Worth the wait?

By Yves Godbout

The latest version of Windows was heralded with much ballyhoo and hype. Now the question is, upgrade or not?

The long awaited and delayed Windows codenamed Longhorn, which subsequently became Windows Vista, was released to business customers November 2006 and to the general public January 2007. But was it worth the wait? Should we continue to wait? Should we rush out and upgrade? Should we rush out and buy? Changing operating systems may have implications for home users, but it has serious implications for business clients and applications.

The Vista hype
Microsoft is touting this as the best operating system it has ever put out and has invested millions in this product. But even if it is the best Windows ever, does it make sense to change? After all, Windows XP is stable and can do most of what we expect of an operating system. Microsoft claims the demand for Vista is strong, which probably means not spectacular.

Even with all the advertising hype, the popularity of Vista has yet to be established. As a matter of fact, Microsoft has announced that it will continue to allow OEMs and manufacturers to ship new systems with Windows XP until June 2008, although the date had originally been January 2008. The pick-up has been less than spectacular to date.

Reasons to upgrade
Microsoft is touting Vista the most secure Windows ever, and so far this appears to be true. According to the National Vulnerability Database, vulnerabilities for Windows Vista over the past 12 months numbered 20 while Windows XP tallied up 45.

Not only is the security built in by design, the attack surface has been greatly reduced. Now this security does not come without some inconvenience; the User Access Control (UAC) is a perfect example. For anyone to tinker with the system or install any software or drivers, they must validate that they understand the implications of what they are doing.

UAC is one of the thorns in Vista’s side. Some users despise this feature. Over the past 20 years, many have complained that Microsoft exposes users to viruses, spyware, hackers and trojans. The only real protection is to make users aware of the dangers or simply block them if they don’t understand what is happening.

Several people have documented ways of disabling these warnings in Vista. It can be a pain, but it is needed to ensure that one is aware of what is happening to his or her system.

Another good reason to update is Windows Defender, Microsoft’s answer to spyware and malware, which is built into Windows Vista. Defender really protects uninitiated users from the perils of the Internet, and after all, blocking malware is easier than removing it.

Windows Vista also has an enhanced firewall to protect your PC. Windows Firewall has existed since Windows XP, but the firewall in Vista offers much better protection and is easier to configure, even for the novice user.

With Vista, you are afforded a much higher level of data protection. You can have automatic backups of your data at specified times, shadow copies of your files to restore to previous versions and much more. To protect the data on your hard drive you can use EFS, which encrypts specific files, or BitLocker to encrypt entire hard drives with Vista Ultimate and Enterprise versions.

And then there is search: you know you have it on your PC or in an e-mail, but you can’t find it. Some new tools over the past few years have helped us with precisely this issue. Windows desktop search, Google desktop search, Yahoo and X1search all provide the same service — an easy way to find items on your PC. These products are free and available for XP and Vista.

Windows Vista has a search function built in as part of the operating system, and the search is quick and available throughout Windows Vista. Other search tools on Windows XP are fine for the most part, but the search in Vista is intelligent and leaves you with the full power of the system when you need it. If the machine is idle, search builds its indexes so search results are instantaneous.

There are a lot more bells and whistles in Vista, many new toys including the Aero desktop experience, tools to organize media files and even DVD creation software. Most of these features are available as add-ins in XP but are included with Vista. Depending on the version, you can have a truly rich media center experience on your PC.

Moving data has never been easier. Using Windows Easy Transfer, you can easily move data from your old Vista or XP system to a new machine. It preserves settings and places all files in the right place. Those who have struggled with migrating data from system to system in the past should try this. It’s almost too good to be true.

With Windows Vista VPC2007, which also runs on Windows XP, performs better. This free download introduces you to the benefits of virtualization. In a trial older accounting applications, which did not run well under Vista, were used in an XP virtual machine. This isolates the application from Vista while allowing one to use the application the way it was meant to be used.

Why wait
However even a committed Microsoft fan can spot some of the disadvantages of a hasty transition.

Windows Vista, like previous operating systems, always re-quires a modern system. You will not be able to get all the benefits from a machine if you try to use an operating system that was built for the next version of hardware. This was true with Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows XP and also with Windows Vista. If you do not have ample free disk space, a video card with at least 128 megabytes of memory, 2 gigabytes of RAM, a single core processor of more than 3 GHz (or a dual core 1.8 GHz processor) you should not upgrade to or install Vista unless you love pain.

The cost of making a good XP machine into a reasonable Windows Vista machine plus the cost of the Windows Vista upgrade will probably run close to the cost of a new machine, and it won’t be new. If you want to get more out of your “Built for Windows XP” machine, the best thing you can do to enhance its performance is to backup data and re-in-stall the operating system and applications from scratch.

Some applications are just not built for Vista and the upgrades to a Vista compliant version can be quite high. Few compatibility issues cannot be resolved using Virtual PC 2007, but this is introducing a new level of complexity most people should not have to deal with. If this is a mission critical application and you need to upgrade, make sure you are comfortable with a solution that will work for you.

If you own a scanner you don’t use much but paid good money for and want to keep it, that may not be in the cards if you switch to Vista. You may need to keep your old Windows XP machine around to handle scanning. Scanners are an example, but printers and other hardware devices can also cause problems if you do not have the appropriate drivers. All components of a PC must have appropriate software drivers to work with Windows Vista; this includes most USB peripherals, as well as add-on or on-board video, sound and network cards.

If you want to upgrade for upgrade’s sake, why would you buy an operating system that was replaced a year ago? Buy a PC that is well equipped and runs Vista. If you need to replace one Windows XP computer with another because of compatibility issues, it makes sense to buy Windows XP. On the other hand, if you buy a “Built for Vista” PC and have Windows XP installed on it, you will need to look at an upgrade in a few years when your applications start to demand Vista.

Which Vista?
Vista Ultimate, Home Premium, Home Basic, Business and Enterprise — the choice is yours. Each version has built-in special features. For a detailed description of each of the versions, visit the Microsoft website. For most small businesses, Vista Business or Ultimate may be the choice. Vista Enterprise is reserved for larger business clients and is not available OEM or retail. For your home PC Vista Home Premium or Ultimate might be your choice.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Microsoft Windows Vista Web site
http://www.microsoft.com/vist
The Microsoft Web site provides all of the information you need to know about Vista.

Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/buyorupgrade/upgradeadvisor.mspx?wt_svl=20409a&mg_id=20409b
This is a great tool which goes through your existing PC and tells you exactly which hardware and software components could cause problems if you upgrade a Windows XP machine to Vista. From the few times I tried this, it appears to do a great job of detecting incompatible hardware.

Virtual PC 2007
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/virtualpc/default.mspx
Microsft Virtual PC environment. Works on Windows XP but does run a little slower. Runs very well on a Windows Vista PC

National Vulnerability Database
http://nvd.nist.gov
This is a great spot to asses all kinds of software or systems for vulnerabilities.

Yves Godbout, CA•IT, CA•CISA, is the director of IT services with the Office of the Auditor General of Canada and is the chair of the CICA Alliance for Excellence in Information Technology. He is CAmagazine’s technical editor for technology