Comments on: Vista: Issues and Struggles Abound Even in New Installations

By: Larry Newby

Larry Newby — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 20:32:14 +0000

I just spent over an hour talking to various departments at VISA/Bank of America/FIA CardServices. The second time through tech support I found out that ShopSafe is only supported in the web-based version. The download has been removed, although the link is still there to download it on the ibsnetaccess web site. Attempting to do so gives an activex error. The tech support rep said they removed the download application because there were too many security holes. He didn’t know that they would ever have a replacement, or why the link is still there. Meanwhile, he says the web version is all there is, and that information must be manually entered in the merchant’s forms, as they do not allow copy/paste for security reasons.

Bob Responds: Thanks for that info, Larry! On the plus side, around October 1, 2007 I noticed that the web-based version of ShopSafe got a major update and now works great with both IE7 and FoxFire 2.0. There’s that, at least.

By: Robert

Robert — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 14:42:53 +0000

User Account Control is driving me nuts! I use a directory tree as a skeleton for operation manuals. I change directory names frequently and UAC randomly puts the brakes on my productivity by telling me I don't have permission. Is there a way to take command of this feature or do I have to go back to XP? Bob responds: I'm rather surprised that the UAC intervenes when you're simply renaming a directory. It's possible that it's doing so because you're renaming something under a privileged folder like Program Files, or under a directory with sufficiently limited permissions attached to it, or under a user account with sufficiently limited permissions. In your situation I would check permissions on that folder tree and make sure the user you're logged in as has full permissions; if that doeesn't work, do the (not recommended best security practice per Microsoft) and make sure you're logged in as a user with Administrator privileges. If the UAC still gets in the way of your work, then I'd simply turn the UAC feature off. In that situation you're no worse off than you'd be with XP, security-wise. There are several ways to disable UAC, check this link out. I'd recommend the "control panel" method for most users.

By: frank

frank — Sat, 07 Apr 2007 16:38:35 +0000

same problem with XP Home and IE7
Any fix for this out there yet??

Bob responds: I don’t think so. We phoned the bank that produces Shop Safe and got the typical dull, sleepy support person who said we just need to use IE6. When we pointed out that IE7 is our only choice in Vista, and in any case we shouldn’t be expected to back-grade a major system component just to suit them, she had to admit that we had a point there. But she could not provide any specific plans or timetables for a fix.

My guess is they will fix it eventually, unless they are so uncommitted to ShopSafe for some reason that they intend to just let it die. Currently, 15% of IE users visiting this blog are running IE7; if that number grows much more, they will sense the hoards beating on their doors demanding a fix.

Oh, and I don’t see any kind of accommodation from the Microsoft side. They have so much hubris that (for example) when Vista’s Picture Gallery broke the RAW file format of some manufacturer’s digital cameras, rather than fix this Microsoft “urged the manufacturers to update their drivers”.