BUYING A NEW COMPUTER?
FOUR FLAVORS OF VISTA
Compiled by Herman Strauss
This page is only a sample of the tips and tricks club members receive at our meetings.
What you should know about Vista
| HOME BASIC | HOME PREMIUM | BUSINESS | ULTIMATE |
| For basic home needs such as e-mail and Internet access. | For the best home computing and | For small and mid-sized organizations. | For work and entertainment, this is the most complete edition. |
| Hyperlink | Feature | Home Basic | Home Premium | Business | Ultimate |
| Most secure Windows ever with Windows Defender and Windows Firewall | √ | √ | √ | √ | |
| Quickly find what you need with Instant Search and Windows Internet Explorer 7 | √ | √ | √ | √ | |
| Elegant Windows Aero desktop experience with Windows Flip 3D navigation | √ | √ | √ | ||
| Best choice for laptops with enhanced Windows Mobility Center and Tablet PC support | √ | √ | √ | ||
| Collaborate and share documents with Windows Meeting Space | √ | √ | √ | ||
| Experience photos and entertainment in your living room with Windows Media Center | √ | √ | |||
| Enjoy Windows Media Center on TVs throughout your home with Xbox 360™ and other devices | √ | √ | |||
| Help protect against hardware failure with advanced business backup features | √ | √ | |||
| Business networking and Remote Desktop for easier connectivity | √ | √ | |||
| Better protect your data against loss or theft with Windows BitLocker™ Drive Encryption | √ |
My personal view is that we should wait until Vista is proven to be free of major bugs, and then buy a machine with 2 gb. of RAM, 256 gb. of Vidio RAM, an adequate chip and Vista Home Premium installed. Then I would think twice before buying it.
The following is from Kim Komando's newsletter.
Windows Vista offers real improvements
Windows XP, the current operating system, is reliable and full-featured. But it has its problems. Vista improves many of those things.
Four versions of Vista are available to the public. They are Home Basic, Home Premium, Business and Ultimate. Enterprise is available only through volume licensing.
I'd avoid Home Basic; it's missing essential features.
Getting started
Moving data and settings to a new computer is tricky. Some people never get everything transferred. The problem is compounded when switching operating systems.
Software manufacturers sell programs to transfer files. These programs are costly, and not everyone knows they're available.
Vista's Easy Transfer helps you transfer files, settings and even user accounts.
There are several ways to perform the transfer. You can do it over a network. Use a DVD or external hard drive. Or simply connect a USB transfer cable to both machines. You can get one for around $40.
You can specify what is transferred. And it works with Windows XP machines. However, Easy Transfer does not move programs. They have to be re-installed in Vista.
Connect Now
Windows XP helps you set up a home network. And it will help you secure the network. That will alleviate big problems for lots of people. Many leave their networks open to intruders, either through ignorance or inability to navigate the security muddle.
Vista simplifies the process with Windows Connect Now. You can set up and secure your network directly from Windows. Vista detects the network and assigns a name and a pass phrase to encrypt the connection.
Vista will prompt you for a number located on the router. Enter it and specify file-sharing options. That sets up your first computer.
Next, save the network settings to a flash drive. Plug the flash drive in to another computer. Windows will automatically add the second computer to the network.
Desktop search
Finding files in XP is a chore. You have to specify a number of options to perform a search. And there's no guarantee that you'll find what you need.
Google, Yahoo! and others offer desktop search programs. These are better than XP's built-in search.
Vista has desktop search capabilities, too. You can search directly from the Start menu. Results are displayed there, too. You'll see files and e-mail containing your search term. It can also search for programs.
Painless backup
XP and earlier versions of Windows have backup tools. But you must search to find it. The utility also limits where you can store backup files.
Vista has a centralized Backup and Restore center. You can also restore your system to an earlier point in time. By putting backup and restore features in one place, they're easier to use.
Vista also offers a number of advanced backup features. Unfortunately, not all are available in every edition of Vista.
You get a pretty complete backup system with every version but Home Basic. You can schedule backups. And you can do incremental backups, which save space.
Furthermore, you can back up to a network location, external or internal drives, and CD or DVD. CD and DVD are not available on Windows XP.
Vista Business and Ultimate also can create an image of your hard drive.
Create DVDs
XP includes Windows Movie Maker for editing home videos. You can download Photo Story to create photo slide shows.
But XP doesn't include a way to burn movies and slide shows to DVD. For that, you must buy additional software.
Vista Home Premium and Ultimate feature Windows DVD Maker. Those two also have a high definition version of Windows Movie Maker.
Upgrading to Windows Vista
Vista requires a lot of horsepower, which I detail below. Most XP machines will require new hardware—$200 - $300 worth. If your machine is more than a couple years old, that could be just the beginning. Other parts eventually will start failing. People with old machines are typically better off to buy new.
Also, upgrading an operating system can be tricky for the casual computer user. It may well cause headaches.
Nonetheless, I’m sure many people won’t heed this advice. So, I’ll tell you how you can minimize installation problems.
You’re probably going to need additional RAM. Microsoft recommends 512 MB for the most basic version of Vista. For premium versions, it recommends 1 GB. I would double these numbers.
Microsoft recommends 128MB of RAM for video. Again, to be safe, I would double that. I installed 256MB video cards on six new machines I bought.
To make sure your computer is up to snuff, visit Microsoft’s Vista upgrade site. If your computer gets a green light, you can proceed.
First, back up everything on your computer. Making a checklist is advisable. Remember your e-mail, photos, data and Internet Bookmarks/Favorites. Make sure you know all your passwords. Back up program settings if possible. I recommend using an external hard drive.
You can do an in-place upgrade over most versions of XP. The sole exception is the 64-bit version of XP. Practically no one has that. Theoretically, Vista will keep all your files, settings, and programs as they were in XP. I haven’t tried this, so I can’t say how well it will work.
I wouldn’t count on an in-place upgrade to go smoothly. Things could go wrong. Set aside plenty of time. To learn about in-place upgrades, visit Microsoft’s site.
Your alternative to an in-place upgrade is a clean installation. We did that in the office about two weeks ago. The six installations ran smoothly, with just a few hiccups. But these are brand new, smokin’ fast machines. And my staffers know their way around computers.
If you buy a new machine with Vista installed, you’ll still need to transfer your data. We used Microsoft’s Easy Transfer to move files and settings from our XP machines. That included a special USB cable. It generally did a good job of transferring settings and files, with the exception of Firefox data.
A couple members of my staff ran into glitches with Easy Transfer. They were easily resolved by shutting down the security programs on XP and restarting the Easy Transfer process. Unfortunately, the error messages provided no information about the problem. Less knowledgeable users could be stopped cold.
Windows Easy Transfer only works on XP and Windows 2000. If you have an earlier version of Windows, other programs are available.
Once Vista is running, you should install security software. Both AVG and avast! antivirus programs will run on Vista. They’re free. Windows Defender, the anti-spyware program, is already installed with Vista.
Wanted
If you would like to join a committee to contribute tips to this column, please e-mail me at;
Thanks,
Herman
