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Our aim is not to turn this article into a monolithic review, but rather to just provide an essential look at some new and interesting features of Windows Vista that are likely to be regularly used by the average Windows user. Also, the review is meant to give a user perspective of some aspects of Vista and how it stands out in comparison to Windows XP.

We hope you find this review useful and enlightening, be sure to send us your feedback and comments! Also, please tell us what you think of Windows Vista if you already have had a chance to use it. Thank you.

Interesting Facts

* 28 months of Development
* 15 Test Releases
* 15 months of Technical Testing
* 30,000 Technical Testers

Windows Vista is finally here for everyone and is soon to be made available on store shelves and pre-loaded on new PC’s. Windows Vista has been five years in the making; throughout that time we have witnessed Microsoft reschedule the release of this “major upgrade” over and over and over again. Microsoft, however, throughout that tumultuous time did manage to pick up the pieces and move forward.

Microsoft has released Vista in two phases; one for Volume License Customers (businesses) launched November 2006 and another for consumers at the end of January. The ActiveWin Team has been testing the RTM release of the OS for the past couple of months now and it must be noted that the final product has shown tremendous improvements in areas such as stability and performance, which gives us the confidence to say, its definitely ready for daily usage.

The general feel of the OS is more responsive and applications also launch quickly. Yes, there are some issues, but it’s nothing that has held us back at this point and if its hardware related, it’s most likely an IHV (Independent Hardware Vendor) issue and we should start seeing more stable and updated drivers appear soon. Like its predecessor Windows XP, Vista has improved deployment options and device driver detection; these improvements have proven to be very user friendly and reduced the time it takes to get Windows up and running.

Vista is not without its demons, areas of the OS such as compatibility still remains an issue and users will encounter cases of some of their favorite applications and/or hardware devices either not working properly or not working at all. Other parts of the user interface Microsoft claims to be new and improved feel like extra steps to accomplish simple task. A new feature User Access Control is sure to cause more annoyance than its intended purpose, which is to protect users although it has been lax since BETA 1 to provide a convenient response to actions executed by the user. Windows Vista will be available in six editions, please note this review also contains information about the BETA 2 (build 5384), July CTP (build 5472) and the RC1 (build 5600) releases.

Microsoft has released Windows Vista in six editions, they include: Starter, Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, Enterprise and Ultimate. Each SKU (Stock Keeping Unit) has specific features targeting a melting pot of users, from emerging markets, enterprise customers to life style computer users. Some of the features include, improved Search, wireless/networking and authentication, collaboration, improved security, enhanced multimedia, improved group policy editor, file management, 64-bit computing and support for some of the latest hardware on the market. Actually, if you were to separate platform and SKU’s then add them up; Vista would total to a whopping thirteen flavors’, seventeen if you count in the “N” Editions available only in the European Union.

The system requirements for Windows Vista are in some ways welcome and difficult to comprehend especially for someone who might be coming from a P3 1GHz with 64 MBs of video memory. Performance will ultimately depend on your system specifications, the two main hardware components that matter the most to Windows Vista are RAM and Graphics memory. Microsoft has recommended that a Vista capable system should have the following: an 800 MHz processor (or better), 512 MBs of RAM (minimum recommended) or more (Vista handles up to 128 GBs of RAM maximum depending on the edition’s and platform) and 15 GB’s of free hard disk space. As for Graphics memory, your satisfaction will depend on your desire, whether you want the new Windows Aero theme or settle for one of the less graphically intense options such as the familiar Windows Classic or stripped down Windows Aero Basic. Windows Aero, which is the ultimate experience, requires a minimum of 64 MBs of video RAM, a Direct X 9 compatible card or 1 GB of dual channel RAM required if you are using onboard graphics. Of course, if you want the best performance and experience, a dedicated graphics card is recommended, 128 MBs or “higher”. My nVidia Geforce FX 5200 (128 MB AGP) card although old by today’s standard run’s the Aero visuals, but I don’t get the full experience in some areas. When I ran Slide Show from the Pictures folder or Photo Gallery my photos were shown in Basic mode instead of using the new Slide Show Theme’s.

I did a search in Vista’s Help and Support to find out why my system is not getting the slide effects, turns out it was my Windows Experience Index score which got a lousy 2.0. The other Windows themes (Classic and Aero Basic) are in the same category with Windows XP and will run just fine with onboard graphics or slower cards.

“In order to see your slide show with high-quality visuals (including themes and transitions), you need to have a subscore of 3.0 for the Graphics category in the Windows Experience Index. Some themes also require your computer’s graphics card to have a feature called Vertex Shader 2.0. To take advantage of all slide show capabilities, you might need to upgrade to a more powerful graphics card."