Jan 30, 2007 10:22 PM
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Microsoft is hoping that thier new operating system, (VISTA), will tempt people to buy it because it will only cost between$100 and$400 to upgrade their computer.
VISTA focus is on television, movies, music and games.
The last new system offer is 6 years old and the design people are hoping that people will want their computers to do more.
The software comes in four ranges from Basic to Home Premium to Business up to Ultimate and each has different features.
VISTA uses the name the "Aero" theme pack. Similar to the animated XP Theme and the trademark desktop sets it apart.
VISTA has a windows that expand and contract rather than appear and disappear. It features 3D animations(which require a 3D graphics card) and it has a side bar that contains "gadgets" such as sticky notes and an animated clock and that runs vertically on the screen(the side bar can be moved to any border of the screen, or removed, if the buyer wants it).
The browser will allow you to have eight programs running with eight windows, simply hitting the Windows button and the Tab key simultaneously will allow you to cycle through the open windows as if they were put on a Rolodex.
VISTA allows you to set a high-definition video clip as your desktop's wallpaper. When I looked at it on Monday I found this distracting.
Microsoft is offering a free downloadable tool that a user can run on his or her computer to see if it is capable of running Vista. My computer is.
Microsoft will itsof Windows XP until April 2009 this allows users of XP to continue to receive product support and software updates for the next two years.
The differences in VISTA are noticeable but it doesn't feel that different from XP.
VISTA allows people with XP to upgrade using the new data transfer tools. These tools protect your personal files while VISTA changes everything from Windows.
After you install it and you come back on line it has a "self healing" feature that will automatically look for updated drivers, hardware conflicts and other things.
After I installed the system I had a few small issues that caused my computer to crash. Vista logged the issue and when it re-booted automatically, it downloaded fixes from Microsoft to repair the issues. Total install time was less than 35 minutes and the software was running great.
Microsoft included some features to help combat the belief that Apple computers are better for multimedia.
The media center includes a Movie Maker this means you can pick the films or pictures you want and drag them into a template and the system will make a movie for you. Your system has a DVD maker so you then can use a catalogue and edit and print off their digital photos.
I found there are programs that ran in Windows XP that will not run in VISTA. For each of them VISTA has a way of trying to open the old applications.
I haven't used it long enough yet to know if I like it better than XP. If I stay with Windows I would have to buy it in 2 years and I feel I am being forced to buy features I don't want or won't use.
Thanks for reading my review.
©Lyla 2007
