Campaign 2008

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Long Tails and Big Heads
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technology: The future and what to do about it.

The Verdict on VistaIs the new Windows any good?

By Paul Boutin
Posted Monday, Jan. 22, 2007, at 3:56 PM ET

Listen to an interview with the author here, or sign up for Slate's free daily podcast on iTunes.

(Continued from page 1)

On my slower PC, which is running Vista Basic, many windows still hesitate when redrawing and leave ghost images behind when I drag them around the screen. These are classic Windows annoyances that Vista Premium's Aero interface has finally done away with, even on laptops. For years, laptop buyers have paid extra for ATI and NVIDIA graphics processors that only come into play during video games. Now, Vista puts these pricey chips to work to draw everything on the screen better and faster. But remember the bad news here: It's likely that you'll need to buy a new PC to take advantage of Aero's graphics-intensive user interface. (Run the Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor to make sure.)

SuperFetch. Vista figures out what applications you use at which time of day or day of the week. It then schedules the ones you're most likely to use and preloads them into the PC's memory. Your e-mail and calendar will be ready to go on Monday morning, and your anti-virus software won't be in the middle of a full scrub when you come back from lunch. It doesn't always guess correctly. Still, I spend less time listening to my disk drive whenever I sit down to work.

Stability and Security. For once, I believe Microsoft's promises. Insiders say the Windows division got religion about squashing bugs and writing hacker-proof software during the latter days of XP's development. Division president Jim Allchin came back from a sabbatical enraged by Windows bugs that had spoiled his vacation. "I saw what a flaky mess this thing is," he confessed to LinuxWorld columnist Doc Searls. Allchin's bug stomp-a-thon contributed to Vista's five years of production delays. Good for him. Solidly written software is harder to crack, too. I won't get phone calls from worried relatives about the Vista virus of the week like I did for XP.

Previous Versions of Files. If you accidentally mis-edit or overwrite a document, you can right-click the file to bring up a "Previous versions" menu. Computers have had this capability for years—it's called journaling—but it's a big step forward to place the old versions in a pop-up menu so nontechie users can easily discover them. It sounds boring, but wait'll it saves your bacon when you're on a deadline.

Presentation Mode. If projecting PowerPoint slides from your laptop is a make-or-break part of your job, you'll love this: You can finally tell your OS not to bother you with IM popups, beepy noises, or the screensaver.

Upgrade Process. I upgraded computers hundreds of times in my past life as a support guy and software developer. The XP-to-Vista move was my smoothest Windows transition ever. The installer gave me a tidy, clickable report of three device drivers it couldn't guarantee would still work in Vista. Two were for old programs I'd stopped using long ago, the other for the software I used to connect to my BlackBerry.

Most of my XP-era applications work fine in Vista, but iTunes—a mission-critical app for me—has hung a couple of times when I quit the program. And if my DSL goes out this week, I won't be able to plug in the BlackBerry to get online. I'm hopeful, though, that driver updates will appear soon after Jan. 30 to fix both problems.

That leads to my final advice: You've waited five years for Vista. That means you can probably wait a bit longer. No software is bug proof, and every new OS gets patched a few times in its first weeks of public life, after the masses start using it and the black hats start cracking it. I'm enjoying the new features I've listed, but you won't die without them. If $100 for the Basic upgrade disc or $150 for Premium breaks your budget, save your cash until it's time to buy a new PC, even if that's not until 2008. Unlike past major Windows revisions, you won't find yourself barred from interacting with those who upgrade—you'll just envy them a little.