Microsoft deliberately blocking disc burning software in Vista, claims Alcohol

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Tim Gaden14 September 2006, 12:52 PM

It's no coincidence that none of the major DVD burning apps work properly in Vista yet: Microsoft is blocking the drivers needed for them to work, according to Alcohol Soft, the company behind the popular Alcohol 120%.


cd-drive.jpgTo their own frustration and to the frustration of their users, big CD/DVD burning companies Roxio, Alcohol and Ahead Software (makers of Nero) are facing a huge problem in getting their software packages to work with Vista.

According to Alcohol Soft, the maker of Alcohol 52% and 120%, Microsoft is blocking its ability to ensure compatibility:

They have actually placed a hard block on the device drivers for the time being, to stop the virtual drives from loading. It is more than likely in place to help them beta test Vista without having reports from beta users regarding virtual drives, which might complicate things. We are working with them at the moment to ensure there are no incompatibility problems in the future.

As a result, "As of this time Alcohol 120% will not work in Windows Vista Beta, although we do hope to support it once we get past the RC1 release and further," Alcohol Soft says.

Roxio and Nero cannot be definite about the compatibility of their product either. Roxio says that

EMC Version 9 is Vista compatible, but Vista is a moving target, so we can't assure 100% compatibility until after Vista is final and released. We may have to release an update at that time, but we are committed to doing so if necessary.

Nero is "currently working on" reliable compatibility but could not commit to anything more definite "at this stage".

However, Vista RC1 users report that Deep Burner (shareware) and ImgBurn (donation-ware) are working.

APC gave Microsoft ten days to provide a response to Alcohol Soft's claim, but at the time of publication, it still hadn't responded since its initial acknowledgement of the enquiry.

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Evan:

It is BETA Windows and it has no obligations to ensure that select programs are able to work on it. These companies should get over themselves they dont own Windows.

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hapbt:

The fact that Deep Burner and ImgBurn work fine, without modification, makes you wonder where the problem really lies. Alcohol soft might have some issues because of their use of often insane and bizarre copy-protection (which is ironic, since their product exists to bypass copy protection), and Roxio's issues may stem from not having updated their burning engine since Adaptec owned it many years ago (do they have programmers at Roxio???)

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Tyler Durden:

This is only the beginning; you'll be able to fill a hard drive with the number of programs and content that the TCPA/DRM scheme in Vista is going to block.

Screw Vista.

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cyber_rigger:

Don't use Vista.

Linux disk burning software works fine.

To burn an ISO
just right click and pick write to disk.

http://tinyurl.com/o8apw

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Mr. Poster aka Eric:

Simple do not up grade, get over it.

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kingsmeadow:

Contrary to what you read imgburn and deepburn DO NOT install on Vista64

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Jonathon:

Windows Vista has been a big disappointment in my opinion.

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Renegade:

Jonathon, most people would agree with you. But lets just wait for the final thing to be released before we make harsh judgement.

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Tony Brown:

Mmmmmmmmm Have just bought XPHome about a year ago :)Seems to be working well enough now (after 4 reloads and 5 formats) that I think I'll keep it for awhile. I might just let the roaring lion of Vista sleep till they get it right. Then again I may move over to Linux. But I still miss Win98Se which was a real clunker but I had no problems with !!!! Funny that what :)
Cya down the pub sometimes :):)

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james:

Why is everybody putting windows vista down. i have been using windows vista for a while and think it is the best version of windows that microsoft has made. driver and program incompatibility is normal, it's a beta ofc there are going to be some incompatibilities, this was the case with XP too.

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joe:

hi,as somebody said earlier-screw vista,i am already halfway over to linux and if microsoft makes it harder and harder for me,then i will move completly to linux.

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