Vista or Zune?

I have been following the recent developements of Microsoft very closely, and
have been very excited about the stream of new products that are in the pipeline
-- Vista, Office 2007, Zune, Live services, etc...

In my eagerness, I opted to install Vista RC2 & Office 2007 on my machine --
which I must say has been a very enjoyable experience. Vista on my HP Pavilion
laptop installed smoothly, and recognized all drivers -- including the ones for
media controls. The remote control that's included in the laptop works smoothly
in MediaPlayer as well as Media Center.

I also have a Napster subscription, through which I have a considerable music
library. Ok fine -- I have some from the 1st generation of Napster as well...
:)

In my eagerness to use the Zune, I was willing to get rid of Napster and join
the "social" ... Pre-ordered the player, made a trip and fetched the
gadget today (Nov-14) itself... and came back home quite excited. Opened the
package. Sexy. Inserted the CD. Not sexy.

Zune does not currently support Vista.

The incompatibility is even more hard to fathom since every other program &
device I have do not have any issues with Vista.Napster, which is so tightly
embedded in DRM with the OS works just fine with Vista.

What's up with that? From what the tech-support guys told me... "they are
still working on security issues in Vista" ... And I'm like... "No
they are not... Vista hit production a few days back" .... And now I'm to
make a choice between the Zune & Vista... And I'm not very fond of Microsoft
for doing this. 

The more I think about it, the more I feel like returing the Zune for a full
refund and settling for the 3rd rate mp3 player. Having a 3rd rate player that
works on Vista makes me a lot happier than having to put up with this shoddy
treatment...

A patch will be released soon I believe...

I will see what I can find out about this and post it here. My "guess"
fwiw is that there must be an update coming (maybe timed with the official
Windows Vista launch?). But knowing what and when would be helpful.

[update] I found these minimum hardware requirements in the Zune release notes
(repopulated yesterday) at
http://www.zune.net/en-us/meetzune/software/releasenotes.htm:

The following hardware and software are required in order to use Zune software:

ComponentMinimum RequirementsOperating system

Microsoft© Windows© XP Home Edition Service Pack 2 (SP2), Windows XP
Professional SP2, Windows XP Tablet PC Edition SP2, or Windows XP Media Center
Edition 2005 with KB900325 (Rollup Update 2 for Windows XP Media Center Edition
2005).

In addition, go to Windows Update and install any high-priority updates that are
available for your computer.

Zune software is not currently supported on Windows XP Professional x64 Edition
or Windows Server (Windows Vista support is coming soon).Processor500 megahertz
(MHz) processor or better (1.5-gigahertz (GHz) or higher for video) RAM256
megabytes (MB) (512 MB or higher for video playback)Free hard disk space200 MB
or better Optical driveCD or DVD drive for audio playback (CD-R or CD-RW drive
for burning)NetworkInternet access (high-speed recommended)Video card

Video card with 32 MB of RAM (video RAM or VRAM) or better (64 MB VRAM and
Microsoft© DirectXE 9.0b or later for video)

For more information about DirectX, see the Microsoft DirectX Web site.Universal
Serial Bus (USB) interfaceUSB 1.1 (USB 2.0 or better for faster
synchronization)Internet browserMicrosoft Internet Explorer 6 or later (Internet
Explorer 7 recommended)

As Waggler said a patch will be forthcoming. Paul @ Modaco has a work around
mentioned here:

http://www.modaco.com/zunevista

Here is an excerpt:

Prerequisites

You need 3 things to carry out this process.

1. Zune CD - You need the CD that came with your Zune 
2. WinRAR - You need WinRAR installed, the trial version is fine. Get it here
3. My Zune.msi install patch - You need the all important installer patch, from
here:   zunevista.exe ( 351.97k ) Number of downloads: 14

Before we start

Usual caveats apply, if your PC / Zune blows up, don't blame me (but it's
working fine for me!)

The process itself is dead easy, and i've broken everything down to be as simple
as possible... so don't be daunted that there's a lot of steps (well, only 10!) 
I have UAC enabled on my Vista build(the default), if you don't, then you can
ignore any steps related to running things as an administrator. 

Finally, don't actually plug in your Zune until prompted to do so by the Zune
software.

Let's get started!

Instructions

1. Create a directory on your desktop called 'Zune'. You can delete this at the
end, it's a temporary storage area.
2. Copy the 'zunevista.exe' file you downloaded above to this new directory.
2. Put your Zune CD in the CD drive. In the 'Packages\ZUNE' directory you'll
find a file called 'Zune-x86-ENU.exe'. Copy that to the folder you just
created.
3. This bit is why you need WinRAR! Right click the file you've just copied, and
select 'Extract Here'.
4. You now have 'Zune.msi' right? Great! You can now delete 'Zune-x86-ENU.exe'.
5. Now we're going to patch the MSI to install on Vista using my patch. Double
click 'zunevista.exe'. You'll get prompted by Windows to allow the application
to run. Allow it 
6. You'll see the patch run, and it will tell you it's successfully completed.
Hurrah! You now have a Vista friendly zune.msi! You can delete zunevista.exe
now.

We now need to run the MSI, but with elevated permissions, which is a bit of a
pain. You can't just right click an MSI and do 'run as administrator', so you
have to jump through some hoops.

7. Click the 'start orb' or press the windows key, and type 'cmd'. You'll see
the cmd application is selected, but DON'T hit enter. Hit CTRL-SHIFT-ENTER
instead! You'll be instantly prompted for permission to run the application,
indicating that it will be running with elevated permissions.
8. We need to run the MSI now. Type the following
'C:\Users\Paul\Desktop\Zune\Zune.msi', obviously replacing the path as
appropriate for your configuration.

You'll now be led through the Zune setup! Hurrah! Just install as normal, and
when the install is finished... REBOOT. This is not an optional step, you MUST
do this!

There is only one step left now, and that is to set the Zune software itself to
run in XP Compatability mode. This is because MS have implemented an OS check in
the software.

9. Click the 'start orb' or press the windows key, and type 'Zune'. You'll see
the Zune application itself on the list - right click it, and select
'Properties'. Select the 'Compatability' tab and check 'Run this program in
compatability mode for'. Click OK.

That's it! You're done!  You can use the Desktop or Start Menu shortcut for Zune
to launch the software, and get syncing!

is there an x64-ENU.exe ? 

On Tue, 28 Nov 2006 20:03:17 +0000 (UTC), "fyiguy"  wrote: 

>In the 'Packages\ZUNE' directory you'll find a file called
'Zune-x86-ENU.exe'