Good day,
I am new the GMAT and purchased the Kaplan Premier Book with CD-ROM basically solely based on the recommendation at the first post of this thread. The post says, "Recommended. Well-rounded guide for GMAT preparation. Questions are usually harder than GMAT and sometimes a bit off; however, the book comes with 5 GMAT Tests (1 in the book and 4 online)". I didn't have time to read through this whole thread, although now I'm wishing that maybe I did, because the original post does not mention that the CD does not work with Windows Vista. Instead it says the application requires "MCI drivers" to be installed.
At first I thought it was something wrong with me or my computer, but a quick Google search of "vista kaplan this application requires the mci drivers to be installed" reveals that instead,
(1) the software was never designed to work with Windows Vista,
(2) the book falsely claims the software works with Windows Vista,
(3) Kaplan is aware that their software doesn't work with Vista, and
(4) has known this for years, but
(5) has for years deliberately chosen to neither update its software nor to update the incorrect information printed in the Requirements section of their book (which basically makes it a lie).
(6) In order to get this CD to work, you have to buy Windows XP, which is no longer supported by Microsoft, build an ISO file, download Microsoft Virtual PC, and then install an entirely new computer solely for the CD.
Basically, Kaplan is giving a big middle finger to all of its Windows Vista customers. Had I known this I would NOT have purchased this book!