Introducing Windows Vista

Windows Vista is one of the most ambitious computing projects of all time. Originally codenamed "Longhorn" and intended as a minor upgrade for Windows XP, development started back in 2001 with a planned release date of 2003. However, Microsoft decided that a minor upgrade wasn't enough: the next version of Windows, it decided, should be a major new version with a brand new look and feel, stacks of improvements and a huge number of new features.

The Longhorn project was rebooted in 2004, and nearly three years later Windows Vista is the result. As you'll discover, it's similar enough to Windows XP that you won't feel lost when you use it, but there are some major new features, new programs and new tools designed to make your PC more powerful and more productive. There are three crucial changes in Windows Vista: a funky new interface, serious search capability and a beefed-up security system. We'll look at each one in turn.

A brand new look

Windows Vista's new user interface strikes you as soon as you hit the on switch. The familiar green Start button as morphed into a blue orb and the Start menu itself is organised differently. The Desktop still sports a Taskbar with a Notification Area to the right and an optional three-icon Quick Launch area next to the Start button, but that's where the similarity ends. Icons are now high resolution and 3D; the Taskbar is semi-transparent, as are the borders of windows; and you'll find a bunch of 'gadgets' lodged in a strip running vertically down the right side of the Desktop. The overall colour scheme is subtle, soft and, frankly, gorgeous.

A clearer view – You can turn off transparency in Windows Vista – but why would you when it looks so good?

As you'd expect, virtually everything in Windows Vista is customisable. More surprising, perhaps, is that some familiar tools and shortcuts have moved. For instance, if you right-click the Desktop in search of the Properties dialogue box – as you might do to adjust screen resolution, change the wallpaper and tweak the graphics driver settings – you'll find no such menu. Instead, there's a Personalize option that fires up a hefty Control Panel-style window comprising of seven main headings, a separate 'task' list and some links to related features.

The upshot is that if you use Windows XP's tools instinctively, you may find yourself bemused from time to time. However, if you detach yourself from habits of old and consider whether this reorganisation is a) more or less helpful to a newcomer, and b) useful to you in the long run, the answer in our opinion is "considerably more so" in both cases. There's a lot to be said for having related features grouped logically and clearly rather than scattered in disparate menus.

Smart Searching

In Windows Vista, search is everywhere. There's a search box on the Start Menu and one in every folder, and that means it's easy to find and open any file almost instantly. It changes the way you work in the sense that you become 'location agnostic'. If you've grown addicted to Copernic Desktop Search or Google's equivalent, you'll know just what we mean: the quickest way to find a document, picture or email is often by searching on a keyword within or relating to that file, not by navigating through nested folders and sub-folders in pursuit of the file itself.

Windows Vista Search can handle metadata, which is simply additional, invisible information appended to files. Photographers know all about metadata, typically using it to embed copyright and descriptive information in JPG images. The rest of us probably encountered it first in the MP3 revolution: MP3 files can tell you all about the artist, album, genre and more, and many MP3 players can read and display this metadata during playback. In Windows Vista, existing metadata on current files is indexed and searched by default, but you can also add your own metadata to many different file types by means of tags. You might be familiar with these from websites like Flickr.

The new seekers – Search is everywhere in Windows Vista. Every folder has its own search box, and there's a search box in the Start Menu too.

Solid Security

Bolstered security is the third and arguably most important innovation in Windows Vista, and Microsoft has made some pretty hefty changes here. For instance, the Windows Firewall is now two-way, which means that it monitors outbound and inbound network communications (previously it was inbound only, which helped prevent hack attacks in the first place but did nothing to stop dodgy software from calling home). Windows Defender, Microsoft's anti-spyware tool, is turned on by default, offering real-time protection against malicious software. Similarly, Internet Explorer runs by default in a 'protected' mode that forces you to grant permission for every action that could be construed as suspect, eg downloading and installing software or running ActiveX controls.

Most importantly, and certainly most obviously, Windows Vista includes a strong security feature called User Account Control. You'll run into UAC almost as soon as you use Windows Vista. This is because it pops up whenever Windows is about to perform a process that could potentially be damaging or at least far-reaching. The screen goes black, then freezes, and up pops a dialogue box that forces you to choose between continuing or cancelling the process. For newcomers to computing, this is both alarming and, we'd argue, necessary; for old hands, it can be frustrating. It's true that the greatest danger to any system is the system user, so it pays to stop, think and proceed with caution.

Fixed Firewall – The Windows Firewall is now a much more useful application than before.