A review of new software products that can make a big difference to your business

Will you like the new Vista?

By Michael Burns

If you’ve heard anything at all about Microsoft Windows Vista, you are probably wondering whether it’s worth upgrading to the new operating system. The short answer is a qualified yes. It offers a lot of advantages in security, connectivity, collaboration and ease of use. However, because of those new features, you might find your existing PC or laptop does not have sufficient memory (RAM) or processing power (CPU) to run it.

There are four consumer versions of Windows Vista: Home Basic, Home Premium, Business and Ultimate. For a comparison by price, system requirements and features, please see the sidebar below.

Microsoft says more than 1.5 million devices ((printers, network cards, adapters, etc.) and 30,000 drivers (programs that control devices) and were ready to work with Windows Vista as of January 30, 2007 – and the number is growing every day. However, you may still find that some software or devices are not yet supported, Microsoft provides a free downloadable program called Upgrade Advisor that tells you which version of Vista is most appropriate and whether you have any devices or software that may be incompatible. When I ran it, I found that my laptop (Intel Pentium M processor 1.60GHz with 1.00 GB of RAM) would support only the Home Basic version. The problem lies in my video card. Some of my existing programs (such as Norton AntiVirus, version 10) would not run on the system, and others (such as Dragon NaturallySpeaking, version 9) might not. For that reason, I decided to hold off on the upgrade until I get a new laptop.

Should you include the new operating system in your next computer purchase? The short answer is definitely yes – you will probably have no choice anyway. The long answer – and the one that should matter most to CAs -- is also yes. It is based on a demonstration made by Microsoft that was geared to accountants. It did not cover Vista features that would be more interesting to home use such as parental controls or using your PC as your home media centre.

Windows Vista includes many security features that accountants will appreciate. BitLocker Drive Encryption will encrypt all of the data on your hard drive so that even if your computer is lost or stolen, the data will be protected. Unfortunately, BitLocker is available only in the Ultimate version. Another security feature allows businesses to set up a policy that prevents employees from copying sensitive company information to USB flash drives. As well, when a laptop is plugged into a network, Windows Vista will quarantine the computer until satisfied that antivirus, antispam and firewalls are turned on. All of this takes about 10 seconds.

Vista also includes antiphishing features. Phishers attempt to acquire sensitive information, such as passwords and credit card details, by masquerading as an email from a trustworthy person or business. Vista will warn you of any suspicious or known phishing sites that could pose a threat. Another good feature allows you to establish retention policies on files so that they can be easily archived on the designated date.

Another feature called User Account Control (UAC) has generated some controversy. You are advised not to log on as an administrator because that could cause a problem if your computer is infected by malicious software (the malware could inherit administrator rights). You are advised to log on as a user, since the system will automatically prompt you for the administrator’s login if anything occurs requiring extra rights. But according to an article in the November 22, 2006 edition of PC World, Microsoft has “gone overboard” with this protection. “Why should you get a UAC prompt when you try to change Windows' font size or your PC's name?” it says. “Because of UAC, using Vista can at times become a herky-jerky kind of experience, with so many annoying pop-ups coming at you that you want to scream ‘Stop!’” However, Microsoft assures me the pop-ups are less intrusive in the final release of Windows Vista.

Accountants -- especially those in public practice -- are going to love the feature called Windows Meeting Space. This application allows for file sharing and collaboration across computers even if no network exists. Another great feature: you can now recover files that have been overridden. Simply search for a previous version of a file, and there it is.

Searching has been considerably enhanced with Windows Vista. You can type any part of the file name into the search box, and before you are done typing, your document is listed. Third-party tools such as X1 can do this, but now you get the feature out of the box. If you spend any time searching for files or don’t bother because you don’t know where to look, search will make the upgrade worthwhile. You can also attach meta data including the names of people who authored or updated the file as well as other fields to group/locate the files. You can not only preview your files, but also scroll through them without opening. You can view them as icons in different views, including 3D. However, the 3D view is not available in the Home Basic version.

Internet Explorer 7 is included in Windows Vista and it has been improved. You will appreciate the tab feature that allows you to jump around Web sites a lot more easily than before. You can also group Web sites, open them all at once and tab between them.

People often complain about the time it takes to boot Windows. Part of the problem is that these people are not performing housecleaning on their PCs, such as removing unnecessary programs. There has always been a way to improve boot time, but not everyone knows about it. With Windows Vista the remedy just got better. You can turn off Vista in three ways. The first is simply to turn it off. The second is to put it the operating system to sleep just as you would with “stand by” in Windows XP. This puts all your programs into memory and places the computer on low power consumption. Your laptop, notebook or tablet PC is safe to carry around and should be fine for days. The third way is to use the hibernation function. This puts all your programs on the hard drive and turns off the computer. Computers reboot much more quickly from hibernation than they do from switched-off mode, but not as quickly as they do from sleep mode. The improvement in Windows Vista is that the computer will automatically move from sleep to hibernation if the power is running low so you don’t run the risk of losing everything. You should also find that a boot from sleep or hibernate mode is quicker than with the previous version. But don’t expect much better performance with a cold boot.

For some, the enhancements in the 2007 Microsoft Office system are reason enough to upgrade to Windows Vista. The latest Office now has an integrated mailbox allowing you to listen to email and send it by voice commands. For mobile workers, it’s easy to access Outlook 2007 securely either using Outlook Web Access or Outlook Anywhere. Outlook Web Access gives you full access to your inbox from any computer using an Internet browser, such as Internet Explorer. Outlook Anywhere allows you to open your Outlook 2007 inbox from your computer, as long as you have an Internet connection. Using either of these solutions means that even if you’re at a coffee shop connected over a wireless network, your messages and information are safe.

The first thing you will notice when you open an Office program is the “ribbon.” Menus and toolbars have been replaced with tabs that include home, page layout, references – and these change depending on what you’re doing. For example, there is one place to look for all insert commands. Another feature is the live preview of format changes. Simply highlight the text you want to format, and as you change the font or table format, your text will change automatically—letting you preview your change before making the selection.

You may not know it, but your existing documents could have potentially embarrassing comments, hidden text and tracked changes. The document inspector feature will automatically clean a document so it is ready for external eyes. With the 2007 Office system, you can create the equivalent of PDF documents, update these documents and provide readers with a free viewing capability much like Adobe Reader.

Many of the new Office features improve ease of use – something that is not as important for power users. But even power users will find features such as SmartArt worthwhile. A boring bulleted list in PowerPoint can be transformed into a diagram – showing a process -- with just a click or two.

As the 2007 Office system stores documents in a new format (XML), colleagues who haven’t upgraded must download a free converter program to open the files. Office also gives you the option to save your files in an older format, ensuring that anyone, including Mac users, can read them.

I asked Microsoft whether rumours about the software not being ready for prime time had any weight. The company Microsoft responded that there have been two million Windows Vista beta testers. I think some problems will inevitably occur, but they should be minor compared to all the benefits. So if your PC is ready for Windows Vista, don’t miss out on the view.

VERSION COMPARISON

Michael Burns, MBA, CA, is president of 180 Systems ( http://www.180systems.com/), which provides independent consulting service, including business process review, system selection and IT audit. Michael can be reached at 416-485-2200 or mburns@180systems.com.