Microsoft Co-Prez Warned Colleagues 'Vista Capable' Was Misleading

Senior executives inside the software maker questioned a decision to lower hardware specs for Vista PCs, e-mails show.
By Paul McDougall November 18, 2008

Former Microsoft co-president Jim Allchin called the company's decision to allow PC manufacturers to label machines not capable of running all of Windows Vista's features as Vista Capable "terrible" and "misleading," according to new e-mails unearthed Monday as part of a consumer fraud suit against the company. "I believe we are going to be misleading customers with the Capable program," Allchin wrote in an e-mail to a group of Microsoft product executives. PC makers "will say a machine is Capable and customers will believe that it will run all the core Vista features," wrote Allchin, in the April, 2006 message. Other e-mails entered earlier as evidence in the case show that Microsoft had previously lowered the specifications for a Vista Capable PC in order to appease Intel, whose 915 graphics chipset was not capable of running Vista's slick, 3-D Aero interface. "The fact that Aero won't be there EVER for many of these machines is misleading to customers," wrote Allchin, who retired from Microsoft as soon as Vista debuted in January of 2007. He added that he felt the Vista Capable program was "wrong for customers." The e-mails have been entered into evidence in a class action lawsuit that accuses Microsoft of deceptive marketing practices. The plaintiffs contend that Microsoft intentionally duped customers by advertising as Vista Capable computers that lacked the horsepower to fully support Vista.

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