Windows Vista Support

The School of Architecture is continuing to investigate and test support for the new Windows Vista operating system. The School and the University do support basic functionality under both Vista Business and Vista Home editions, however some functionality is still in testing and many of the specialty software in use at the School of Architecture do not yet support Windows Vista (see below). We are continuing to monitor these software vendors' support and updates for this new operating system.

Recommendations

Upgrading to Vista
If you already own a computer that runs Windows XP, we currently recommend that you DO NOT upgrade to Windows Vista. Since many of our current software titles have limited or no support, and may exhibit problems or limitations when running under the new OS, it is currently better to stay with Windows XP and monitor software compatibility as it evolves over the coming months.

Buying a new computer
If you are buying a new computer, you may have little choice but to get it with Windows Vista installed. In this case, you should proceed with the purchase including Vista. Some of our software is Vista compliant, so you will be able to get started with these. Other titles will be becoming compliant over the coming months, so you will be able to update to these as they become available. Still others are partially compliant now, so you will be able to start working with them now, despite their limitations, and update to Vista capable versions as they arrive and the issues and limitations are addressed. We expect that most of our commonly used software will have versions that are Vista compatible by the fall semester of 2007.

Virtual PC option
For those who do wish to move forward with Vista, but also need to run fully compliant versions of current software, you have the option to use Virtual PC and purchase Windows XP to run on your Vista computer. This will enable a full installation of Windows XP, and all software installed therein, in parallel to your Vista environment. This option does require greater hard drive and memory (RAM) on the computer, so be aware of the costs of this solution, and research your options before pursuing it.

Software Compliance

UVa Licensed and Distributed Software and Utilities
Availability of UVa licensed software can be found at Software Central's Windows Vista page.

The following software is Vista compliant:

• Bentley MicroStation CAD XM edition (more info)
• auto·des·sys formZ 6.1 (with OpenGL limitations) (more info)

The following are not fully qualified or operate with some limitations or problems under Windows Vista:

• Adobe Creative Suite 2 (more info)
• Autodesk Architectural Desktop / AutoCAD 2007 (more info)
• Autodesk Maya 8.5 (more info)
• ESRI ArcGIS 9.1 (more info)
• Google SketchUp Pro 6 (more info)
• Rhino (more info)

We will continue to monitor the progress of these software and update this page as we find changes to this.

See Software Distribution for information on how to aquire specialty CAD and GIS software at the School of Architecture.