Windows Vista- First Impressions

Ive been using Windows Vista on one of my computers for the past month. Rather than write about the experience before Ive had the chance to fully try it out, I instead ran it through the paces. I used it almost exclusively for one month. So what did I think?

This is one of the better operating system releases that Microsoft has done in recent years. Its definitely just a little better, and a little different than Windows XP, but not vastly different.

I havent seen any patches released for Vista yet, and no real news on security holes. I found my system to run pretty smoothly, no need to reboot often, and no crashes to date. This is pretty new for Microsoft, because normally it seems that most of their systems need at least six months to plug the holes, while Vista seems to be pretty usable right out of the box.

The User Interface is probably the most improved and most altered. Things are just a little more transparent. And its just a little easier to multi-task. Its easy to have multiple windows up, each doing different tasks. One of my favorite innovations is when you hover over the tasks on the bottom taskbar, it gives you a small thumbnail of what that page looks like. This is perfect for having a few browsers open, and finding the exact page you wanted without having to open all of them.

Something new for Vista is that it comes with voice recognition already installed. No real need for $200+ voice recognition programs. It worked pretty well for me. I was actually able to type in a document or two with just my voice, and control the entire windows environment. Its definitely not a perfect implementation, but its still pretty cool.

One thing to keep in mind with Vista is that current hardware is a necessity. Vista really craves lots of memory, a fast processor and fast video card with lots of memory. If youve bought your computer in the past year, you should be fine otherwise you might need to do a few essential upgrades before you install Vista. I highly recommend at least 1GB of memory for most Vista users.

While Vista is not perfect, its definitely the operating system of the future. I believe that Windows Vista will prove to be one of the most successful operating system releases from Microsoft. Its easy to use, yet powerful and will fundamentally alter the way we interact with our computers. Maybe not a smart upgrade choice, it makes a great operating system for any new computers that you buy.