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A quick guide to Windows Vista Business Edition

Robert Vamosi CNET

Published: 06 Dec 2006

Windows Meeting Space
Collaborate on office projects like never before

Say you're on an airplane with your colleagues, preparing for an important sales pitch. Before, if you wanted to collaborate on a PowerPoint presentation or a Word document with Windows XP, you'd have to share a flash drive or other media. With Windows Vista, you can create an ad hoc private network and collaborate on your proposal, even if the file uses a non-Microsoft application. This is especially convenient if your seats are far apart on the plane.

With Windows Meeting Space, one person initiates a session, allowing up to 10 designated users to share the same view of an application and to collaborate in real time. Windows Meeting Space connects either through an existing network, such as a wired or wireless LAN, or over an ad hoc wireless network. Windows Meeting Space uses Vista's People Near Me feature to see who's connected on your local network, or in your local area, and extends an invitation to join. You can invite additional remote users to join a Windows Meeting Space session via email.

The online service Windows Live Meeting is designed for collaboration across vast distances on different computer networks and desktop systems. Windows Meeting Space is a more intimate, peer-to-peer connection between computers running. Unlike Windows Live Meeting presentations, where only the presenter can make changes to the document or the file, the Windows Meeting Space initiator can pass control to others. When any change is made and saved, all versions of the open document update with those changes. By opening and sharing Microsoft OneNote, for example, attendees can share access to the whiteboard, allowing ad hoc chalk talks among participants.

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Should businesses upgrade to Vista?

Buyer's Guide IT managers need to consider whether Microsoft's new Vista operating system is worth installing — and if it is, when the roll-out should begin. [30 Nov 2006]

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