Adobe has published an interminable list containing the products that do not support Windows Vista. While Windows Vista has been in the making for five years and it has been released to manufacturing since 2006, there are software developers including Adobe and Apple that have completely ignored the operating system. If you want to swap your Windows XP for Windows Vista then you have to take into account that the vast majority of Adobe products do not support Windows Vista.

No less than 35 Adobe applications either do not support Windows Vista at all or simply do not deliver official support. In fact, it will be a great deal easier to tell you what Adobe products actually support Windows Vista, since they are only three. Photoshop Elements 5.0.2, Adobe Premiere Elements 3.0.2 and Flash Player 9 are the only Adobe applications that fully support Windows Vista. You can also add Acrobat 3D (version 8) that is expected in spring 2007 and that will support Windows Vista. And that's it!

Well, not actually. The fact of the matter is that Adobe has separated the rest of the products in two categories, the ones that deliver zero-support and the ones that will function, but not quite with Windows Vista.

"All Adobe products available as of January 30, 2007 were released before Windows Vista became publicly available and so have not been fully designed for or tested on this new operating system. However, many of those products run under Window Vista with minimal issues," Adobe explained.

FlashPaper 2, Contribute 3 and 4, Fireworks 8, Dreamweaver 8, Flash Professional or Basic 8, Studio 8, Adobe Audition 2.0, Adobe Encore DVD 2.0, Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0, Adobe After Effects Professional 7.0 and Standard 7.0, Adobe Production Studio, InCopy CS2, GoLive CS2, Illustrator CS2, Photoshop Lightroom 1.0, Photoshop CS2, InDesign CS2, Adobe Creative Suite 2.3, Acrobat Connect Professional, Acrobat 8 Professional and Standard and Adobe Reader 8 are all products that do not offer official support for Windows Vista.

Adobe's take in this aspect is that all the products mentioned above install and run with some known issues on Windows Vista. The company has revealed that it is preparing updates that will be released throughout the first half of 2007 in order to resolve compatibility issues.

"Adobe has an extensive portfolio of products, each with different schedules for fully supporting Windows Vista. For example, Adobe has already released free updates to Adobe Photoshop Elements (version 5.0.2) and Adobe Premiere Elements (version 3.0.2) to deliver full compatibility with Windows Vista, and it currently plans to release a free update to Adobe Acrobat 8 and Adobe Reader 8 in the first half of 2007 to support Windows Vista. On the other hand, Adobe is already preparing to release the next versions of its professional creative products, including Adobe Photoshop, InDesign, Dreamweaver, Flash, and After Effects, in the Spring and Summer 2007 and does not plan to issue updates to current versions of those products for Windows Vista compatibility," Adobe revealed via a FAQ.

And then there are the products that do not support Windows Vista, and that Adobe will not update in consequence. Acrobat 7 and earlier versions, Acrobat 3D (version 7.0), Adobe Creative Suite 2, Adobe Creative Suite 1.x, Earlier versions of Creative Suite components, Ultra 2, DV Rack HD 2, Vlog It!, Ovation, Earlier versions of Adobe video software, Earlier versions of Studio or related software, PageMaker and FreeHand are the applications Adobe does not support for Vista and that the company recommends not to be installed on the operating system.