Sold on Windows Vista

A week ago or so I posted about the purchase of a new laptop with Windows Vista.  Well, I liked the new Microsoft Operating System so much that I have purchased Windows Vista Ultimate for my desktop PC and have completed the update.  I really like the interface much better than Windows XP now that I have had it to play with for a bit.  My rationale for buying the $250 ”Ultimate” version, aside from being fully loaded (not me, the software), was the fact that Microsoft offers a family license discount if you buy a retail version of Ultimate.  I can now purchase up to 2 licenses for Windows Home Premium for just $50 each.  This will allow me to upgrade Karen’s and Ben’s PCs at some point in the future. 

So why do I like Windows Vista so much?  Here are a few of the top reasons, in no particular order:

1. Gadgets – Windows Vista implements desktop and desktop sidebar gadgets that allow you to put small, useful, configurable, live programs out on your desktop.  The gadgets I am currently using include a clock, a calender, the weather, a small slideshow program (runs a slide show of pictures from our electronic photo album), Headline RSS feeds, and a CPU/RAM Usage Meter.  The cool thing is there is an online repository for user developed gadgets, and you can also develop your own (something I plan to do soon….probably a hockey stat tracker of some sort).  This brings the concept of a live desktop to fruition, and is one of the must have features of Vista, in my opinion.
2. File Organization and Search Capabilities – Vista implements an improved, easy to understand and use file organization structure and with vastly improved integrated search capabilities.  You can tailor your search on almost any attribute that you would like to find what you are looking for on your PC.  Perhaps one of the best implementations is the ability to use tags on your photos (date, keyword, rating, label, etc), enabling easier discovery, grouping and search within your photo album folders.   
3. Graphical User Interface – Of course, Vista is very pleasing to the eye.  Unlike Windows XP, the Start Menu and “All Programs” access is logical, clean and easy to use:
• With XP, if you have many programs, the “all programs” pane just grows bigger and bigger, eventually overtaking your entire screen.  In Vista, a small boxed window is utilized with a scrollbar.  Programs are ordered alphabetically by default, making it very low maintenance and much easier to find what you are looking for. 
• Vista employs a desktop “sidebar” as a nice place to park your gadgets, although you don’t need to park them there as they can be dragged and placed anywhere on the desktop.  You can also change the opacity of each individual sidebar gadget to make them very unobtrusive.
• The “Windows Aero” interface is very airy and appealing with translucent, configurable themes.  On of the more publicized features is the “Flip 3D” capability by which you can click a button (similar to the “Show Desktop” button) and see a 3D rolodex of all of your open windows.  You can then use the scroll button on your mouse to flip through the rolodex until you pick the window you would like to view.  Although this sounds like it might be neat, but of questionable utility, it is a GREAT feature if you operate in multi-task, multi-window environments. 

4. Configurable and complete – Much more configurable, with a lot better tools built right into the Operating System for maintaining your PC, protecting your files/data, running system backups/restores, establishing parental controls, and more.  Some may prefer to get their own utilities like this, as they may not like the Microsoft solution….but I think Microsoft did a good job integrating all of the capabilities into Vista. 
5. Multimedia – You can plug your XBox 360 controller into Vista and use it to play games.  You can even use your XBox 360 as a media extender to send your PC content to your big screen TV using Windows Media Center.  If you have a TV Tuner on your PC, you can use it to watch and record your programs using your PC as a DVR/TIVO.  While this feature is not unique to Vista (it was available on XP Media Center edition), the Media Center is standard fare on Vista Premium and Ultimate. 

As far as the upgrade, Vista is a little picky about legacy hardware and software it supports.  I had a few minor issues (some outdated drivers and old CD burning programs that didn’t want to work with Vista), but nothing that prevented a good install, or took away capability that wasn’t already resident on the new OS.  Most of my recent (XP era) programs seem to work just fine inside of Vista.  The install itself took a fair amount of clock time, but I used the Upgrade option (vice clean install) and it had to spend a lot of time sifting through my programs and configuring them for use in Vista.  OI would say the actual install took about 2.5 hours.  At the end, however, it was up and running without incident.  

I am having no performance issues at all, but I wouldn’t expect any with 3GHZ Pentium D and 2GB DDR RAM.  My RAM utilization is running about 40% with lots of taskbar goodies and desktop gadgets running.  CPU utilization seems to be handling the load without issue as well.   

Despite the tone of my post, this is NOT a paid advertisement for Microsoft Vista!  Nonetheless, I am quite happy with the latest installment of Windows and consider it to be a “must have” upgrade over XP for the computer enthusiast.  If a slick GUI, intuitive file acces, configurable and maintainable operating system aren’t important to you….then save your money for something else that piques your interest!  I have no regrets and enjoy the Vista OS.