheers.

    1. Don't let the Zune CD autorun - instead right click on it in my computer and choose open
    2. On the Zune setup .exe right click and go to properties
    3. Click on the compatibility tab, then check "run this program in compatibility mode for:" and select Windows XP SP2
    4. Hit apply, then ok and now go back to the opened Zune folder and run the Zunesetup.exe

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by zlogic ( 892404 )
      If an app clearly states it's incompatible with Vista (and not just "we're not sure if this will work"), you're likely to run into problems. I tried to install an older, Vista-incompatible version of Nero this way and it crashed the installation and wouldn't uninstall. Had to clean all the files manually.
    • Only marginally less bother than getting certain windows apps to run in Linux with WINE. W00t?

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by 91degrees ( 207121 )
      So a kludge that will automatically switch to compatibility mode if an application matching the zune softwares signature should be quite easy to add to the final Vista candidate. It's not unheard of for MS to addd specific hacks to their OS for compatibility.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by hurfy ( 735314 )
      Anyone else know if this works?

      Sometimes that compatiblity thing does work. I refused to buy a new 40G tape drive to backup a 500M directory. So I installed a floppy drive (also parallel port) based tape drive in WinXP that way with a couple other tricks. A distinctly unsupported device used by an unsupported program in XP that eventually worked. My old backup software refused to even install under XP without the compatibilty turned on.
  • Maybe Microsoft should ask the PC Guy to talk to Steve Jobs on their behalf about product marketing and strategy.

  • Discussion (Score:2, Funny)

    by Daemonstar ( 84116 )
    What I think is funny is the discussion about the article on the article's site is not about Vista and the Zune, but whether Oriental or Asian is correct (or offensive) to describe the girls in the picture. :P

  • Dirty old man! (Score:3, Funny)

    by bstempi ( 844043 ) on Wednesday November 15, 2006 @04:49PM (#16859730)
    FTA:
    In a Q&A session with BusinessWeek last month, Ballmer offered similar sentiments on the wireless capabilities of his company's new digital media player.
    "I want to squirt you a picture of my kids. You want to squirt me back a video of your vacation. That's [an] experience," he said.

    Am I the only one that finds Ballmer's quest to "squirt" me his kid...um...disturbing?

  • Brings back memories (Score:3, Insightful)

    by edwardpickman ( 965122 ) on Wednesday November 15, 2006 @04:50PM (#16859740)
    Zune Not Compatible With Windows Vista

    Reminds me of back in the late 90s when I was trying to use Microsoft Office products, I did use Word as far back as the late 80s. I kept having compatibility issues with other Microsoft products. I found third party software supported Microsoft formats better than Microsoft did. I finally got sick of it and dropped Microsoft products. Hard to believe a company of that size not supporting their own products. I've worked for large corporations and it generally comes down to departments not talking to each other. There tends to be a lot of internal competition inside the companies. Specifications are often treated as priviledged information even between different departments.

  • Going after Apple... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Threni ( 635302 ) on Wednesday November 15, 2006 @04:52PM (#16859772)
    "But boss - you said copy Apple, and Apple made sure their expensive little box didn't work on Microsoft Operating Systems..."
  • ... though whether it's down to Microsoft or Sony is unknown. But according to this article [gizmodo.com] it's detected as an 'Unknown USB Device' by the PS3.
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Squirt You (Score:5, Funny)

    by Foofoobar ( 318279 ) on Wednesday November 15, 2006 @05:04PM (#16860002)
    I hope he isn't going to squirt all over the developers, developers, developers, developers.

  • Another slow news day (Score:5, Insightful)

    by davmoo ( 63521 ) on Wednesday November 15, 2006 @05:29PM (#16860450)
    Considering that Vista is not available for sale, and won't be until January, I fail to see how this is in any way newsworthy. The "fud" tag has been correctly applied to this story.

    If a story came out downing Linux because some device isn't compatible with a future and unreleased version of the kernel, everyone would be crying "foul!" from the highest mountain. But since its Microsoft, its okay to have a double standard.

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