technology

Microsoft’s new operating system is a security savior and offers a bundle of new features. But is it worth the upgrade?

Half a decade in the making, Microsoft’s latest operating system, Windows Vista, has finally arrived with enormous expectations—and considerable confusion. What is Vista going to do for you, and should you shell out the time and money it takes to upgrade your computer to the new OS? Read on for everything you need to know about the operating system that will set the standard for the next five years.

A sleeker look

The first change you’ll notice is Vista’s departure from the primary colors of Windows XP. Called Aero, the new Windows Vista desktop is sleeker, using a glossy black as the color of choice for menu backgrounds and the taskbar at the bottom of the screen. The other big change is transparency: Certain elements of the display are translucent and let you faintly see what is happening underneath an active window (although this doesn’t mean you can see a video playing through the Word document you’re typing, which could be maddening).

Vista also does a better job at providing thumbnails—miniature versions of your various files—when you don’t have them front and center. Explorer can now create thumbnails of almost any kind of document (instead of just images), so you can hunt for a distinctive spreadsheet or presentation based on its design. These thumbnails also work with the taskbar; hover over a taskbar item, and you’ll see a miniature version of each window you have open. Search is also greatly improved and integrated into just about every facet of Vista.

The bad news is that all of Aero’s features won’t be available to every user, as your hardware will need to meet minimum requirements (specifically, a dedicated graphics card that supports DirectX 9) in order to run Aero at all. Otherwise, be prepared to upgrade.

Tighter security

Considerable work has been done with Vista to address Windows’ nagging security issues, which have made it famously vulnerable to hacker attacks, viruses, spyware and more. So far, independent testing has shown substantial improvement on this front over XP, but whether Vista is locked tight (as executives have promised) will take some time to figure out. As Vista becomes more widespread, it will become increasingly targeted by hackers and malware creators, and how well Vista stands up to the onslaught will be an ongoing concern.

Business users will find more integrated options to make their PCs more secure against online intruders or, more importantly, physical theft. In the Ultimate Edition (see sidebar “Should you upgrade?”), Vista includes Windows
BitLocker Drive Encryption, which lets you secure your data with powerful encryption. The integrated firewall from XP is back, too. The new Windows Defender appears as Vista’s integrated spyware blocking and scanning service, and the new Internet Explorer 7 has better security than previous Windows Web browsers, including a very capable anti-phishing system.

Business facelift

Naturally, I expect you’ll be using your Vista PC for work, and Vista has made some impressive strides for businesses both large and small.

Windows Meeting Space is a new service built into Vista that lets you create a sort of impromptu chat room, where you can hold a meeting, share files or display a version of your desktop onscreen for those in attendance. Faxing and scanning capabilities have been enhanced, which should eliminate the need for add-on software for either task. If you’re a tablet PC user, you’ll also be happy to learn that Vista supports tablets without requiring a special version of the software, as was the case previously.

Here’s another useful addition: Synchronizing files across two or more machines used to mean using Windows’ dated, buggy Briefcase software, which many users didn’t even know existed, much less how to use it. With the Vista Sync Center, synchronization becomes much easier and more powerful, even letting you manage multiple syncs from a single console and schedule them to take place automatically.


Your PC’s most common office functions will still be found in your office suite, and the new version of Microsoft Office (2007) contains substantial new features, including a revamped user interface throughout the suite, a better spell-checker, improvements that make Outlook data more shareable, and more.

I’ll try to cover Office 2007’s new features in detail in a future column.

Non-essential essentials

Not all of Vista’s improvements are geared for business and productivity. Many are designed just to make things more visually interesting and to put information—or diversions—right at your fingertips. Here are a couple worth mentioning.

The Windows Sidebar is the most notable addition here. The Sidebar is a pane on the side of your screen (the right by default) where you can drop miniature applications called Gadgets.

If you’re familiar with Yahoo! Widgets or Google Gadgets, Vista Gadgets are the same idea: You drop these little programs on your desktop where they’re always within a mouse-click’s reach. The simplest are clocks and calculators, but music shufflers, automatic YouTube video players, search tools, games and even astrology updates are among hundreds of available Gadgets, with more arriving every day.

Vista now also includes speech recognition software, long a feature that required additional and costly software, by default. Speech recognition requires a brief training session, after which you can use your voice to control computer functions or even browse the Web (by speaking link names) or, as most people will choose, to dictate text to a word processor.

VISTA AND TRAVEL

Laptop users will see more changes than desktop users with the jump to Vista. Tablet features, as noted, will be integrated into all versions of the OS. But nowadays, many notebooks actually come with the Windows Media Center version of XP preinstalled, which adds an entertainment mode to the OS. Media Center is also being discontinued, as those functions have been integrated into some versions of Vista.

Other innovations for laptops abound: Vista is better at gauging your remaining battery life than XP’s wild guesses, and managing mobile features like display brightness and audio volume has all been centralized into something called Windows Mobility Center. A one-click presentation mode can also be set to avoid those nagging reconfigurations that come when it’s time to hook up for a PowerPoint show-and-tell.

The biggest change with Vista will require new hardware, but it’s one of the coolest computer innovations to come along in quite a while. Many upcoming laptops will actually feature a second, smaller LCD display built into the top of the laptop and visible when the notebook is shut. Called SideShow, this screen can be used to display battery life, time and the notebook’s status (off, on or sleeping), and it can also be used as a miniature organizer, displaying your calendar, phone numbers and even recent email messages—even if the laptop is turned off. SideShow-capable laptops should be available by the time you read this.

SHOULD YOU UPGRADE?

Ah, the eternal question. Upgrade now, or wait to get it on a new PC? Or should you upgrade at all? These are questions only you can answer, but here’s some food for thought to help you on your way.

• Vista is expensive. The Ultimate Edition (the version I recommend) costs $260 for an upgrade, or $400 if you don’t have an XP disc. That could go a long way toward a new computer with the OS preinstalled.

• Upgrade options are confusing. Vista comes in four major versions: Home Basic is a completely stripped version of the OS that no one will want to use. The Home Premium, Business and Ultimate Editions add the features you’ll want.

• Home Premium includes Media Center features, while Business includes Remote Desktop and advanced backup options. Ultimate contains all of these features, plus BitLocker Drive Encryption. Choose accordingly.

• The first few months of a new Microsoft OS are always rocky, and Vista will be no exception. Vista represents a bigger change from XP than XP was from Windows 2000, so expect Vista’s bug reports to be much heftier. Those installing Vista in its first six months of release will face the majority of the bugs it contains, and absorbing that kind of headache might be better left for the adventurous.

• Vista won’t work with all your applications. The list of applications incompatible with Vista is quite extensive, including several security applications, CD-burning programs, programming tools and games. Fixing these problems will be an ongoing battle, but many apps will never run properly on Vista. Be sure to research whether any critical apps you run are compatible before upgrading.

If you aren’t comfortable downloading drivers and running the lengthy installation, but you are sure you want Vista, you might be better off buying a new PC with Vista preinstalled. Remember, don’t settle for an “upgrade coupon.” This will get you a disc in the mail at a later date...and it will probably be for one of the lesser, stripped-down versions of Vista.

______________________________________________

CHRISTOPHER NULL is a freelance writer based in San Francisco.