What's New In Windows Vista?

Windows Vista replaces Windows XP as the next desktop operating system. Microsoft has spent several years building what it calls its best operating system yet. While Vista is still Windows, there are many changes, some visible and some under the hood, that will both help and frustrate users. Over the next several posts I will review some of these changes.

When Vista starts up the user interface presents changes immediately. The login dialog looks different but acts the same. You supply your password and you're in. The desktop has some major changes. First, there is no Start button, or at least it doesn't say Start. It's just a round button with a Windows flag in it. When you click on it, the menu make look similar at first but it really is a much better place to "start". I will get into more detail of the Start Menu in another post.

When you start Windows Vista you may also see the Vista Sidebar. The Sidebar is a place where you can put little gadgets (small programs) That can be fun and even useful. The Sidebar can be turned on or off and there are hundreds of gadgets that can be downloaded and run in the Sidebar. At first this may seem a little silly, but I have actually found some gadgets that are very useful.

You will also notice that when you right click on the desktop the menu presented is different than Windows XP. In fact, instead of selecting Properties from the menu, you now select Personalize. This brings up a whole new menu of items. At first I found this frustrating as I couldn't find things that I could easily find before. However, as I continue to work with Vista I am getting used to the new locations for things and for the most part, I like where they are located.

Click here for a short demo of some of the new Vista features. (Click on See it now)

Office 2007 Versions

Just as there are several versions of Windows Vista, Office 2007 has several versions to choose from, actually 8. Similar to Vista, our Clients really only need to consider a couple of versions. The 8 versions are as follows: (Click on any item for more information)

Basic
Home and Student
Standard
Small Business
Professional
Ultimate
Professional Plus
Enterprise

This document describes what is included in each version. I will present an overview of each of the Office products as this blog series continues. For most of our Clients either Standard or Professional will be the suite of choice.

In addition to these Office versions, there are several Microsoft Office Server products. These server products are intended to help organizations that share Office files: (Click on any item for more information)

Forms Server
Groove Server
Live Communications Server
PerformancePoint Server
Project Portfolio Server
Project Server
SharePoint Server
SharePoint Server For Search

Most of the server based products are for larger organizations although some smaller organizations may find Forms Server, Groove Server, and SharePoint Server useful.

I know this seems like a lot to digest, but it really isn't. You will generally choose one Office suite and for most Clients no Office Server products.

Next, we will start looking into what makes Vista tick. You'll even get a chance to give it a test drive!

Windows Vista Versions

Most people don't realize that there were 6 versions of Windows XP. So when I say there are 6 versions of Windows Vista you may be surprised.

The six versions are:

· Starter (Not available in USA)
· Home Basic
· Home Premium
· Business
· Ultimate
· Enterprise

For most of our Clients only two versions need to be considered, Business and Ultimate. In fact the Business version will be what most Clients will use. The Business version is the replacement for Windows XP Professional. Similar to the XP home versions, the Vista home versions will not connect to a business network. The Home versions are also missing some other critical business functionality.

The Business version includes the following features:

Instant Search - A great new search process. Searches drives, emails, databases, etc extremely fast and easy to use.

Windows Photo Gallery - Manages photos much easier and better than ever before.

Internet Explorer 7 - Internet Explorer 6 does not run in Vista. I will post a separate article on IE7.

Windows Defender - Built in, auto-updating spyware protection.

Windows Aero Interface - A very cool new way to view and use windows on your desktop. You'll see this at our seminar.

Windows Tablet PC Functionality - Tablet PC functionality is built in to Vista. It was a separate version of Windows XP.

Built in fax and scanning functionality.

New backup and restore functionality.

The Ultimate version adds Windows Media Center functionality which was a separate version of Windows XP and some cool Vista add-ons.

Price wise Vista Business is the same price as XP Pro. It will be the version that comes on most new PCs purchased for business.

Vista Enterprise is another business version that may be applicable to Clients with a large number of workstations.

So there are six Windows Vista versions but most of our Clients only need to worry about one, the Business version. See, it's really not that bad!

Next, I'll review the various versions of Office 2007. That is a completely different animal!

What Is Windows Vista?

Over the past week I have had several conversations with Clients regarding some confusion over Windows Vista and Office 2007, so I thought I would try to clear up some of the confusion.

Windows Vista is a computer operating system. It replaces Windows XP. A computer operating system is the brains of the computer. It is software that makes the box of hardware into a computer. It communicates with all of the hardware components to make them do the functions they were designed to do. For instance, it is the operating system that makes characters and graphics appear on your video monitor, saves data and reads data to/from your hard drive, keeps track of the date and time, handles system security, etc, etc, etc. When a programmer writes a program to run on the computer he does not have to worry about how to do these things as they are taken care of by the operating system. For instance, the programmer can just say "save this file" and the operating system does all the dirty work of formatting and writing all those 1s and 0s to the hard drive, CD, DVD, etc.

Office 2007 is a computer application. Office 2003 is an application, Misys is an application, Internet Explorer is an application. Applications are computer programs that accomplish tasks for you. These tasks can be simple or very complex.

The relationship between the operating system and an application is crucial. When a programmer writes an application he/she takes advantage of the operating system's "brains". The application becomes dependent on the methods that the operating system uses to perform technical functions like saving files, etc. When new operating systems are created new functions are included (Vista has lots of new DVD stuff, whereas XP was not aware of DVDs as they were not mainstream when it came out), and existing functions may be changed to take advantage of new technologies or to address security issues.

What does all this mean? Basically, programs are written and are dependent on certain operating systems. Some programs are generic enough to be able to run on several operating systems and some are very dependent on a certain operating system version.

Office 2007 will run in Windows XP and Windows Vista, although it is optimized for Vista in some areas. Office 2003 will run in Windows XP and Windows Vista although, it is more comfortable in XP. Currently Misys runs in Windows XP but not Windows Vista.

You can migrate to Windows Vista and still use Office 2003. (Other office versions will be problematic). You can can install Office 2007 on Windows XP workstations.

Migrating to a new operating system is much more challenging than simply upgrading to a new version of a program. I think brain surgery is more complicated than trying a new diet!

Next, we will look at the different versions of Windows Vista that are available.