What is Aero Glass?

As mentioned above - a noticeably new element of the Vista is the translucent effect of Aero Glass, featuring dynamic reflections and smooth animations. The glass windows create an open, lightweight environment and more importantly, help you to better focus on your content, rather than on the surrounding interface.

What is Microsoft’s “upgrade-advisor”? It is a tool that is designed to give existing PC owners a better sense of whether it is feasible to upgrade their machines or buy a new one with Windows Vista installed. 

The Vista-capable “upgrade-advisor” lists the features needed to minimally run the new operating system. The "Premium Ready" program will identify PCs that can take advantage of Vista's high-end features, including its new Aero graphics. Microsoft’s “upgrade-advisor” tool can be downloaded from its Web site: www.microsoft.com/vista

The tool helps a user know which versions and features of Vista their PC should run, as well as which hardware upgrades might allow them to take fuller advantage of the OS.

Microsoft packages and sells five different versions of Vista designed to dramatically improve the computing experience of every kind of PC user; from people at home who use their PCs for simple web browsing; to business people who must organize and act on large volumes of data; to scientists who routinely perform complex mathematical analysis.

1) Windows Vista Home Basic

Windows Vista Home Basic PC users who just want to do the basics with their PCs. It is for PC users who write e-mail, surf the Internet, home entertainment, and to track your household expenses, for example. It does include Parental Controls, Windows Defender, Windows Photo Gallery, Instant Search, Movie Maker, and Windows Media Player. The Microsoft price is set at $199 or $99.95 for an upgrade from Windows XP.

2) Windows Vista Business (Business – for all organizations)
Regardless of the size of your organization, Windows Vista Business will help you lower your PC management costs, improve your security, enhance your productivity, and help you stay better connected.  Price is $299, and $199 from an upgrade from Windows XP.

3) Windows Vista Home Premium
Premium offers all of the core features of Home Basic plus Windows Media Center, plus a wealth of additional features that boost aesthetics, mobile support, collaboration, and multimedia support.

Whether you choose to use your PC to write e-mail and surf the Internet, for home entertainment, or to track your household expenses, Windows Vista Home Premium delivers a more complete and satisfying computing experience. It has a new user interface named Windows Aero™, which is both efficient and beautiful. This new interface makes it easier than ever before to find your way around the operating system.

Windows Aero even makes it easier to accomplish multiple tasks at once by providing a three-dimensional, real-time, animated view of all of your open applications and documents. Additionally, Windows Vista Home Premium helps you quickly find and organize large collections of documents, pictures, movies, videos, music, and the ability to record live TV.

By integrating search throughout the operating system, Windows Vista Home Premium helps you quickly find exactly what you are looking for. Microsoft set the price at $239. The upgrade from Win XP price is $159.

4) Windows Vista Ultimate
If you want all of the best business features, all of the best mobility features, and all of the best home entertainment features that Windows Vista has to offer, Windows Vista Ultimate is one for you. With Windows Vista Ultimate you don't have to compromise. Ultimate is the cream of the crop. If you are a gamer, a system tweaker, or a multimedia freak, Vista Ultimate should be your choice. The price is $399, or $259 for an upgrade from Windows XP.

5) Win Vista Enterprise (Corporate/scientists with complex needs).

Windows Vista Enterprise is designed to meet the needs of large global organizations or scientists. Windows Vista Enterprise will provide additional layers of protection for your sensitive data. This edition is not available for retail sales.

• A bit is the smallest unit of information or data recognized by a computer.

• One binary digit is shortened to “bit”.

• A bit is a number that can only be zero or one, much like a switch is either on or off.

• A group of 8 bits is called a byte, the disk space for one letter or one digit number.
• The author’s first CPU was able to address only 8 bits at a time.
• Windows 3.x computers ran at 16 bit cycles. 
• Windows 95 processed information in 32 bit word sizes.

• Vista is primarily a 64 bit operating system, but will run on 32 bit CPUs.
     

E. What will a 64 bit computer do for you?

This isn't about more megahertz--it's about doubling the amount of data a CPU can process per clock cycle. A 64-bit PC won't make your word processor run faster, but here are a few of the benefits of a pure 64 bit computer system, according to Microsoft.

1. Dramatically improve more-demanding applications like CAD.
2. Richer, faster and more detailed games.
3. More realistic sounds and much clearer photos.

4.  Sharper and faster video if upgraded video hardware is installed.

F. What are multiple core CPUs and do I need one for Vista?

Some traditionally advanced programs, like photo and video editors, might be exceptions. And games will eventually all use multiple cores. Multiple core setups are more valuable in servers, or scientific work stations. If you want to do these things, or prepare for the future, buy a few steps down from the top of the line. For desktops, that would be a low-end Intel Core 2 duo or a AMD X2 Dual core. In laptops, look for an AMD Turion or Intel Core 2 Duo.

Multicore chips can generate less heat than conventional processors, allowing them to fit in smaller, thinner PCs. They are also more power-efficient since they use small 45-nanometer or 65nm transistors instead of 90nm parts. (Only nerds need-to-know this!)

G. The 64-bit chip can address more memory!

• Theoretically 32-bit chips can address up to 4GB of physical memory (RAM). A 64-bit chip can address up to 128+GB of RAM.
• Programmers say: “Over the long term, a 64-bit PC will give them server-level power and that could revolutionize what desktop software can do.”
• Experts say – pulling that first bit out of memory is 60,000 times faster than pulling it from a hard drive. For users, that translates into greater speed, because 64-bit applications won’t have to swap large data sets between memory and disk, and will therefore be able to load and process the data faster. 

H. Windows Vista Key Features

“Search” is the keyword! Vista introduces “enhanced desktop search.” Powerful indexing and user-assignable metadata make searching for all kinds of data--including files, e-mails, and Web content--a lot easier. Note the keyword below is “SEARCH”.

* Home Basic also includes Parental Controls, Windows Defender, Windows Photo Gallery, Instant Search, Movie Maker, and Windows Media Player.

The Start menu features integrated desktop search through a new feature called Instant Search, which can help you find and launch almost anything on your PC. Just type in a word, a name, or a phrase, and Instant Search can find the right file for you.   But more than that, the new start menu makes it very easy for you to navigate across all of the installed applications on your PC. Eliminating the slow performing, cascading "All Programs" view, the new start menu can help you get something started more quickly than ever.”

J. Internet Explorer 7 is released with Vista  

 The IE7 makes it noticeably simpler, more streamlined, and less cluttered with unnecessary items. This maximizes the area of the screen devoted to the WebPages that you want to see and makes performing the most common browsing tasks easy.

IE7 automatically scales a printed webpage so that it's not wider than the paper it will be printed on. It also includes a multi-page print preview with live margins, resizing text to avoid document clipping, and an option to print only selected text.

 Instant Search Box

Web searches using your favorite search provider can now be entered into a search box within the toolbar, eliminating the clutter of separate toolbars. You can easily choose a provider from the dropdown list or add more providers.

IE7 offers easy and fast access to Favorites, Tab Groups, Browsing History, and RSS Feed subscriptions. It expands when needed, and can be anchored in place for even easier access.

Really Simple Syndication (RSS) gives me the ability to customize your content subscriptions. RSS is an Internet standard that describes how a site can expose its content for client-based subscriptions.

 RSS feeds are more common for news sites, blogs, and audio subscription sites. IE 7 automatically detects RSS feeds on sites by illuminating an icon on the toolbar. A single click on the icon allows you to preview and optionally subscribe to the site's RSS feed, and then be automatically notified as content is updated.

 K. Should I upgrade to Vista? If so, when?

Unless you are a bleeding edge user you shouldn’t be in a big hurry to jump into the Vista pool. Windows XP is a proven, safe operating system and usable as long as your computer holds out. Realistically, casual computer users should not be looking at moving to Vista until it has been out for a year or more - so that all of the usual kinks, driver and hardware compatibility and application support issues have all been worked out by early adopters.

 It is wise to wait until Microsoft releases SP1 before getting into Vista and it is scheduled for release early 2008. The learning curve in moving to Vista is worth the little extra time and effort it takes. Every Windows user will ultimately want to upgrade to Vista, if they want to keep in step with the rapidly growing state of the art of computers. 

 The longer you wait to move to Vista, the more others will have taken on the burden of figuring out all of the issues. Having been around for lots of new operating system launches, being conservative is always safer, as long as your existing computer is capable of providing you with the productivity that you need.

Upgrading an old Windows XP computer is not recommended for several reasons. The older PC may not have enough memory, fast enough or graphic capability to handle Vista. But more importantly, every hardware component in the computer (the motherboard, video card, BIOS, network card, USB ports, etc.) needs a small software program, known as a driver in order to be recognized by Windows Vista.

 These drivers are created by the manufacturer of the hardware component, so if they never intended the component to be used in Windows Vista, they never wrote a driver for it to run in Windows Vista.

 Hardware makers have to deal with Windows Vista, now or later, whether they like it or not if they want to stay in business.  There are still some older devices that don’t have drivers, and some will never get drivers for Windows Vista; and much of that is because the hardware vendors want you to buy new hardware designed for Vista, as available in new computers.  Fortunately, the driver situation is stabilizing more each day.For the most part, everything is working well in late 2007.

 L. What to like about Windows Vista Home Premium?

From a one year user’s point of view, one of the best features of Vista is the ability to find or open any photo, document, email, music, or program directly from the Start menu. The Start Search box pops up immediately when clicking the Start button, or pressing the Windows logo key. For example, a poster was created some long time ago, but it can be found instantly; simply type any part of the file name that you remember, or a word within the document, and a results menu displays all files with that name or containing that word. What this means, you can forget where you created things, because Instant Search will find it for you. Instant Search is one of those “big Vista pluses”.

 Above the Start Search box is a link to open all programs, or files that you recently opened, or want to have before you for immediate access in the future.  The right part of the Start menu can be personalized to display an access to any part of your computer. This means that you can enter your computer from the Start menu, the “control center” of your computer, and do anything worth doing.

Another big plus is the Start menu “Help and Support” program. Like all open folders, it too has a “Search Help” box answering almost every imaginable question related to computers, or how to do need-to-know useful tasks. Just type in program or task name, and up comes 30-60 related answers to item being searched.

Many Vista users like the convenience of information displayed continually from sidebar gadgets – including calendar, clock, personal email contacts, news feeds, current stock’s performance, weather, slide show, or enormous other gadgets obtained from online.

There are 43 useful programs within Vista. Given a few may not be used at all by an individual user, but collectively they are a compelling reason to update to Vista. Each user has his/her favorite programs, which are used daily or running in the background, protecting your computer, or providing an important service.    

 Improved desktop search, excellent graphics and security enhancements make Vista a new and improved operating system worth having. Windows Vista is the only Operating System that lets you play back commercial Blu-ray and HD DVD movies, and allow you to backup your movies. In fact, Vista is a must buy for anyone with a digital camcorder. Movie making is a super, simple Vista application. Photo Gallery & Media center are big pluses, too.  With the integration of SP1, Vista now becomes a five star operating system!

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