Unfortunately there is something too big and too bad to ignore about Microsoft’s latest test release of Vista (Build 5270.9)..
Almost no “big” or “complex” programs that require any sort of low-level interaction install/run… This includes many programs that worked without a hitch on 5231, and according to some, on 5259 as well. It seems that Microsoft has finalized the underlying structure of the Vista OS (according to most, though we can never be too sure); and it seems that as a resuly many programs that integrate themselves into Windows or Internet Explorer are now broken :(
I will be posting shortly a list of such programs and more, but at the moment, it will suffice to say that many of the useful programs of today for which development has stopped may not run on Windows Vista… Even in XP SP2 Compatibility mode.
NB: This is assuming that the compatibility mode feature in Vista is now complete as-is. At the moment it does not support emulation of most DLLs, nor does it support ‘compatibilizing’ non-exes, like?MSIs for example.
-CG