As some may know, Microsoft have two sets of users for their money making. Customers, and Companies/Developers. They make a massive amount of money from customers over businesses. When Microsoft developed Vista, they decided to make the OS secure and user friendly. At the same time, since developers and customers are polar opposites, Microsoft royally screwed over the developers ... The following is case and point.
Blizzard's official response to installing and using WOW on Vista is that you must do one of two things.
1. Install WOW outside of the Program Files directory. Most customers are hesitant to that change as it is different from previous windows versions. Thus you lose some customers there.
2. Install as normal, but follow this 18 step instructions to allow ALL USER ACCOUNTS on the computer FULL AND COMPLETE access to the WOW folder and sub folders. This is a major security breach. And, on most Vista installations, after setting the security, vista still will not a let you do updates there!
Now, why do Vista users have special instructions while XP users do not? One word ... Microsoft!
All modern software uses an internet patching process to update their software "on the fly". This allows companies to update their software quickly, in case there is a bug or if a criminal found a weakness ... This is STANDARD practice, it's a no brainer.
Microsoft decided to go against the world, and prevent this from happening by locking down the OS. Why? Customers generate more money for the company then developers.
I recieved a new computer that came with Vista Home Premium AKA Sub Windows XP Pro. Developing on it is a nightmare. I'm wiping the computer clean, and installing XP Professional on the bugger, it's faster, safer, and more user AND developer friendly.
What about DX10 games? I only know of one that I was slightly interested in, Halo 3. But after awhile, I realized that the Halo series is the literal rock bottom of the FPS genre. People still laugh when they hear that name .. Poor Bungie.
So all and all? Mirage will support Windows XP. If you have Vista, I will provide some simple instructions on installation, but you have to be on your own. Vista is still in Alpha Testing, and is not meant for public consumption.
Which reminds me. I need to change the "forums" link on the site to "Community', and point it to http://www.miragecore.com. Spoon will be in charge of that site and forums. This will leave me to do the programming, while he takes care of the community.
Allowing programs to write to Program Files was already not recommended on previous versions of Windows, they've just decided to enforce it now. They've also set up the system so that the majority of programs which try to do this will transparently have their input and output directed elsewhere in the filesystem.
Don't blame Microsoft for the fact that Blizzard apparently did a shitty job with their WOW updater.
Yes, poor Bungie, with their incredibly popular game that reportedly made $170m in it's first 24 hours of sales. I'm personally of the opinion that there's nothing particularly special about the game itself, but it is very well polished, pretty fun to play and has a massive fan-base.
Why don't you just develop your software properly (I observe once again that it was already recommended with XP that software not write to Program Files without good reason and that installers/updaters can do so perfectly fine (albeit with a UAC prompt) if properly written) and not potentially exclude users of what will eventually be the dominant desktop OS? In your previous entry you mentioned planning for the future, and this seems to go well and truly against that - unless you're planning to have your game developed and released extremely quickly you're going to be targetting a diminishing market share.
A few counters: