Windows Vista is the newest operating system from Microsoft. As always, with any new operating system, Microsoft will tell you that this is the “solve-all” to all your problems. Well, that’s up to you to decide. I will tell you, however, that Microsoft has done something with this operating system (OS) that it has never done before… it’s building the operating system around security rather than adding security to an already complete operating system. This is an extremely important step in the right direction for Microsoft. It is always better to have security as your focus from the start rather than trying to conform one thing into something else.

 

For instance, with previous Microsoft operating systems, in order to be able to run applications without running into problems, the majority of people use a user account that is an administrator of the local computer. When logged on with an account that is a member of the Administrators group, you now have full reign to do whatever you desire on the computer. Convenience comes at a steep price though, because in addition to you having full reign on the computer, so do any programs that are running while you are logged on… including viruses, spyware, and other malware. A virus now has the power to delete everything on your computer. Wouldn’t it make more sense for a user to have limited rights and then if higher access was needed to do something, let the user know and allow them to type in a password to get access for that one-time event?

 

Of course it would! In fact, many operating systems such as Linux have been doing this for years. Well, Microsoft has now decided to get on the ball. The Windows Vista operating system now offers what they are referring to as User Account Control. When you want to do something that requires administrative rights, you’ll be prompted to allow it to run or be asked for a password…

 

 

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It will definitely take some getting used to for all of us that had the power to accomplish tasks without the hassle of a popup box asking us for a password all the time. That’s certainly true, but if you’ve ever gotten a bad virus or spyware, you know how much hassle it can be to have it removed or in many cases, needing to reload the entire operating system. Additionally, everyday tasks like working with Word or Excel software, browsing the Internet, or checking email will most likely not give you this prompt. The prompt will occur, however, if you are installing a new application, for example.

 

The Windows Vista OS adds other features that are likely to be a big hit with users. Here are some of the highlights:

 

·        User experience – One of big pushes from Microsoft is the “user experience.” The idea is that everything will be much easier to organize, find, and work with.

o       Desktop search – An integrated search function is now scattered throughout the Windows Vista OS. You may have used the search function in previous versions of the Windows operating system and notice it takes a while for it to find your document(s) – if it even finds it. The desktop search eliminates many of these headaches. It works by indexing files, including content from most files. This means you don’t necessarily need to remember the name of the file, but maybe a word or words from within a document, the name of the artist for a song file, etc. And once you punch in what you’re looking for, the results instantly pop up because they’ve already been indexed. No more waiting.

o       Preview panes and thumbnails – When looking at a folder of files, you can now click once on a file and see a live preview of the content inside, rather than opening each file to find the one you want. When resting your mouse over an item along the taskbar, you’ll see a live thumbnail (a small preview) of what that window contains.

·        Security – We already discussed User Account Control, what I consider to be one of the most important features of Windows Vista. Here are a couple others…

o       Windows Defender – Now built into the Windows Vista OS, Microsoft has added an anti-spyware utility to monitor for problems such as spyware or other unwanted software.

o       Firewall – Windows XP was the first version of the Windows operating system to come out with a software firewall built into it. The problem was that it only worked to take care of connections that were inbound to the computer. The Windows Vista OS now has a firewall that can protect both inbound and outbound connections to the computer. We will discuss what firewalls do and their importance more in the section “The Basics of Protecting Your Computer.”

·        Internet Explorer 7 – Microsoft hasn’t really done much with their web browser until recently. For quite some time, Microsoft owned almost the entire market with its Internet Explorer browser. Then, the Mozilla® Foundation came out with an Internet browser called Firefox® that has taken the market by storm. According to SpreadFirefox (a non-profit organization set to help market Firefox), as of March 2006, Firefox has had more than 150 million downloads! At that point, Microsoft decided to get back to work on its Internet Explorer web browser. The Internet Explorer 7 browser, included with the Windows Vista OS and downloadable for the Windows XP OS, has incorporated some really nice features. One of these is tabbed browsing, a feature that was already built into the Firefox browser and many other web browsers. Tabbed browsing is just a way of using tabs from within your main browser window to have multiple sites open at the same time instead several windows that can quickly fill the taskbar. Security was also taken into consideration, limiting the Internet Explorer browser to just being able to browse the web, as it should be.

·        Sleep – A new power feature called Sleep has been introduced. If you are a fan of Standby or Hibernate, then you will probably be very interested in the Sleep feature. It combines the best of both worlds, giving you the speed of going to Standby and the low energy use of Hibernate. In a nutshell, this is something more often to be used by laptop users than desktop users. Essentially, when you hit the power button or close the lid of your laptop, all the applications and data that are currently open and running are written to memory. When you turn on the laptop, in just a couple seconds, you are right back to where you left off (open documents and all) with no need to wait for the computer to start up. If for some reason, it takes you longer than expected to get back to your laptop and the Windows Vista operating system sees the battery life getting low, the data will be written from memory to the hard drive.

·        SuperFetch – A new technology by Microsoft that learns which applications you use most and “preloads” those applications into memory so when you go to use one of those applications, it will load much faster.

·        Backing Up – This is another item that we will discuss more later on in the book. The Windows Vista operating system makes a couple of improvements on backups.

o       System Restore – If you’ve needed to use the System Restore feature in the Windows XP OS, you know just how important this feature is. System Restore is a technology that the Windows operating system uses to take snapshot backups of your system on a regular basis. Sometimes something can cause major problems, such as a virus or application, to the point you’re about ready to throw the computer out the window. System Restore is an option that will lets the Windows operating system be rolled back to the way it was at a previous time (hopefully before the problem occurred). The Windows Vista OS improves upon the technology this that was released with the Windows XP OS.

o       Backup – In previous Windows operating system versions, the backup utility lacked some major functionality. Although it would do a good job doing the backups and restores of data, it did not allow you to back up directly to CDs, DVDs, or external hard drives (USB or FireWire®). This made backups a bit more troublesome for the typical home user. If you wanted to back up data to a CD or DVD, you had to back up the computer to itself (or another computer). Then if you wanted, you could move the backup file to another location off the computer (like burning it to a DVD). Where’s the automation in that?! Well, now there’s no excuse for users not to have a backup run on a regular basis. The ability to back up to external devices is now built in. We’ll talk more about getting this set up in the section “The Basics of Backups.”

o       Volume Shadow Copies – Have you ever accidentally been working with a file and you don’t want to save any changes, but when you are prompted if you want to save your changes, you jump the gun and click “Yes” and write over things you didn’t want to be changed? Well, Microsoft has now included a technology it had originally used in its Windows Server™ 2003 product line that will automatically create snapshots of files at certain times of the day. If you need a file back, you can easily look for and most likely see multiple versions of the file that exist. Then you can save the version of the file back to its original location or to another location if desired.

·        Parental Controls – If you have children, you may have noticed that unless you buy a third-party application, it’s difficult to manage and monitor what they are doing on the computer. The ability is now there to easily control what the children should have access to with quite a bit of granularity – allow or restrict specific games, specific website use, and even the times of day they can use it. Detailed reporting can also be used to follow-up on what they were doing.

·        Windows Mail – If you have been an Outlook Express mail client user (different from the Microsoft Outlook mail client), then it might be important to know that Outlook Express has been renamed to Windows Mail and has been improved upon. It allows for instant search, better junk mail filtering to reduce spam, a phishing filter, and the data store size limit that the Outlook Express client had has been removed.

·        Windows Calendar – This is new to the Windows operating system. A built in calendar allows you to manage your schedule. It has the ability to remind you of events, coordinate your schedule with others, and send or receive email appointments and invitations.

·        Media Capabilities – The Windows Vista operating system includes some media features to help many of the day-to-day users that have gotten into digital photography, videography, etc.

o       Windows Photo Gallery allows you to easily work with photos – finding, organizing, editing, emailing, printing, and creating slide shows.

o       Windows Media Player 11 has been upgraded with a focus on better management and playback of digital media such as music and movies.

o       The new version of the Windows Movie Maker program allows you to easily import, organize, and edit digital home videos. It also allows you to easily create custom DVDs.

o       Windows Media Center, previously a separate product, is now built into Windows Vista. It brings together the ability to watch movies and TV, listen to music, and view pictures in one place using the Media Center menu or a remote control.

·        Improved Sharing – Microsoft has tried to make sharing files and folders with other users on a network much simpler. A sharing wizard is now available to help you specify which users to you want to share information.

·        Diagnostics – The Windows Vista OS includes the ability warn you of potential problems, such as a hard drive starting to go bad or an application that is taking up more and more memory. If the Windows Vista OS will not start up, a new “Startup Repair” technology will help take you through a step-by-step guide to get you back up and going while helping to prevent the least amount of data loss possible.

 

Overall, the Windows Vista operating system provides much better security and new and improved functionality. Do you as a user need this new operating system? Well, if you are buying a new computer then yes, you will want to make sure it comes with the Windows Vista operating system (see “The Basics of Buying a New Computer” section for more on the different versions). Having the latest operating system makes sense when buying a new computer – Microsoft will support it the longest, it will be more secure, it should provide a better user experience, and it will most likely be what is offered anyway from the manufacturer of the new computer.

 

Now, the next question is… should I upgrade my current version of Windows to the Windows Vista operating system? That’s going to depend on many factors. If you’re one of those people that always need the latest and the greatest, then you’ll probably upgrade regardless of what I have to say.

 

If you’re running an unsupported version of Windows (such as the Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Me, or Windows NT® operating systems), then you should definitely make the move to the Windows Vista OS simply because those others are no longer supported. In addition, security is a MAJOR concern with these operating systems, and most new applications are not supported (and in some cases will not run) on the older versions of of the Windows OS. However, in your case, you will most likely need to buy a new computer in order to even meet the hardware requirements of Windows Vista.

 

If you’re running the Windows 2000 OS, you might be a borderline candidate. Windows 2000 is arguably Microsoft’s first solid operating system. However, as of this writing, it’s going on seven years old. In technology years, that’s a lifetime. Chances are, if you’re running the Windows 2000 OS, you are probably getting to the point where you’re considering getting a new computer. If that’s the case, I would just stick with what you've got until you get the new computer.

 

If you’re running the Windows XP OS, I wouldn’t necessarily go running out the door to get the upgrade unless it provides something you really need. Just be sure that you have installed all critical updates (particularly a minimum of Service Pack 2) from the Microsoft Update site (http://update.microsoft.com). You may possibly already have the hardware required to run the Windows Vista operating system, but Windows XP is a very good operating system and it may not necessarily be worth the hassle of upgrading.