How Windows Vista Affects:

Computer Repair and Consulting Service TIPS

Power Users

Power users may at first be disappointed with Windows Vista because, as part of Microsoft's constant quest to make Windows easier for novices and casual users, the OS becomes increasingly encrusted with "user-friendly" features that might get in the way of the power user's goal of efficiency and speed. However, the Windows programmers and designers are mostly power users themselves, so in many cases they've slipped in alternative methods to work around the hand-holding.

For example, most power users will probably be driven to the point of insanity by User Account Control and its endless requests for your permission to do many things. I can attest that you do get used to it after a week or two. However, what's truly annoying about UAC is that it simply won't let you do some tasksit won't even ask for permission. A good example is editing a file in a protected folder. For instance, I often modify the lmhosts file to ensure proper networking, but UAP doesn't let me save my changes. However, I can get around this by right-clicking the Notepad icon and then clicking Run As Administrator.

Power users will get the most out of Vista to the extent that they discover and use such workarounds.

Digital Media Users

If you're a big digital media user, you should love Windows Vista because so many of its innovations and improvements were made with digital media in mind. Got a massive digital music collection? Then it will find a good home in Windows Media Player 11. The interface lets you view your music in many different ways (such as grouped or stacked), and the new search engine is lightning quick, even with the largest music collections.

Microsoft has said that it will ship all the Vista SKUs to each OEM, which gives computer manufacturers complete freedom to put any version of Vista on any machine (as long as the hardware supports it). This should mean that Media Center PCs become more popular because it will no longer be perceived as some "other" version of the OS. That's good news for people looking to set up a PC as a home media hub. With its support for all types of media, as well as TV tuners, radio tuners, and media broadcast hardware, the Vista Media Center should take pride of place as the center of such as hub.

Business Users

Generalizing is always a risky proposition, but I think I'm going out on a pretty sturdy limb when I say that the majority of business users don't care about their computer's operating system. They're more focused on getting their job done as quickly and as efficiently as possible; it's the operating system's job to help when it can, and to get out of the way the rest of the time.

So, will Vista help business users get their jobs done? The new OS does come with quite a few efficiencies that should make many day-to-day chores faster. Features like as-you-type searching, faster and more powerful document searching, the streamlined Start menu, live thumbnails (particularly with Flip and taskbar thumbnails), the capability to group and stack documents, and Windows Sidebar are all productivity boosters. On the other hand, in some cases, Vista requires more involvement from the business user. The most obvious example here is document metadata, which is a great way to organize data but requires time to enter the data into each property.

How about getting out of the way of the business user? Most recent versions of Windows do a pretty good job of this, and Vista is no exception. When you're performing normal business chores, you'll probably rarely have to interact with Vista itself. The exception here will be when you try to do anything that runs afoul of the User Account Control policies, and that dialog box comes up yet again. Users will also be getting pestered by Windows Firewall (to block or allow some programs) and Windows Defender (to block or allow certain actions), so I can foresee a backlash against all these so-called "nag" dialog boxes. Also, most existing Windows applications should run well under Vista, but device driver support might be spotty for a while, and that could slow people down. In the end, however, business users want an operating system that works. Nothing sucks up time like an unstable OS that requires constant reboots, tweaking, and repairing. If Vista's promise of increased stability proves true, businesses should flock to the new OS in droves.

Unfortunately, however, the real problem for business users, particularly corporate desktops, will be having enough horsepower especially graphics power to run Vista well and to take advantage of its new features. Business machines tend to have only the minimum amount of RAM necessary, and they almost always have a low-end graphics card. Without upgrades, this will mean that Vista runs quite slowly and that the nice Aero Glass interface and other effects will be disabled.

Computer Repair,Computer Service
Computer Consulting,Computer Consultant
Computer Support