Finding Vista's Fax Flaws

Some editions of the new operating system don't include fax functions, and Microsoft is far from up-front about the matter in marketing materials

by Stephen H. Wildstrom

Reader Alan Mandel has a question likely to cross the minds of many Vista purchasers who send letters via fax.

I recently purchased Windows Vista Home Premium to upgrade my PC. I was surprised to find out that Microsoft (MSFT) only supports sending and receiving faxes in the Business and Ultimate versions of Vista. And, there are no third-party applications currently compatible with Vista. Do you have any suggestions? It would be great if Microsoft would provide the fax feature to Home users of Vista, as they did with Windows XP.

You have already discovered that the fax applet that had been part of Windows for as long as I can remember, has disappeared from Vista Home Basic and Home Premium (it lives on, as Windows Fax & Scan, in the Vista Business and Vista Ultimate editions). Typically, Microsoft gives no explanation for why which features were put into which version of Vista, except to deny that it's a plot to get consumers to spend an extra $150 or so for the everything-including-the-kitchen-sink Ultimate.

Optional Add-Ons

A couple of third-party vendors are readying Vista fax products. RKS Software (www.rkssoftware.com) is preparing a Vista version of its $19.95 MightyFax, but says the work "is proving to be quite difficult" and is "taking somewhat longer than we anticipated." NetCFax (www.netcplus.com) is planning to release a Vista-ready version on Feb. 25. Unfortunately, this is a fairly expensive multi-user product, with prices starting at $169.50 for five users.

One product that won't be released in a Vista version is the venerable WinFax. Symantec (SYMC) quietly killed the program last fall.

Customer Update

Mandel gave in and bought a copy of Vista Ultimate to get the faxing capability and other features that were left out of the Home versions, then spent three hours installing it—but at least he can now send and receive faxes.

He complains, with much justification, that Microsoft's marketing materials don't mention the disappearance of a capability that Windows users have long come to expect, and that its version comparison charts make no reference to fax. "I think this approach by Microsoft is simply not acceptable," he wrote in an e-mail. "They should have provided a fax solution for home users at product launch or at least made it clear that to get a direct fax solution, people would need to purchase the Business or Ultimate versions. This would only take one more row in the Vista comparison chart."

I heartily agree. Faxing may not be the coolest way to communicate, but it is still widely used in commerce. Bloated as Vista may be, there should have been room for fax in the Home versions.

Wildstrom is Technology & You columnist for BusinessWeek. You can contact him at techandyou@businessweek.com .