Adobe Creative Suite 3 is not supported on Microsoft Vista Home Basic. The product was not tested on Vista Home Basic. If through the course of normal troubleshooting it is revealed that the problem is because of a limitation of the OS and not the application, then Adobe Technical Support may not be able to resolve the issue.
In other words, “Hey! You in the polyester pants with the fanny pack! We don’t serve your kind here.”
Seriously, this is a technically unjustifiable decision. Windows Vista Home Basic is exactly the same as Home Premium, minus some high-end digital media features. Media Center is not included, nor is DVD Maker. Of course, those features are missing in Vista Business as well, which is supported by Adobe. So that can’t be the problem. The version of Movie Maker in Home Basic doesn’t support HD content, and you can’t add themes to photo slide shows. Of course, Vista Business doesn’t have Movie Maker at all has the exact same limitations.
So what’s the single remaining technical difference between Home Basic and the rest of the Vista family? Ah. It doesn’t display advanced Aero effects such as transparent window borders and thumbnail previews on the taskbar. That’s it.
Now take a look at the system requirements for Photoshop CS3:
Microsoft® Windows® XP with Service Pack 2 or Windows Vista™ Home Premium, Business, Ultimate, or Enterprise (certified for 32-bit editions)
Let me get this straight. Any edition of Windows XP with Service Pack 2 is supported, including XP Home. None of them have Aero’s whizzy advanced effects, and Adobe is OK with that. But not Vista Home Basic? That makes no sense at all. As far as PhotoShop is concerned, the graphics engine in Vista is identical in every edition.
So let me get this straight, Adobe is saying that the problem is that they didn’t test CS3 on Vista Home Basic, but through troubleshooting, they may be able to reveal that a limitation of Vista Home Basic caused the lack of testing, and Adobe may therefore not be able to test it. It is because of this lack of testing, or the inability to test it if they wanted to, that prevents Adobe from supporting Creative Suite 3 on Windows Vista Home Basic. It’s all making sense now.
Adobe doesn’t consider Vista Home Basic to be a significant enough OS to test their product on. I would agree, Vista Home Basic shouldn’t have been released, and Microsoft is even being sued by others that feel the same way (Vista Home Basic capable does not equal Vista capable).
I think this has nothing to do with technical merits or with Adobe’s relationship with Microsoft. It has everything to do with keeping the riffraff out. Adobe is saying if you use Home Basic you’re a cheapskate, the kind of person who clips grocery coupons out of the Sunday paper and never buys anything unless it’s got a rebate or until it’s marked down at the end of the season. They figure you’re buying cut-rate hardware and you should expect cut-rate service.
If there’s a genuine technical reason not to use Vista Home Basic, Adobe should say so. If there isn’t a good reason, they should start supporting it.