Desktop platforms Toolkit

Windows Vista Business review

7.4

Editors' Rating

Service & support		7.0
Design		7.0
Features		7.0
Performance		8.0

Robert Vamosi CNET

Published: 25 Jan 2007

Windows Vista is Microsoft's first new operating system in more than five years and the successor to Windows XP. However, it is not worth rushing out to purchase. If you desperately need to buy a new PC (if your old one died or you've been waiting and waiting for Vista to be released), then by all means do so: there's nothing wrong with Windows Vista. But there's no single compelling feature within Vista that cries out to switch over — neither the enhanced graphic capabilities (Aero) nor the improved system performance features (truthfully, our Windows XP doesn't crash). As far as security is concerned, most of Microsoft's improvements in Vista are within the Enterprise or 64-bit editions.

Windows Vista is not the Mac OS X 10.4 killer some hoped for (or feared). Nor are there any specific big-name software packages written exclusively for Windows Vista — most software available today is compatible with both XP and Vista. But the extensive tie-ins to Microsoft.com and Live.com, and the many, many interdependences upon Internet Explorer 7 left us desperately wanting more (and often best-of-breed) alternatives. Hard-core Microsoft fans who live and breathe within the MSN, Live.com and Microsoft desktop software ecosystem will rejoice with the release of Windows Vista, but for the rest of us who are product-agnostic (who use programs like Firefox, Google Desktop, ZoneAlarm, Google Mail and Corel WordPerfect), Windows XP SP2 will do nicely until some killer application encourages us all to upgrade to Vista.

There are six editions of Windows Vista, two of which are of limited availability: Windows Vista Enterprise is available only to volume licence customers, while Windows Vista Starter is available only in 119 'emerging markets'. Windows Vista Ultimate includes everything, and this is the edition getting the most promotion from Microsoft. However, it's not the edition most people will find packaged on their shiny new PCs, or will end up with after an upgrade of existing hardware. The other editions are Windows Vista Business, reviewed here, Windows Vista Home Basic and Windows Vista Home Premium. See our feature comparison chart to discover which of these editions fits your specific needs.