Friday, November 17, 2006
Zune Software Not Supported by 64-bit Windows XP
Posted by Jason Dunn in "Zune Software" @ 05:00 PM
"A buddy of mine today went to MicroCenter in Boston and picked up a Zune player. I cautioned him beforehand, but until Apple releases a wide-screen or larger display iPod for video playback, he went for the Zune. He got it home - and no dice, it doesn't work with his 64-bit XP. We knew about Vista, but this was a new, friendly development. He called Zune support, got a real Microsoft employee (not someone in India, etc.) and was told, "This was coded very rapidly, so not all the newest OS versions are supported. We have no answer for you. Your operating system is not supported at this time." Microsoft made the Zune (kinda), and they make various OS. It would make sense for them to support their own operating systems. But they didn't. They rushed it out the door. If they held off and did it right, they might have had a decent chance with this thing. If people have so many problems with the player, OSs, the Zune software, legacy media formats, etc. how do you expect to get a solid foothold, even in order to come out with 2 dot 0?"
More ugly news. I wasn't terribly surprised that the Zune software didn't work on beta versions of Vista, but I was fully expecting a new version of the Zune software to be released on the 14th and it would support Vista. You have to figure that the bits on the CD in the Zune box was finished and shipped to the factory sometime in August or September. So it not supporting Vista makes sense, even if it's a bit ugly that the early adopter-types, the ones running the Vista beta, are also the ones who are likely to rush out and buy the Zune on the opening day. What doesn't make sense is that Vista has now RTM'd, and will be available for download on MSDN any day now - yet there's still no software release in sight. XP 64-bit isn't mainstream consumer, but it's certainly been out for quite some time and the lack of support for this is more than a little surprising. Why is the Zune team having so much trouble supporting Microsoft operating systems?
More ugly news. I wasn't terribly surprised that the Zune software didn't work on beta versions of Vista, but I was fully expecting a new version of the Zune software to be released on the 14th and it would support Vista. You have to figure that the bits on the CD in the Zune box was finished and shipped to the factory sometime in August or September. So it not supporting Vista makes sense, even if it's a bit ugly that the early adopter-types, the ones running the Vista beta, are also the ones who are likely to rush out and buy the Zune on the opening day. What doesn't make sense is that Vista has now RTM'd, and will be available for download on MSDN any day now - yet there's still no software release in sight. XP 64-bit isn't mainstream consumer, but it's certainly been out for quite some time and the lack of support for this is more than a little surprising. Why is the Zune team having so much trouble supporting Microsoft operating systems?
