Should I Move to Windows Vista?

Microsoft Windows Vista is the most signicant product release from the software giant in six years. Both from a consumer point of view and at the business end, Windows Vista represents the immediate future for the Windows desktop and for Windows users the world over. Freezing on the heels of Windows XP, Windows Vista is Microsoft!s best attempt to satisfy users needs and create a solid, dependable, and easy to use platform. Any computer operating system (OS) needs to be designed with every type of user in mind. Companies focus their efforts in this manner to make the product available to as many consumers as possible. It is well-known that one product, or one variant of a product cannot satisfy every need or make everyone happy. This reason is why Microsoft developed six different version of Windows Vista. They are:
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Vista Starter Vista Home Basic Vista Home Premium Vista Business, Vista Enterprise Vista Ultimate.

The Starter & Enterprise editions are special-use variants of the operating system and have dedicated niche in the market. For most folks, the Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, and Ultimate editions will be the ones considered when purchasing. Depending on where the purchase is made, the choices could even be fewer than those four. The considerations to make which will produce a decision applicable to the users needs and budget revolve around four factors;
1. The type of user. Technologically Handicapped, Newb, Typical, Power User ? 2. The intended use for the computer. Home desktop, Business desktop, Gaming rig ? 3. Budget. Version upgrade, Cheap PC/Laptop, Mid-range PC/Laptop, Killer PC/Laptop ? 4. Current operating conditions. Software dependency, New hardware ?

The type of user involved in the daily use of Vista is important on answering the question of type or whether to upgrade at all. Vista is easy to use, from my perspective, and is pretty compatible with most hardware. The Newb, Typical User, and Power User can get productive with Vista quickly. Windows 2000/XP users will nd some changes, but none that signicantly alter the user!s experience. Windows Vista is not a re-skinned version of Windows XP, under the hood, Vista is a different OS all together. Vista is prettier than any version of Windows before, and the new Aero interface adds some eye-candy that gets old rather quickly. The Starter and Home Basic version of Vista are not capable of running the Aero desktop. Computer users that are Technically Handicapped should fore-go Vista and Windows all together and consider a Mac. The support overhead of Mac OS X is considerably less than it is for any version of Microsoft Windows. Users coming from Windows 98 or Windows Millennium are in for a shocking treat. The transition is possible, but I recommend those users purchase a book, or befriend a power user of some sort. It is only possible to upgrade an operating system to Windows Vista from Windows 2000 Professional or Windows XP. More details on upgrade paths can be found at the following URL:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/buyorupgrade/upgradepaths.mspx

Upgrades, in general, work best when the operating system to be upgraded is in near perfect condition, all of the installed applications are known to work with the new OS, and the current hardware meets or exceeds the new OS! requirements. The case seldom represents all three of the previous categories. In most circumstances an inplace version upgrade migrates problems from the older copy of Windows to the new one and is never a x for a broken OS. I recommend a clean install of Windows Vista on new hardware. Most users will get their copy of Vista from a new computer purchase either on line or at a retail location. Power users and gaming enthusiasts often build their own custom rigs which are usually a work in progress. So, if an in-place upgrade is the decided path, x Windows XP rst!

Microsoft Windows Vista loves hardware resources. Between the aero eye-candy, features like shadow copies and DirectX 10, the average install of Vista will use around 550MB of RAM just sitting idle. The idea of running Vista on just 512MB of RAM is not practical. The RAM sweet spot for Vista is 2GB - 4GB, any more than that is a waste. Hard drive capacities have increased exponentially since Windows XP was released. Windows Vista will occupy 11GB of space on a HDD without anything else installed. Additional programs and Windows updates only add to this amount. Any computer today is bound to come with at least a 160GB HDD, & the average laptop will have a hard drive of half that size. Those amounts are plenty for most uses, but size is not king among hard drives. Speed in the form of seek and access time can make a difference between a pleasant experience and click & wait. Desktop hard drives should be SATA instead of the legacy Parallel ATA or IDE. Laptop hard drives are best served by a 7200 rpm speed. The average laptop had drive is 5400 rpm, or worse, 4200 rpm. Modern computers have central processing units (CPU) that are much more powerful than what is needed for most daily computing tasks. The current industry standard is the Intel Core 2 Duo CPU. Core 2 is a dual-core processor, combining the power of two normal Pentium-class processors onto one chip. Any recent OS, including Vista, will take far advantage of the dual-processor and it!s capabilities. Each the lower-cost computers come outtted with dual core processors. Avoid the Intel Celeron, and AMD Semphron series processors. These types are budget CPUs and lack the essential performance of the mainstream processors. The actual speed of the CPU is measured in gigahertz (GHz). In classic models, the faster the processor, the better. This model worked until CPUs produced so much heat at high speeds that performance could not progress any further due to heat restrictions. The natural progression for development was to split the CPU into multiple processing cores, leading to the Core 2 Duo. Any computer destined for Vista through upgrade, or purchase should have a dual core processor.

The enhanced GUI and themes in Windows Vista, most notably the Aero theme, require some extensive video hardware. A video card with DirectX 9, 128MB of video RAM, Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM), & Pixel Shaders version 2.0 are required for Aero. Vista Home Basic can get by with a smaller video card, but still needs 32MB of video RAM. In many cases, a video card upgrade is in order for all computers that are destined for Windows Vista. AGP or PCI-X graphics are the best options for a computer!s video components. TV, and DVD movies will show on any display technology supported by Vista. The mean for computer video cards is between 128Mb and 256MB of Video RAM. Nvidia and ATI are the main players in the computer video graphics industry. Intel has a strong role in the budget market with their integrated system boards, which include graphics, sound, & CPU. Integrated mainboards are predominate on budget PCs and certain mid-level models. All laptops feature integrated components, but offer higher-end specications such as Nvidia/ATI graphics, dual core CPUs, up to 256MB of video RAM. Gamers and computer enthusiasts will often spend the most on their video card than on any one component in their PC. A DirectX 10 compatible video card with 128MB of video RAM will sufce for a majority of common computer uses, even for most computer games. If gaming is the scope of the system, then many gamers will not advise an upgrade to Vista, save performance, but to stick with Windows XP or dualboot between the two. Make sure Vista will run your games before upgrading or purchasing. Check the game!s web-site and do not rely solely on the game!s packaging to state compatibility indications. 32-bit vs. 64-bit ? Windows Vista is the rst Microsoft consumer OS that has given users the choice between a 32-bit or 64-bit version of the software. A 64-bit version of Windows XP was available, but offered no real quality user experience. Retail computers usually come with the 32-bit version of Windows Vista. The Home Basic, Home Premium, Starter editions do not come in a 64-bit version. Retail copies of Windows Vista Ultimate have both versions included with the $399.99 price tag.

There is little advantage to running the 64-bit version of any operating system, unless there are intentions to run programs that access more that 4GB of memory. Large memory capacity is the real advantage of a 64-bit OS. A 64-bit OS requires 64-bit programs, and 64-bit drivers. Vista Business, Enterprise and Ultimate 64-bit versions do offer enhanced security, but at a considerable operational penalty. Simply put, the fuss of maintaining the 64-bit OS is not often worth the benets. Stick with the 32-bit version unless there is a specic 64-bit program needed. With all of the various version of Windows Vista available, which one is the best? The answer depends on what the end user will do with the computer and Vista. Any version of Vista can run Microsoft Ofce, connect to the Internet and send/receive e-mail. Business users working in a Microsoft Active Directory environment can only run the Business, Enterprise, & Ultimate version of Vista. Those versions are the most featured of the six, but cost more. Security, Functionality, and Capability are the factors I have used to weigh the various version of Windows Vista. As a user, I expect certain things from my computer and it!s operating system, especially the high-priced Vista. Built-in security is a very import function of any OS. Microsoft bills Vista as the most secure version of Windows ever. Microsoft said that about Windows 2000 and XP too. Signicant enhancements were made to the Windows Firewall in Windows Vista and have made there way into every version. The Enterprise, & Ultimate versions ship with a technology called Bit Locker, which in concert with an onboard chip, can encrypt the entire hard drive. Bit Locker is perfect for laptops and corporate devices that are subject to compromise through theft. If it were up to me, all corporate laptops, running Vista would have Bit Locker as a mandatory feature. However, not everyone needs that type of security and complexity. The biggest part of computer security is the user and the actions they take while using the computer, although a solid OS and some practical tools help in this effort.

The main reason I may not suggest Windows Vista Home Basic, Home Premium or the Starter Edition is the reduced functionality these versions afford. A great new feature of Windows Vista is called Shadow Copies . Shadow copies creates copies of user data automatically every at regular intervals. If an item was deleted by accident, it can be restored from a previous version. Vista Home Basic & Premium do not offer this capability. For me, as a consumer, this would rule out the Home versions. The Home versions also do not include a full backup utility. Vista Home Premium has a partial backup utility, but nothing close to useful. This fact is nothing more than bait by the manufacturer to have the consumer opt for the more expensive version. Every OS should have a full backup utility. Even my favorite OS, Mac OS X does not include a backup utility! More information and version comparison can be found at the following URL;
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/editions/choose.mspx

Summary If Windows Vista is on your list, then do your research and shop around. Try to nd the best features that suit the user!s needs and can allow them to exceed their capability. Make sure existing programs work with Vista, if not, seek out new versions or choices that are compatible. I would not use a Vista machine with anything less than the following hardware specications.

CPU Ram Hard Drive Optical Drive

Dual Core type 2GB, nothing less than 1GB SATA type, 80GB or bigger DVD/RW DVD Burner