Microsoft Going to Trial Over Misleading Windows Vista Marketing

When Microsoft first announced that Vista would come in a wide variety of flavors, each with different capabilities, observers cried foul. Now that decision is coming back to haunt Microsoft, as a judge has given the go-ahead for a lawsuit over the company's "Windows Vista Capable" ads and stickers. The trial starts in October.

You might have one of these on your own PC. Microsoft encouraged their use widely on computers sold before the January rollout of Vista, in order to assure consumers that the computer they were getting would be able to run the new OS when it arrived. The problem: Pretty much every PC sold got one of those stickers, leading to a number of complaints when Vista arrived. People who'd bought budget machines with minimal RAM, a slow CPU, and no graphics card soon found that they could only install the pathetic Vista Home Basic, which has few of the nifty features that made Vista even remotely enticing in the first place.

Microsoft's defense is that its "Vista Premium Ready" campaign should have made clear the differences between the Basic and Premium versions of the OS. However, in defense of the people filing this lawsuit, I saw very few of those Premium stickers in the early days of Vista... and really, "Windows Vista Capable" is awfully misleading. Why not "Vista Basic Ready"? Doesn't sound so snappy, does it...

The full lawsuit can be found here (PDF), and it is currently seeking class action status. If you bought a "Vista Capable" PC that could only run Vista Home Basic and you want recourse from Microsoft, contact the law firm representing the plaintiff by sending an email to the contact noted on this page. (Bear in mind, though: These cases are usually settled out of court, and the plaintiffs usually end up getting a coupon of some sort for their trouble. Meh.)

LINK: Judge Says 'Windows Vista Capable' Lawsuit Can Proceed