Partners are annoyed by the abundance of software and hardware incompatibilities surfacing as Windows Vista is deployed to more early adopters.
The Redmond, Wash., software giant launched Vista and a companion update called Windows Vista Application Compatibility Update to the market on Jan 30.

That update, KB929427, handles some of the more problematic application incompatibilities, but the nightmare is far from over, partners say.

It's typical for these conflicts to appear shortly after an operating system is released. The big problem with Vista is not only the number of incompatibilities with existing applications but also the lack of drivers for critical hardware components and hardware peripherals, partners say.

One partner said he is surprised by the lack of Vista drivers available for basic hardware components that keep a PC running.

"Customers upgrading Vista in place may find getting support for existing hardware very challenging," said Phil Aldrich, North American Microsoft Practice Manager for Dimension Data North America, a $3.1 billion solution provider.

"Tons of vendors haven't done Vista drivers and that's left a big hole in support. I can understand when it comes to printers and scanners, but when we're talking about hard drives, chipset controllers and video cards, things that run the PC, it's surprising," he said. "It's not just peripherals but primary component manufacturers aren't ready, and that unusual compared to the previous releases [of Windows]."

According to various solution providers contacted by CRN, here are the 10 biggest problems faced by early adopters of Vista out of the gate:

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Rest of the list for "Top 10 Annoying Vista Problems" can be found here:

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