First Look: Microsoft Windows Vista

The saga of Vista has gone on for years, with rewrites and rethinks and feature changes. Now the entertainment is over and we can see whether the result is an operating system you will want to move to or just what you will end up with next time you go round the hardware update cycle. Not every new version of Windows is a compelling upgrade, especially for business users.

Improved security is offset by a multitude of confirmation dialogs that can frustrate users. The advanced Aero interface is an excellent experience - if you have enough video memory and the flexibility to try a new way of working. In addition, the hard-line anti-piracy measures have raised concern that Vista will simplify most installation and management chores only to add another (although there shouldn't be problems for anyone with a legitimate licence). There are countless improvements in every area you can think of from the kernel up, but what does it all add up to?

Form and function

Vista's new look user interface invites comparison with Apple's Mac OS X, but the curves and colours of the eye candy are not the important thing.

Integrated search makes it faster to track down files and documents by name or contents; it also makes the myriad of settings and utilities in Windows accessible. This is similar to the Office 2007 ribbon; you concentrate on what you want rather than on what you need to do to find a function or feature. It is a significant change and along with smaller changes to the folder structure, it may take training or persuasion before all users become fully productive with the new interface.

A significant advantage is that Vista moves graphics drivers out of the kernel, so a badly-written driver will no longer cause a blue screen crash. The powerful desktop composition is suitable for more than video effects. Sideshow gadgets can display business information instead of photo galleries and weather reports. Live preview icons and thumbnails that show you the actual contents of an Office document or an open window look pretty, but they also help you find the data you are looking for more quickly. These effects require the Aero interface, but they work on lower spec systems that can't deliver the full Glass transparency.

System requirements for Vista are a mix of acceptable and demanding. Vista will run comfortably on processors up to two years old, but while it can run on 512MB of RAM, it needs 1GB or more to be a pleasant experience. 1Gb is needed for Aero, as well as a graphics card that either has 128MB of memory or uses shared system memory. Although graphics card manufactures are still slowly finalising their drivers for Vista, NVIDIA has already released a driver that gives chipsets with smaller amounts of memory access to shared memory. Although there is a 'classic' version of the UI, we would not recommend it as it is significantly different from the existing Windows 2000 'classic' interface that users might as well spend the time learning the real Vista UI instead.

Initially, Vista performance is slightly improved compared to Windows XP for opening files and applications (though SuperFetch memory management) and for system shutdown, but it's far too soon to tell whether these times will degrade over time as they do in XP.

With current hardware we don't see the promised reduction in start-up times. ReadyBoost is a new technology within Vista that helps make PCs more responsive by using flash memory devices to boost performance. It gives another slight performance boost and increases battery life by ten minutes or more on a notebook, but only the fastest USB sticks are suitable and it will be some time before hybrid hard drives and motherboards with Flash memory are available. You won't be disappointed by Vista's performance but it's no reason alone to upgrade.

Command and control

The actual installation of Vista has been simplified as it's done from a file-based image that can be updated offline and installed on multiple hardware platforms, with updates, drivers, language options and even applications loaded automatically.

The User State Migration Tool allows a clean install that preserves user data and profiles. Maintaining a single image that still covers multiple hardware systems, languages, applications and even different versions of Vista will be a significant cost saving for businesses.

Vista has nearly twice as many management options as its predecessor: 3,000 different policy object covering everything from blocking file transfers to MP3 players to hibernating PCs outside office hours. The event viewer is better and shows events from the new hardware monitoring tools.

The networking experience is improved and simplified while the new network and sharing centre proves useful for quickly managing network connections - use it to choose and see just what files and folders are shared. Under the hood a new networking stack supports next generation IPv6 networks; future-proofing rather than an immediate need for many. The network map will be more useful as Vista and Longhorn server roll out - or at when system administrators install Microsoft's new Link Layer Topology Client on other versions of Windows.

Vista distinguishes between public and private networks, locking down network functions in public locations. This approach should help to reduce risk to data when using public Wi-Fi connections. You will need to train your mobile users how to choose appropriate network types (if only to reduce support calls when they accidentally set the corporate network to "public", and lose all access to shared directories). However, Vista's Network Awareness platform automates changing firewall settings when you move from one network type to another.

Vista includes a peer-to-peer networking stack that will automatically set up and manage ad hoc wireless networks. This works best in conjunction with the bundled Meeting Space application, which offers basic document and application sharing to replace Net Meeting. Other file sharing tools include an offline file tool in Sync Centre to simplify taking crucial files on the road. Vista has more tools for file sharing than Windows XP - and makes it easier to manage and control how they're used. We are pleased to see Microsoft has finally started to address the risks associated with ad hoc networking - in much the same way as it now gives businesses the tools to control USB flash drives fully.

Networking and power improvements are the two big advances for mobile users in Vista, along with a Mobility Centre that brings together all the relevant settings. Strong ACPI BIOS support is essential for the power profiles and the new hybrid sleep feature, which allows a notebook to go from standby to hibernation automatically after a set time. Power schemes control a wide range of settings (depending on your hardware and what options it exposes: reducing the priority of search indexing or reducing the power level of the wireless adaptor or graphics chipset when you are running on battery.

We were glad to finally see a new printer spool format in the shape of XPS - though Adobe does not agree, and looks set to pursue legal action against Microsoft over its use. XPS documents are printed to a new XML document format, which can be previewed and stored, or sent straight to a printer driver. XPS is capable of a lot more than printing, and we see a role for it with document management tools and archives.

Definite security improvements

Windows has notoriously forced all users to run with administrator privileges. While Windows XP and 2000 both allowed you to create less privileged user accounts, many applications and utilities (including Windows control panels) walked all over Windows user rights model. Vista takes a stricter approach, and Microsoft is encouraging developers to write applications that work with Vista's Standard User Accounts rather than demanding admin-level rights for day-to-day use.

Application compatibility has been considered, especially for standard users, with Vista "virtualising" file paths to prevent data being stored in risky locations. Pre-packaged compatibility installer shims can deploy fixes to make older applications work with the new security model.

A side effect of this new security model is the much-criticised User Account Control, which allows applications to temporarily gain rights elevation - and warns users that this is happening. The release version of Vista makes UAC less obtrusive, and after using Vista for several days it's rare to see a UAC dialog; these can be hidden from end users completely by policy and many administrators will prefer security to user convenience.

High risk applications, like Internet Explorer, can run as limited users - with even fewer rights, preventing malware from being automatically run. Internet Explorer's protected mode means it can't run applications, install files or change user settings without users approving a UAC request. There is no built in antivirus tool, though Windows Defender is a credible anti-spyware tool that can be controlled through group policy.

Vista goes a long way to improve the Windows backup process. The new Backup and Restore centre puts a friendly front-end on Vista's backup tools; more importantly incremental backups can be made to network locations and USB disks, while complete image backups use the VHD format familiar to Virtual PC users (you can't boot Vista backups but you can mount them to extract individual files). Vista also puts one of Windows Server 2003's unsung features on the desktop, using shadow copy to add a Previous Versions tab to files and folders so users can recover deleted files or revert to an older file.

No urgent upgrades

For business, Vista delivers improved end-user productivity, system stability and security, especially for mobile computing. It's not enough to demand an instant rollout unless you have Tablet PC users, who will enjoy significant benefits from improvements in handwriting recognition and navigation.

This is an operating system for the long haul. Businesses that do not subscribe to the Enterprise Edition lose out significantly on mobile security with the omission of BitLocker from the Business Edition of Vista, leaving an opportunity for companies like PGP that can offer whole-disk encryption systems that work with Windows XP and Windows 2000 as well as Vista.

Windows 2000 users have the most impetus to upgrade. But Vista's biggest competition is Windows XP, especially as .NET 3 and Internet Explorer 7 bring many of the platform advantages to XP - from the new APIs to CardSpace. Balance reduced internal support costs and the timing of the end of Microsoft support for XP against the cost and effort of upgrading to decide your internal timetable for moving to Vista; for many businesses it will be a welcome benefit of the next round of hardware purchases.

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