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What is Windows Vista™?

By Ian Ryder, IT Consultant, appiChar

Windows Vista is the latest offering from Microsoft of their Windows operating system. You may have heard about Windows Vista in the press as Microsoft works hard to convince the world it can’t live without their new and shiny operating system.

A Bit of Background

Windows Vista is the result of a huge software development programme from Microsoft that took 5 years from start to release.  The original release date was supposed to be in 2003 but after much chopping and changing, the plan to base Vista on the Windows XP code was scrapped and instead Windows Server 2003 was used – hopefully offering a more secure and robust environment. This meant that the first releases for testing didn’t arrive until 2005 and the full-scale release came in January 2007.

So Many Versions

Gone are the days when a Pro and a Home version would do – Microsoft clearly felt they were missing something so now we have 5 different pricing levels in Europe,  starting at the Basic home user right through to the Ultimate version for those who have to have it all. See below for information on each different version but most organisations will only need to worry about Business and Enterprise.

Home Basic

This is for the home user who isn’t worried about playing lots of big games, backing up their data regularly and security as Microsoft has left those bits out. In this version you cannot use Remote Desktop to remotely access your PC as you may have with XP. You can’t join Windows domain which means you cannot connect to a business network with a central server that controls access – a key part of most organisations’ networks. There is also an 8GB limit for memory.

Home Premium

Home Premium is the same as Home Basic but you can have more RAM (16GB instead of 8GB), you can write DVD movies and it has Media Centre included so you can use your PC as your home entertainment centre. Remote Desktop is disabled, similar to Home Basic. Home Premium cannot also join a Windows domain so will not be appropriate for most business networks.

Business

This is the version most organisations will require. It is able to act as part of a Windows domain and has some file encryption features that are not included in the Home versions. Media Centre and DVD making facilities removed. On the plus side, it can cope with 128GB+ of RAM – far more than any sensible person would require in 2007! There is the facility to backup the system image which could be useful in restoring the computer in the event of a hard disk failure.

Enterprise

This is pretty much the same as Business with additional encryption facilities. For most standard business uses these are unlikely to be required.

Ultimate

Ultimate contains everything that is in all the other versions and is for the power-gamer or for people who need to do serious multi-media work. Or more likely, those techies with too much time and money who want all the gadgets they can get their hands on!

What benefits does it offer?

Microsoft are marketing Windows Vista to businesses as the most secure version of Windows yet.  It is the first Microsoft operating system to go through their “Secure by Design, Secure by Default” programme and it shows.  An example of the new security features they have included is User Account Control (UAC) facility.  This works by automatically blocking any action which will make a change to the system settings.  The system then prompts for the details of a user with administrative access, without which the action will be refused.  This will greatly reduce the ability of spyware and viruses infecting a PC, which very often results in a complete rebuild of the system – a costly business in both downtime and support time.

Windows Defender, Microsoft’s anti-spyware software, is now fully integrated into the operating system, providing real-time protection against malicious software. Regular spyware scans can be scheduled and unwanted start-up programs can be disabled, further protecting the system.

One of the most obvious changes in Windows Vista is a completely restyled user interface.  Aero, as the new theme is called, uses a glass-like user interface which adds a new and much more enjoyable feel to using Windows. Gone is the sluggish menu animation included with XP; Aero uses your computer’s graphics power to add a crisp and smooth feel to your desktop experience, and really does give the Windows desktop something to rival Apple Macs when it comes to the user experience.

One feature that businesses are bound to find most useful, Microsoft have finally included a vastly improved search function within Windows Vista.  Accessible directly from the Start menu, this gives you almost instant results when searching for documents on your system, text within documents, emails, attachments and photographs.  Never lose a document again!

If you’ve seen the TV adverts you may have seen the extremely funky looking carousel of programs that you can use to scroll through to find the program you want. Undoubtedly a thing of beauty and will give new users pleasure as they flick between programs. But the reality is this feature is definitely more about marketing than real-life use – anyone used to Alt-Tab to swap between programs will be not be tempted away even if the carousel looks prettier – truth is it just isn’t efficient enough when you’re actually working.

Are there any downsides to it?

As with all new versions on Windows, Vista requires more resources on your PC than previous versions, such as Windows XP.  Thus, whereas Windows XP would run quite happily with 512MB of memory (or even 256MB), Windows Vista will likely require anything up to 1GB to run even approaching smoothly.  Also, the gorgeous Aero user interface will only run on a PC which has a very powerful graphics card.  Most business workstations bought in the last couple of years are unlikely to have shipped with a sufficiently powerful graphics card, and so won’t be able to experience the new interface.  However, all the other features that businesses will find useful will still be available.

On top of that there are a large number of areas where Vista is very different from XP – even experienced users will find the transition difficult. Some areas of the system do seem to have not been thought out as well as you would hope so things that you could do quickly and easily in XP now require far more effort. Hopefully Microsoft will address these in future updates to the system.

Some of the security features will also be hard for some users to understand – as the system restricts a lot of things it’s likely that users will have to cope with more difficult questions from the operating system if a program wants to make a change to the system. This may end up causing some confusion especially for less technical users.

Should we be looking at Windows Vista now?

There is no doubt that Windows Vista has some great features and really does look very nice compared to previous versions.  Nevertheless, we would recommend waiting before looking at Windows Vista in any serious way.  Although it does contain some compelling new security features and visual tricks, there are far too many bugs in the initial version to consider rolling out to a large number of users at any one time.

In contrast, Windows XP with SP2 is now a very stable and well developed operating system, and we would recommend staying with this for the foreseeable future until the bugs have been ironed out.If you are planning on ordering a new PC we would either recommend sticking with XP for now or trying to hold off until the release of the first service pack – possibly scheduled for November 2007.

If you can’t wait and you have to go for Vista, make sure the users have got extra support available if they need it and make sure you know your software will work on Vista.

Further Reading

Here are a few links to more information:

Windows Vista – official Microsoft Vista UK site

Windows Vista Wiki - lots of in-depth information on Vista and its history. Surprisingly locked for editing due to vandalism!