There has been quite a lot of discussion about Vista SP1, and it's been delayed by Microsoft concerns about impact on profits users.

I'm not sure that the effect on "third party programs" is as well-sorted as some of the reports have indicated.

Microsoft says (speaking from the left-facing face) that lots of things will be unusable after SP1.

Microsoft says (speaking from the right-facing face) that most things can be made to work, but may require reinstallation after SP1 is installed.

Microsoft says (speaking from the other-facing "face") that some things must be uninstalled before installing SP1 in order for reinstallation after SP1 is installed to be possible.

I hope that's all clear to everybody now....

Apparently Vista SP1 will disable quite a few "legacy drivers" and some programs.

Many of the older drivers can be reinstalled after SP1 is in place and can be "forced into working" but details are still scant.

For some of the programs it may be possible to reinstall after SP1 is in place, with setup to "'run as' in an earlier Windows version." This "run as" option has been around since Win2K and WinXP. It "sort of" worked in those programs, but there's little indication of how well it will work in Vista. It is likely that some programs that can be "run" may have some features disabled - i.e. they'll stagger and limp, and you can call it running if you wish.

The BBC list is probably up to date with current Microsoft information; but it's hard to tell which face they were talking to.

John