Warning: ATI 2015 upgrade from ATI 2012 not compatible with Windows Vista

I have been using Acronis True Image (ATI) 2012 daily for the past 3 years on a Hewlett-Packard PC running Windows Vista Home Premium (32 bit). I've never had a problem at all manually backing up or restoring files or scheduling backups, including my e-mail, with this version.

Last night I upgraded from ATI 2012 to ATI 2015. The installer program indicated that the upgrade to build 18.0.6525 was successful, and I had no issues registering the product. However, when I attempted to use it, almost everything I tried caused the program to freeze (hang), including removing or deleting a backup scheme from the list of My Backups, backing up a directory with just six small (100-800 kb) JPEG images to an external Seagate hard drive, or trying to generate a System Report as instructed in the ATI 2015 user's guide.

Every time ATI 2015 froze, I used Windows' Task Manager to close the program, then restarted it and attempted to do something else with it. After the last time it froze, I closed the program again with the Task Manager and re-ran the ATI 2015 installer, per the instructions on page 9 of the user's guide. The only option it gave me was to uninstall the program. That wasn't a good option for me because the earlier 2012 version of ATI had already been overwritten by the installation of the upgrade. I couldn't think of any reason why ATI 2015 wasn't working on my machine, except that perhaps I should have restarted the computer after I installed the upgrade (which is something I regularly do after Microsoft updates its software).

In frustration, I restarted my computer using the Restart command on the Start menu. As the operating system tried to boot up, a screen appeared asking my permission to use System Restore to restore and repair my files to the state they were in before I installed the ATI 2015 upgrade. Not having a choice, I went ahead and allowed the computer to do a system restore.

Thankfully, when my computer came back up, everything was the same as it was yesterday afternoon. All traces of ATI 2015 were gone (including the installation program), my original copy of ATI 2012 was restored, and it was still working perfectly! All my backup files also were still intact, and the program quickly backed up the six small files I had tried to back up with ATI 2015.

I searched the Acronis Knowledge Base for any reported issues regarding installations of ATI 2015 under Windows Vista and found nothing except - to my surprise - article #48302: Acronis True Image 2015: Supported Operating Systems, which listed every Windows operating system from Windows XP SP3 through Windows 8.1 EXCEPT Windows Vista. Then, I opened the user's guide and found the same list on page 7, again without Windows Vista being mentioned.

Nevertheless, the ATI 2015 product information page on Acronis' website (http://www.acronis.com/en-us/personal/pc-backup/) states "All Windows Systems: Use whatever system you’re comfortable with – from Windows XP all the way up to Windows 8.1," which I read before purchasing the ATI 2015 upgrade. Granted, the people who wrote this product information page probably didn't read KB #48302 or the manual either, but potential purchasers like myself should have been forewarned that the new version of ATI, unlike previous versions, is not compatible with the Windows Vista operating system. I also checked other websites that offer trial and full versions of ATI 2015 for download, and none of them mention the incompatibility with Windows Vista. In fact, CNet.com and Amazon.com even list Vista as a compatible version of Windows.

As a result of this misinformation, I've lost $20 bucks and, worse, over 3 hours of my life trying to get ATI 2015 to work on my Windows Vista PC. If it hadn't been for Windows' system restore capability, I wouldn't have gotten back a working computer or my original, fully functional version of Acronis True Image. Acronis, you owe me!!!