6 Reasons to Upgrade to Windows Vista

Wondering if you should upgrade to Windows Vista? Listed here are 6 reasons that may help you make your decision.

1. Attractive and User-Friendly Interface: One of the top reasons that attract users to Windows Vista is its interface. The Aero interface comprising translucent windows make multitasking quite simple. For instance, you can easily focus on the current windows and still be able to easily access the desktop. The interface also comprises Live icons. This simplifies navigation between open windows and helps you easily find the information you are looking for.
2. Increased Security: One of the most talked about improvements in Windows Vista is its enhanced security. The operating system comprises several tools and utilities that help you keep your computer and network safe from several security threats posed by Malware, hackers, and spammers. Some of these tools are:
   • Windows Defender
   • Malicious Software Removal Tool
   • Windows Firewall
   • Windows Security Center

   Moreover, the latest Web Browser—which is usually one of the main software programs attacked by malware and hackers—Internet Explorer 7 comprises features such as Security Status Bar, Internet Explorer Protected Mode, and Security Status bar that ensure complete protection of your Windows PC.

3. More Responsive: Windows Vista is a lot more responsive than its older counterparts. Search features have been enhanced to search for a larger domain of information including, emails, applications, files, and also over the Internet. The Instant Search Feature, as the name suggests, has been developed to provide quick results. As a matter of fact, your system starts looking for information as soon as you type the first character in the search box. The Windows SuperFetch features included in the operating system enables faster loading of files and applications on the system. The tool constantly monitors your system, and preloads the applications that you use the most in the memory. The tool also runs background tasks such as backups, antivirus scan, and Disk defragmenter at the time when you are not actively using your PC.
4. Enhanced Multimedia Features: If you are a multimedia lover, Windows Vista is the operating system for you. You can easily edit, organize, import and search for digital data such as photos, audio, and video using High-end movie and DVD Maker applications. Using the Movie Maker tool, you can have complete control over your video files. You use the Windows Media Center on a PC with TV Tuner card to enhance your television viewing by gaining access to controls that enable you to watch, pause, and record TV programs.
5. More Stable: Tools such as Startup Repair tool and Restart Manager contribute toward making your system more stable. The Startup Repair tool helps by automatically repairing common errors that a system may face during the startup. Whereas the Restart Manager helps by minimizing the need to restart the system every time you install a new program or make a change in the system configuration.

6. Improved Backup Features: On Windows Vista, you can back up your files on wide range of media types, including, USB flash drives, writable CD/DVD disks, and other removable media storage devices. The backup process can be easily automated. The best thing is that you can make a backup of the entire system image that helps in restoring your entire system back to a working state in case of a failure.

These and many other features make Windows Vista an ideal choice for PC users who want the best in their system. However, just like other operating systems, it is important to take some preventive maintenance with Windows Vista. To prevent Windows Vista errors from occurring on the system, you must regularly keep it updated with the latest Windows updates and run regular antivirus and antispyware scans. It is also recommended that you use a reliable registry cleaner tool to perform regular maintenance of your Windows Vista registry to keep it free from unwanted debris and prevent several computer errors.

Tips to Preventing Errors in Windows Vista

Microsoft Windows Vista operating system, introduced early this year (2007), boasts of several enhancements and user-friendly features. Despite of all these features, your Windows Vista PC is quite prone to computer errors. Therefore, it is important for you to perform regular preventive maintenance to speed up your PC and keep it free from troublesome errors.

In this article, we are going to discuss some of the common maintenance activities you can perform to maintain a healthy, high-performance Windows Vista system.

Run Antivirus and Antispyware Scans

Even before Windows Vista was formally launched in the market, there were virus and spyware programs ready to pose security threats for it. For this reason, it is important for you to invest in Windows Vista compatible antivirus and antispyware tools. You must keep these tools updated with the latest definitions released by their manufacturers to ensure that your computer is ready to fight the latest security threats. It is recommended that you opt for tools that provide you with real-time protection against all viruses. Lastly, you must schedule the tools to regularly perform full system scans to remove any infections that would have infiltrated your system.

Update Your PC

Operating system, software and device driver manufacturers release regular security updates, service packs, and hotfixes to patch up any security lapses in their products. You must keep your Windows Vista PC updated with these patches because most of the malware programs are based around these vulnerabilities. Additionally, many updates install product enhancements that enable you to enhance the performance of your PC.

Scan and Repair Registry Errors

The registry is one of the main sources of several computer errors. All software programs and hardware devices have to access the registry to operate on your system. This is the reason why the registry easily attracts a lot of unnecessary information. Over time, the accumulation of this unwanted information causes unwarranted registry growth and eventually corrupts, damages, and fragments the registry. To fix these Windows Vista registry problems, you need a reliable Windows Vista registry cleaner tool. Using this tool, you can perform several registry maintenance tasks, such as scan and repair registry errors, defrag the registry, and create regular registry backups.

Use Windows Vista Maintenance Utilities

There are three important tools available in the Windows Vista operating system that you can use to perform regular computer maintenance—Disk Cleanup, Disk Defragmenter, and System Restore.

The Disk Cleanup tool enables you to get rid of unwanted files and programs from your hard disk and compress old files to free up disk space. You can use the Disk Defragmenter tool after cleaning up the hard disk to consolidate files and folders stored on the disk to make them contagious and optimize the performance of the disk. In Vista, you can schedule the Disk Defragmenter tool to run at regular intervals and ensure that your hard disk is always at its best performance.

The System Restore tool regularly monitors your Vista system and application files for changes and creates automatic restore points or snapshots. In case your system fails or an irrecoverable error occurs, you can use these restore points to revert your system to an earlier time. The tool creates these restore points on a daily basis and before any major changes are done to the system. It is also recommended that you create manual System Restore points before you install any large applications or perform any significant changes to the system configuration.

Great article on the benefits of buying Microsoft Vista. Read more about it here

Dan
Computer Medics of Northern Virginia LLC
www.cmonova.com

This edition combines all the features of Home Premium and Enterprise editions, and additionally comes with podcast creation support — which Microsoft has dubbed “blogcasting” — a game performance tweaker (code-named WinSAT), DVD ripping capabilities, and special online services for downloadable media, as well as additional customer service options. The Ultimate edition is aimed to be the most impressive edition of Vista, aimed at high-end PC users, gamers, multimedia professionals, and PC enthusiasts. Like the Business and Enterprise versions, product activation will not be required.

This edition is aimed at the enterprise segment of the market, and is a superset of the Business edition. Additional features include a single-session version of Virtual PC, multilingual user interface support, BitLocker Drive Encryption, and UNIX application support. This edition will not be available through retail or OEM channels.

Comparable to Windows XP Professional, and aimed at the business market. Does not include the Media Center features of Home Premium, but does include the IIS web server, fax support, offline files, dual physical processor support, Remote Desktop, ad-hoc P2P collaboration capabilities, and support for 128 GB of memory. Product activation is not present in this edition.

Based on the Windows Vista Home Basic, this edition will additionally support more advanced features aimed for the home market segment, such as HDTV support and DVD authoring. Extra games, mobile and tablet computer support, file system encryption, and a photo management application are also included. This edition is comparable to Windows XP Media Center Edition and Tablet PC Edition. Home Premium will support up to 16 GB of physical memory.

Similar to Windows XP Home Edition, Home Basic is intended for budget users not requiring advanced media support for home use. The “Aero Glass” theme with translucent effects will not be included with this edition. Home Basic will support up to 8 GB of physical memory

In order to run Vista there are specific hardware requirements that have to be met. These are preliminary and could change once the end product is released:

On February 26, 2006, Microsoft announced that Windows Vista will ship in six editions. All versions will be available in both 32-bit and 64-bit x86 architectures, except Windows Vista Starter which will only be available in 32-bit. The following table details the various editions and the features that each will offer.

Our site will cover all the versions of Vista that will be on the market to include:

*Windows Vista Home Basic
*Windows Vista Home Premium
*Windows Vista Business
*Windows Vista Enterprise
*Windows Vista Ultimate

Refer to each category in order to find out the latest news.