Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #961 in Software
• Brand: Microsoft
• Released on: 2007-01-30
• Platform: Windows Vista
• Format: DVD-ROM
• Dimensions: .68 pounds

Computer Shopper
Vista is far easier to use than Windows XP

Amazon.co.uk Information
By buying this product, you are still able to get Vista Service Pack 1 after installation.

Instructions:

Set Windows Update to automatically download important updates.Windows Update will download SP1 when it becomes available for your PC. To ensure Windows Update is set to Automatic:

1. Open Windows Update by clicking the Start button Picture of the Start button, clicking All Programs, and then clicking Windows Update.

2. In the left pane, click Change Settings.

3. Choose the option that you want.

4. Under Recommended updates, select the Include Recommended Updates when downloading, installing, or notifying me about updates check box, and then click OK. Administrator Permission Required: If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

Manufacturer's Description:

Windows Vista Home Premium makes finding information, staying connected, and interacting with your PC easier and more secure. Whether you use your PC for organizing and sharing photos, watching videos and TV programs, balancing your chequebook, doing homework, or listening to music, Vista Home Premium makes it easy to enjoy your computing time. An ideal operating system for homes with advanced computer needs, Vista Home Premium combines the features of Vista Home Basic with even more impressive and user-friendly capabilities. It will help you use your laptop or desktop PC more effectively as well as enable you to take advantage of cutting-edge digital entertainment experiences--all with the benefit of added security and reliability.

Windows Sidebar gives you quick access to gadgets like picture slide shows, Windows Media Player controls, or news headlines. You pick the gadgets you want to see in Windows Sidebar. View larger.	Breakthrough Windows Vista Experience Designed to help you feel confident in your ability to view, find, and organize information and to control your computing experience, all editions of Windows Vista introduce a breakthrough user experience. The visual sophistication of Windows Vista helps streamline your computing experience by refining common window elements so you can better focus on the content on the screen rather than on how to access it. The desktop experience is more informative, intuitive, and helpful. And new tools bring better clarity to the information on your computer, so you can see what your files contain without opening them, find applications and files instantly, navigate efficiently among open windows, and use wizards and dialog boxes more confidently. Innovative User Interface Vista Home Premium has a new user interface named Windows Aero, which is both efficient and visually stunning. This new interface makes it easier than ever before to find your way around the operating system; it even makes it a snap to accomplish multiple tasks at once by providing a three-dimensional, real-time, animated view of all of your open applications and documents. Additionally, Vista Home Premium helps you quickly find and organize large collections of documents, pictures, movies, videos, and music. By integrating search throughout the operating system, this software helps you quickly find exactly what you are looking for. Improved Mobility Vista Home Premium makes it easy to take your home computing experience with you wherever you go. For example, the system includes Windows Tablet and Touch Technology that enables you to interact with your Tablet PC-compatible computer with a digital pen or your fingertip instead of having to use a keyboard. Computers that include Vista Home Premium and an auxiliary Windows SideShow display will also allow you to access key data even when your computer is off. You'll even be able to share files between other PCs in your household and to manage your laptop computer settings to more securely connect to your favourite Wi-Fi hotspot. More Entertainment Options Vista Home Premium has the power to improve every aspect of your digital entertainment experiences, including viewing and sharing photos, video, TV, movies, music, games, and more. For example, you can create your own DVDs and edit your own high-definition movies. The most exciting news, however, is that Vista Home Premium includes all of the Windows Media Centre capabilities for turning your PC into an all-in-one home entertainment centre so you can enjoy your music, photos, and DVD movies. You can also use Windows Media Centre to record and watch your favourite TV shows (even HDTV) and to access new kinds of online entertainment content. You will also be able to connect Windows Vista Home Premium to your Microsoft Xbox 360 to extend your Media Centre experience to multiple rooms in your home.	Compare Windows Vista editions. Use Instant Search to quickly find the information you need. View larger. Windows Vista Aero provides spectacular visual effects such as glass-like interface elements that you can see through.
Use Flip 3D to navigate through open windows using the scroll wheel on your mouse. View larger.
The redesigned Windows Media Centre in Windows Vista lets you enjoy your media throughout your home, even on your Xbox 360. View larger.

Customer Reviews

Gets better the longer you use it.
I bought a dell inspiron 1520 laptop with vista premium pre-installed. At first it took an age to start up and I nearly thought about going back to XP!
But I started to notice something strange. Everytime I rebooted the PC it took less time than before. The cache system learns what you load and organises programs to start up quickly.
It now takes no longer to boot up than XP used to. Installing service pack 1 improved things further.

And after using it for 6 months I honestly think its very good. The interface is nice, performance is decent in games, applications load very quickly and NOT once in 6 months has the system rebooted, crashed, or frozen! Thats stability. With XP something crashed at least once a week. I've not even had the "this program has performed an ilegal operation and will be shut down message"!
I was even more impressed when I used my families XP based computers. Very new, quad core and dual core desktops but they were hanging/pausing, everything seemed to take that bit longer to do than in vista and I had to reboot one of them when all I could load was explorer!

All my drivers and products work flawlessly. I suspect that given this computer was designed for vista thats not suprising but my other peripherals all work well.

If you're not getting on with vista I suggest the following
1. Install vista service pack 1 (that does reduce hard disk access and make better use of memory)
2. Upgrade memory to 2GB. It may say you need 512MB but trust me, on a system with 1GB it is unbelievably slow! A friends laptop has this and its awful. Takes 3 minutes to load and about 20 seconds to load internet explorer! Mine has 2GB and takes about 1 minute to boot and 2 seconds to load internet explorer. Thats the difference memory makes!
3. Disable some of the services. I disable windows seach because I don't use it often and whilst it may result in super quick searches, the rest of the time the hard drives churning away indexing stuff. Slows things down.
4. Uprgrade all of your drivers to the latest version. Some of the drivers on your original discs will not work with vista but most manufactuers have drivers which support it now online.

Only upgrade if you have a decent PC (in particular 2GB memory).
I understand its not perfect for everyones uses/computer systems but I have to give it 5 stars because my experience has been flawless.

so slow: use xp, linux, dos, anything in preference
i have vista on my laptop. i wish i did not. it is so slow. click, wait 15-30 seconds, eventually something happens. this is on new top spec laptop.

i give 1 star, as zero is not an option

Thank you Vista...
Thank you Microsoft. No really... I installed Vista when it first came out on my HP Desktop. I can't quite put my finger on what irritates me most about Microsofts new OS, but here are a couple of candidates.

1. Speed. With all the eye candy turned on the OS just seems to take an age to respond to simple requests. This is despite my kit being relatively new and, while not top of the range, definitely well above the minimum spec. What's even more irritating is the start up time - I can wait 7 minutes from pressing the on button to being able to start an application. This is pretty unacceptable on a machine with 2GB RAM, a fast processor and decent graphics card.

2. User interface. I don't think that XP was by any means a style icon, but the new interface seems to be all style and no substance. Sure, some of the tricks in Aero look fantastic, but once the novelty wears off the irritations begin. Try, for example, to toggle between showing hidden and system files and not. On XP this is a doddle - it's in the view options. In Vista, for whatever reason, you need to drop out of the explorer into control panel to acheive the same effect. A pain, and not intuitive. Security may have been improved, but this is a real pain - why do I need to confirm twice that I want to change the location of a menu item. It's not even consistent - applications seem to be able to dial out while a simple local DOS application generates warnings every time it runs. Very irritating when it runs several times a day...

So, why the thank you. Well, such was the irritation that I found myself using my MacBook more and more. I'm now over the initial disorientation from OSX and appreciate the smooth, quick, elegant and well designed interface. So much so that not only have I ditched Vista, but I've ditched the PC and bought myself a lovely new Mac Pro. Sure, I need Windows occasionally (less than you'd think), but Boot Camp and XP sorts that out.

In short, Vista is a mess. Too many of the previewed features have been dropped and we're left with a compromised OS that underperforms it predecessor. The sooner MS get on with producing the operating system it should have done and consigns Vista to the electronic hell it surely deserves the better. Until then, Bill Gates has give Apple their best sales tool yet.