Microsoft® has recently launched a new operating system, Windows Vista, which it has made available in five editions (Home Basic; Home Premium; Ultimate; Business; and Enterprise).

Avery Weigh-Tronix (AWTX) distributors and customers have requested a clear statement of our position in respect of our software compatibility with Vista and our support for customer installations where Vista is in use.

The experience to date in our software development labs and within our own company environment shows that there are significant issues with the use of Vista in all but the most basic commercial applications. We have encountered instances where Microsoft’s own products fail to interoperate correctly within a Vista environment. Microsoft is actively addressing a number of issues and we await the release of a number of software patches and upgrades.

For the time being, the recommended and supported versions for PCs and laptops used by customers to run software products supplied by AWTX will continue to be Windows XP. AWTX software products remain fully supported under Windows XP. Microsoft has committed to support Windows XP until 2014.

AWTX will make best endeavours in due course to achieve compatibility where possible for each of its software products with the various editions of Vista. The availability and timescale for statements of compatibility will be determined by the nature of the individual AWTX product and the interaction between the product, its components and Vista itself.

In the absence of compatibility statements for an individual AWTX software product with a specific Vista edition, if users choose to install or use that product on a platform with Vista installed, then they should be aware that it will be unsupported by AWTX customer services.

AWTX will be sending out further announcements regarding Vista over the next few months.