About Microsoft's new Windows Vista:

Date: January 2007:

Microsoft has stated that the scheduled release date of Vista for worldwide availability is January 30, 2007. These release dates come more than five years after the release of its predecessor, Windows XP, making it the longest time span between major releases of all previous Windows Systems.

Microsoft advises that Windows Vista contains several new features (outside this site); some of the most significant include an updated graphical user interface and visual style dubbed Windows Aero, improved searching features, new multimedia creation tools such as Windows DVD Maker, and a redesigned networking, audio, print, and display sub-systems. Vista also aims to increase the level of communication between machines on a home network using peer-to-peer technology (outside this site), making it easier to share files and digital media between computers and devices. For software developers, Vista introduces version 3.0 of the .NET Framework, which aims to make it significantly easier for developers to write high-quality applications than with the traditional Windows API.

Microsoft's primary objective with Vista, has been to improve the state of security in the current Windows operating system. One of the common criticisms of Windows XP and its predecessors has been about exploited security vulnerabilities and overall susceptibility to malware, viruses and buffer overflows.

Upgrade to Windows Vista

If you want to upgrade to Windows Vista, I advise that you don't! Even though Microsoft does support some various older upgrade paths to Windows Vista, you're going to get the absolute best experience using Windows Vista with a new PC. If you are not ready for that, then plan to install Windows Vista as a clean install on your existing PC, after being sure to completely back up all of your existing data first. (Or, you could plan a dual boot system between Windows XP and Windows Vista on the same hardware.)

Notes: Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 98 Second Edition, Windows Millennium Edition, and Windows NT (any version), do not qualify for a Vista Upgrade path, you will need purchase the FULL Vista version. This means backing up all your data and documents!

How to link to this Page

To link to this page from your website - or blog, cut and paste the following code to your site

It will look like this on your page:

Computer News: Understand the Windows VISTA - South Australia