Blackboard and Windows Vista

Many computer manufacturers are now delivering new computer systems with Windows Vista pre-installed, so you may be wondering if Blackboard CE is compatible with Windows Vista. Here’s what Blackboard support has indicated:

Blackboard has been conducting ongoing tests with Beta versions of the MS Vista product as part of the MS Beta program for some time now. However, there are often substantial differences between Beta software packages from Microsoft and their final versions. ...Microsoft's own early certification program kicked off only 3 weeks ago with the intention of getting their partners (Blackboard included) certified within 90 days of the release of Vista. Bb is not alone in this program as Apple, Adobe, SAP, and other vendors are all still working to certify and update their applications to accommodate the Vista OS.

So until we can complete certification by going through a full QA test cycle with the final version of MS Vista we can’t say that MS Vista is certified or compatible to use when running any version of Blackboard Academic Suite. Once Bb has certified this new operating system, a Support Bulletin will be issued on Behind the Blackboard and the associated end user documentation will be updated.

In some preliminary testing by Ed Tech Center staff, we found the following problems when using Windows Vista and Blackboard CE 6. We suspect there will be additional issues discovered as we test further.

For the testing we used Windows Vista Enterprise with Aero scheme, both Internet Explorer 7 with Java 1.5.0_06 and Firefox 2.0.0.1 with Java 1.5.0._06.

The following is a summary and each item and with the exception of number 6, the issues should be obvious and reproducible. Overall, we didn’t experience problems doing typical “user” activities, such as using the Mail tool, the Calendar tool, viewing content, and so on.

1. WebDAV does not work.
2. Webfolders do not work.
3. Get Files (to upload files) displays only one line of files in IE7 with Java 1.5.0_06. However, it works when using Firefox.
4. The Windows Vista Aero screen mode changes to Vista Basic View after logging in to Blackboard CE.
5. PowerPoint slideshows display in PowerPoint 2007 (when installed) but not within the Blackboard browser window.
6. There are intermittent buggy screen displays such as when the left menu completely covers the screen from left to right.

more information becomes available, we’ll pass it on.