Does Vista work with Office 365 / Outlook 365?

Post date: Feb 11, 2020 3:06:09 AM

Vista is a powerful, rich client, real Windows program: it is not a web browser app. As such, it has the robust capabilities and extensibility of a real client program, which far exceed that of a web browser. Areas such as performance, printing, scanning, and integration with the local file system are much better with a rich client solution than with a web browser-based app.

In addition to the above advantages, real client-side programs like Vista can integrate more easily with the locally installed rich clients of Microsoft Office. Whether this is Microsoft Office 365's rich clients, Office perpetual, or stand-alone programs like Outlook, the powerful nature of the Vista program allows it to very easily integrate with Microsoft Office's rich client programs.

However, there is a difference between Vista working with the real, Windows programs of Microsoft Office, and Vista working with the web site versions of Office 365:

Vista does not now and never has supported integration with web browser applications

This means no functionality is supported for integrating between Vista and the web browser version of Microsoft Office 365. This includes drag and drop, create and send, and more.

While this is something that a few customers have requested, the power and usability of real Windows programs means that most of those customers usually decide to return to using the real Windows rich client applications for other reasons, thus enabling their integration with Vista once again.