What is Windows Vista?
Vista is Microsoft's latest operating system.  It's the replacement for Windows XP.  The primary focus of Windows Vista is tighter security, but it also has a more modern looking interface, better multimedia features and additional maintenance utilities.  Click here to go to Microsoft's Vista web site for full details.

Should I Upgrade to Vista?
Instead of upgrading a current PC, most people will experience Vista on a new PC that comes with it already installed.  It's best not to upgrade an existing PC.  Besides requiring a lot more RAM and processor capabilities, you never know if your PC that was "designed for Windows XP" will truly run better with Vista.  While Vista appears to have some pretty neat features - for consumers and not necessarily for an appraisal business - past experience has shown that upgrading a system's core operating system is quite traumatic and fraught with unknowns.  Our advice is to avoid downtime and stick with the operating system your PC came with.

Is WinTOTAL Aurora Compatible with Vista?
There are only a handful of issues you may encounter when running Aurora on Vista. As a matter of fact, the vast majority of people probably won't notice anything different except for some additional Vista security prompts when you first run WinTOTAL. If you rely on Pocket TOTAL or Quickbooks, you'll definitely want to see compatibility issues posted on http://www.alamode.com/aurorastatus/vista.aspx.

Likewise, if you're installing Aurora on new Vista PC, we suggest downloading the latest installer from the My Downloads section of your account at http://www.alamode.com/myaccount instead of using an older CD.

Is the Older Athena Version Compatible with Vista?
Athena, which is the older version of WinTOTAL, was designed for Windows XP and will not be upgraded to operate on Vista.  The main problem with Vista and Athena starts with Vista's new User Account Control (UAC) feature.  Vista UAC changes the way every application interacts with Windows, so we'd have to rewrite a lot of Athena's core components just to begin making it work. (We already had a lot of these changes in place when we designed Aurora in 2005!)   Since we're not testing Athena with Vista, our staff will not be able to troubleshoot Athena-Vista compatibility issues.  Appraisers that still prefer Athena will simply need to stick with XP on their existing and future PC's.