1 step forward - 5 steps back (Vista)

Having recently purchased a new laptop with Microsoft’s new Vista platform pre-installed, I decided that it was time to take the leap and go the whole hog by installing the new Office 2007 applications as well. At first, I really liked the look and feel of the new system. The rounded edges, the shiny buttons and the reflective 2.0 effect all come together nicely to give a nice feel (although Mac users argue that this is simply a cheap imitation of the operating systems they’ve been using for years). However, I have come across so many problems that I am now on the verge of re-installing my previous XP platform and going back to Office 2003. To name but a few problems I’ve been having:

- Windows Explorer crashes when searching for simple docs.
- Some docs won’t open at all.
- Compatibility issues between Word 2007 and Word 2003 docs
- Outlook 2007 is fundamentally flawed in a number of areas and I’ve had a whole host of problems with it.
- Adobe Acrobat is having all kinds of issues dealing with Office 07 and as a result I have a massively reduced PDF’ing capability.

The one that really bothers me is the compatibility issue between the new and old versions of Word as I would have expected MSoft to have at least ensured that files open on the various different versions of the same piece of software - what happens if my client doesn’t have Word 2007 and I send him/her a document that I’ve created on it?

All in all, I feel that I have no choice but to take the backwards step of returning to XP and Office 03. I’m really gutted about this and feel quite badly let down by Microsoft. A number of colleagues suggested that this might be the case and that we would be best to hold out for the first few service packs on Vista before taking the leap, but I thought I knew better. Fortune does not, it appears, favour the brave!