Yes, that’s right, after about 6 years of development, and an estimated 6 billion dollars spent on it, Microsoft Windows Vista has been officially released for sale to the public. I went out to the store this morning and lined up (if you can call it lining up if you’re the first one there…) to buy Vista. I decided on getting Vista Home Premium. Plus, they gave me (the store I went to) a free Wireless N router with it.
It’s pretty sweet. The install went good, except when I wanted to change/get rid of Partitions on my C Drive. I originally booted from the Vista disc, but when I enter my Product Key, it said that I have to load the DVD in my existing Windows installation (XP). So, I did that, but then it said that if you want to make changes to the Drives, you must boot from the disc (which is a DVD by the way). But, since it already said I had to install from XP, it didn’t make sense. Maybe because I bought the Upgrade version… Anyways, I ended up fixing up my Drives to the way I wanted them in PartitionMagic. So, back to the install, what’s much better about the installation of Vista over installing XP, is that with Vista, you only enter information at the beginning and end of the actual installing part. So, the installation doesn’t get stopped just for you to enter information.
After the installation, Vista was ready for my use. So, the new UI is pretty cool (but since my graphics card doesn’t meet the minimum requirements, I don’t get the full Aero experience). It’s got a nice glossy look to it.
So, of course, I needed to install some anti-virus software. But, I knew that my NIS 2007 disc wasn’t going to work, since it’s meant for XP. So, luckily, I had phoned Symantec the night before to ask about it. So, they sent me an email with a link to a trial of NIS 2007 (check this page out for more details http://www.symantec.com/home_homeoffice/themes/vista/compatibility.jsp). Even though it says “For Windows XP” on the download page, it works with Vista. So, they told me to just install that and then activate it with my product key that I already have. Which I did, and it worked. It also looks a lot different then the version I have on my NIS disc, which makes it look better. Also, I’m no longer having any problems with NIS.
There is now a sidebar, on the desktop, called Windows Sidebar (shocking name, I know 😛 ), which you can add various different gadgets to. Also, the Start Menu has been completely redesigned, makes it more compact with no “All Programs Pop-out” menu to take up your whole screen with the list of your programs. Nope, now when you click on All Programs, it replaces the “Recent Programs” list with a list of all your programs and program folders. Oh, plus the Start Menu button is now an image of the Windows Flag.
Windows Explorer (well, not specifically, every thing that open in that type of exploring window) has also been completely redesigned. Where the Address bar once was, is now a breadcrumb trail. Plus it has a new toolbar that changes depending on what folder you’re in. Plus some nice new icons.
Also, the hierarchy of the folders has been changed a little. First of all, it’s no longer “My Computer” or “My Documents”, they’re now just Computer and Documents. Also, as usual, every account on the computer has a folder called whatever their username is (mines called Matt 😛 ). But, what’s inside there, is a little different from XP. You’ll find the folders “Contacts”, “Desktop”, “Documents”, “Downloads”, “Favourites”, “Links”,
“Music”, “Pictures”, “Saved Games”, “Searches” and “Videos”. Which also means that folders previously stored in Documents (Pictures, Music, Videos, etc), are now outside of Documents.
I have also noticed that Vista is significantly faster then XP. The speediness of opening programs could be from Windows’ new Prefetch system, which will try to determine which programs you’re most likely going to open when, and then Prefetch them before hand.
Of course, since there’s tons of new features in Vista, I sure can’t cover them all (plus I haven’t seen/used all of them yet)…
Here’s some screenshots (click the thumbnails to go to the the full size image):
Update [February 11, 2007]: I got a new video card that supports the full Aero experience, so I’ve updated/added to the screenshots.
