Windows Vista & Me!

Posted By   Nathan Russell   on   July-20-2008 04:12:39                                                                Article 1

What can be said about Microsoft's Windows Vista, that hasn't been said already? There are a lot of mixed feelings about Microsoft's latest incarnation of the famous Windows series of operating systems, but are the rumors true?

Let's start with compatibility

Sure there's a lot of programs, video games and the like that didn't work when Vista was initially released. Not to mention a lot of hardware. However, Microsoft did something innovative. Yes that's right, I said Microsoft and innovative in the same sentence. The folks up in Redmond, Washington decided to make a leap in the technology realm. They took the good parts of Windows XP and redesigned the underlying technology. So sure when they released Vista, there were compatibility issues. That's how it was designed. The problem that people had with Vista, was that there was such a dramatic change that the "backwards compatibility" people were used too didn't exist. This isn't the first time this issue has come up, remember Windows XP, Mac OSX 10.5, even new versions of Linux are running into some sort of backwards compatibility problems. Since its release, the compatibility issues it originally had are now almost all but gone. But to give you piece of mind, check out the Vista compatibility wizard.

How does Vista compare to XP?

Well for one, the entire operating system is indexed. This means that the search capabilities have been vastly improved. Not to mention, when you install a program the operating system actually knows where the files are. This is because unlike XP, you don't have to defrag Vista. Vista actually defrags itself automatically keeping files in order.

Ok, but what about resource usage?

Yes, it's true that Vista uses a significant amount of resources as compared to XP. This means that more than likely, your old XP box may not be "Vista" ready. Especially if when you bought your system, Windows 2000 or older was the original operating system loaded on your machine.

What else can Vista do that XP can't?

For starters, Vista has Parental Controls. These controls help parents determine which games their children can play, which programs they can use, and which websites they can visit—and when. Parents can restrict computer use to specific times and trust that Windows Vista will enforce those restrictions, even when they're away from home (Courtesy Vista Parental Controls). You can even review activity reports and view how your children are using the computer or restrict them to computer use between certain times. Microsoft also made enhancements to a few of XP features, such as:

• Media Center
• Windows Movie Maker
• Windows Firewall

In the Business and Ultimate versions a backup and restore option is now available. Here you can backup your hard drive's contents at your leisure. If anything happens to your system, you'll know that you have the piece of mind that your data was restored.

Our Tests

In our tests, we found that once the shock wore off, Vista actually out performed XP and was actually easier to use. Of course in order to fully utilize the operating system, we had to make some optimization and configuration changes. These changes, while some are easy to make, others require a more computer savvy person to make. We do recommend Vista, however before making the change you'll want to ensure your applications and hardware are compatible with the upgrade. If you're a concerned parent, then Vista is the operating system of choice. For business uses, we suggest Vista only after you do extensive testing.

See Also:

Windows Vista - Whats New
Windows Vista - Site Index (Everything you should know.)