IT Update: Caution urged with Windows Vista and Office 2007

By: Jan Jones

January 31st, 2007

Special message from Steve Zink, vice president of information technology.

Microsoft officially released the Windows Vista operating system (OS) to the world yesterday (Jan. 30, 2007) and Office 2007 is presently available. Both are covered under the University’s Microsoft Campus Agreement, which will permit the University to distribute the new the OS and core Office suite.  

Information Technology and departmental systems administrators have been evaluating versions of Vista and Office 2007 for a few months now. Both are significant changes from previous iterations and offer many new features and a new interface. 

As is the case with most larger enterprises, we urge caution in rushing to adopt either product. There are potential challenges in using them with other campus applications. In addition, hardware requirements are considerably greater than for previous versions of Windows and Office. Moreover, the advertised requirements for the software produces less than satisfactory performance. Our evaluations indicate that Office 2007 requires at least 1-GB RAM for best performance and robust graphics capabilities. 

Other reasons for not deploying at this time include driver support, need for user training (very little training documentation is available yet), and software compatibility. Also, at this point, there is not a production version of anti-virus available from any of the major vendors. 

Before we deploy any major new OS or Office suite, IT wants to be sure that we have personnel ready and able to provide training and support for the products. Most previous Microsoft upgrades have not been as significant as these, and an upgrade to either product will likely require considerable effort by users to relearn Windows and Office.  

IT Recommendations 

For the present, IT strongly recommends that all faculty/staff continue to use the Windows XP Professional OS and Office 2003.  

Windows 

• If you plan to purchase a new Windows computer, we recommend that you choose the Windows XP Pro OS, not Vista. 
• When IT is able to support Vista, we can easily upgrade any University-owned computer at no cost.  
• In the meantime, support for Vista will be very limited.  

Office 

• Office 2007 is also significant departure from previous iterations; it has a different interface.  
• In addition, problems can arise because the default file format for Office 2007 applications is not readily compatible with earlier versions of Office or other productivity suites. 

By spring or mid-summer, we anticipate having the necessary resources and product refinement from Microsoft to provide greater support and training.  However, we do not anticipate either product being a necessary update in 2007.  Vista is not presently available as an upgrade on campus. Office 2007 is an available upgrade, but support is limited. 

When We Do Deploy 

The Microsoft Campus Agreement permits us to install Windows Vista and Office 2007 on University-owned computers. We presently have official media for Office 2007.  However, Windows Vista will be deployed at the University using another method that is not yet available. 

Many new computers are being offered with Windows Vista. As stated earlier, we recommend that you purchase one with Windows XP Professional instead. Because most new computers are “Vista Ready,” we can upgrade University-owned machines to Vista at no cost as a part of the University’s Campus Agreement once the University is ready as a whole. Thank you, 

—  Steve Zink, VP for Information Technology 

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