Go for Vista Guys. Dont believe in rumours. I am using this since year and half now(Since Beta). It improved a lot with Service pack 1. New in Vista
It’s difficult to compare Windows Vista to its Windows 2000 and Windows XP predecessors because so much has changed in the incredibly long period of time between releases. According to Microsoft, the most notable features in Vista Ultimate include:Windows Aero desktop theme. This is not only a new window decoration, menu, and icon theme, but also a 3D graphical enhancement that offers translucency and fading effects for windows and dialogues. Improved data backup. Windows Vista comes with a framework for backing up important documents and data, or the entire operating environment, to removable media. Live search. If you lose track of your files, this will help you find them. Self-healing and shadow copy. Windows Vista can detect some kinds of errors and data corruptions and either correct them or roll back a file to a previously saved version. The same applies to accidentally saved files -- you can roll them back to a previous state. Windows Fax and Scan. Improved faxing and scanning tools. Windows Mail replaces Outlook Express. This modern email client replaces the notoriously insecure Outlook Express. Improved configuration tools. Every facet of the control panel has been enhanced. Configuration tools offer more options and make configuring things like the sound system and network connections much easier. Windows Defender security suite.
This collection of anti-virus, firewall, and spyware removal tools supplants the need for several expensive third-party applications. Internet Explorer 7 replaces IE6. One of the worst Web browsers in modern history gets a major overhaul, including vastly improved JavaScript and W3C standards support, and dynamic security protection that helps stave off phishing schemes on the Web. Parental controls and enhanced user account control. You can now set better limits on Web and media content through Vista’s parental controls framework. You can also create user accounts that don’t have administrator permissions, which prevents the system from being changed in harmful ways. Windows XP and 2000 had this, but it never worked as intended. Windows Media Center added, Windows Media Player upgraded to version 11. There is an updated version of Windows Media Player for audio, but if you want your computer to function as a multimedia appliance (even or especially if only temporarily) or watch a DVD, you’d go through WMC. Windows Photo Gallery.
This program copies photos from your camera, tags them according to your preference, and shows them to you in thumbnail or slideshow views. Windows Mobility Center and improved wireless networking tools. The Mobility Center makes it easier to manage laptop-oriented settings, like sound, wireless networking, power-saving functions, and screen brightness. Additionally, it’s much easier to connect to wireless networks in Vista than it was in XP.
*What I 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 Jit, then save the search as a virtual file folder for later reference without having to physically relocate or make copies of all those files.
2. Widgets -- er, Gadgets
In Windows Vista, Microsoft allows you to drag and drop Gadgets (think Widgets on the Apple OS X desktop) to tell 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, or Widgets, 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.
3. Built-in diagnostics
Programs won’t run, the operating system crashes -- Microsoft says these will be in the past with Vista. So far, we’ve seen more dialogs, 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.
4. 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 on your hard drive frequently used apps 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.
5. 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 dialog box will require your input before it continues to perform the task. While there are only 15 of these automated help sessions within the current Windows Vista beta 2 release, we hope Microsoft adds more