Windows Vista Support

Microsoft Windows Vista is on the horizon for general release to post-holiday consumers. By this time next year you probably won't be able to buy new machines with Windows XP on them if the past is any predictor of the future. Over the next few months Microsoft will push Vista out through the OEM channel so that new machines will start to have Vista as the only option. Like it or not - if you're a Windows user at some point you'll need to start purchasing Vista machines if you want to upgrade equipment.

There are a confusing array of offerings around Vista right now - and if you're planning to upgrade to Vista in the future there are several "categories" of machines readiness for a Vista upgrade. There are also various editions of Vista available for users to purchase To cut through some of this confusion Microsoft has dictated a set of terms to define Vista capability in machines. It's useful to know what these terms are and what they mean as part of your current purchase.

Vista Capable PCs - These are PCs that CAN run Windows Vista. If you don't mind how slow Windows XP is on a 1ghz machine with 256mb of RAM - then you won't mind running Windows Vista on one of these machines. All Vista capable means is that it will run Vista. Vista will turn off advanced features like the media edition features and the Windows Aero interface on these machines. Generally Vista capable machines have at least an 800mhz processor, 512mb of RAM, a DirectX version 9 compatible video card, at least 20gb of available free space and a dvd drive (that's right - Vista comes on a DVD because a CD install is 6 discs - no one wants to go back to shuffling discs to do an install). I would not recommend running Vista on a machine that is just "vista capable", nor upgrading a machine that is "Vista Capable". By the time you put in RAM and potentially hard drive and video card to get to a compatible machine - it's not that much more to just buy a new one. Don't buy a machine just rated as "Vista capable" now in anticipation of upgrading to Vista - you'll pay almost as much for the upgrades as you did for the machine.
Vista Ready PCs - These are PCs that have the potential to be upgraded to a "Vista Premium Ready" pc, but don't meet one or more of the criteria. Most machines sold today are "Vista Ready" that is they COULD have the 1-2gb of RAM that is recommended, the high end video capability, the fast processor and the large hard drive - but they don't have one or more of these. Again with "Vista Ready" PCs if you're thinking about upgrading later - you might be better of buying a Vista Premium Ready PC that has all the bells and whistles to give you a decent experience with the final product. Unfortunately a number of unscrupulous manufacturers are offering Vista Ready PCs with a "free upgrade" to Vista when it comes out - knowing you'll want or need to upgrade your PC to really take advantage of the offer. In addition the "free upgrade" will probably be to the home-Basic edition of Vista - you should look carefully at whether that edition holds the features you want in the operating system - especially if you're in a business. Home Vista machines cannot participate in a domain based network. If you're not confident with all the hardware terminology I'd suggest getting together with someone trained and experienced with Vista's requirements to plan your purchase of these machines to minimize your upgrade cost in the future, should you go that route.
Vista Premium Ready PCs - this is the kind of system you should purchase if you plan to upgrade to Vista. These systems will typically have either a dual core, or faster than 3ghz processor, 1-2 gb of RAM (2 is preferable, a high end video card with at least 256mb of video ram, and at least a 100gb hard drive. In this category you will have an enjoyable vista experience, and a powerful machine whether you're doing gaming or business applications.

Check Microsoft's planning website for more information about these categories of Vista capabilities. For people willing to sign Microsoft's Beta Agreement - you can acquire a tool that will analyze your current PCs and give you a two page report on whether there are problems that will prevent it's upgrade to Vista, and/or software that won't work with Vista, as well as work arounds.

In addition you'll want to select the specific version of Vista that works best for you. Vista comes in two basic flavors (like XP did): Home and Business. Each of these categories is divided into two sub-categories with different price points and capabilities.

Home - Home editions include Home Basic, which has no media center capabilities, and does not feature the new Aero interface and Home Premium which features the Aero interface and the media center abilities. If your machine won't run Aero anyways and you don't plan to use the media center ability to record TV shows, centralize your music collection etc. Basic may be the right choice. If you want the full media experience and the Aero interface, we'd recommend at least Vista Home Premium for most new PCs purchased with Vista on them. Note that to keep apparent costs low - most manufacturers will probably advertise prices for just the basic version of Vista, and no high end capabilities - to avoid disappointment you should carefully look at what you're buying. If buying a laptop you'll definitely want the Premium edition - home basic does not include laptop support.
Business editions - Vista Business edition is the basic workhorse of the Vista line - it will typically be deployed on normal business desktop PCs. It does include the Aero interface, laptops support, remote desktop, and most importantly - the ability to join a domain at your place of business. It is also the most basic edition that includes advanced backup capabilities (Home versions don't include remote desktop, advanced backup or domain sharing). For those with a bit more cash in their pocket and the desire to get the "ultimate" Vista desktop or laptop experience the Business Ultimate edition offers all the features of home premium, plus business basic, plus and additional feature that lets you encrypt all the data on your hard drive, flash drive, or other device. We recommend this edition for business laptops especially due to the enhanced encryption capabilities.

You can see a side-by-side feature comparison chart here...

As more info comes out about Vista we'll let you know here - but be aware that Vista is inevitable, just as XP overtook 2000, 2000 overtook NT and NT overtook 98. If anything Microsoft will be on a more aggressive schedule to move off of XP than in the other versions due to it's experiences with having to support multiple versions of the OS.