Korean government warns against Vista upgrades

South Korea's government is advising its citizens to stay away from Windows Vista, according to a report by the national newspaper Chosun. The Financial Supervisory Service, Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs, and Ministry of Information and Communication have all recommended that Koreans avoid a hasty upgrade to the new Microsoft OS due to its tightened controls on ActiveX. The new limits to the Microsoft-created web plugin are said to create problems with banking and government sites that have depended on less restrictive earlier implementations of ActiveX for important forms, ironically blocking those most eager to embrace Microsoft technology.

While the Redmond-based developer said it has been cooperating with site providers to develop fixes for their pages, the fixes for seven of Korea's largest banks as well as many online stores are not expected until sometime in February, potentially leaving new Vista users without online access to some institutions for days or weeks after the Korean edition of the OS ships to stores on January 31st. Microsoft attributed the unfortunate timing to complications.

"We've been testing Vista with banks and other service providers since September, but we encountered more delays than we expected," a spokesman said.