For Windows Vista users, they also have an optional Gadget that you can download to the Vista Sidebar. It lets you manage and play your voicemails directly from Vista.

The Gadget works great on 32-bit versions of Vista but if you’re running 64-bit Vista, there’s a problem: it will not play any voicemails. CallWave doesn’t seem to have any information on this problem, but I did some research and discovered a fix.

Why the CallWave Gadget doesn’t work on 64-bit Vista:

This Gadget requires Flash Player to play voicemails. By default, this Gadget runs in the 64-bit Vista Sidebar and therefore cannot access Flash Player, which currently has only been released in the 32-bit version. The Gadget will prompt you to install Flash Player, even if it is already installed, but trying to install Flash Player will not work.

The Workaround:

Until CallWave addresses this issue, or Adobe releases a 64-bit version of Flash Player, you can try this workaround at your own risk:

1) Create a shortcut to “C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Sidebar\sidebar.exe” in your Startup folder.

2) Log Off and Log On to Windows. The 32-bit version of the Sidebar should now override the 64-bit version and the Callwave Gadget should work.

This workaround worked well for me, but it could have unintended consequences for your other Gadgets.

I’ve also posted this workaround on the Gadget’s Windows Live Gallery page, as a review by “Neurokraft”. Unfortunately, users who visit CallWave’s Gadget page currently won’t see any indication that it has problems running on 64-bit Vista.

What’s CallWave doing about this?

Apparently, nothing yet…

Here’s what CallWave told me:

“Thank you for contacting CallWave Customer Care.  The CallWave Widget

requires the Flash Player to function correctly.  As soon as Adobe releases

a 64-bit version of the Flash Player, the widget will work with Vista

64-bit.”

Here’s what I told CallWave:

“Thank you for your response.

Vista 64-bit includes both versions of Internet Explorer: 32 bit and 64 bit. In fact, the 32 bit version is the default browser for user operations. I use it all the time with the Flash player and it works just fine on CallWave’s website. The only reason this isn’t working is because the default version of the Vista Sidebar is 64-bit and Callwave’s Gadget inherits that “bitiness” and therefore uses the corresponding 64-bit version of Internet Explorer.

[further description of the problem's cause and workaround removed to avoid redundancy - see The Workaround above]

Maybe I’m already telling you stuff you guys know. The problem is that your users generally DON’T know this and they expect that if it’s advertised to work with Vista, then it will work with Vista and not fail in a bizarre and totally ungraceful way on half the product line. Given the failure mode, most users who had any inclination to troubleshoot the problem would go off on the proverbial “wild goose chase” trying to reinstall the Flash player.

Note that this Gadget has received only 2 out of 5 stars on the Windows Live Gallery. Given the usefulness of this Gadget, it seems probable that this surprisingly low rating is due in large part to frustrated users who wasted their time trying to make it work on a version of Vista that CallWave never mentioned was unsupported.

While everyone waits for Adobe to get THEIR act together on the 64-bit issue, there’s at least a few options for CallWave to help the users and avoid the impression that your software is buggy:

1. Notify users that Vista 32-bit version is required for full functionality until Adobe releases the 64-bit version of Flash player, whenever that might be.
2. Provide instructions on the Sidebar Workaround documented above. Perhaps as an unsupported option for the power users, who are just the people who are most likely to be affected by this problem. These are also the people most likely to spread the word and help other users make the switch to CallWave.
3. Provide the OPTION to automatically execute the Sidebar Workaround during the Gadget installation.
4. Degrade gracefully on Vista 64-bit. The Gadget could still do everything, except provide the option to play the voicemails. The “Account”, “Feedback”, and “See All Calls” links in the Gadget should be changed to launch the 32-bit version of Internet Explorer, which should work even from the 64-bit version of the Sidebar.
5. Do Option C, but if the user chooses to not to execute the Sidebar Workaround, THEN do Option D.

I hope this helps. Thanks for the CallWave Visual Voicemail service.”