Given Time, Vista May Be Breath Of Fresh Air

As we delve further and further into the technological and computer age, one desire has continued to emerge as a necessity: whether at home or in the office, we need faster, stronger and safer computers and applications.

Machines that can multitask and bounce between various programs seamlessly are no longer a dream, but a requirement.

There is also greater demand for computer security that impedes hackers and viruses looking to steal information from — or do damage to — our networks and computers.

Lastly, the speed of the computers we use directly impacts productivity, which ultimately corresponds with the bottom line.

While Microsoft’s newest operating system, Windows Vista — which was released to business users late last year and to all consumers in January 2007 — promises all of these improvements, many information technology (IT) consultants believe we should “look before we leap.”

More specifically, experts caution we should look, look again, consider the advantages — improved productivity and expanded applications — and disadvantages — cost, additional hardware requirements — then wait to “leap” only when these factors align to provide the greatest return on investment.

Timing Is Everything
Steve Epner, founder and president of Brown Smith Wallace Consulting, St. Louis, believes there isn’t yet a great need for companies — particularly small businesses — to upgrade to Vista. Instead, he recommends letting others test the water first.

“For most small businesses that are operating on XP or another system, don’t change,” he says. “There is not enough to make it worthwhile for most small companies. Let everyone else work out the bugs, get it to where it should be, then make the change.”

According to Andy Barcus, an independent IT consultant based in Davenport, Iowa, it normally takes about a year for most bugs in new operating systems to be found and corrected.

Of the bugs that have been found and corrected, none have hampered business applications, Barcus notes. Instead, they have affected programs like Windows Media Player.

Things To Mull Over
As you consider upgrading, first determine what hardware changes will need to be made, says Paul Riedl, chief executive officer of River Run Computers Inc., a full-service consulting and maintenance company based in Glendale, Wis.

“You have to make sure you have a ton of horsepower [to run Vista],” he cautions. “Instead of having 512 megabytes, you need to have a gigabyte. Instead of using a Pentium III processor, you need to have at least Pentium 4 or better.”

So upgrading your current system and hardware with Vista might not be the wisest choice.

“I’m not a believer in upgrading current work stations from an older operating system to a newer one because of the expense,” Riedl explains. “First, you have to buy the new operating system, then — if you want to do it correctly — wipe the old hard drive clean, then load the new operating system and re-load the applications you were using.”

He says if you have a professional do your upgrading, you will be paying them for upwards of three to four hours, and if you’re doing it yourself, it could take you three to four days, depending on your ability to tweak the system.

Both Riedl and Epner agree that the best time to upgrade is in conjunction with the businesses normal cycle for replacing individual parts of your network’s hardware.

Stability And Security
Though the time has not yet come for most small businesses to switch to Vista, that doesn’t mean that someday they won’t benefit from the features Vista offers.

According to Barcus, Vista has improved over Windows XP — its predecessor — mainly in its ability to run multiple applications without problems.

“There’s more stability with Vista,” he says. “It has improvements in allocating the processor to run multiple tasks. It’s less likely to allow one task to take over the computer and make it unresponsive.”

There are also more security measures installed with Windows Vista that improve protection for both internal and external uses.

“With the Business and Ultimate Vista versions, you can secure part of the hard drive so that it’s much harder to get the information due to an encryption system that is much better than anything Microsoft has put out before,” Barcus explains.

The program also plays a bit of a shell game with files to thwart hackers.

“In Windows XP, a hacker would know exactly what area of memory is being used or where a certain function is within the operating system,” Barcus notes. “But with Windows Vista, every time you start the computer, that function is put in a different spot within the memory … so it’s not predictable.”

The new system also limits the amount, kind and type of changes that can be made by regular users. Computer users aren’t automatically recognized as the administrator, as is the case with smaller systems that run XP.

“Windows Vista takes many of those administrator rights away from the default user so you have to elevate your privileges to do anything like install software or modify system files,” Barcus explains.

Therefore, if you unintentionally run a malicious program with a Trojan Horse virus hidden within it, it will not have the ability to affect the system in the same way.

Further advantages that Windows Vista Business version has over previous operating systems include: an improved version of Windows Defender; better recovery systems that can backup entire hard drives and retrieve previous versions of individual documents; a built-in diagnostics system that will watch for hardware failures, slow performance and network problems; and a simplified system for transferring files from an older computer to a newer one.

Wading In
Instead of taking the plunge into unknown waters, experts advise wading into the new system. Businesses can run Vista and earlier Microsoft operating systems on the same network without much hassle or continuity problems, Barcus adds.

One consideration to take into account before upgrading is if any third party applications you are using are compatible with Vista.

“The first thing you need to do if you have custom software is make sure that the vendor you get it from says ‘Yes, it will work on Windows Vista and if it doesn’t we’ll help you,’” said Barcus.

As with anything in business, it all boils down to the bottom line. When speaking about computers, the cost of software, hardware, drivers and other additional applications should all be considered.

“You always want to look at the return on your investment,” says Riedl. “So you need to look at what you’re going to be able to take advantage of in Vista that you don’t get in your current operating system.”

“You have to look at the applications you’re running and at the hardware you have to determine if going to Vista is worth it.”

And once you do take that leap, don’t forget there’s a learning curve that will require more time as well.

Steven Potter is a writer based in Milwaukee.