Reviews and Visual Tours

Our experts weigh in on Vista's new features and interface:

Hands On: A Hard Look at Windows Vista
Five years in the making, Windows Vista has reached its final form at last. It's an ambitious release, from an ambitious company.

Visual Tour: 20 Things You Won't Like About Windows Vista
It's time to take a long, hard look at what will become the next version of Windows.

Visual Tour: 20 Reasons Why Windows Vista Will Be Your Next OS
After writing "20 Things You Won't Like About Windows Vista," Scot Finnie admits there are still plenty of reasons to recommend Microsoft's next-generation operating system.

Running Vista on a MacBook Pro and
A Mac fan takes on Vista
Computerworld's Ken Mingis, a longtime Mac fan, does the once unthinkable and installs Windows Vista on his MacBook Pro. Is this the best of both worlds? Find out in this two-part series.

How-Tos and Advice

Get hands-on help for Vista:

Five Ways to Bend Windows Vista to Your Will
Got Vista already? Make it your own with these five easy customization tweaks.

Hands On: The Essential Vista Upgrade Guide
Can't wait to get your hands on Windows Vista? We'll help you decide which upgrade path to take and walk you through multiple methods of installation.

Securing Vista: Tips on conducting desktop audits
Find out about Vista's policy snap-in and what various codes mean when reviewing a security log.

Windows Vista in a Nutshell: Networking
Preston Gralla details how to set up, connect to, manage and configure networks in this excerpt from his new book, Windows Vista in a Nutshell.

What's New in Vista File Management: Sort, Group, Stack and Filter
Learn the various new ways to organize folders and files in this excerpt from David Pogue's Windows Vista: The Missing Manual.

Buying a Computer for Vista ... and Beyond
With some careful planning, you can buy PCs that will both support Windows Vista and last well beyond today's standard three-year life span.

Making Your Move to Vista: What You Need to Know
Thinking about upgrading to Vista? You'll find that you're confronted with more than the usual number of questions to answer and details to sort through. We can help.

The Devil's Guide to Windows Vista Security
Vista includes a lot of features to protect users from themselves. But if you think you and your network are ready for Vista without the locks, Jonathan Hassell explains how to fly with all the safeties off.

FAQs and Analysis

Get details and insights into Microsoft's new OS:

Vista's UI is a 'step back,' analyst says
Windows Vista's user interface suffers from more "friction" than its predecessor XP, a French analyst said, and is a step back for Microsoft in its pursuit of Apple's Mac OS X.

New Vista firewall fails on outbound security
Two-way filtering is touted as a new security feature in Windows Vista, but Preston Gralla discovers it's impossible to practically configure outbound filtering.

Vista and mobility: Lots of consolidation, few new features
Windows Vista boasts no earth-shattering improvements for mobile users, but it does simplify matters by consolidating a lot of functions into a few well-designed interface elements.

Does the Vista View Include Real ROI?
Tom Pisello discusses initial ROI research and modeling on the business case for Vista. The bottom line: IT labor savings alone can't make the business case.

Windows Vista and Longhorn Server: How they work better together
They're like brother and sister, thanks to shared code and a joint development process. Here's what it means to you.

Under the hood: What's different about Vista's GUI?
In this excerpt from Windows Vista Unveiled, Paul McFedries explains Vista's Windows Presentation Foundation (formerly Avalon), how it improves graphics performance and why software developers will love it.

Five things you'll love about Vista's storage
The new Vista platform sports an improved file system, native support for hybrid disk drives, volume shrinking, enhanced I/O prioritization and drive encryption features