Vista is Almost Here
Posted on November 22, 2006
Filed Under Business Computing, Windows |
Back in March we touched on Windows Vista features in this column (http://www.bowesit.com/blog/2006/03/15/windows-vista-features/) and with the official release on the horizon, it’s worth having another look at Vista.
Microsoft will release Windows Vista to it’s Volume Licensing customers on November 30, 2006. Volume Licensing is only available to business clients with five or more computers. If you have a Volume Licensing agreement in place or you have a need to purchase five or more qualifying product licenses, you could be running Vista almost two months before it is released to the general public.
Vista will start shipping on new computers and will be available at the retail level on January 30, 2007. While there will still be new PCs around for a short while loaded with Windows XP, it won’t be long before it’s near impossible to buy a new PC without Vista. Which version of Vista to buy with that new computer will be the real challenge.
Originally slated to ship in no less than seven different versions, Microsoft scaled that back to five different versions with one additional version that won’t be available in North America.
Windows Vista Starter will only be available in developing countries and is meant to be a low cost means to bring computers to those countries.
Windows Vista Home Basic will run on modest PCs and can be used for basic web browsing, email, etc. Home Basic will not include the new Aero interface and will look like Windows XP instead.
Windows Vista Home Premium includes everything in Basic but also includes Aero, Media Center functionality and will even connect to Xbox 360.
Windows Vista Business is the basic business offering and will come with tools to make managing computers in a business environment easier.
Windows Vista Enterprise includes everything in the Business edition but also includes enhanced management tools for large corporations, improved encryption and the BitLocker system to protect data on stolen computers.
Windows Vista Ultimate includes all of the features of the Business edition and the Home Premium Edition.
So is Windows Vista a worthwhile upgrade? First releases of software products tend to come with a few bugs and I often recommend one not rush out to buy a first release. Vista however comes with some attractive enhancements (see the column mentioned earlier) and in this case, I would suggest that if you’re ready to upgrade, there’s good reason to not hold back.
On the security side alone, there are enough enhancements, such as IE 7’s reduced privileges, Volume Shadow Copy Service, and user account control, to outweigh the fear of first release bugs.
Can you upgrade your current computer to Vista? If your computer was bought in the past couple of years, the processor will probably meet the minimum requirements but you may need to upgrade memory and make sure you have enough hard drive space.
Many computers running Windows XP have 256 to 512 MB of memory and 512 MB is the minimum requirement for Windows Vista. In reality, you’re going to want more than 512 MB to run Vista adequately. You’ll also need least 15 GB of free hard drive space. An upgrade may well be possible but you may have to spend a bit on hardware upgrades first.
Comments
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.