Five reasons to love (and hate) Windows Vista

[NIM]

Microsoft finally launches the long-awaited Windows Vista today, promising better security and improved search and claiming it will be the fastest ever adopted operating system it has released.

But some users have already questioned the business benefits of upgrading to Vista, citing the relative stability and security of Windows XP and a lack of compelling features in Vista.

Based on using the second beta version of Vista here are the five things to get excited about Vista for - and the five things you'll hate it for.

Five things to love about Windows Vista

Search or create virtual files - Forget directories, forget directory trees. Microsoft has integrated search throughout its new operating system, and you'll quickly come to wonder how you lived without it. You can search for all documents authored by John Doe, then save the search as a virtual file folder for later reference without having to physically relocate or make copies of all those files.

Gadgets - In Windows Vista, Microsoft allows you to drag and drop Gadgets (think Widgets on the Apple Mac OS X desktop) to tell the time, calculate currency or tackle any trivial task you perform regularly that would be handier if it were always on top of your current screen. Presently, you can acquire Gadgets for your Windows XP machine from online sites such as Windows Live. In the near future, Microsoft says you'll be able to write your own Windows Vista Gadgets, allowing you to really personalise your desktop.

Built-in diagnostics - Programs refusing to run, operating system crashes - Microsoft says these will be things of the past with Vista. So far, we've seen more dialogues, from explaining why an application won't run to warning us that there are driver conflicts that prevent our laptop system from going to sleep. For example, Vista will listen to your hard drive and report pending problems, giving you ample warning to back up your data.

There's also a Problems Report and Solutions monitor where you can see what problems Vista has encountered, and then go online to find possible solutions. And have you ever noticed how Windows computers get slower with age? That's because files get separated from each other on your hard drive and require occasional defragmentation. Most of us never do it - in part because it uses too many system resources. In Vista, the process is automatic and runs in the background, so you won't even notice it.

Need more oomph? Vista will find it for you - Need more RAM? How about borrowing some from that 256MB or greater USB drive? In Windows Vista, the new Windows ReadyBoost feature can swap flash memory with any large USB device. If your laptop has a new hybrid hard drive, the Windows ReadyDrive can improve your system's overall performance, battery life and reliability by taking advantage of the drive's built-in flash capabilities.

New Windows SuperFetch can cache your hard drive's frequently used applications based on the frequency of use so that, for example, every Monday morning when you arrive at your desk for work, you can count on Outlook and your internet browser to launch quickly. Also, finally, there's a new feature called Low-priority Input/Output that should keep you productive: in Windows Vista, user applications will get higher priority with system resources than antivirus or defragmentation processes.

Enhanced help - Help used to be limited to a few pithy sentences about the task you want to perform. Windows Vista changes all that. There are more options available within Help inside Vista. For example, you can initiate a remote-assistance session so that someone you trust can take over your PC remotely and diagnose a problem or perform a task for you. You can also go online and search Microsoft's knowledge base or contact Microsoft's technical support.

One really cool feature, however, is labelled Do It Automatically. Here, a task such as checking the version of a driver will be automated, with your desktop going dark as a pointer arrow floats over the screen indicating what to click and where. From time to time, the pointer will stop and a dialogue box will require your input before it continues to perform the task. Although there are only 15 of these automated help sessions within the current Windows Vista beta 2 release, we hope Microsoft adds more.

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Five things you'll hate about Windows Vista

Your current hardware won't fully run Vista - Get ready for the media blitz. Get ready for the frustration. Although many computers in use today will be able to update and run the new operating system, they'll only be able to run it in what Microsoft slyly calls 'Windows Vista Basic'. In this mode, you'll have the ability to search files but you won't have 3D Aero graphics, live animation along the Taskbar or smooth streaming graphics on your desktop. Unless you buy a new PC sometime in 2007, or add a high-end video card and some extra memory to your current PC, you probably won't get the full visual Vista experience.

Microsoft now says the basic interface experience has been updated and streamlined so you can work with your programs and files more easily than in previous versions of Windows.

Vista's Aero graphics eat laptop battery power - If you're used to your laptop lasting on a long journey, you might want to reconsider upgrading to Windows Vista - that is, if you want the new Aero graphics features turned on. In our tests, a laptop running Windows Vista Aero had significantly reduced battery life compared to one running in what Microsoft calls 'Windows Vista Basic'. You'll sacrifice the 3D and smooth streaming of video but you'll make it to your destination with some battery power to spare. Unfortunately, changing from Aero to Basic is harder than it should be.

User Account Protection - The User Account Protection feature has already had plenty of negative press. Although I understand what Microsoft is trying to do - protect the user from rogue software installs - I don't think the company has worked it out yet. In order to perform basic tasks, such as install or remove an application, even administrator account users must answer a series of pop-up messages, adding time to the process. Worse, whenever you are prompted to respond, the whole Vista desktop goes dark while the pop-up message remains on the screen, preventing you from doing anything else. This feature can be valuable if rogue spyware attempts to install without your permission but good internet behaviour will do as much. For most of us, the frequent appearance of User Account Protection on common tasks will be security overkill.

Missing drivers and incompatible applications - Not having all the necessary drivers or not having software compliant with a new operating system is to be expected in the beta of a new OS but even after several months of developer testing, I was surprised to see a number of common drivers still missing from the public beta for Windows Vista. For example, I had to manually import several Acer TravelMate 8200 drivers from a Windows XP partition on the same drive.

Troubled sleep - Microsoft claims that it has addressed the complicated issue of whether to put your laptop to sleep or have it hibernate when it's not in use. Instant Off, a new option on the Start menu, allows Windows Vista to take a quick snapshot of your system, then shut down completely, thus eliminating the occurrence of a hot laptop inside your backpack. After experiencing several false starts - literally, I was unable to resume my Windows Vista session as I'd left it - I discovered through Vista's Performance Ratings and Tools report that several legacy drivers, some installed by Vista during installation, were preventing the new Instant Off feature from performing correctly. Vista politely asked that I find updated drivers to replace those on my machine or remove them. I suspect a lot of people will encounter this problem in the months immediately following Vista's full release.