Dubbed Aero, this interface displays thumbnails of all open windows and allows the user to flip through them. If your nonprofit is considering upgrading to Vista but currently uses older computers, you may be curious as to whether your machines are powerful enough to handle the new OS.
However, if your nonprofit wants to upgrade to one of the higher-end versions of Vista — such as Home Premium or Ultimate — you may need a more powerful processor, more RAM, and a fairly advanced video card. According to information found at Microsoft's Upgrade Planning for Windows Vista page, your current OS and the Vista Edition you choose will determine whether you need to remove your current OS and install Vista from scratch or whether you can simply install it on top of your current OS see "If I upgrade to Vista, will I have to perform a clean install?
If I upgrade to Vista, will I have to perform a clean install? Users who are upgrading to Vista from Windows or XP Professional x64 computers have no option but to back up all their files and programs, uninstall their OS, reinstall Vista, then port all their data back to the computer. However, depending on what version of Vista your organization has chosen, you may still have to perform a clean install.
Regardless of which situation applies to your nonprofit, PC World's Windows Vista FAQ recommends backing up your data as an important safety precaution.
How big of a dent Vista puts in your organization's budget depends on whether you're purchasing the product brand new or upgrading from a previous Microsoft OS. Vista pricing also depends on which version you choose; as you might expect, the more advanced editions of Vista carry larger price tags. If your nonprofit is moving to a Microsoft OS for the first time, expect to pay anywhere between R and R for each individual copy of Vista you're buying new.
If your organization is upgrading from a version of XP or , Vista costs will range between R and R Organizations that plan to outfit more than 10 computers with Vista may want to look into the Enterprise Edition, which offers volume pricing rates on license keys. Another factor to consider when determining whether to upgrade to Vista is whether the software that's critical to your organization will run on the new operating system. While many software vendors have already released Vista-compatible versions of their products, others may still be modifying their programs to make them compliant with Vista.
Keep in mind that, in some cases, upgrading to Vista might also mean that your nonprofit will have to fork over additional money to upgrade certain applications. That means that by next week we should have our hands on what Microsoft has been promising to be the best look so far at what the company envisions Windows Vista will be when it is released sometime in As I began planning this edition of the Windows Vista Report, I began to look back at how long we've been anticipating Windows XP's successor and came to the conclusion that it goes all the way back to To corroborate my recollections, I paid a visit to Google as well as the archives of Microsoft's PressPass site to see what I could dig up.
Let's take a look. Microsoft first started talking about a new operating system code named Longhorn in July of , about three months before the actual release of Windows XP. In a surprise change to its Windows strategy, Microsoft is considering pushing back the release of Blackcomb, and instead following up Windows XP with an interim operating system currently dubbed 'Longhorn'. First reported by eWeek, Longhorn will not contain the. NET-centric core the software giant had planned for the next version of Windows.
Blackcomb was initially slated for a late release, but Microsoft officials now concede even Longhorn may not hit that mark. In July of , Bill Gates began touting Longhorn as a significant breakthrough in the Windows operating system. Even back then, there was speculation that such an endeavor would have schedule problems. In an article titled "A Fork in the Road to Longhorn? Microsoft has not yet shipped Windows. NET Server, but that has not stopped senior executives from publicly describing a future Windows release, code-named Longhorn.
Microsoft today officially finished the Release to Manufacturing RTM version of its upcoming Windows Vista operating system, with its head of development admitting he's relieved that the much-delayed operating system is finally ready to ship. I am super happy," Jim Allchin, co-president of Microsoft's platform products and services group, said in a conference call with journalists and analysts this afternoon.
The RTM version is the first step toward the widespread availability of the operating system, which is slated to be available to corporate volume license customers via the Web or on CD sometime before Nov. Nevertheless, consumers and small businesses will not be able to buy PCs with Vista preinstalled from stores or small manufacturers before the Jan. Vista is also not yet available for consumer download, although Microsoft has said that it will be available to MSDN and TechNet subscribers sometime this month.
Allchin believes that the adoption curve for Vista among consumers will be "fast and immediate. Allchin also touted Vista's improved security, with features such as Address Space Layer Randomization, which makes each Vista machine sufficiently different that the chance for worms to jump from one Vista PC to another is "much smaller. Vista has been five years in the making, and represents the longest lag time between releases of Windows in Microsoft's history.
0コメント