An incompatible mix? Nokia PC Suite, 6101 and Dell's Dimension E520

I recently installed a Dell Dimension E520 desktop running some really muscular hardware - A dual core processor, 1 GB of DDR2 RAM, A 256 MB Nvidia DDR2 Graphics Card - all powering the new-fangled Microsoft bundled OS, Windows Vista Home Premium (aero interface).

As many of us Vista owners now know, MS has sold a product that is still work in progress. It does not add anything revolutionary to XP functionality but forces you to fork in a lot of money on additional hardware. What is worse, it has huge gaping holes where it should have had drivers for the most common devices that we use with PCs - mobile phones and MP3 players. (Microsoft acknowledges indirectly that there is a problem in this instructional article on its website). The poor compatibility of Vista with iTunes and iPods is universally known. Disappointingly, Vista does not even have drivers to recognise mass storage devices. I found that out when I tried to connect an APRO MP3 player to the new OS and was rejected. I then installed a driver from the manufacturer's website and it has worked so far.

My Nokia 6101 mobile phone experience is a new low point for Vista. I installed the latest version of Nokia's somewhat tacky PC software, PC Suite (v 6.83), which the phone makers says is compatible with Vista 32 and 64 bit editions. Not so.

The OS simply would not recognise the phone, although I had used the same phone successfully with Win XP, connecting with the same CA 42 cable (bought not from Nokia but from third party manufacturer on Chennai's famed Ritchie Street for a tenth of Nokia's rip-off price).

I then uninstalled this 'latest' compatible version of PC Suite and installed an earlier version that is pre-Vista. Voila! The phone was recognised by Vista, but it would not let me copy files from the camera's storage on to my PC. I had to open each file separately and make a copy. No Ctrl C and Ctrl V option available.

What a crummy piece of software to be touted as the world-leading OS! I think this would be a good subject for the next Get-a-Mac advertisement from Apple. And shame on a profit-hungry Nokia for producing such inferior connectivity software that obviously has not had much of an interaction with Microsoft to make it easier for the user.