"C.B." <notreallyc.b.mullen@windowslive.com> wrote in message
news:48D9DD3D-56B7-419C-AE48-37B532E91C97@microsoft.com...
>
>
> "Gordon" <gbplinux******.com.invalid> wrote in message
> news:g0hu8r$2p8$1@news.mixmin.net...
>> "Ramesh, MS-MVP" <ramesh@unknownhost> wrote in message
>> news:Oj85rKrtIHA.4952@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
>>>Windows Vista Help: Restore a backup created on a previous version of
>>>Windows:
>>>http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Win...ca1ab1033.mspx
>>
>>
>> That's all very well, but WHY did MS make ALL their included backup
>> utilities incompatible with each other? Why should someone NEED to
>> download another utility just to restore backups made with MS Backup
>> utilities?
>
>
> If Microsoft made all their new and/or advanced software backwards
> compatible with previous Microsoft software and third party software the
> OS would be so bloated and complicated nobody would want to use it.
> Vista is already bloated. Why make it more so? I certainly wouldn't
> want an OS that crashed constantly due to conflicts caused by the
> complexity of the OS itself.
> The solution is simple. Download the utility you need.

Sorry, that's utter rubbish. Office 2007 will open files created in ALL the
previous versions.
You don't have to download a utility to enable Word 2007 to open Word 95
files.
Surely SOMEONE at MS should have realised that many people, when prompted to
upgrade to the next version of Windows, were going to use the in-built
backup utility to backup their data before upgrading?
It's nothing to do with bloat, and ALL to do with total un-joined up
thinking and complete lack of common sense and planning.
Which is one reason I don't touch the in-built MS backup functions with a
barge pole.