Microsoft has released a product guide for Windows Vista. Strangely enough, they either want you to buy Vista, buy Office 2007, or build a test computer to be able to read the guide.

So what is it? Here’s a blurb from page three:

The Windows Vista Product Guide provides a comprehensive overview of the innovative features and functions that make Windows Vista the next-generation Microsoft Windows client operating system and successor to Microsoft Windows XP. This guide also provides information about the benefits Windows Vista offers diverse users, as well as information about the different editions (SKUs, or stock-keeping units) available.

So, it would seem to be a useful document to help convince someone to purchase Vista, or if they’ve already decided to do so, to help them decide which version to purchase.

‘Windows Vista Product Guide’ was released in two formats:

Microsoft Office Word 2007

The standard .doc format isn’t good enough, you need to be able to read a .docx file, so all those users of Office XP are just plain out of luck on this one.

XPS

What the heck is XPS? I hadn’t heard of it before now, (a quick Google tells me XPS is Microsoft’s proprietary rival to PDF) but apparently you need a special reader for it (which is kindly enough built into Vista, but nothing else).

Well, I’m not going to buy Office 2007 ($149 for home and student version) just so I can read this guide, so the other option is the XPS reader. It’s a free download, so in that sense it’s no different than having to install the industry standard Acrobat Reader. Now why can’t the guide be available as a PDF? How else can you start monopolistic practices than to force users into using features built into the new OS. But I’m off track there, let’s get back to XPS. There is a freely available XPS reader, but it’s built into the .NET Framework, so you’ll need to install that. No problem you might say, I’ve already got it installed for other things I use. Well, it’s not version 1.1 that contains XPS. No problem once again, you’re ahead of the curve and have already installed 2.0. Well, think again, 2.0 won’t cut it. You need 3.0 to get the XPS reader.

Yup, 3.0, which isn’t yet officially available, is required. There is a pre-release version of 3.0 available, and it is the only one that contains the XPS reader. Note however that “the License Agreement in this pre-release version of the .NET Framework v3.0 does not allow usage in a live operating environment”, so in other words, you should setup a test computer to install this software on so you can read the product guide. Would you need to buy a new OS for the test computer? If you install it on a production machine, against Microsoft’s advise, and something goes wrong and you loose important data, you can only recover up to $5.00 in damages (why $5, why not $1 or $10, must have a been a round of meetings for that decision!), even if Microsoft knew about the problem.

Now the XPS reader isn’t technically the only way to read an XPS file. There is an XPS Essentials Pack available that also provides the ability to read XPS files. It can only be run on Windows XP SP2 or later, requires the “Microsoft Core XML Services 6.0″ to be installed, and get this, it’s only in the “Beta 2″ stage. Once again, time to setup a test machine to read a manual!

So, want to get a peak at the Windows Vista Product Guide before you buy? Microsoft wants you to build a test computer to install software that they aren’t confident enough in yet to call official so you can use their version of a PDF reader to help expand their monopolistic hopes to capture the portable document market. That or upgrade your version of Microsoft Office, so you can more directly line their pockets. Better still, just close your eyes, reach into your wallet and buy Vista, you don’t need a guide to tell you how great it is! Shame on you Microsoft.