Microsoft Vista

March 13, 2007 by AC.

Microsoft’s new operating system, Windows Vista, has been out for a little more than a month now.  I had a chance to work with it a bit but I am yet to upgrade my own machines to Vista just yet.

It is great and there are some super new features (more on that when I get to using it more).  The reason I have not yet upgraded is twofold - first, I am generally slow to upgrade to new operating systems and second, I will probably wait until I upgrade or buy a new PC.

The second reason is important because Vista is a big, bloated program that eats hard drive space & resources.  This is all well and good if you have a new, fast machine but it should give you pause to upgrading an older PC.

There are several versions of Vista, some pretty basic and some with exciting new features.  Microsoft has a site that describes the versions at:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/editions/default.mspx

If you are getting a new machine and have the means go for the Ultimate or Premium.  The graphics, multimedia and file handling changes in these versions of Vista are well worth the upgrade (more on version differences in a future blog).

If you are upgrading you have to consider several factors.  Chief among them is your system specifications.  Despite what Microsoft advises I highly recommend the following to upgrade to premium versions of Vista:

- 3.0 GHz Pentium Processor or greater or 2.0 GHz Core Duo processor or greater
- 2 GB of RAM 
- 80 GB Hard Drive or greater with 30 GB free space
- Enhanced Graphics Card with 256 MB memory

Microsoft lists the minimum specs online at:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/editions/systemrequirements.mspx

One additional consideration of an upgrade is to simply upgrade the system software or rewrite the hard drive by doing a clean installation of Vista.  The latter will require backup of your files, settings, etc. and for you to rebuild your system - files, programs, etc.  I have heard some horror stories about Vista upgrades, so a clean installation is highly recommended.

If you are interested in an upgrade you can test compatibility of a current system by visiting:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/buyorupgrade/upgradeadvisor.mspx

Otherwise I would wait until you are looking to buy a new PC and get one with Vista and the specs above.

Thanks for reading!

Posted in Microsoft | 1 Comment »