An overview of Microsoft Vista ………………
During the 1st quarter of 2007, Microsoft launched two new products. A new operating system “Windows Vista” which replaces the aging Windows XP and “Office 2007” that replacing Office 2003.
Here, we are going to look at Windows Vista Business Version.
Windows Vista Business is the first Windows operating system designed specifically to meet the needs of small businesses. The interface, which is very different to that of Windows XP is designed with the uninformed computer user in mind. There are more help prompts to guide the user through the operating system and warn of areas where damage could be done. The user can of course switch some of these help functions off; which is beneficial once they become more familiar with Vista or if they are already an expert.
As the recommended spec for Vista is a 1 GHz processor with 1 GB ram and 128mb graphics, plus all new drivers, we do NOT recommend upgrading your existing PC to Vista as experience has told us that this can very problematic for some machines. The upgrade can take between 2 - 6 hours depending on the speed of your PC. On older pc’s this can take much longer as new drivers need to be found and sometimes don’t exist. A lot of the software written for XP also has issues in Vista, those still using Office 97 will not be able to use it. CD/DVD burning software also has problems as Vista talks to the CD/DVD drives in a different way.
Software purchased from Link Systems will always be 100% genuine. It is now more crucial than ever to ensure you have a genuine copy. Apart from the legal implications the one off activation of windows XP has been replaced with Vista’s ongoing validation. This means that if a non-genuine Windows Vista is detected even after its been working okay for a while, the system will enter a 30-day grace period. During this time key features are disabled including Windows Aero and Windows Defender. If Windows Vista is not activated in the 30-day grace period, the system will operate in a very reduced functionality state including limiting usage to one hour sessions.
The conclusion from the Link Systems technical team is that Vista is an excellent product, however Microsoft still have some work to do in certain areas. One major area being the extra time it takes to copy files. Our recommendation would be to wait until Service Pack 1 is released in the summer.
