Microsoft has announced that 32-bit only machines will not qualify for its Windows 7 compatibility labeling scheme. It’s a major change of emphasis after the debacle of “Vista Capable”.

As we’ve noted several times, an official Microsoft labeling scheme which branded [...]

Microsoft is arguing against an attempt to reinstate class action status to the ongoing ‘Vista Capable’ case. If it fails in the bid, the potential price of losing the case would be many times higher.

The case originally received class [...]

Microsoft has succeeded in a bid to throw out the class action status of the Vista Capable lawsuit. The ruling means each person claiming they were misled by the marketing scheme must launch a separate legal case.

Microsoft is taking financial hits from more than just the economy. Its latest financial reports show it stumped up $3.1 billion to settle a tax debt last year, while there are claims the ongoing ‘Vista Capable’ case could cost millions.

Microsoft’s ill-fated “Vista Capable” program, which we have covered at length, actually earned the company money.  Some new estimates say that the Redmond based software giant may have earned upwards of $1.5 billion thanks to the upgrade program.
Computers purchased before Vista was available shipped with XP with the rights to upgrade to Vista as [...]

In case you’ve been living under a rock for the past few months, Microsoft has a small problem.  Not all manufacturers were happy about having Vista’s requirements lowered in order to support some lower end chips/chipsets from [...]

The “Vista Capable” class-action lawsuit has been a sore subject for Microsoft for some time now. Now the federal judge has ordered the CEO of Microsoft to testify in court. This is extremely embarrassing for the executive of a high [...]

A Microsoft Vice President complained to colleagues that he’d been “burned” by a laptop marked as ‘Vista Capable’. It’s just one embarrassing revelation in the latest batch of e-mails uncovered during ongoing legal action over the marketing campaign.

While the bashing of Vista and parent company Microsoft continue over the whole “Vista capable” debacle it seem another issue has arisen.  Even before Vista was out of the gate and way back in 2005 the operating system was already in trouble.

Newly released court documents confirm Microsoft relaxed its criteria for declaring a computer ‘Vista Capable’ after lobbying from Intel. The chipmaker complained that the original rules would exclude some of its products and cause lost business in the billions.

Microsoft lawyers have filed an official objection against a demand for the firm to use the Windows Update service to contact potential claimants in the ‘Vista Capable’ case. They’ve also outlined their arguments against the case itself.

The next Windows Update could double as a recruiting tool for disgruntled Vista users to join a class action suit. Or at least that’s the suggestion from the lawyers handling the case.
The case, which we reported on yesterday, involves customers who bought computers marked ‘Vista Capable’ but found this tag only applied to the [...]

Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer (pictured) is denying responsibility for the Vista Capable program. That’s the marketing scheme at the heart of an ongoing class action suit from disgruntled customers.
The legal actions started last year when a woman from Camano Island, Washington complained she’d been misled into buying a ‘Vista Capable’ machine which could only [...]

Microsoft should prepare to let more embarrassment fly.  The company filed an appeal in order to attempt to reverse a lower courts decision that the Vista Capable lawsuit would be allowed to continue.  That appeal has been denied and the case will now resume.

Jim Allchin, the former co-president of Microsoft’s Platforms and Service division has been subpoenaed in the Vista Capable class action lawsuit.  For those of you that haven’t been following the case, back in 2006 Microsoft came up with the idea that computers would be rated with two-tiers of performance when upgrading to Vista.  Those that could only run the most basic features would be “Vista Capable” and those that could handle all the features would be “Premium Ready.”