To Microsoft team....

I think that will be a good idea if you create a list in some where, may be your FAQ page, where you post the title of all programs that you have installed and that works fine in UMPCs. That will help a lot to all of us. You can start by your own Microsoft software if you like!

I'll add to this first post the programs that I found that have been tested by MS Origami Team.

•  Streets and Maps Thread
• Windows Media Player (OF Course!)Blog Post
• Hexic Deluxe According to this Thread
• Zoo Tycoon 2, according to this video

ctitanic:

To Microsoft team....

I think that will be a good idea if you create a list in some where, may be your FAQ page, where you post the title of all programs that you have installed and that works fine in UMPCs. That will help a lot to all of us. You can start by your own Microsoft software if you like!

Considering that these devices run full versions of Windows that would be one long list; there are millions if not billions of programs that run on windows.

 

-Andrew K.

 

ctitanic,

Yes, don't forget that this is running a version of Windows XP similar, if not almost identical to the one that you are probably using on a regular or laptop PC. However, I have heard talk of UMPC-optimized applications. Is this what you are referring to?

Regards,
Dustin

andrewk:

ctitanic:

To Microsoft team....

I think that will be a good idea if you create a list in some where, may be your FAQ page, where you post the title of all programs that you have installed and that works fine in UMPCs. That will help a lot to all of us. You can start by your own Microsoft software if you like!

Considering that these devices run full versions of Windows that would be one long list; there are millions if not billions of programs that run on windows.

 

-Andrew K.

 

 

Considering that the screen resolution is just 800x480 that list could be a lot less than what you think. If you add to that that UMPC use DirectX 8, you will have another lot of programs that wont be able to run on this one, add to that that they have a processor that it's not that powerful like the one in Desktop PCs and you will have another bunch of applications that you wont be able to use. ;)

Microsoft does not have that much of applications so they could start by giving us an idea of what can be used and what not and from there we can guess looking at what did not work what other applications probably wont work because are the same type or use the same resources.

In Otto's video, he was asked, does Adobe Photoshop run in these devices? And he did not answer that question clearly. Instead he said, some applications will have more sence to be used in these devices than others. Did you get my point?

Yes, that's very true...thanks for pointing that out, I forgot all about it.

While some simple applications can be altered to work with that resolution, it is near impossible to change complex applications and games to support an earlier version of DirectX.

I now see your point, and I, too, would like to see such a list of compatible software.

Thanks again,
Dustin

dezack:

ctitanic,

Yes, don't forget that this is running a version of Windows XP similar, if not almost identical to the one that you are probably using on a regular or laptop PC. However, I have heard talk of UMPC-optimized applications. Is this what you are referring to?

Regards,
Dustin

That's part of what I'm talking about but the other part is that some applications wont run at all due to the screen resolution unless the auto-scalling feature is good enough to fool the installation setup. In another hand the CPU is another concern that I have. Some of current applications needs a powerful enough CPU to run. Some applications need the latest version of DirectX. Some applications do not work well with touch screens... So there a lot of facts in these devices that could make that a program wont work at all on it even when they use Windows XP.

ctitanic:

dezack:

ctitanic,

Yes, don't forget that this is running a version of Windows XP similar, if not almost identical to the one that you are probably using on a regular or laptop PC. However, I have heard talk of UMPC-optimized applications. Is this what you are referring to?

Regards,
Dustin

That's part of what I'm talking about but the other part is that some applications wont run at all due to the screen resolution unless the auto-scalling feature is good enough to fool the installation setup. In another hand the CPU is another concern that I have. Some of current applications needs a powerful enough CPU to run. Some applications need the latest version of DirectX. Some applications do not work well with touch screens... So there a lot of facts in these devices that could make that a program wont work at all on it even when they use Windows XP.

I would recommend looking at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/umpc/software.mspx you can see software designed specifically for the UMPC.

 

-Andrew K.

 

dezack:

While some simple applications can be altered to work with that resolution...

Some old applications and games can work easily in 800x600 but I don't think that they will if the screen resolution is 800x480 that is completely a none standard resolution. So, for me would be very good if Microsoft team post some screen shots of the auto-scaling and they talk a little bit about how it works. One image worth 1000 words. One video = 1 million :-)

andrewk:

ctitanic:

dezack:

ctitanic,

Yes, don't forget that this is running a version of Windows XP similar, if not almost identical to the one that you are probably using on a regular or laptop PC. However, I have heard talk of UMPC-optimized applications. Is this what you are referring to?

Regards,
Dustin

That's part of what I'm talking about but the other part is that some applications wont run at all due to the screen resolution unless the auto-scalling feature is good enough to fool the installation setup. In another hand the CPU is another concern that I have. Some of current applications needs a powerful enough CPU to run. Some applications need the latest version of DirectX. Some applications do not work well with touch screens... So there a lot of facts in these devices that could make that a program wont work at all on it even when they use Windows XP.

I would recommend looking at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/umpc/software.mspx you can see software designed specifically for the UMPC.

 

-Andrew K.

that's good but no enough. For example, if Office runs fine that give me an idea that OpenOffice should work fine too. Street and Maps is not a heavy program so I can't use that as a reference to say for example that Google Earth will work.

I agree with you all in most cases, but even if Photoshop runs well, it should, it's barely unusable on a 800x480res as it's at 800x600res. Also controlling PS with other than a mouse/keyboard is really unpracticable. I'm a PS pro, using it daily for work, installed it on my Vaio U once, but it didn't last 2 days and it was removed. I think the UMPCs with 800x480res will created some new kind of software, specialize for the specific res, as it was for those 800x480 WinCe devices. Besides, why one shouldn't be able to update to DirectX 9 or 10?

Floodguy:

I agree with you all in most cases, but even if Photoshop runs well, it should, it's barely unusable on a 800x480res as it's at 800x600res. Also controlling PS with other than a mouse/keyboard is really unpracticable. I'm a PS pro, using it daily for work, installed it on my Vaio U once, but it didn't last 2 days and it was removed. I think the UMPCs with 800x480res will created some new kind of software, specialize for the specific res, as it was for those 800x480 WinCe devices. Besides, why one shouldn't be able to update to DirectX 9 or 10?

thats the real question on my mind. what if i install direct x9c

like will it blow up? im not understanding that, is it a limit on the processor?

KJohn:

Floodguy:

I agree with you all in most cases, but even if Photoshop runs well, it should, it's barely unusable on a 800x480res as it's at 800x600res. Also controlling PS with other than a mouse/keyboard is really unpracticable. I'm a PS pro, using it daily for work, installed it on my Vaio U once, but it didn't last 2 days and it was removed. I think the UMPCs with 800x480res will created some new kind of software, specialize for the specific res, as it was for those 800x480 WinCe devices. Besides, why one shouldn't be able to update to DirectX 9 or 10?

thats the real question on my mind. what if i install direct x9c

like will it blow up? im not understanding that, is it a limit on the processor?

KJohn,

I think it is mostly related to the sound/graphics board/driver. As long as one is able to update their sound and graphics driver to most latest ones, Direct X will use those features from newer versions. In case of Vaio U (was DirectX 8), I'm able to update my graphics driver (Intel) but I'm not able to update my sound driver cause SoundMAX does not provide updates to enduser only to vendors. And they're sticking with that. A different Vaio model I bought last year had the same sound board with a newer version, so I did used that on my Vaio U too. Worked well.

Now Sony has different sound boards, so there is a stop here in updating drivers. :-(

 

Floodguy:

why one shouldn't be able to update to DirectX 9 or 10?

Could be that the processor is no powerful enough for these two latest version of it. I don't know the answer to this question but I believe that the answer is relative to the hardware configuration in these devices. That's one of the reasons why I opened this thread. MS team knows about it but has not participated yet and I believe that the main reason is because their test devices have been reassigned to one more important area: Marketing!

Well, I should remind Microsoft that the earlier adopters of these devices are going to be no the "beauty housewife" neither the important "VP". The earlier adopters are going to be IT professionals and geeks and if they do not have clear of how good these devices are, just few of them will risk their money in this first generation. These earlier adopters are the continuation of their marketing campaign; they are the ones that are going to post reviews (objective reviews) everywhere in the NET. I was talking yesterday with one guy from one of the online stores taking pre orders and he told me that they are having a hard time doing that, and it seems to me that the main reason is because the potential earlier adopters do not have a clear picture of what good these devices are going to be in the real world. The idea of paying 1000 dollars to do some browsing, show pictures and draw with Paint is not really appealing. We need to know more about practical uses for these devices. What programs have they tested, what are the limitations beside the screen resolution? How good the auto-scaling is? Can programs like Photo shop be used in a bigger resolution using the Auto-Scaling feature?

If MS team demonstrates us here how well these devices are going around some of the limitations that we can "guess" they have I really believe that they are going to see an explosion of units sold in this first wave.

I hope that they are reading these lines and learning from the real world what the market is expecting, something that could be far away from Otto's fantasies ;-) Now is the best time to learn from US real users what are our needs ;-)

ctitanic:

To Microsoft team....

I think that will be a good idea if you create a list in some where, may be your FAQ page, where you post the title of all programs that you have installed and that works fine in UMPCs. That will help a lot to all of us. You can start by your own Microsoft software if you like!

I think a list of compatible programs would be entirely too cumbersome and difficult to produce.  It's a given that the reduced h/w components in the UMPC will not likely run heavy programs like PhotoShop or some games.  As for the reduced display resolution compatibility, Microsoft has released a free UMPC display emulator so developers and end-users can determine if their programs will display properly at the UMPC resolutions.  It is true that some programs (very few in my experience) check for a minimum resolution of 800x600 before allowing an install.  It would be far simpler to start a list in these forums where members can add problem programs as they are encountered.  I must state that I have personally seen very few programs that fit this description.