A Discussion Of Windows Vista

Recently members of our staff at Bureau 24 attended Microsoft's Launch event for Windows Vista. We were generally happy with the development of this new operating system. I should say that while we attended the event on the 30th that many of use had already checked the product out by using Microsoft's Trial versions and Betas.

So, should you upgrade to Windows Vista, absolutely. Though it may in fact follow the trend of Microsoft software and be full of problems until at least the release of service pack 1, we believe it is innovative and full of features that truly make it a must have.

What sort of features? Well for instance the Aero desktop which we recommend with a 256mb Video card is outstanding. It provides a fully transparent desktop and an ease of organizing and using multiple windows that is just plain great. A truly 3d representation of the desktop is available. Then there is the search feature available in the start menu. Simply type a few letters of the program you want to use and it pulls that program up immediately. Speed was excellent, though you do need a powerful machine with a powerful graphics card to take advantage of everything Vista has to offer. Microsoft recommends 128mb while Bureau 24 recommends 256Mb for best performance. We found the OS faster in almost everyway then Windows XP while doing two to three times more work.

Next are the back up and recovery capabilities of this operating system. Included on the client version of the software is a version of the previously only for server shadow copying system. It allows not only instant restore of deleted files but also one touch back ups of files and the entire disk drive. It is great and the data can be easily recovered from a image storable on a usb drive. Plus Microsoft has finally fixed their heretofore horrible encryption system to where it now provides a reliable level of security for sensitive data.

Plus I.T. pros will love the fact that the new operating system gets rid of the irritating job of keeping track of image files. Now installs can be easily handled on multiple machines and configurations without the need to allocate Terabytes of memory to image storing. You can even edit previously created images by adding or removing features for different hardware environments.

the advantages of Windows Vista are simple the OS will allow you to access data faster, do more work in a shorter period of time and secure your data better. All in all Vista is a huge step up from Windows XP and soundly superior to anything else on the market.