Five Ways Windows Vista Will Boost Home Computing

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In January 2007, Microsoft launched its new Windows Vista operating system for homes and businesses. I've had an opportunity to test Windows Vista and found that it offers a host of feature-rich improvements over the venerable Microsoft Windows XP operating system. My family and I agreed that there are five key convenience features in Windows Vista:

Windows Aero user experience -- My son and I are multitasking junkies. We often have three or more files and/or programs open at one time. Shuffling back and forth to expand or collapse windows is a time-consuming pain. With Windows Vista, we experienced Windows Aero (available in Windows Vista Home Premium, Windows Vista Ultimate, Windows Vista Business and Windows Vista Enterprise), a new visual environment where program or file windows can be transparent to reveal otherwise hidden objects, or you may display multiple active windows in a 3-D stack of file folders.

Windows Photo Gallery -- The hundreds of digital snaps on our main family PC with meaningless names such as "MVC-019F" really drive my wife nuts. She's tired of spending hours renaming them one by one. The Windows Vista Import Pictures and Videos Wizard was her top new feature pick because it prompts you to assign subject-, scene- or event-related descriptive names for photos when you import them to your PC.

Search and Organize -- I lose valuable time every day searching for a file I know I have stored somewhere on my PC's hard drive. With the new Instant Search box feature built in to the ever-present Start Menu, you can enter a word that you know is in the file, a phrase, a title, an author's name or other terms, to launch a fast, on-the-fly search.

Parental Controls -- As veteran cyberparents, my wife and I really appreciate the new Parental Controls feature in Windows Vista, which gives us the option to manage when the PC is used and what Web sites, programs or games each family member may access. Activity reports can also be automatically generated.

Stronger Security -- It's my job at home to keep our seven PCs healthy. Fending off worms, spyware, snooping hackers and other crud that may infect our systems via the Internet is a constant battle. I was particularly impressed by the beefed-up firewall technology (designed to help block out the incoming bad stuff automatically) and the new Windows Defender that will automatically scan our PCs for infections.

For everything about Windows Vista visit www.microsoft.com/windowsvista. At the site you can see all the new features, determine the right version of Windows Vista to fit your family's needs, and download the Upgrade Advisor program to identify elements you may need to upgrade on your PC. And, of course, if you're shopping for a new PC, go for one with Windows Vista already installed.

Ralph Bond was commissioned by Microsoft to review Windows Vista and write about his experience. He is the author of "Family Computer Fun" (Que Publishing, 2005) and a reporter for the Computer Outlook talk radio show and News Radio 1190 AM (Portland, Ore.).

Courtesy of ARAcontent