By now you've heard the hype surrounding the Windows Vista operating system. Vista is the first new version of Windows since
the 2001 release of Windows XP. And if that was not enough, Microsoft is also releasing a new version of its ever-popular
Office 2007 productivity suite.
But what does this really mean for you and your business? Should you upgrade?
The first thing you'll notice about Windows Vista and Office is that the interface has changed. By all accounts, the new Aero
interface is visually stunning. Microsoft has spent millions of dollars upgrading the user experience of the platform. This
advance comes at the cost of requiring newer and faster graphics cards. To take full advantage of the new look and feel, you'll
need to upgrade older PCs. To see if your PC will run Vista, Microsoft created a tool to evaluate your computer. It's called
Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor, and you can download it at http://www.windowsvista.com/upgradeadvisor/.
At the recent product launch for Office 2007, a Microsoft employee told me 80% of customer suggestions and requests for this
new version of Office were for features already buried in the current version. This new release hopes to solve that issue.
With Office comes "Ribbon," a new toolbar interface that should help your employees more easily find and use the product's
features. I was impressed by how easy it was to find the features. A better user experience is the major theme in both products. Vista has an integrated desktop search functionality to help
you find information on your computer or the Internet very quickly. Office has been redesigned to make it easier to put spreadsheet-based
graphs and charts into your documents and presentations.
Vista comes in a number of versions. Selecting the right version for your needs may be tricky. My suggestion is to narrow
the choices down to the following three: Home Premium, Business and Ultimate. Home Premium gives you some advanced media center
functionality and parental controls. The Business version provides better networking and data backup. And Vista Ultimate gives
you the best of both worlds, along with some advanced hard drive security. If you're a power user like me, select the Ultimate
version.
So let's get back to the question of upgrading from your current version of Windows. Windows Vista and Office 2007 offer improvements
over Windows XP. But neither really falls into the category of compelling. They are "nice-to-haves," not real business needs.
Now, if you've got to have the latest-and-greatest technology, the choice is to upgrade. But my suggestion is to wait for
the first set of bugs to be found and fixed.
But when you do upgrade, I think you're going to like it.
— The author is a freelance technologist focusing in business automation. Contact him at 801/592-2810 or visit his blog at
http://www.tylerwhitaker.com/.
