Does ACT! Work With Vista, IE7 or Office 2007?

 Many of our clients are asking how Microsoft’s new program updates will affect their CRM installations.  This is an extremely important issue for our ACT! clients, as only the entry-level, retail  version of ACT! 2007 standard is currently compatible with Vista, but not yet with Office 2007 nor Internet Explorer 7 (IE7). 

As most of you know, Microsoft’s newest operating system, Vista, became availability to the public on Jan. 30, 2007, and replaces XP Pro, XP Media Center and XP Home editions.  There are four versions of Vista:  Home Basic, Home Premium, Business and Ultimate.  As with any new software release from any publisher, I strongly recommend caution in your consideration of a Vista upgrade.  Although this may be the most-tested new product from Microsoft, I personally do not intend to use Vista on any of our production systems prior to Microsoft’s release of service pack 1.  We will not be recommending nor supporting the Home Basic edition for any of our clients.  If you would like more details on Vista, visit: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/editions/default.mspx

 If you are using ACT 2007 Standard edition (maximum of 10 users), a Vista compatibility patch became available on www.act.com on Jan. 29.  Those clients using ACT 2007 Premium for Workgroups, ACT 2007 Premium for Web, ACT! Premium for Real Estate, ACT! for Palm, or ACT! Accounting Framework/Links, need to wait a bit longer to be able to move to Vista.  Act is developing updates to make these products compatible with Vista, Office 2007 and IE7, however release dates have not yet been specified.  For the latest information from ACT regarding Vista, visit www.act.com/vista2007 .   Act! is also be posting new minimum hardware requirements to support ACT in a Vista installation. 

 The official ACT position on Vista support for all versions of ACT prior to ACT2007, is that there will not be any updates or modifications. 

“ACT! 2006 and prior versions of ACT! are not compatible with the Windows Vista Operating System, Office 2007, or Internet Explorer 7.0. These products were developed and tested on prior Operating System versions. They will not be tested, upgraded, or supported for Windows Vista. This includes all versions of ACT!, ACT! Premium for Workgroups, ACT! Premium for Web, ACT! Premium for Real Estate, ACT! for Palm®, and ACT! Accounting Framework/Links (ACT! Link for Peachtree, ACT! Link for use with QuickBooks®, ACT! Link for BusinessWorks, and ACT! Link for Simply Accounting in the US and Canada).

 “Our current policy provides support for ACT! 2006 products with Windows XP SP2 and Windows 2000 SP4 operating systems. This policy also applies to earlier versions of other ACT! products, including ACT! Premium for Workgroups, ACT! Premium for Web, ACT! Premium for Real Estate, ACT! for Palm, and ACT! Accounting Framework/Links.  Current support plans will be honored only for prior ACT! versions that are running on the operating system supported at the time the product was released.“

Notwithstanding the official ACT! position, we have found that ACT2000, ACT5 and ACT6 do function with Vista, however no extensive testing has been done, so you may or may not encounter “issues.”  We have not tested ACT2005 or ACT2006 with Vista.  Our overall recommendation to ACT users is to delay Vista upgrades/installations.  If you need to acquire new computers, I recommend ordering “Vista ready” systems with at least 1GB of memory and the XP Pro operating system – most hardware vendors will also provide a no-charge Vista upgrade that you can install at a later time. 

If you have any questions, email support@computerevaluations.com or call 214-219-8607.