Last week, my fax machine died. I decided I’d buy the biggest and fanciest all-in-one fax/scanner/printer/copier that I could find, so I’d never be stranded without some feature. I wanted something that could connect directly to the network, so I could use all the features when I had my laptop disconnected from the docking station.

After reading through many reviews, I decided on the HP OfficeJet 7410 All-in-One. It sounded very cool–through software, I can scan and fax across the network. Staples had it on sale, so I ran to the nearest outlet. I was relieved to see a big cardboard sign on the printer that said, “Ready for Vista!” Sure, Vista was released about five months ago, but not every vendor has released updates for compatibility, so finding Vista compatibility was important.

So, I buy one and hook it up at home. I open up HP’s website to grab the latest drivers, and I see:

At this time there is not a downloadable full-feature Windows Vista driver solution available for your product.

The short-term driver solution is included in your Windows Vista Operating system and is already on your computer. There is no need to download anything at this time. This driver makes it possible to use the basic functions for the printer and can be used until the full-feature driver is available.

So, it’s kinda ready for Vista. Not really. I can print to it across the network, but I can’t scan. If I’d wanted that, I could have spent about $200 less. Oh, and the printing drivers are a little buggy–the duplexing feature doesn’t work correctly (the back side of the paper is always printed incorrectly.) That was an expensive feature that’ll go useless now, too.

Well, on the upside, I can scan to a memory card. So, for the time being, I’ll fall back 20 years to a sneaker-foot network.

The software works okay (not great–I had to install it twice) on my wife’s Windows XP computer. She won’t let me upgrade it to Vista because she’s concerned about compatibility problems–is she crazy, or what?!

Lots of apps check the operating system during installation to make sure the version of Windows is supported. This is designed to prevent the user from installing it in an old version of Windows that doesn’t have the necessary files or features. Sometimes, however, it’ll also block a new version of Windows–such as Windows Vista.

Fortunately, you can configure a program to run in compatibility mode, which causes Windows Vista to lie about the version of Windows. To trick a program (usually a Setup file) into thinking you’ve got Windows XP, follow these steps:

1. Right-click the program and then click Properties.

2. Click the Compatibility tab.

3. Select the Run this program in compatibility mode for check box. Then, select Windows XP (Service Pack 2) from the list.

4. Select the Run this program as an administrator check box (just to help further reduce compatibility problems).

4. Click OK.

Now, re-run the program. It should work this time.