Google Talk updated to work with Vista

Angus Kidman
Saturday, 06 January 2007 21:13

Your IT - Home IT

Google has updated its Talk IM and voice client to work on Windows Vista, adding another tool to the slowly growing list of products that will run on the soon-to-be released operating system.

The new version has been added to the download page for Google Talk, which is designed to integrate with other Google products such as Gmail. "You don't have to do anything -- you'll get the new update automatically -- and whenever you upgrade to Vista, Google Talk will automatically work," software engineer Pankaj Kakkar wrote on the official Google Talk blog.

One major change required by Vista is an alteration to Google Talk's security model. In earlier releases, Google Talk automatically installed by default for all users of a machine. In line with Vista's enhanced security model, the default installation is now for a single user, though this can be changed at the time of installation.

Lining up ISV support has been a critical challenge for Microsoft ahead of the consumer release of Vista on January 30. While many applications should run without change, those which make assumptions about the security model, or access low-level kernel resources (anti-malware software is a typical example) have frequently required recompiling.

Microsoft is also keen to encourage vendors to take advantage of the new Vista Aero user interface, although the bare-bones approach of Google Talk doesn't make that a likely candidate.