Windows Vista

Windows Vista – Who loves it and who hates it?

I confess that I have not taken the upgrade plunge yet. But I’ll also confess that this is the first time I’ve seriously considered upgrading, rather than waiting a few years and buying a new computer with the current operating system pre-installed (and in theory, at least some of the bugs out).

Yes, the commercials are lacking. But the OS? Microsoft might be onto something there.

My daughter saved her money all summer and bought a new HP Pavillion. It’s a sweet computer. She let me play around on it – a little. Then she jealously grabbed it back and started yakking via Skype video to friends all over the world.

I was impressed by the HP’s features – but what I really wanted to check out was Vista. Previous Microsoft new releases have been consistently terrible until major bugs have been worked out of them. I heard a little about that in Vista’s very early days – but now, it seems like most folks are pretty happy with it.

The first thing I noticed was that Windows Vista just looks very smooth. Not sure how else to describe it.

There are three features that made me happy. Ecstatic, even. The first is Instant Search, an always-ready and fast file search utility. Then there’s Live Icons and the Preview Pane, which show you what’s inside the file or folder you’re looking at. One thing I’ve always hated about word processors is if you’re looking for a file and you named it something dumb that you’ll never remember, you might have to open half a dozen Word docs to find what you’re looking for. That takes time and effort – but with Vista the problem is solved.

Vista’s got a lot of other features – whether you’re a casual user or an uber-tech, check it out.